Moose Caca
Friends came over tonight. Wine was had, jokes were made. I fed seven adults. I made a garlic spinach appetizer, spanokopita (layer after layer of phyllo dough…), stuffed grape leaves, and vegan moussaka, which is not moussaka at all, but a veggie and mashed potato casserole.
The spanokopita and grape leaves were (not meaning to brag, but—) the bomb. Everyone loved them.
However, I started cooking at one o’clock and still hadn’t managed to have everything ready in time because there were bouts of cleaning and kid-interaction interspersed in the cooking time. After everyone had eaten the appetizer, spanokopita, and grape leaves, the moussaka was still cooking. So I cut down the time of the baking. And therein lies the problem.
Impatience.
Why didn’t I just let it cook the allotted time????????
I could have just told everyone, look, sorry, but dinner will be late. Enjoy everything else I made. But nooooooo, I had to jump the gun and serve the moussaka too early (it was supposed to cook for 1:30 hours, and I pulled it out at 1:10). As a result, the eggplant was not cooked well enough. Truthfully, though, the whole dish had a bland taste to it, and I don’t think it had anything to do with the cooking time but the combination of spices (or lack thereof). And what a disappointment. Everyone was so excited by all the other dishes and then I had to end on the GROSS BLAND DISH.
I did get to save myself partly with the almond shortbread cookies for dessert. But still, the taint of the bad not-moussaka dish ruined my confidence for the night. Throughout the entire post-dinner and enjoyable conversation with my friends, all could really think was “did they all think the not-moussaka was gross?”
Of course, no one complained and as they said goodnight they all thanked me for the wonderful meal. I can only hope that the memory of the spanokopita, grape leaves, and almond shortbreads live on, and the moussaka is never again remembered.
And out of curiosity, who does not enjoy Spaceballs or Three Amigos? I just learned that one of my friends HATES them.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ3KVYt8__A&rel=1]
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Ooh that all sounds tasty. I bet your not-moussaka was lovely.
I saw phyllo and thought I was in love. Then I googled it and saw spinach and fell out of love. Then I read further and saw onions and fell even more out of love.
It’s hard being a picky eater.
Please send almond shortbreads soon.
Oh, I’m sure as soon as they left, they all giggled at your ineptness. Please! Sounds like a delightful time and good food was had by all.
I think that’s why all my parties are potluck. No one even notices if there’s a bad dish in there someplace.
I love spanakopita, so I would have filled up on that and not noticed anything else.
I have never seen Three Amigos, but I hated Spaceballs.
I don’t know the Three Amigos or Spaceballs.
Everybody does this. I’ve got several friends who are fantastic cooks and they do this too. I’ve been known to turn out a few duds myself, especially when I’m catering for a large group. Your spanokopita and dolmas sound great, and I’m sure your moussaka was fine.
I once baked a cheesecake, wholly unaware that I’d managed to blend the foil top of a pint of cream into the mixture. My guests had lots of fun picking out tiny silver shards…
You said “taint.”