In which I cook dinner for 13 men.

I volunteered, a week ago, to cook dinner for the Cheese Lord rehearsal last night. Typically—percent of the time—the group's founder and rehearsal host, Skip West, cooks the dinner we eat before singing—unless he's out of town or somebody volunteers to give him a break. Anyway, it was a more interesting assignment than previously, in that the Cheese Lords recently appointed its FIRST EVER vegetarian member (though others, including myself, limit intake of land animals when feeding ourselves).  But the majority of members are certainly of that "meat and potatoes" school—indeed, dinner is centered on beef or pork three-quarters of the time, usually with very little done to it except cooking it: just slabs of meat.

So I made chicken (would have done fish but we have a few "absolutely no seafood" types and even, I think, an allergy).  Specifically, fricassée de poulet a l'ancienne, which I made once years ago in Delaware.  It's a Julia Child recipe and it's scrumptious—a marsala-flavored cream sauce with chicken, mushrooms, and tiny onions.  So for Mike, our new veggie, I made the same exact thing except with portobellos and tri-colored bell peppers.  Everything else on the table was veggie: I made a sort of pilaf—no recipe, maestro_live would be proud—with jasmie rice, orzo, chick peas, veggie stock, and romano cheese on top; "Just White Beans" and "Pickled Red Onions" from the Moosewood Cookbook (thank you, Molly!  I love you, Molly!); steamed asparagus with a modified Hollandaise (orange juice in addition to the lemon juice); and a romaine salad with peppers, tomatoes, and radishes.  All that, and some French bread from Giant, and plenty of red wine, ensured that everybody was really full and sleepy all through rehearsal... hmmm, in retrospect, probably not the best thing to do 9 days before two concerts on two consecutive days...