Mission Harnish Dinner Accomplished

I'm not going to lie. I was extremely ambitious when I planned Friday night dinner for the Harnish clan. I knew I was going to feed the three girls macaroni and fruit so I decided to make a more complicated recipe that I found in bon appetit magazine for the four adults. I also went to the dark side and cooked meat. :) The main course was Pork and Poblano Tamale Pie. The pie filling was the ambitious part. I roasted poblanos and a green pepper in the oven then peeled and seeded them. I pan toasted cumin and coriander seeds and ground them, pureed corn, browned cubed pork, chopped various ingredients, sauteed onions and spice ingredients and then simmered the filling mixture for about 2 hours. That was just the filling! The topping called for flour, stone ground cornmeal, chili powder, butter, egg, whole milk, baking powder, honey and sharp cheddar. When the filling was done simmering, the recipe called for pouring it into a 10" X 2 1/2" high skillet, adding a layer of chopped cilantro, sharp cheddar and then the topping spread evenly. The pie then baked for 30 minutes. I served it with an herb mix green salad that was topped with toasted pumpkin seeds and chopped red pepper.

As if that wasn't enough, I also baked a Lime Drizzle Cake with Coconut Frosting. Yes, it was from scratch and as any good cake from scratch should, it called for 1 3/4 sticks of butter. This cake was the real deal. After the cake baked, I poked holes in the top and spooned the lime drizzle over the top. The frosting was made from confectioner's sugar, coconut milk and cream cheese. The cake was then topped with lime zest. It ended up looking beautiful.

It took 4 1/2 hours to make both recipes but it was so worth it! The tamale pie was absolutely delicious and cooked perfectly, if I do say so myself. The cake was a really nice consistency and the frosting was even better than I thought it would be. I give both recipes an A+ and myself an A+ for execution. I am pretty proud of the dinner I served. Brad, Andrew and Pamela were all happy and all four of us had second helpings of the tamale pie. The cake was gone by the end of the night so I take that to mean that it was better than just edible. A perfect evening with wonderful friends, happy kids, good food and good wine. What could be better?