Fancy Dinner with Mark and Julie

Last night, my husband confirmed that our friends Mark and Julie would be coming for dinner... tonight. So, with 24 hours to prepare, I had a dinner party to whip up. This would mark the fourth time this week we went to the grocery store, and I believe our grocery total for the month is about $200 (and it's not even the 15th yet) and we spent $25 on eating out (pizza one night). If I try really hard, I can survive the next two weeks without hitting the store again. And be on budget...

My husband had mentioned croque monsieur to our guests, so they were interested. And I figured it was scrumptious last night so it would be yummy again. And I thought I'd get some raspberries and make some Vouvray-lavender honey sauce to complement them. And a prepackaged salad. A baguette. And voilà, simple multi-course dinner.

And the guests said they'd bring dessert.

I had enough cheesy bread left to make a couple small sandwiches. I needed a little more of everything, so I headed to Wegmans. I spent about $42, way over what I wanted to but I bought double what I intended. Ham, 1 lb., $6. Gruyère, 1/2 pound, $6. smoked gouda, $5. baguette, $2. batard, $2. The salads looked awful, so I opted for a hunk of La Chaume cheese instead ($5). If I couldn't whip up a salad, I'd serve a cheese platter. Two quarts of raspberries, $10. Maille imported French dijon mustard, $4. And my daughter insisted on petit ecolier cookies, $4. Yes, I caved. They're French and dark chocolate.

My husband agreed to stop on his way home for salad. Mark and Julie would get a cake.

Plus a bottle of wine I had on hand means I made dinner for five for $5o. Not so bad...

The recipe for fruit salad with white wine-honey sauce can be found under the "French" link and probably under "Vouvray" too. I followed those basic instructions, cut back the sugar and used only raspberries.

I prepped the sandwiches so they just needed to bake. I got 11 or 12 sandwiches. But my cheese sauce wouldn't thicken so they were a tad dry. I needed another tablespoon flour, but ran out of time.

My daughter set the table with the Royal Doulton Isabella. We got out the silver. We even went to the rose bush and picked the first buds of the spring for a centerpiece. We filled the princess house glasses with water and when the guests arrived there was Vouvray for everyone.

Two types of bread were on the table.
First course: raspberries
Second course: croque monsieur
Third course: Dole Spring Fling Salad with almonds and berry vinagrette dressing
Fourth course: International Cheese Flight of Swiss gruyère, German smoked gouda, French Chaume and New York Extra Sharp Cheddar (from Aldi no less!)
Fifth course: (here's where the courses get funky, order wise) chartreuse
Sixth course: decaf with coffee mate Parisian Almond Cream creamer and strawberry shortcake torte

Full bellies, happy bellies. Very sleepy grown ups...