A mess, a cold, and a party. Oh, and some salmon.

Monday, I didn't feel very good. Tuesday, I passed out in the shower. Wednesday, I cooked a meal for twelve for a going away party. I was concerned for a moment there that I just might keel over in the kitchen. The heat, the sniffling, the kleenex, the mess, the stress... Having large groups of people over for dinner is not an infrequent occurrence in our household, and with a bit of practice under my belt I thought I could confidently say that gone are the days where people are arriving and the food isn't even in the oven yet, where the pantry is raided for anything resembling an appetizer as it takes an hour (or two) longer than anticipated to get the food done. Unfortunately, it was 7:30 (I thought it was 7), people were arriving and I didn't even have the spinach artichoke dip pulled together! Thankfully, with a few extra hands, and the glorious fact that salmon doesn't take very long to cook, the dinner actually ended up being a success.

Overstuffed fridge, plus...

all these groceries...

 ...and a messy apartment. 4:30pm. Time to move.

A word to the wise: the best way to cut down on things to do day of is prepare ahead of time. In the countless times we've had people over, I have literally never managed to do that. This week, I was so excited because I was going to make this cake I'd been inventing in my head, and I was going to do it on Tuesday. A whole day ahead of time! Unfortunately, Tuesday came around and I crashed in bed at 9pm. So, three hours, one cake, one salad, one veggie, a loaf of bread, and twelve pieces of salmon.


First, the cake...
Let me just confess something to you first: I bought three boxes of butter. As in, twelve sticks of butter. 6 cups. 9720 calories. Holy belt-buster. The good news is, there's still a box left in my fridge. And, I didn't end up using all the chocolate frosting containing massive amounts of butter. (I froze the rest of it to use--or eat with ice cream--later. Not sure if it's freezable, but I'll get back to you on that.) Still probably warrants a run around the block, though.

So, the cake. Pioneer Woman's sheet cake. Recipe here best. chocolate. cake. ever. Double the recipe, bake it in round cake pans. Bake them about 22 minutes, but keep an eye on it every minute after 20 minutes--you don't want to overcook it! You should end up with four round chocolate cakes. Let them cool before trying to get them out of the round pans. You can put them in the freezer if you'd like, but don't let them get too cold.

Then, the frosting. I made double recipe, but that was a bad idea. Just one is enough. I made a raspberry filling by whipping up some cool whip lite, with a little bit of raspberry jello mix for flavor and a couple heaping spoonfuls of raspberry jam.

Assembly: one cake. Raspberry filling with a few raspberries. Continue for two more cakes, using up all the raspberry filling. Then, put the last cake on top and pouuuurrrrr the chocolate frosting over the top. Careful, it spills over and pools at the bottom. Concave cake stand is recommendable. I threw some raspberries on top for decoration. Doing it again, I might have put some of the chocolate frosting in between all the layers as well, but not too much to overwhelm the raspberry filling. I'm also contemplating a hazelnut filling (read: Nutella) version of the cake, but I'm concerned it may actually be too rich. Is that a valid concern? It's never stopped me before...

Aaaand here's the masterpiece. It was hard to keep the cake from being eaten long enough to take a picture, so a half-eaten cake will have to do. Oh and the Bluebell vanilla? Perrrfect accompaniment. Just in case you didn't get enough frosting in the cake, the leftovers double nicely as chocolate sauce for the ice cream.








Green Beans
Fresh green beans with ends snapped off, blanched in boiling water until just barely done. Sauteed some garlic and onions, cut long, with olive oil in a big pan. Right before the salmon was done, I tossed the blanched green beans into the pan and heated the green beans up, as well as kosher salt, pepper and squeezed a lemon on top. Done. My favorite dish ever.

Mandarin Orange Salad
Mixed greens or spinach will do. Two cans of mandarin oranges, rinsed out and chopped roughly. Chopped green onions, and some sliced almonds on top. Toss with some kind of asian salad dressing--I used Eating Right's sesame something spritzer. Liked it.   

Whole Wheat Beer Bread
1.5 cups of all-purpose flour
1.5 cups of whole wheat flour
4 1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/4 tsp of salt
1 can of beer
Throw it all together and bake at 350 for about 40ish minutes, until a knife comes out clean all the way (has a serious tendency to stay doughy in spots). If you were having a night like I was, you might need another can of beer to make the cooking easier.

And finally, wait you were actually waiting for--Brown Sugar Dill Salmon
It's unbelievably simple. First, marinate the salmon in soy sauce for a little while. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.Then:
Take some brown sugar, kosher salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper and fresh chopped dill and throw it all together. You'll want enough to pretty much entirely cover each salmon fillet, so start with the brown sugar as the base. It doesn't save well so I'd recommend trying to hit it right on. Don't skimp on the salt and peppers--they give it the kick that compliments the sugar and dill so well. I don't measure it out--taste it until it seems right. Warning, it doesn't actually taste good like that, but you'll get a feel for if the flavors are balanced. If I were guessing, I would say 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp cayenne pepper, and one bunch of fresh dill, chopped--roughly 3 tablespoons? (Please don't take my word for that, I was doing mental-picturing... sometimes that can be wayyy off.)
Cover each salmon fillet in the brown sugar/dill mixture--the more the better. Then throw it in the oven and bake til done! I'm not very good at knowing exactly how long to cook--you'd be better off consulting another cookbook or recipe for that! Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish, and don't crowd the fish!

Done. Add a little pineapple sangria (white whine, peach brandy, sprite, mint, sliced oranges, pineapple juice and crushed pineapple) and you've got yourself a party. Here's a little preview:

A friend came over recently and pointed out how everything we have is multi-colored. Oh you couldn't tell from the tablecloth and the Fiestaware plates? Picking just one favorite color is much too heavy a burden.








And just in case you were wondering,
Spinach Artichoke Dip
8 ounces sour cream light
8 ounces (1 package) fat free cream cheese
8 ounces light cream cheese
1/2 container of shredded Asiago cheese 
half of a package of frozen spinach
a can or jar of artichoke hearts, patted dry and chopped
half an onion or so, chopped
2 jalapenos, chopped
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper to taste 
The best method would be to saute some garlic, jalapenos and onions in a little bit of oil with salt and pepper to bring the flavors out, then add the rest of the ingredients. I might add some cheddar cheese too for a stronger flavor. If you have an enamel-covered cast iron dish, (like Le Creuset), I recommend using it on the stove to melt everything then serve in said dish, on a trivet. There's probably a better recipe out there, and I fully encourage you to use it. Just letting you know what I did. It works. Maybe not the absolute best, but it did get eaten.

Well, maybe next time I'll get more pictures of the actual food. Until then, buena suerte with the salmon.