Sunday night dinner with friends

We had some very close friends come out to visit from California and I thought I would finally get a break from cooking. Who was I kidding!? I need to be in my kitchen. We went out a few nights, but I wanted Sunday to be our day. We started off with breakfast: Gluten free blueberry pancakes, buckwheat crepes, sausage and bacon. Good stuff. I made a savory and sweet crepe. I actually didn't eat any of the breakfast. I made an egg white omelet with spinach and turkey, a piece of sausage and yogurt with honey. I am not used to cooking for six people and didn't make enough. It made me nervous because I didn't get to taste anything, so I was not sure if it was good and they are all too polite to tell me otherwise. Therefore, dinner had to be fabulous. The menu Sunday was: Savory swiss chard tart in a corn meal tart, roasted potatoes and carrots, salad and chocolate cream pots for dessert with my decadent Bailey's whipped cream. The tart was absolutely amazing and roasted vegetables are an all time favor of mine. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we all had wine and played "Foodie Fight." Very fun, yet challenging game. It was so nice to cook for people. Jared will eat any junk I put in front of him (he has a weak pallet), so it was nice watching people enjoy my food. see below for the recipes






Swiss Chard Tart


Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 ounces bacon, cut into lardons
• 1 1/2 pounds Swiss chard
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup crème fraîche or heavy cream and sour cream combined
• 1 pinch Salt and pepper
• 4 ounces gruyère cheese, grated
• handful raisins
• handful toasted pine nuts
• 1 gluten free tart shell of your choosing- whole foods has a pre-made quiche shell. 

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Heat the oil in a sauté pan and fry the shallots until soft and translucent. Add the garlic one minute. Remove to a plate. In the same pan, fry the bacon, and remove with the shallots. Divide the chard leaves from the ribs: chop the ribs quite small and shred the leaves. First, fry the ribs in the bacon fat until tender. (You may want to cover the pan for a few minutes to speed up the process.) Add the chard leaves to the pan, cover, and wilt, about 3 minutes.
2. Beat the eggs together with the crème fraîche. Season with salt and pepper. In a large bowl, toss the shallots, bacon, chard stems and leaves, cheese, raisins and pine nuts, to combine evenly. Taste, and season. Fill the tart shell with the vegetable mixture, and pour over the cream mixture. Bake until the tart has set, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool. Serve at room temperature.

Chocolate Cream Pots

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar (optional)

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 325ºF/160°C. Heat the cream, milk, and vanilla. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie. Whisk the melted chocolate into the yolks in a bowl, then whisk in milk. Strain. Pour into 6 ramekins and bake in a bain-marie until set at the edges, but slightly jiggly still in the centre, 20 minutes. Remove. Cool. Wrap and refrigerate several hours before serving.