This past Friday, our friends Jen and Derek held an engagement dinner party for my brother and his fiancée.

They served us some fabulous food. I mean, these two are a couple of serious foodies.

They started us off with some delicious goat cheese and some awesome, stinky, runny, French cheese, served with crackers and baguette. They then proceeded to serve us five courses!

Here’s the menu…

I. School Lunch
Grilled White Cheddar and Lancaster County Farmstand Tomato Jam
Roasted Tomato Bique, Herbed Crème Fraiche
They slow-roasted the tomatoes in the oven (which is something I now really want to try doing). The crème fraiche really added the perfect, creamy touch to the soup. And Derek’s homemade tomato jam had a great kick to it.
II. Chef BoyarLee’s Daily Special
Handmade Crab Ravioli, Saffron Cream Sauce
Derek even went to the trouble of handmaking pasta! And how often do you get to eat anything with saffron in it? (Not often for a house-poor 20-something like me!)
III. Summer on a Plate
Panko Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast, Pesto
Ratatouille, Lancaster County Corn Soufflé
I really loved the souffle. Rich, creamy, cheesey… and the corn was perfectly sweet. Excellent pesto, excellent chicken, excellent ratatouille!

IV. The Almost-Grand Finale
Lemon Verbena Ice Cream
Rosemary-infused Chocolate Pots-de-Crème
They made the ice cream with lemon verbena fresh from their garden. It was amazing how much lemon flavor they got out of it without actually using real lemons! The pots-de-crème was so rich and decadent. Never had that combination of rosemary and chocolate before, it worked really well. I wish I could have eaten the whole thing, but I was so stuffed at that point!

And finally… Hack Your Tastebuds
Miracle Fruit Tasting Party
Ever hear of miracle fruit? I hadn’t either until Jen and Derek told me about it. Definitely one of the weirdest food experiences I’ve ever had. All you have to do is chew on the pulp of one berry (seen at the top of this post), and for the next half hour or so, bitter and sour foods taste sweet! So we tried it with all sorts of fruit.

I normally despise grapefruit, but after the miracle fruit, it tasted deliciously sweet! Lemons tasted like candy! It was pretty amazing. Raw rhubarb still tasted pretty awful, but much less awful than it normally would have.

We even experimented with apple cider vinegar. It did taste fairly sweet, but burned horribly on the way down. So that was a semi-successful experiment…

A couple of times during the 4-hour dinner extravaganza, my husband Tim turned to me and asked, “How is it that this tastes so good??” My thoughts exactly.