Dinner for the Boss

My mother and I were planning a dinner for her boss and his girlfriend. She had already told him I am a wonderful cook - so the pressure was on. I thought about doing a regular menu I've made before - soup, Caesar salad, lasagna, dessert - but those were not Bon Appetit recipes.

So I perused Bon Appetit and found similar recipes that would let me knock off three more recipes. I made, with help,

- Roasted Red Pepper and Eggplant Soup (pg 103
- Caesar Salad from Barefoot Contessa
- Sausage, Cheese and Basil Lasagna pg 213
- Green Beans with Roasted Onions pg 440
- Vanilla Pudding courtesy of Martha Stewart

On the whole, dinner was very good and I made almost all the dishes ahead of time which allowed us to enjoy the dinner conversation. The soup was a bit bland one day one, but has slowly improved. I think next time I need to more carefully measure and also use less eggplant, which is basically tasteless. Also, I think it was amazing how much soup was made since the recipe claimed it only made 8 first course servings - more like 20 I think.

The only other comment I have is that finding basil in the winter is like pulling teeth. I can hardly find any, though when I did find some plants, I bought several and have been growing them in the kitchen window. I should know better, but the rest of the menu was so ideal for a cold day.

As a centerpiece for dinner, I used a bowl full of lemons. Scott thought lemon bars would be a great way to use them up, so he made Double Lemon Bars on pg 700