Birthday Luncheon

Yesterday we had a birthday party for Jim’s cousin Jo.  Jo loves salmon, but her husband will not touch fish, so we had salmon and chicken.  The chicken was easy; I bought rotisserie chicken from Costco.  Here was our menu. 

Appetizers

Mushroom Turnovers

Goat cheese with spiced sour cherry spread

Mozzarella with Prosiutto and basil (Costco)

Shrimp with my special cocktail sauce

Lemon Garlic Olives

Blackberry Farm Preserved Tiny Tomatoes

First Course

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Entrée

Baked Salmon

Costco Rotisserie Chicken

Herbed Quinoa and Red Rice Stuffing with Kale and Pine Nuts

Parker House Rolls

Dessert

Carla Hall’s Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

The mushroom turnovers and the Parker house rolls were made at Thanksgiving time.  I knew there were way too many so I froze them.  I recently blogged about my Lemon Garlic Olives and they did not disappoint.  The tomatoes can be purchased at Williams Sonoma and I got the Sour Cherry Spread in a special Italian specialty store in Peddlers Village, PA.  My cocktail sauce is very easy.  I was taught this a long time ago by a high school friend.  It is equal parts orange marmalade, ginger marmalade and chili sauce.  You can make it in any quantity, just keep the measurements equal.  I could not find ginger marmalade in my local stores, so I ordered it through Amazon. 

The tomato soup was absolutely delicious.  I got this out of the Tennessean a few weeks ago.  It serves 12.

Ingredients: 

1 package Lipton Onion Soup mix

2 T dried basil

1- 16oz can diced tomatoes

3 cans Campbell’s tomato soup

3 cans water

2 C half and half

Directions:

1.       Bring soup mix, dried basil and diced tomatoes to a rolling boil. 

2.       Add the cans of soup plus three cans of water and let simmer. 

3.       Add the half and half.  Heat through and serve. 

I made this the day before and warmed up on the stove. 

The quinoa and red rice is a Williams Sonoma product and the recipe is available on their website.  It was light and just perfect with the salmon. 

The salmon recipe came from Good Eats on Food TV.  It was easy, delicious and looked amazing on the platter.

Ingredients:

1 side, skin-on sockeye salmon, 1 ½ -2#, pin bones removed.  (The best we can do in the seafood department here is Costco.  It did not have the skin on.)

1/3 C dark brown sugar

2 T lemon zest (2 lemons, I cut the lemons after zesting in very thin slices to decorate the platter)

1 ½ t kosher salt

½ t freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1.       Position a rack in the oven 3” from the broiler.

2.       Line a half sheet pan with aluminum foil and place the salmon on the pan.

3.       Place the sugar, zest, salt, and pepper into the bowl of a small food processor and process for 1 minute or until well combined.  Evenly spread the mixture onto the salmon and allow to sit for 45 minutes at room temperature.

4.       Turn the oven on to the high broiler setting for 2 minutes.

5.       After 2 minutes, place the salmon into the oven and broil for 6-8 minutes or until the thickest part of the fish reaches on internal temperature of 131 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer.  (In my case, until the smoke alarm went off.)

6.       Remove the salmon from the oven and allow to rest, uncovered for 8-10 minutes. 

7.       Serve immediately.  (Actually I held it is my oven on warm as Jim was still cutting up the chickens)

Finally, the birthday cake.  This recipe was brought to my attention by my sister-in-law.  She was watching The Chew on ABC and emailed me to find out how to get the recipe.  I will not watch The Chew as ABC chose to take All My Children off the air for this show.  I downloaded the recipe for her and made a copy for myself as I thought it looked good.  It was very good.

Ingredients for the Cake:

2 C sugar

1 C vegetable oil

4 large eggs

2 C all-purpose flour

2 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

3 t pumpkin pie spice

1 t salt

2 C pumpkin puree

Ingredients for the Mascarpone Filling:

4 C powdered sugar

1 t vanilla extract

1 T pumpkin pie spice

2 C mascarpone

1 C pumpkin puree

2 t salt

Ingredients for the Dark Chocolate Ganache:

3 T corn syrup

6 oz heavy cream

12 oz. dark chocolate (chopped into small bits)

½ t vanilla extract

Ginger snaps (crushed for garnish)

Directions for the Cake:

1.       Grease and flour 2-9” round layer cake pans.

2.       Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

3.       Combine sugar, vegetable oil, eggs in a large mixing bowl and mix well. 

4.       Whisk together dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

5.       Stir the dry into the wet ingredients until just combined.

6.       Fold in the pumpkin puree. 

7.       Divide batter between the two cake pans.

8.       Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.  (Mine took longer)

9.       Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn cakes out onto cooling racks. 

Directions for the Mascarpone Filling:

1.       Beat the mascarpone and pumpkin puree until blended. 

2.       Add the pumpkin spice, salt and powdered sugar.

3.       Mix at high speed until blended, about 1 minute.

4.       Once it’s fully combined add the vanilla and beat for 30 seconds.

Directions for the Dark Chocolate Ganache:

1.       Make the Ganache in a small saucepan. 

2.       Combine the corn syrup and heavy cream and bring to a simmer.

3.       Add the chocolate.

4.       Stir until smooth.

5.       Remove from the heat and add the vanilla.

Assembly Instructions:

1.       Cut the cooled cakes in half horizontally with a serrated knife.  There will now be 4 rounds of cake to work with. 

2.       Place the first layer of cake on your serving plate with parchment paper lined around the edges to keep the cake stand clean. 

3.       Divide the filling in thirds and spread evenly between the 3 layers.

4.       Pour the Ganache over the cake and garnish with crushed ginger snaps.

5.       When the Ganache is set remove the parchment. 

Serves 12. 

 

 

We have a lot of leftovers to eat up, so I probably won’t cook again until Christmas Eve.