On Thursday, Mike and I are hosting a dinner for his business friends who have become good friends. Including my childhood friend Janice (hey Janice, it starts at 6:30 but come early so that we can hang before they get here), there will be a total of eight people. And I am cooking everything that we are having for dinner. And, as usual, I am all a mess about what to make.

I have a menu written down. And I have purchased some of the ingredients but I think it needs another meat/protein dish. It's going to be a buffet because Mike and I have decided to turn the dining room into something else... what that something else is, we don't know. But we have no dining room; then again, we never did. So, back to the low-on-protein dilemma, here is the menu:

Red-Braised Beef Brisket
Lime-pickled Tomato Salad
Pickled ribbons of carrots and onions
Asparagus in mustard-miso dressing
Blanched Brocolli Rabe drizzled with Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Szechuan Salt
Potato and Watercress Salad
Roasted Turmeric-Ginger Cauliflower

I was thinking of adding another meat dish to increase the protein content. But, I think we have enough food. I may just switch the asparagus to string beans. I think that may do the trick.

For hors d'oeuvres, I am serving a selection of cheeses (Robbiola, Pecorino Romano, and Roucoulons) with my own marinated button mushrooms. And of course, some delicious french bread. And tonight, we got a good Pinot Noir, a Pinot Grigio for Donna, and a stand-by Chardonnay.

I think that may be enough to feed eight people. Mike doesn't think so but the last time he planned a dinner, we ended up with three times the food we needed! And, we had more guests than we thought we would.

Of course, come Thursday morning, that entire menu may change because of something that has inspired me. I hope not. Later.  ¶ 10:47 PM