My first dinner party

Last night a friend and I made a nice dinner and it was so much fun. Here's what we had, with a salad:

Focaccia 1-1/2 c. warm water 1 pack yeast 1 ts sugar 1/2 c whole wheat flour 4+ cups white flour 1/3 c olive oil 1-1/2 ts salt chopped rosemary Put water, yeast, sugar, whole wheat flour, and 1-1/2 c. white flour in the breadmaker and mix it. Let it sit for 20 minutes and then add the rest of the flour, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and salt. Knead thoroughly (I let the breadmaker do it) and let it rest for 2 hours. Punch it down, stretch it out on an oiled baking pan - it doesn't quite fill a cookie sheet. Let it rest another hour covered with plastic wrap. Finally, poke it lots of places and put olive oil and rosemary, in the little depressions. Cook at 425 for about 25 minutes.

Veal "Piccata" For two people, buy about 3/4 of a pound of veal scallops. Pound them thin with a mallet - in a zip lock bag or it will make a mess. I didn't pound them thin enough cause we were talking and it seemed rude - go for 1/8" or so. Salt and pepper each side, then dredge with flour, and pan-fry in a mixture of oil and butter for just half a minute on the first side and about 10 seconds on the second side. Put them on a plate and cover them with foil. Now add to your pan: T butter 1/4 cup white wine four lemon slices and maybe a little lemon juice too 1/4 cup chicken broth (I froze the rest to use later) minced garlic parsley if you remember (I forgot) Saute briefly and pour over the scallops.

Peach tart I used a 7" springform pan. Combine a mano or in a food processor: 1 c. flour 3 T sugar pinch salt almost a whole stick of butter 1 egg yolk Press this on the bottom and sides of the spring form pan (there'll be some left over). Prick the bottom, refrigerate for 20 minutes, then cook at 400 degrees about 15 minutes - this is all the cooking it's going to get, so make sure it looks done. Filling: 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice 1/4 c. sugar 1/2 ts cinnamon pinch of salt three big peaches, peeled and chopped Two of my peaches were hard as rocks and one was ripe. So I cooked the hard ones in the other ingredients till they got soft, and then added the ripe peach pieces to warm them up. Add: 1-1/4 t gelatin, softened in 2 T water Let the mixture cool before you put it in the shell. Then plop the whole thing in the fridge for a few hours. Take it out an hour before you serve it.

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