Cooking/Dating Experiment: Brunch!
Jun. 16th, 2013 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tuftearsThis isn't so much about cooking as it is the whole experience of hosting a brunch... and there's a bit of Fluffyshy-ing involved as well.
Some weeks ago, Mrs. Chong, a realtor friend of my mom, had hosted a brunch to introduce me to Mary, the daughter of a good friend of hers. Wanting to create a second opportunity to meet her again, I offered to host a return brunch on the following week.
That one got postponed, and the sausage rolls went pift, so I wound up making a new set of sausage rolls and quiche for the following weekend! I also picked up fresh strawberries, char siu baos (barbecue pork steamed buns) and potstickers at the Farmer's Market. This, I anticipated, would be quite enough food for the six of us.
Little did I know... Mary's mother likes to cook and believes in bringing enough food to feed the entire group herself as well. She brought a big pile of soy-sauce roasted chicken wings and legs, a bowl of tofu-sausage-pickled vegetables 'salad', and Mary herself brought a large number of blueberry muffins, corn muffins, and biscuits. AIEE!
This created some interesting problems in brunch logistics. We wound up putting half the food on the island table in the kitchen and bringing it around as needed.
Some brunch logistics failures on my part:
* Expired coffee pods and creamer. Oops. Goes to show how little I entertain guests.
* Misjudged how long it would take to cook the potstickers. Normal potstickers only take me about 20 minutes... But these were uncooked pork. To be safe, I decided to cook them "my brother's way" and fry them on all three sides, thus ensuring the meat inside would be thoroughly cooked, as well as creating a plethora of tasty crispy dough sides. This is good, but wound up taking a fair bit of time.
* This led to a cascade of flailing (in most Fluffyshy fashion) where I missed checking on the tea kettle that was supposed to be preparing hot water for Mary's mother's coffee. Oops. It wasn't actually plugged in so it wasn't going to be heating anytime soon.
* Char siu baos (pork steamed buns) are good, but also very filling-- not the best idea for a brunch with a lot of finger food.
But, well, in general it was a lot of good food, and a valuable learning experience.
Here we are, sitting around the table. (picture taken by Mrs. Chong so you can see me on the right)
And here's a picture of the food.
In the center of the table you can see the Trader Joe's sausage rolls I made, strawberries, potstickers, and behind my glass of orange juice, a platter of three char siu baos. There's also a small ramekin dish with some 30-year-old balsamic vinegar that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dracosphynx had brought as his contribution to the festivities.
On the down side, I don't think Mary's into me, so I'll leave that alone and start poking at eHarmony soon. -_- It's possible that the brunch logistics failures made a bad impression but I suspect it's more likely I'm just not her type-- evidently I need to find someone I can geek out with, and Mary's not much of a geek. Valuable lessons learned!
Some weeks ago, Mrs. Chong, a realtor friend of my mom, had hosted a brunch to introduce me to Mary, the daughter of a good friend of hers. Wanting to create a second opportunity to meet her again, I offered to host a return brunch on the following week.
That one got postponed, and the sausage rolls went pift, so I wound up making a new set of sausage rolls and quiche for the following weekend! I also picked up fresh strawberries, char siu baos (barbecue pork steamed buns) and potstickers at the Farmer's Market. This, I anticipated, would be quite enough food for the six of us.
Little did I know... Mary's mother likes to cook and believes in bringing enough food to feed the entire group herself as well. She brought a big pile of soy-sauce roasted chicken wings and legs, a bowl of tofu-sausage-pickled vegetables 'salad', and Mary herself brought a large number of blueberry muffins, corn muffins, and biscuits. AIEE!
This created some interesting problems in brunch logistics. We wound up putting half the food on the island table in the kitchen and bringing it around as needed.
Some brunch logistics failures on my part:
* Expired coffee pods and creamer. Oops. Goes to show how little I entertain guests.
* Misjudged how long it would take to cook the potstickers. Normal potstickers only take me about 20 minutes... But these were uncooked pork. To be safe, I decided to cook them "my brother's way" and fry them on all three sides, thus ensuring the meat inside would be thoroughly cooked, as well as creating a plethora of tasty crispy dough sides. This is good, but wound up taking a fair bit of time.
* This led to a cascade of flailing (in most Fluffyshy fashion) where I missed checking on the tea kettle that was supposed to be preparing hot water for Mary's mother's coffee. Oops. It wasn't actually plugged in so it wasn't going to be heating anytime soon.
* Char siu baos (pork steamed buns) are good, but also very filling-- not the best idea for a brunch with a lot of finger food.
But, well, in general it was a lot of good food, and a valuable learning experience.
Here we are, sitting around the table. (picture taken by Mrs. Chong so you can see me on the right)
And here's a picture of the food.
In the center of the table you can see the Trader Joe's sausage rolls I made, strawberries, potstickers, and behind my glass of orange juice, a platter of three char siu baos. There's also a small ramekin dish with some 30-year-old balsamic vinegar that
dracosphynx had brought as his contribution to the festivities.On the down side, I don't think Mary's into me, so I'll leave that alone and start poking at eHarmony soon. -_- It's possible that the brunch logistics failures made a bad impression but I suspect it's more likely I'm just not her type-- evidently I need to find someone I can geek out with, and Mary's not much of a geek. Valuable lessons learned!
