August 2, 2010

Cooking for Pregnant Nieces

I have three pregnant nieces and one pregnant niece in law.

One lives in Houston, one in Austin, One in North Carolina, and the other around Washington DC. They are all siblings.

Two of them happened to be in Houston this weekend:

From Nieces' Shower
so we had an impromptu shower for them. We were going to have them over for lunch, so a shower seemed to be the logical thing (especially after Trouta:
From Nieces' Shower
(shown here with Ree) suggested it.

We decided that we would make Gazpacho, An Asparagus Egg Bake, Savory Bread Pudding, and also serve some of Dan's Famous Pate Campagne with Fruity Chutney.

The Gazpacho was took the most chopping.

This is what we chopped:
From Nieces' Shower

Here is how we chopped it all:
From Nieces' Shower


From Nieces' Shower


From Nieces' Shower


From Nieces' Shower


From Nieces' Shower


Then you mix it all up:
From Nieces' Shower


From Nieces' Shower

They we made some of Dan's Famous Fruity Chutney. You start with about a cup of chopped onion. Add about a cup of dried fruits (you can use anything. But if you use big fruits, chop them up, too) Sweat the onion in a little olive oil. Add fruits, about 1/3 c brown sugar, 1/2 c cider vinegar, 1/2 t turmeric, a pinch of allspice, a bay leaf, a cinnamon stick, salt and pepper. Saute until sticky and thick:

From Nieces' Shower
Serve with your Pate Campagne:

From Nieces' Shower
We also had the Asparagus Egg Bake:

From Nieces' Shower


That was a lot of asparagus. Over four pounds!

You mix it with chopped prosciutto, Gruyere cheese, salt and pepper, and about a half dozen eggs. Top with Parmesan cheese:

From Nieces' Shower


We had made the Savory Bread Pudding before. It has baby arugula and locally cured bacon, cream and some spices that I can't recall. But it is unbelievably delicious:

From Nieces' Shower


Nate and Domi brought Hill Country Peaches:

From Nieces' Shower


and a creamy sauce for them, which I never got a chance to photograph.

And Ree brought something called Uncle Bob's Apple Cake, and it was outstanding as well. But it was mostly all gone before I thought to photograph it. That is one of my problems - I like to have a small glass of wine (or two) while cooking and eating, and I occasionally forget to take photos!

But I have a couple of the happy couples:

From Nieces' Shower

Domi and Nate

From Nieces' Shower

Josienne, Domi, Nate, Jared/

and, of course, Rex!

From Nieces' Shower

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