Alan and I are having friends over for dinner on Monday.  But instead of Alan simply making us dinner, we’re throwing a curve ball.  We’re doing a black box/Iron Chef/Top Chef type of dinner.  The diners (excluding Alan) will be providing the ingredients.  I’m providing the protein while Sarah and Carl are providing carbs, veggies, and possibly fruit – really whatever they’d like Alan to cook.  It’s up to them.  Sarah knows what I have in mind for the protein(s), so we should end up with complimentary ingredients.

Here are the ground rules.  Alan can use any ingredients we have in the house, but can’t go stock up on “fancy” items in preparation.  Sure, we have some foie gras in the freezer, but that wasn’t purchased for this particular meal, it’s just something we tend to have in the house (jealous?).  I do need to go buy butter and onions, as these are items we always have around, but I used up on Wednesday.  I will also be purchasing one or two bottles of red and white wine, but that’s mainly for drinking.  If Alan decides he needs a little to cook with, he can use his glass of wine instead of drinking it.  :-D

I am quite excited about it, as is Alan.  It should be a treat.  I also think it will be an interesting challenge for Alan.  He makes some incredible meals at home, but he’ll spend all day on them making sauces, reductions, stocks, whatever.  This will be challenging since I won’t get home with my ingredients until about 5:00, and we haven’t decided yet on a time for Sarah and Carl to show up, but we certainly don’t want to be eating dinner at 10:00!