Wednesday: lamb

The second of two midweek dinners, and this one was a little more involved. Daniel and Steve came over, and I had high hopes for a fine meal. While their company certainly was terrific, I think I fell down a little on the food. Not bad, but not my best. Ah well. Let's debrief:

Steve was over earlier than Daniel, and Conrad and I offered him a Moscow Mule. We'd had them at Jim and Dan's before, and I should have asked for the recipe. Ours weren't nearly so good, and we ended up switching to martinis before dinner before opening wine with dinner. Disappointing, and all the more so because Dave, in Palm Springs, had sent us this incredible gift of the most fragrant limes you can imagine. When they arrived, we had barely opened the package when the perfume started teasing us, insistently. Wow. Beautiful. And we used a bunch for juice in the cocktails. Now I feel like we wasted the gift a little. Next time we'll get our recipe right.

Anyway, cocktail crisis over, we moved on through some snacks before I brought dinner to the table. Lamb shanks, braised in the oven with dried porcini mushrooms, served with a parsnip and leek puree, mustard-sauced Brussels sprouts, and a reduction of the braising liquid. And you know what? It was fine, but not special. I'm a harsh critic of my own food, perhaps, but I ate it thinking what I should have done differently.

Ah well.

I was a little happier with dessert. Daniel doesn't care for chocolate, and I didn't want to make a cake or cookies. I did have a few mangoes that needed using, however, so I called on an old restaurant standby and, with the addition of some pistachios, turned the (not as sweet/juicy as I'd like) fruit into a brown butter mango tart.
And it was fine, too. Not superlative, but I was happier with it than the meal.

And with that, my week of entertaining is done, I think. Simple dinners for us at home the rest of the week, and thank goodness. The team banquet on Sunday night will be another large dining experience, I'm sure!