Finalitea

The final Serendipity Dinner attracted nine diners. I was at a work seminar all day, but as it finished at 3pm I actually had more preparation time than ever before. And, serendipitously, I needed it. The main course took THREE HOURS to prepare, although I had time to clean the kitchen and set the table while things were simmering. But it was still tight. As it was I had to make the entree, from scratch, in between building negronis and passing around blini for the assembled guests.


Fortunately the entree was an easy and surprisingly excellent white bean soup with garlic crostini. Main course was a gourmet red wine and chorizo Shepherd's Pie, topped with colcannon and served with a green salad. Dessert was two new homemade icecreams: creamy pistachio and cranberry, and basil with marscapone. The pistachio and cranberry was probably nicer, but the basil won praise simply for being unexpected. True, it had so much sugar that we all have diabetes now, but at least we weren't bored.