Petey Holiday Party!

Awhile back, a few of my closest friends decided to call our group of girls the "Petey's" --- also sometimes Pete's, Peter's, you get the point. Anyway, every year we get together around the holidays, eat too much food, drink too much wine and exchange gifts a la Secret Santa/Hanukkah Harry. This year it was my (second) turn to host the gathering.

I made an appetizer and the main course. Thighs brought the cheese, crackers and crudite. Sockitome brought some well-seasoned asparagus, brussel sprouts, parmigiana and small rounds of fresh mozzarella from a local market, Rockstar brought dessert a la Fresh Direct - a dairy free lemon and a chocolate tart (Marathon Man, our lone dude for the evening, is allergic) and Chef MJ brought her famous deviled eggs and Caesar salad. Of course, everyone brought plenty of wine!

While Thighs was preparing a cheese, crackers and crudite plate, I was being the biggest hypocrite on the planet and preparing a Rachel Ray recipe! I KNOW!!!! I can't stand her Joker-grinned cheesy shtick but RRR had made her sage sausage bites with balsamic apricot dip and it was a big hit. As much as I loathe her and everything she stands for, I have to admit, this appetizer was super easy and quite tasty! The spice of the sausage was perfectly balanced by the herby sage and sweet dip with the right amount of tart from the balsamic. My few revisions to the dish (recipe on the link above) would be to put a bit more of the dip in the sausage, use hot sausage in lieu of sweet and to not make as much of the dip as the recipe calls for - I wound up with a lot left over!

Ms. Foodie made a rookie mistake when baking these tiny sausage meatballs... I used a flat cookie sheet instead of one with edges and before you knew it the kitchen was filled with smoke from the oil that was burning on the bottom of the oven! Oh well, it kept me and Thighs on our toes!

After devouring the sausage bites, we moved on to Chef MJ's deviled eggs which were deliciously rich and simply made using egg yolks, mayonnaise, dijon mustard and pepper. Fresh chives, paprika and a bed of purple cabbage added to the overall presentation.

Her Caesar dressing is even more impressive... made with one coddled egg yolk, olive oil, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, anchovies and lemon juice. I am not always a fan of Caesar, but MJ's is so light, flavorful and full of salty anchovy goodness that before you know it, you've gone back for seconds and thirds! Lucky for me, there was lots of dressing left over!

With my time being limited this week thanks to some late nights at work, I needed to make something less time consuming as the main course. I looked to that goddess of Italian cuisine, Lidia Bastianich, for a hearty pasta recipe and chose her bucatini with pancetta, tomato and onion. The recipe comes courtesy of my signed (how cool is that?!?) "Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen" cookbook and the complete recipe is on the link above.

The sauce was hearty and flavorful and actually tasted sooo much better the next day once the flavors had a chance to meld (as is often the case with sauces). We all found the bucatini a bit tough to eat and there was a lot of slurping; especially from my side of the table.

The best part of the meal was our gift exchange! We all know each others tastes so well and the gifts were simply perfect! I received a set of baking sheets from my Secret Santa, later revealed to be Comet aka Rockstar. The baking sheets came in a set of three different sizes with edges so I am sure not to repeat my sausage oil fire hazard stated above.

I also received a box of Jacques Torres chocolates! Oh me and my love - reunited at last! It's been too long! What a great way to kick off the holidays!