Dinner Party

This past week my husband and I hosted his parents and our good friend Natalie for dinner.  I was beyond excited, I absolutely LOVE to entertain and until we moved and got a dining room table I was unable to do so.  The menu was a little tricky as I had to comply with some serious diet restrictions.  NO Salt, Low Sugar, and all the sides had to be vegetarian.  So I made a salad with red wine vinegar and olive oil, grilled filet of beef, roasted asparagus, green beans and fingerling potatoes with Mrs. Dash (salt free), zucchini pancakes and home made potatoes Au gratin.  And for dessert I made Apple Crisp with Truvia.  Whoa, this party definitely kept me busy ALL day.  Almost everything I made was from a Barefoot Contessa cookbook.  I have learned so much from her books about throwing the perfect party.  According to Ina, one of her first mistakes when she was younger was trying to make an elaborate menu to impress her guest and she spent most of the party in the kitchen instead of being a hostess.  I prepared the food during the day so it was all ready when our guests arrived.  One of the favorites of the night were the zucchini pancakes, I would definitely try making them, they are easy and really tasty.  I left the salt out the recipe, I'm sure it would have been even better with it.

Zucchini Pancakes- Barefoot Contessa At Home

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchini (about 3/4 pound)
• 2 tablespoons grated red onion
• 2 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
• 6 to 8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Unsalted butter and vegetable oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Grate the zucchini into a bowl using the large grating side of a boxgrater. Immediately stir in the onion and eggs. Stir in 6 tablespoons of the flour, the baking powder, salt, and pepper. (If the batter gets too thin from the liquid in the zucchini, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour.)

Heat a large (10 to 12-inch) saute pan over medium heat and melt1/2 tablespoon butter and 1/2 tablespoon oil together in the pan. When the butter is hot but not smoking, lower the heat to medium-low and drop heaping soup spoons of batter into the pan. Cook the pancakes about 2 minutes on each side, until browned. Place the pancakes on a sheet pan and keep warm in the oven. Wipe out the pan with a dry paper towel, add more butter and oil to the pan, and continue to fry the pancakes until all the batter is used. The pancakes can stay warm in the oven for up to 30 minutes. Serve hot.