at some point during my long endeavor of going to culinary school, i decided that when i graduated, i would make a giant feast for my family.  this meal had to be special and a bit elaborate in my mind – after all, i come from a family where elegant meals are a pretty normal occurrence, and i didn’t just go to culinary school for nothing!  this had to be something different.  as graduation grew nearer, i began to plan.  i got the idea from my dining room service class to do a french style of service [or rather, order of courses], which is traditionally 7 courses, plus a palate-cleansing course, as follows:

course 1:  hors d’oeuvre [starter/appetizer]

course 2:  potage [soup, usually clear-broth]

course 3:  poisson [fish]

sorbet or palate cleanser

course 4:  entree [main course]

course 5:  salades [salad]

course 6:  fromage [cheese]

course 7:  dessert 

coffee

this order of the meal was perfect, as it gave me direction on what to do, but i decided not to stick with the french theme for food because i didn’t want to limit myself.  i brainstormed and browsed through lots of recipes, and ultimately decided to do an array of different menu items with different origins and flavors.

my whole family showed up for the big event – my parents, mike and priscilla, mimi and even nama, all the way from arkansas!  i was overjoyed and flattered that they all came.  perhaps most significantly, this was an extra special meal since it would be the last time we were all together before my big move to colorado.  when i had originally planned on having this big dinner, i had no idea that i would be moving right after culinary school graduation, but that was the way it worked out and it made the dinner so so special to me.  like i can almost cry thinking about it.  anyway, my mom set a beautiful table and my dad supplied some amazing wines that paired perfectly with the food, and it was just so much fun.

{there’s nothing like the gorgeous tables that mom sets.  i could never compete with them!  because we had so many courses, we had lots of silverware, including a little seafood fork [partially covered up by the napkin].  it was so fun to use all the fancy sterling flatware.}

{unfortunately jamie wasn’t in texas for this dinner, and because my mom had used the same ornaments with our initials on them that she had used for our new years eve dinner as place markers, i sent this picture to jamie before the meal saying that we missed our other “j”!}

i had put lots of thought into my production schedule, as i knew that trying to pull off a 7- [or really 8-] course meal by myself and getting the timing right would be a bit tricky.  luckily, i had gotten lots of practice in making and executing a production schedule in culinary school, and it all went pretty well and according to plan.  i did my grocery shopping during the week after work, prepped a few items in the days before, and then worked on friday night and all day saturday to get ‘er done.  and by some miracle, it all worked out!  the only help i had was my dad assisting in cutting the steak and running it back and forth from the oven as i plated.  i was definitely in the zone as i cooked, but i was calm and felt strangely pretty relaxed the whole time, not stressed like i thought i would be.  i really couldn’t believe when everything worked out, and for some reason, i felt like the meal was a right of passage for me – like it proved that i did indeed learn something in culinary school.  like i could only officially say that i was a graduate of culinary school after i proved to myself that i could do this meal all on my own!

{my production schedule}

{a lot of dishes are needed for 7+ courses!  i was adamant about having individual plates for each item and not serving anything family-style – it just seemed more formal and fancy for this occasion.  mom and i got all the dishes ready beforehand.  we borrowed some of mimi’s too.  and then we numbered the dishes by course so i wouldn’t mess them up!}

{i made the wontons on thursday night.  they turned out to be pretttttttty tasty!}

{purple potatoes, prior to roasting}

and because i planned it so that there were 10-15 minutes between every two courses [the only way to ensure that i could pull it off, ha], it was a long and drawn-out meal.  thankfully, i have a family who loves sitting around the table together, and they also entertained themselves between courses with a table topics game that facilitated great conversation.  we also started the meal around 4, knowing that it would continue later into the evening, and it did last a few hours.  i loved every minute of it.  [although i’d be lying to say that i didn’t breathe a big sigh of relief when it was all over.  i wanted badly for it to go well and it felt so good to have it behind me and to be able to call it a success].  without further ado, here’s what i made:

{the balsamic glaze was a little thin, but this was course 1:  italian stuffed mushrooms with blistered tomatoes & balsamic glaze.}

{course 2:  wonton soup with shrimp}

{course 3:  seared scallops with asparagus in white wine sauce.}

{palate cleanser:  meyer lemon & mint granita}

{course 4:  pan-seared skirt steak with chimichurri, served with roasted purple potatoes & sautéed green beans with red pepper.}

{course 5:  spinach salad with persimmons, dragonfruit & macadamia nuts, tossed with persian lime olive oil & white peach vinegar.}

{course 6:  camembert, cranberry-something [can’t remember what kind of cheese, dammit!], aged cheddar & havarti, served with crostini.}

{course 7:  spiced poached pears with salted caramel sauce & fresh whipped cream.}

and that was the dinner!  so much fun, and so special.  if i can get my parents to dig up some pics of us from this meal, i’ll add them in to this post later on, but for right now, that’s all i got. :)  xoxo