Well, we had our first round of visitors at the house this past weekend! It was hugely motivating to get the little things around the house finished up, like actually removing the empty boxes from the living room floor and vacuuming the stairs!
Misty and Pat, who so very graciously helped us move three weeks ago, asked to be thanked by coming over and having us cook them dinner (instead of my suggestion of taking them out to dinner). The request; Spaghetti alla Carbonnara. Now, Misty has been around long enough to know that when you go to the Smith house, you request Carbonnara. Anything that is good enough to be reserved exclusively for birthdays and special occasions HAS to be what you request, right?
Clint and I planned out the whole evening; Double Tomato Bruschetta and Luambrusco for appetizers, Bomb Salad and Carbonnara for dinner, and finishing off the night with homemade Tiramisu Ice Cream. Delicious!
Misty and Pat arrived and things got started just as we had hoped. The Bruschetta was amazing; the addition of the sun-dried tomatoes to this traditional Italian finger food really kicked it up a notch! We layered that on top of French Baguette with a thick slice of fresh Mozzarella that had been slightly bubbled under the broiler. Yum!
Then, it was time to make dinner! For those of you who have experienced Carbonnara, you know that this is the fun part of the evening! The pasta must be hand made and fresh, or it's just not really worth having! Clint whips out the KitchenAid stand mixer, forms the dough, and connects the pasta maker attachment. This is SO COOL! It has the flat squisher rollers and two sizes of pasta cutters! Clint and Pat and Misty all take their turns working the pasta while I(and Misty, at times) work on the sauce. Sauce? I mean bacon, cream, butter, egg and cheese gooey goodness! This is why it is nicknamed the Heart Attack Special!
The pasta is cut and goes into the boiling water for a whole three minutes! Fresh pasta takes a fraction of the time to cook, as it hasn't been dried out and on a store shelf for months. The pasta comes out of the water and into the special warmed ceramic bowl with melted butter. Then goes the cream sauce, topped with the eggs and cheese. Stir together, and prepare: your arteries have no idea what's coming!
Dinner is AWESOME! Holy cow, I have eaten this a fair amount during my life, but I strongly feel that food tastes better when you make it yourself! Wow, it was good! Misty, you choose well!
After dinner we play some Crokinole, a Canadian board game that requires flicking little wooden disks at your opponent's discs, while still trying to get your disc to land in the highest ranking circle of the board possible. As you can imagine, combine this silly game with full bellies and full wine glasses, and much laughter ensued! Ice cream!
Now this is the part of the story that isn't quite as awesome. We received an ice cream maker for our wedding that we were really excited to use! Only problem is that we didn't remember to put the freezer bowl in the freezer until mid-afternoon on Saturday, which didn't give it enough time to freeze completely. Now combine that with my accidentally (I swear it wasn't on purpose) adding twice the amount of rum that the recipe called for, and well, we had milk shakes instead of ice cream. Not to mention the mocha ripple that should have been made in advance to let it chill in the refrigerator for at least several hours. It was a sticky, rum-y, runny mess. Oh well, 3 out of 4 recipes turning out awesome isn't so bad!
So, we learned several things:
1. We love to entertain!
2. We should carefully read all recipes well in advance of attempting them to make sure all items are sufficiently prepared.
3. Misty and Pat are awesome company (well, we already knew that)
4. The house is ready for people!
Thank you, Misty and Pat, for your awesomeness and for being the reason that we had such a fun night!
