Spoon & Shutter

A toast with Tabitha's Kir Royal

From Susan: Fun-loving guy that he is, Ted put this casual party together mid-week, via email. The good friends he invited are some of our favorite people to hang out with – the six of us all love good food, wine, music and maybe even a little alcohol-enhanced dancing …

Greek appetizers

Grilled haloumi cheese

The menu was an impressive group effort. In the late afternoon, Ted got the charcoal grill going for what has become another signature lamb dish – a whole leg studded with garlic and rubbed with herbs. The scent was incredible and I’m sure made our neighbors envious! Tabitha brought a gorgeous assortment of Mediterranean-style appetizers – hummus, tzatziki and stuffed grape leaves – using the grill for marinated haloumi cheese, pita triangles and fresh calamari, which she tossed with a white bean salad. We washed all these goodies down with Kir Royales – also courtesy of Tabitha.

Dinner is served

Dave made a sensational spring salad of baby arugula, red onion, avocado and shrimp, tossed with a lemony vinaigrette. Bridget picked up lemon roasted potatoes from her favorite Greek restaurant – Stamna Greek Taverna in nearby Bloomfield. Along with grilled asparagus these were the perfect accompaniment to the lamb.

Espresso and Mascarpone Icebox Cake

Amazing Baklava

Several bottles of red wine – and some hilarious, thank-goodness-no-one-was-watching dancing – later, we returned to the table for dessert. Bridget added to the general Greek theme with amazing baklava – also from Stamna. My contribution was an easy, no-bake, luscious dessert that I tweaked a little from a recipe in the late, lamented Gourmet.

Espresso and Mascarpone Icebox Cake

3 cups chilled heavy cream

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. sugar

1 cup mascarpone cheese (about 9 oz.)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 box chocolate wafers (Nabisco’s Famous)

1 tbsp. instant-espresso powder

Beat 2 cups of cream with 6 tbsp. sugar until it just holds soft peaks. Reduce heat to low; add mascarpone and vanilla and mix until combined. Spread 1 1/4 cups of the mixture evenly over the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan. Top with a layer of chocolate wafers (about 14). Spread with another 1 1/4 cups of cream mixture; top with another layer of cookies. Spread the remaining cream on top, smoothing the surface. Cover the pan with foil and place in the freezer for 1 hour. Transfer from freezer to the refrigerator and chill until a sharp knife inserted into the center cuts easily through the softened wafers, about 8 hours.

Beat remaining cup of cream with remaining 3 tbsp. sugar and espresso powder until it hold stiff peaks. Pulse remaining chocolate wafers in a food processor until crumbled. (I did this the old-fashioned way – put the cookies between sheets of waxed paper and crushed them with a rolling pin!) Run a sharp knife around edge of the pan remove sides. Frost the top and sides of cake with espresso cream and sprinkle crushed cookies around the top edge. Keep chilled until ready to serve.