Weddingbee

We met the Snow Peas earlier in September when Mrs. Snow Pea invited us for dinner at their house. Since then we have become quite good friends with the Snow Peas. This year to pay them back for all their kindness, we decided to invite them over for a holiday dinner at our place. It was quite a challenge for me to create this dinner since I rarely cook more than one dish for Mr. Bell Pepper. I decided to prepare all of my favorite holiday dishes for this year, and here’s a recap:

For the main entree I made beef tenderloin with a salt crust and a ratatouille tart. Alton Brown once featured how to cook tenderloin and I was so fascinated by his salt crust tenderloin recipe. It involves searing the tenderloin and then placing it inside of a salt encrusted dough. After about 30 minutes of roasting, the beef is done and ready to pull out of the crust.

The tart was a recipe I created myself, layering thinly sliced eggplant, tomatoes, green and yellow squash, and red onions.

Popovers: My coworker raved about how much she loved popovers and I wanted to try making them from scratch. They’re so easy and simple to make - just don’t sneak a peek while you’re baking them or else they’ll collapse! My popovers fluffed up quite nicely but a few of them overflowed because I added too much batter in the tins! They were very delicious and had an interesting cruller-like texture.

For dessert I made a rich chocolate tart and holiday spritz cookies. Instead of using only semi-sweet chocolate I added a few ounces of Swedish chocolate I bought from IKEA. It made the chocolate taste more decadent, and it takes away the bittersweet flavor from the semi-sweet.

The entire spread of dishes. I added dill roasted potatoes and slices of carmelized fennel bulb.

We decided not to go for a traditional tree this year and bought a white tree instead. Using some inspiration from Blueprint Magazine, I replaced the plastic base and placed the tree in a large silver coated urn.

I found the paper poinsetta flower template from a wreath package designed by Martha Stewart.

I created this wreath and decided to incorporate the flowers as place cards and ornaments on the tree.

Our holiday dinner table setting.

It was our first time using our Crate & Barrel registry chinaware, and I just love everything about the design by Eva Zeisel! I also added vases I used from our wedding and filled them with red and white carnations.

And of course we can’t forget about playing Wii with the Snow Peas!

My arms are still very sore from running. The guys just kept going while Mrs. Snow Pea and I took a break.

Here’s all of us together!

It was great having the Snow Peas over for the holidays.

So is anyone hosting a holiday dinner party this year and what are your favorite recipes?

• Holiday Gifting On A Budg...
• Happy Holidays!