"No."
"Really!?!?!"
"Of course I have."
"Oh."
Who hasn't had Chicken Parm? But was it homemade? Was it hella good? This particular night was particularly yummy. Is it rude to say your own cooking is hella tasty? Ask me if I care.
That evening, my Chicken Parm was served with incredible and semi-locally/homemade sweet potato pasta and sauteed broccoli. I bought the pasta at the MECA Holiday Sale last weekend and it is from Ravens Nest in Winter Harbor, Maine. Good luck finding them online though! I just tried. Had I known how good it was, I would have gotten more bags! As it is, I can't wait to try the carrot and beet pastas I also bought.
That was Friday night. Saturday night came with cheese, cookies, spiked and warmed apple cider and incredible cheese/pecan/spicy balls. See the recipe below, which I unabashedly asked the recipe for from a party-goer, even though we hadn't been properly introduced...
This was a great party at a friend's boyfriend's house. The space was huge and the table was abundant. The pub running group (we meet every Thursday at Infiniti, 6:15. Be there!!) talked in one group, right next to cookie-land, and the rest of the party (Bowdoin crowd) sat in the living room. Between the two, I'll sit by the food anytime!
The weekend also brought: walking around the East End (see random picture of a boy below, posted at Anderson and Fox) for a pottery sale at Portland Pottery and kombucha drinking, trudging through a field at work (see picture of turkey, fox and squirrel tracks below), eating a Little Big's cinnamon twist and a live owl show (see barn owl below).
Tiens voila. En fin.
Pecan-cheese buttons (a.k.a. nutty cheese balls)
10-ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces and softened
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons half-and-half
Pulse first 6 ingredients in a food processor at 5-second intervals until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add half-and-half, and process 10 seconds or until dough forms a ball.
Preheat oven to 300°. Prepare dough, and shape into 1-inch balls. And then find:
2 egg whites
2 teaspoons water
2 cups finely chopped pecans
Whisk together egg whites and water. Dip balls in egg white mixture, and roll in 2 pecans. Place 1 inch apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake 1 hour; cool on baking sheets on wire racks 30 minutes. Makes: about 4 1/2 dozen.