Update and a Dinner Party

My blogging has been a bit sporadic for the past couple of months.  I’d like to come up with some grand excuse that clearly shows I had absolutely no time to write, but I plead guilty to blog neglect.  I haven’t forgotten about my “duties” (to those two readers I still have left).  There were so many recipes, restaurants, and events that I wanted to write about but never got around to.  The problem was/is that I wait too long to blog.  So, by the time the pictures were uploaded, photoshopped, and ready to be talked about, the moment passed and it just wasn’t fresh anymore.  But, I’m going to make some changes around here, so if you see that you’re visiting JDP a few more times than before that means I’m doing something right.

On to more interesting topics, I catered another party last night!  This was the fifth event I catered for, one of which I briefly wrote about here.  I think my skills are getting a lot better, because this was the least stressful out of all the events.  I also finished a good hour and a half before I had to leave, which gave me enough time to take a little breather.  I think the key to success (coming from my “oh-so-many” experiences) is to prep as much as possible the day before and find dishes that are good at room temperature.  The latter has been the most difficult part to catering a dinner party.  Because I cook offsite and deliver fully prepared dishes, most of the dishes aren’t served hot.  So, in order to insure the best quality and tastes I’ve been doing a lot of test runs and mini tasting parties for friends and family.  The feedback from the tasting and parties has been very helpful.  With every event I find myself getting more confident and possibly (and hopefully) a little bit more successful.

When I come up with a menu, sometimes I think of a dish I want to make and work around it to find other foods that will complement it, while other times I work around a theme.  I actually find having a theme more fun because it allows me to be more creative while also focusing on a bigger picture.  For this dinner party I decided to go with an Asian Fusion theme. For the most part, my food has most featured Western flavors so it was great to work with different ingredients and ones that were more readily available in Korea.

For the next couple of days I’ll be posting a series of entries about each of the dishes along with a few recipes.  Here’s the menu and a preview of what’s to come!

Azuki, Cream Cheese Fried Dumplings
Beef Wraps with Three Types of Spring Vegetables
Salade Chinoise
Chicken with Sweet Chili Peanut Dipping Sauce
Kimchi Taco Crisps
Korean Rice Cakes filled with Marinated Meat
Miso-Ginger Salmon
Fish Roe Pasta
Korean Kimbap, Stylized
Green Tea Layer Cake
Ginger Brownies