Cooking Dinner for Coworkers

This was my first time inviting my colleagues home for dinner. We were having a team meeting the following week, and since everyone would be in town for the meeting, it was a good opportunity to have them over. I was expecting 5 guests plus Tom and me, total of seven people.

One of the individual has food allergies in many things, made it pretty difficult to just prep anything. A bunch of emails were exchange the prior week so I knew what to make or not to make. Since I over bought some ingredients the week prior for the house warming party, I reused them for starters: Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus and Marinated Mozzarella Caprice Skewers. Then I found figs in Costco, another perfect timing finds, so I added a Salad of Figs with Red Onion Marmalade. I got the recipe from one of the newspapers when I was in Australia. I couldn't find the exact one online. Holy cow, this salad was so yummy. And I also made the Crab, Avocado and Mango Stack, recipe from Chart House. I did modify a bit to adapt it to fit the food allergy person.

As for the main dish, I went with fish. So Tom and I went down to Quality Seafood down at the Redondo Beach pier to pick fresh stock. I wanted to get fillets, so I didn’t have to deal with cleaning and deboning….and besides, this was billed back to the company, after all, it was a team meeting dinner…..the fishmonger recommended a Mexican Grouper that would go on the grill nicely, something not so flimsy where it would break apart on a grill. I just sprinkled salt & pepper, plus a bit of olive oil and lemon juice on top before it went onto the grill. Perfect.

Then after I prepped everything already, I got a phone call from my colleagues, well, the two coming in from Chicago, their flights were delayed and they wouldn’t get to LA until like 10 pm or so…oh well, so much for business travel…that means, AGAIN, I had way too much food.

We were so overstuffed even when we didn’t finish all the food. I also brought out two nice bottles of wine. The red was a 2006 pinot noir by Morlet, which my team gave us as part of our wedding gifts. Tom goggled and found out it was a 92 point wine. The white was a Leeuwin chardonnay I acquired on a team meeting in Margaret River the year prior. I thought it was good sentiment to open these two. Both of these two wines were over $100 in total, and I didn’t bill the company for it. Hey, it was a celebration….of friendships.

Needless to say, we were well fed and drank….and once again I forgot to take pictures of the crab stack, served in a martini glass, and the fish dish!!!