Your most memorable meal

[JoC]

Okay, at some point, we have all made a meal that we are truly proud of or fondly remember. What is the most memorable meal that you have prepared?

[aggie94]

The week before my wedding, I cooked a Chinese dinner for some of DH's family. We had dim sum and eggrolls for appetizers, hot & sour soup, char sui (Chinese BBQ) pork, a tofu & veggie stir-fry (Shanghai casserole), and both steamed and fried rice. I'd never had a chance to cook for his family before, since we've always visited them rather than the other way around, so it was a lot of fun, and the food went over great. I got tons of compliments from his family, and everyone was stuffed afterwards, which was the best compliment of all.

[gertdog]

When I lived with three other grad students in a big house with a great kitchen, we would have "guest chef" night. We'd invite a friend or friends over to cook for us... we'd buy the groceries and provide the kitchen, they'd cook, and we'd all have a great meal together. Our friends loved it... especially the ones who liked to cook but didn't have much of a kitchen or didn't have people to cook for.

My favorite guest chef night was one where we had 8 people over for Italian food. There was homemade focaccia with rosemary dipping oil and a great green salad with balsamic dressing. We also had stuffed eggplant, pasta with fresh tomato sauce, fresh fruit, artichokes, and tiramisu. It was a Wednesday night, and 8 of us polished off all that food and many bottles of wine. The food was good, the friends were good, so the meal as a whole was fantastic and memorable for me.

My most memorable meal that *I* participated in making was my best friends wedding reception dinner... we cooked everything ourselves, for 175 people, and everything turned out beautifully.

[dearamy]

The first time I cooked dinner for my now fiancee, I wanted to cook a "guys meal." I was so nervous & excited & very eager to impress. I made a green salad with sweet/spicy roasted pecans (a Martha Stewart recipe), gorgonzola & bosch pears. The main dish was broiled filet mignon (I rarely cook meet, so I told the butcher: "give me the best steak you have" Never mind that it was $26/lb). I also roasted red potatoes with olive oil, sea salt & fresh rosemary, lightly steamed french green beans & chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. We enjoyed two bottles of my very favorite red wine & talked & ate & enjoyed each other for hours. It's such a! great memory

[lindrusso]

That's a hard one to answer. Different meals have been great for different reasons. Sometimes a meal has been great because everything just came together easily or because everyone enjoyed the food (however simple) or because the company was wonderful. Other times it's been because it was a special occasion with family members we don't get to see very often.

But, if we're talking about the best meal based on food, I'd have to say it was a meal that I made over one Easter holiday. It was my first Indian meal. I made samosas, palak paneer, ajwain shrimp, puris and a chickpea/tomato dish (can't remember the name). It was delicious.

However, I will likely not prepare that meal again when I have houseguests - it required way too much time in the kitchen. Some meals are just better to save for when you have people coming just for dinner, so that everything is ready when they come.

My husband jokenly said that his favorite meal was my infamous "tan" meal. A friend and I prepared dinner for my hubby and her boyfriend. We were novices and planned the menu solely on things we knew how to cook (which was a short list), with no regard to anything else. It turned out that everything was good, but was all the same color!!! Jarlsberg/veggie soup, rice, chicken...you get the picture. From that day on, I learned to pay more attention to color, detail and presentation!!!

[JoC]

All those meals sound great! Thanks for sharing.

When I asked the question, I was thinking of a meal that I prepared but did not get to eat.

My son was planning for his high school senior prom. Unfortunately in our town there are not many "special" restaurants, mostly chains like Red Lobster, Chili's, etc. Not someplace for a prom dinner.

Was I surprised and honored when he asked me if I would prepare a dinner for himself, his date and another couple. So they chose a Southwest theme. I made them Southwest-Style Cioppino, Lemon Sorbet, Mesclun Greens with Oranges and Jicama, Southwest Chicken Piccata with Couscous, a vegetable (can't remember what) and Flan with Fresh Berries and Lemon Balm for dessert. I even made a souvenir menu for each of them. I think they had a good time and I had fun too!

[kima]

Lindrusso- what is ajwain shrimp and could I troble you to post the recipe. Any other Indian recipes you care to share would also be great!

[emilycat]

Mine was nothing fancy, but the situation made it so memorable for me -- last summer, my ex-boyfriend (not an ex at the time) and I traveled in Europe for a little over a month, and the one time that I was able to cook, we were staying in a very well-equipped hostel in Luzerne. We decided to take advantage of having a kitchen and I made dinner that night -- I did a risotto made with short-grained brown rice, mushrooms and Gruyere, I sauteed some broccoli with garlic, and we bought a bottle of Swiss wine, which is generally hard to come by in the states. My boyfriend said it was one of the best meals we'd had the entire time http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif (And we ate a lot of really good food while we were there.)

Emily

[This message has been edited by emilycat (edited 05-04-2001).]

[KValley]

Emily, your experience in Europe reminded me of one of my own....

I attended a university in France my senior year of college. Thanksgiving rolled around and I and the four other Americans at our university decided to put on a Thanksgiving feast for our new friends, who hailed from all over the world- France, Italy, Denmark, Venezuela, Cameroon, Vietnam.

Finding just the right ingredients was tricky (pumpkins are not commonly found in markets there) and there were more than a few phone calls home to get recipes and "oh my goodness, what do we do now" situations, but we pulled it off: turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy (which got quite few laughs), roasted vegetables, pumpkin and pecan pies (yet more laughter), cranberry sauce. The meal was wonderful and there were no cracks about "American cooking" after that!

We had our guests make turkeys by drawing the outline of their open palm and coloring them in with crayons and we all made pilgrim hats from construction paper (this was after the wine began to flow). I still have my turkey in a scrapbook http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

That evening was a turning point for me- the moment when I truly felt a part of this new, strange, wonderful place, when my homesickness dissipated and I knew I belonged in France- no longer an etrangere All in celebration of my favorite U.S. holiday thousands of miles from home.



[This message has been edited by KValley (edited 05-04-2001).]