White Sunday

Well, that was fun, but the photos turned out like crap.*

What was fun, you ask?

I (purposely -- this must be said) made an all-white meal.  And it was tasty, healthful, and pretty.  I have read that all-white meals should be served on black plates, but we don't have black plates, so I pulled out my Laura Ashley blue Chintzware ones, which were okay, but I must agree with the experts that black would have been nicer. 

What was on the menu, you ask?  Okay, I'll tell. 

• A whole chicken, stewed in pinot grigio (and water), garlic, onions, celery, sea salt and herbs (think "parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme.....").  I let it simmer very slowly for about three hours, and served us each an unadorned super-tender and moist slice of the breast;
  

• Short-grain brown rice pilaf;

• Parsnips and purple-top turnips, peeled, cut up, coated in olive oil, and roasted 'til golden.  (I suppose purists will point out that "golden" is not white.  Fair enough.) I put no seasoning on these -- just the olive oil and the roasted goodness.  This is the best way I have ever eaten parsnips (ED:  Jenifleur caught me in a typo.  Fixed now.  I'll never hear the end of this, I'm sure.) and turnips.
  

• ...all served with a glass of the pinot grigio.

If I were going to make this for company, which would be fun with the right group of guests, I would invest in some black plates, and I would make a white salad of Belgian endive, chevre, and perhaps white grapes, with a tart-sweet white wine vinaigrette.  A smoked whitefish with cool cucumber cream sauce would be nice as a starter. 

Dessert might be almond cake with an excellent vanilla ice cream, or lemon sorbet with iced white ginger cookies. Or maybe maple creme brulee. As you can tell, my sweet tooth is alive, well, and full of ideas for the dessert course.

What do you think?  I think this would be a fun menu for a small bridal shower.  Or for two empty-nesters on a Sunday afternoon, the husband distracted by football and the wife working to get her transcripts out of her life for good** and looking for an interesting meal that would more or less cook itself.  Something like that. 

*food photography is HARD.  The rising steam gets in the way, and the flash makes a mess. Nothing ever looks as good in my photos as it does on the plate.  I have a whole new respect for food stylists. Of course, I know they employ all kinds of tricks like waiting for the food to cool, employing special lighting, spraying the food with oil or something to make it sparkle, and using Elmer's glue to look like milk or cream.  Other than that, I'm sure it's easy. 

**I've still got a few lingering transcripts.  Once they are done, I'm not taking any depositions for a while, a fact that is making me quite tipsy with joy just envisioning it.  Or is that the pinot?  Your call. 

Comments

[Sarah]

That sounds like a lovely dinner. Purists might also point out that brown is not white. That being said, I do prefer brown over white rice.

[Melissa H.]

Sounds like a great dinner. Congrats on your career "change". It sounds very fun, of course I am a chemist who took advanced biology classes as electives, so I may have a skewed sense of fun :)

[Marie]

Imagine a white party in June - all the guests dressed in white in a yard planted with white annuals. Then add white wine (chilled in no less than an old white cast iron clawfoot bathtub filled with ice, white cheeses and beautiful white bagettes with the crackers, white dips with pale green to white vegetables, devilled eggs all that kind of stuff and finished off with a fabulous dessert table covered in white frosted cakes, lemon cupcakes, cool green grapes...oh and throw in dozens of white candles scattered around the place and white mini christmas lights in the hedge!

My sister in law had the party years ago in the back of her grey and white victorian house and it was gorgeous! Thanks for taking me back to those memories!

[Vicki]

Hahaha, I had scalloped potatoes last night -- with cauliflower and milk. Great minds and all that...

[Lucia]

Food description, however, is mouthwatering. And I don't like turnips or parsnips.

[Carole]

I think that sounds wonderful. And I agree that food pictures are really tough.

[Ruth]

That sounds delicious.

Back when I was working, watching the food stylists ply their craft was CRAZY. Remind me to tell you someday about the time we had to ship ribs from Chicago to Texas because the clients (who were in Chicago) had to see and approve them before they could be used in the commercial.

[margene]

I'll bring the black plates!!

[minnie]

sounds very tasty!

my son had a question, and you seemed to be the most qualified to answer it:

what do you call someone who lives in vermont?

he voted for vermontonian, and i thought vermontite. what do you think?

[claudia]

It's the pinot.

[Kim]

Oohh, I do love chintzware. Swoon...

[Roxie]

Not being a cook, an all white meal never occurred to me. Options I have considered has been a dinner party entirely by candlelight, and a completely silent dinner for two.

Wanna borrow my black wine glasses?

[jpt]

What if you save the chevre for the cheese course, and have shredded white carrots (tossed with olive oil and lemon juice) for the salad? Unless your farmers' market has the Siberian white tomato...

My red scarf is sitting in the corner, thinking about what it's done. Which may or may not have involved superwash wool, a plan to weave in the ends so they would never ever dangle free, and a selvedge that got accidentally snipped. Ugg.

[jenifleur]

Parnips?

[Cookie]

Ya know, the Target has black plates. The boy got some and I had to be supportive. o.0

Dinner sounds lovely.

[Sue]

Sounds yummy. Will have to give it a go come winter. I can think of lot's of yummy "white" desserts. An Aussie favourite is pavlova.

[The Mysterious K]

Let's just say that when the food stylist gets done with the food in the shot, you wouldn't want to eat it. ;-) TMK

[lisa]

YOUR white meal sounds good...the white meals of my childhood, not so much...bland overcooked pork chop, potatoes, cauliflower. I have been roasting root type veggies, but I must say I love beets...their taste and color, with parsnips, carrots, onions, garlic, a few potatoes. I put some parsnips in recently, I can take them or leave them. I do mine in cast iron skillet with olive oil and thyme leaf (rosemary if I had it). The thing that makes this REALLY good is putting some gorgonzola on it, or chevre. And, of course, some wine!

[lisa]

I meant I tried turnips recently...

[Manise]

Small bridal shower? Are you holding out on us? ;-) Sounds like a yummy meal- until you mentioned whitefish.

[Anne K.]

Oooo, wow -- tres chic on the all-white meal! It's quite cool that you planned it that way and it sounds so elegant!!

I seldom cook, but had some girlfriends over for a knitting lunch over the holidays. Much to my dismay, I realized that everything I'd made was beige or brown. My plates were also beige. Now, how the hell did THAT happen?! Fortunately, I also had plenty of red wine on hand...

[sandy]

I can't stop giggling about PARNIPS! I know. Small minds and such. Whatev.
Isn't CHINTZware a funny name for a designer to choose? I just wonder how the word Chintz became the insulting word CHINTZY. Just wonderin'.
Ruminating and such.
Pass the white!

[bets]

I think any solid colored plate would do. I used to have royal blue ones that made food look terrific! (I didn't think I was cool enough for black ones-that was a little too stringent for me.)

[LeAnne]

Norma, that sounds like so much fun...the white meal. Now you've got me thinking about all kinds of "colored" meals. My kids are going to love this.