Wednesday night

Well, I wanted to do three things today. I wound up doing four. My first project this morning was putting together a frutti di mare appetizer. I wanted something here that wasn't time consuming or too expensive . That eliminated buying 21/25 shrimp (Jumbo). I decided on two packages of Trader Joe's seafood mix. I sauteed them in butter and olive oil, cooking them just enough for the scallops to get opaque. Then, I picked out the garlic, drained them, added thinly sliced celery, parsley and a dressing of white wine vinegar ,lemon juice,  mustard, and very good olive oil. I'll plate them before the pickup time tomorrow.

After I finished with the appetizer, I decided to work on the stuffing. Again,to save myself time, I bought a box of cornbread stuffing mix from Trader Joe's and augmented it with onions which I sauteed with sliced apples, pine nuts and breakfast sausages removed from their casings. Then I added the croutons and a cup and a half of water boiled with 4 tablespoons of butter and the spice packet. I put the finished mix in a baking dish for tomorrow.

I'm making this for a Korean family. In place of the sweet cranberry sauce, I put together a hot and sweet chutney. I started by sauteeing an onion. I added a tablespoon of ginger paste, about 7 or 8 pieces of crystallized ginger pieces cut up , 4 ounces of golden raisins and 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes. After letting that cook together 2 or 3 minutes, I added two cans of the whole berry cranberry sauce, the juice of one orange and some pieces of sliced orange zest. I think they'll like it.

The cake is a recipe I found on Chow for a cinnamon flavored cake made with 2 and 1/2 sticks of butter and 6 eggs. Unfortunately, it stuck to my bundt pan and came out in 3 pieces. Tomorrow, I'll tell my client to dust it with powdered sugar before serving it. No one will be the wiser. Bed time now!