A Spanish Tapas and Paella Dinner

Spanish food embraces a world of sun and color. This served as my inspiration in preparing and styling this dinner to start the new year, 2012. To my twin sister, it brought back memories of the orange trees and flowers in Seville, Andalucia, Spain.

Baked aubergine, red pepper and anchovies

Jamon Serrano and manchego cheese

Pan fried scallops and chorizo with parsley salad

Meatballs in red sherry sauce

Paella Valenciana

Mushroom Paella

An Asian dinner 2011

By now, I'm kinda getting the hang of hosting, cooking and plating dinners. So here's another challenge I decided to accept. A group of doctors decided not only to try my private dining but to watch me prepare their dishes! This was new to me and although I warned them that my kitchen cannot accommodate all of them at one time, they were open to moving in and out of my kitchen in groups. This was exciting and it turned out to be another fun evening as not only did I demonstrate the cooking, I asked them to actually try doing some of the procedures called for in the recipes. With their laughter adding spice to their dinner, everything just turned out right!

Again it starts with the menu, Asian this time, and everything else follows. I always choose to do my own hand embossed menu cards to create my brand so that is a given, then the styling just flows with the evening's theme. Not to forget the music to complete the ambience.

Sauteed scallops with Cilantro chili butter and Orange jicama salad

Asian mushroom soup

Thai barbecue chicken with Jasmine rice

Asian poached pears with Ginger chocolate truffles and Caramel lychees