Suggestions for your Autumn Dinner Party

 Appetizer 

 Goat Cheese Tarts topped with port wine poached figs with a garnish of toasted walnuts, drizzled with a port reduction sauce. 

Soup

 Lester’s Curried Butternut Squash Soup

 Entrees 

Individual Beef Tenderloin Wellingtons with a Red Wine Shallot Sauce

Roasted Maple Glazed Whole Chicken Legs

Caramelized Roasted Wild Coho Salmon Filets

 Sides

Roasted Potatoes with Butter and Sage, Garnished with Sage Tattooed Yukon Gold Fingerlings  

Seared Brussels Sprouts in Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Fresh Garlic  

Oven Roasted Red and Yellow Beets

Kale with Cranberries

Personal Party Chef

Last night I catered a great party with a dynamite menu. Chilean sea bass with a miso, sake marinade/sauce, sesame spring noodles, grilled garlic asparagus, melt in your mouth, beef brisket with a smokey horseradish sauce and Israeli turmeric couscous. 

I can't forget about the apps.,an amazing selection of cheeses from Boston cheese cellar, my signature hummus platter, spinach and feta puffed pastry empanadas, cumin lamb meatballs w/a Greek Yogurt sauce and classic stuffed mushrooms.

It was another 50th birthday celebration and the host supplied an excellent selection of wines. I also did a cooking demo. It was fun and I heard lots of yums. 

This weekends menu

I'm working on the shopping list for a party I'm catering this weekend and thought I would share the menu.

Crab and sweet corn cakes with a chipotle tartar and a cocktail sauce 

Lamb meatballs with a Greek yogurt dressing

Homemade hummus platter with pita, olives and feta cheese (Everyone likes my hummus)

Grilled lime and chipotle shrimp wrapped in bacon

Vegetarian cheese Panini sandwiches (I'll be using what ever looks good, eggplant, arugula, grilled squash)

and for a grand finale BBQ Ribs with my own espresso rocket bomb sauce served over southern collard green.

These are all tried and true winners. The lime chipotle shrimp is a new recipe but we brought to the test grill and they were thumbs up all around. This is a fun menu to prepare and much of it will be done on the grill. I may have to throw my own party using the same menu.  

Picnics

Catering an annual picnic for school teachers on Monday. The teachers deserve it after spending a year in the class rooms. It's a great menu, 3 of my signature sandwiches, a Muffaletta style sandwich on Ciabatta olive oil bread with my green and black olives, roasted garlic and roasted red-pepper spread. A tuna sandwich made from tuna steaks grilled with just a bit of hickory smoke, and mixed into a delicious salad. A vegetarian wrap filled with my homemade hummus, famous in some circles, sweet potatoes, zucchini, carrot, red bell pepper and asparagus. I'm also making a Mediterranean salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, roasted chick peas and fresh herbs tossed with an excellent Greek olive oil. I'm excited about the fruit platters with all of those berries and melons in season.

OK, I'm hungry just thinking about it.