Christmas Party Part One...

On Sunday Mom and I went Christmas shopping and I also picked up a few preliminary items for my Christmas party, which will hopefully feature some interesting dishes. Thus far the plan is to do various tapas and salads plus drinks and desserts, owing to the fact that I don't have any means to keep entrees heated for late arrivals -- also budget constraints. :(

On a side note: when I came into the office this morning, my Turkish friend invited me to an authentic Turkish dinner with his family (he is leaving next month - will really miss him!) so I will try to follow up with pictures and explanations at some point.

Tentative Christmas Party Menu:

~ onion tart courtesy of Williams Sonoma (love it!)
~ Nikolay's signature Bulgarian cucumber salad (will provide recipe later)
~ mixed nuts (maybe toasted???)
~ some kind of fruit salad... right now I am thinking either apricot in Riesling with pine nuts or orchard fruits in vodka or perhaps triple sec
~ hummus and pita
~ chocolate yule log (thanks Jen!)
~ Lauren's co-worker's famous gingerbread trifle
~ WS flourless chocolate torte (this is amazing!)
~ Grandma Toth's Hungarian poppyseed rolls
~ ginger orange madelines (WS again)
~ some kind of panna cotta (I have an idea for one with caramel and chestnut creme, but we'll see if this works out...)
~ loads of eggnog, wine and mulled cider

This weekend proved uneventful as far as any gastric adventures, as I spent most of it studying for finals. What I ended up doing was going to Aladdin's Eatery with Lauren and that was about it. As I live a block away from Aladdin's I eat there all the time, but I tried something new this week: Sfiha (will expound upon this momentarily).

My Food: Lentil Soup, Sfiha, Chocolate Signature Cake
I didn't try Lauren's shwarma because she has a cold but she did try my cake... perhaps the reason why I am under the weather today...

Aladdin's lentil soup is a good conventional lentil soup and is not a bad price (off the top of my head I want to say it's about $3.50 for a nice sized bowl with pita on the side). It consists of lentils, swiss chard, potatoes, onions, and celery in a mild broth. The potatoes are tender but not mushy and the soup is mildly flavorful. It's a good comfort food, especially if you get some feta cheese sprinkled on top (yum!). One criticism of it would have to be that the bowl they serve it in is very wide so it gets cold too quickly and you end up having to pretty much stop all other activities while you eat it, lest you end up with something reminiscent of lentil gazpacho - if there is such a thing. The sfiha ($5.95 for the lone sfiha and $9.95 to get it as a meal with veggies on the side - personally I think to get the appetizer version is more worth it) is basically a toasted pita taco filled with seasoned finely ground beef, pine nuts, tomatoes and onions, that is then topped with cheddar cheese and scallions. I don't understand the purpose of the scallions, as they are raw and fall off anyway, and don't add to the flavor. The beef is very flavorful, with hints of middle eastern spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves. It's a bit rich but the fineness of the meat prevents it from being heavy. The pine nuts are a nice addition and add texture as well as subtle, earthy flavor. The chocolate signature cake (I want to say it's $6) was not the best dessert I've had at Aladdin's. It's a chocolate layer cake with chocolate buttercream between the layers and a chocolate ganache on top. The cake itself was a bit dry and the buttercream too heavy. The ganache was by far the best part. If you are looking for a good dessert at Aladdin's I would recommend either the German chocolate cake, mocha cake, or my personal favorite chocolate bomb. Thus far, I think this is the best dessert I have had there, but it's been a couple months since I had it last, so I don't think I could give a fair review at this point. If you are looking for a little lighter something, their smoothies (my favorite is the tropical storm) are very good too: not too thick, not cloyingly sweet, not grainy like you might find with a protein based smoothie, and are made from fruits and yogurt.

This was a long entry, but I don't know if I will be able to post anything soon, thanks to finals coming up.
I will provide updates and recipes for the Christmas party fare sometime later this week or next week.