it's DINNAH PAHTEE TIIIIMEZ!

photo courtesy of serious eats.

with roughly eight gazillion gallons of water hitting the streets of boston in the form of relentless rain showers today, i opted to spend the day inside.  after running the dishwasher, sending out a few resumes and catching up on a couple of emails, i sat down to read through a few of my favorite blogs.  serious eats, the kitchn, we are not martha and apartment therapy are all bookmarked on my browser, and all of these lifestyle/cooking blogs have been tempting me with gorgeous place settings, inspiring, innovative recipes and photos of desserts that make my teeth hurt just by lookin' at 'em.  the conclusion i came to after hour 4 of my bout of webpage perusals this afternoon? it's damn near high time for a dinner party.

my logic: each and every single sunday night is spent dancing at precinct to the harmonious sounds of the sea monsters.  the boys don't hit the stage until 10pm, making it the perfect event to attend after a massive culinary spread at home with friends.  i also happen to be friends with several people well-versed in the ways of the restaurant/food service industry: there's a sous chef or two in my social circle, several bakers, and i'm a former bartender/waitress/barista myself, so it seems like putting together a mouthwatering menu based on my latest blog findings and the tastes of my friends in the know would be mindless.  we all seem to be big on hearty dishes with the perfect liquid pairing (read: booze), so here's what i'm thinking of serving up for dinner in a couple of sundays before a sea monsters show.

first course: stuffed mushrooms and deviled eggs.  before chowing down on portuguese sweet bread french toast and breakfast club sandwiches at deep ellum last sunday, jessie, marcy and i DEVOURED the deviled eggs as an appetizer and i'm still salivating at the thought of them.  (that, and my mom gave me this great vintage deviled egg serving plate that i've been dying to use.) i figured finger food is always a good way to go, and stuffed mushrooms and deviled eggs are SUPER easy to make/can be prepared long before guests arrive.

main course: fettucini all'ubriaco (drunken fettucini, pictured above) and bistec porteño (argentine steak, basically.)  pasta stewing in a vat of red wine? tossed in some buttery-olive-oily-garlicy goodness? WORD.  i was thinking that the pasta itself, though seemingly scrumptious, needs to be paired with something protein-rich and hefty, and i figured marinating some strip steaks and slicing them up and serving them over the pasta would be a fresh take on it.  i would most likely use a malbec or a valpolicella for the wine in the pasta, and both are excellent with a good cut of meat, so why not? i might even mix up some chimichurri and toss it in there. we'll see.

dessert: i figure between shroomies, eggs, steak and pasta that dessert's gotta be light. i feel like chocolate would be an excellent way to round out the evening, but at the same time all the foodgasmic chocolate recipes i know would put you in a food coma after a meal like the one plotted out above.  chocolate covered strawberries, maybe? these little babies would be amazing but i feel like it would be overkill... meh.

wine:  i'd either go with the exact same red as used for the pasta or i'd refrain from serving wine altogether and maybe go with funky drinks in lieu of dessert.  i'd favor vanilla manhattans or old fashioneds, but who's to say everyone will be a fan of whiskey... also something to think about.

anyways.  yeah.  i just want to be all domestic and fill people's bellies but not TOO too much so that we can go dancing afterwards, is that so much to ask!? haha.