My most ornate Linner ever

We were supposed to go out with a few peeps to breakfast, but the bitter cold had everyone cancel. Which was fine, I spent the morning shopping for groceries, and after making a challenge-friendly breakfast, got into cooking up a storm for a mid-afternoon dinner with friends.

BREAKFAST: 11:15am, zucchini pancake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Added egg this time, cooked with a little safflower oil in cast iron. Good, but not great, still was best the first time with HVS. Tasted the slight egginess of the pancake, kinda freaked me out a little but still enjoyed it.

LINNER: 3:30pm, arancini, shrimp & herb ravioli with tomato pesto, red chard with caramelized onion, 1 chocolate ravioli, chocolate babka, water, seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Spent three hours getting this meal together. First thing, got the onions on in some chicken fat to caramelize slowly over 2 hours. Made pasta dough, two kinds of filling -- B won't eat shrimp, so I made a cheese feeling made of ricotta, cream cheese, chopped spinach, parm, nutmeg, salt, pepper). The shrimp ravioli followed this recipe. While the dough rested, made the shrimp filling, then cleaned and destemed the chard. Rolled out the dough through the pasta machine, assembled and cut the raviolis by hand for a more rustic, large feel. Got the chard in boiling water for 3 minutes, then drained and tossed with the sweet, soft brown onions and a handful of diced kalamata olives. Got some peanut oil on the fire with thermometer to heat up to deep fry temp. Got some simple syrup on to poach the chocolate ravioli. Diced herbs to use in sauce. Roasted some oiled cherry tomatoes under the broiler until they burst, while softening shallots in olive oil. Tossed shallots, tomatoes and herbs together and cooked to release the tomato's liquid and make something thick n' saucy. Close to 3 when Y & her boyfriend were to come, set frying the arancini. Old mushroom risotto that's been living in the freezer for a while, scooped a small ball, dipped in flour, dipped in an egg/milk wash, then dipped in whole wheat bread crumbs, then into the deep fryer until dark golden. During service, just had to get the ravioli in boiling water, everything else was pretty much done. And at the end, the babka was from the freezer, already defrosted in the fridge and just nuked for a minute to be totally ready to serve.

Food was good, but not great. The ravioli need more salt in the filling, and the pasta was a bit too stiff for my taste. The chard was a little too oily. The arancini were good, the babka was great. A lot of fun, though I generated a hella-lot of dirty dishes which my wife & dishwasher B made hash of pretty efficiently.