The World According to Gio

Is anyone else slightly taken aback by Subaru using The Pogues' "If I Should Fall from Grace with God" as the soundtrack for its latest ad?

In other disturbing news, I got this Roma pasta machine for Christmas (that isn't the disturbing part) that my mother ordered from Target and the first time we tried to use it a couple of weeks ago, we discovered that there was an issue with the internal gears so it was catching on the higher settings. There was a card in the box that basically said that if there was a problem, you were supposed to call an 800 number instead of returning the machine to the store it had been bought at, which I did. And in either a sign of the coming apocalypse or the truly best incidence of customer service ever, the nice lady I spoke to said they were going to replace the machine for free and apologized profusely that I would have to wait until the end of the month as they were all out of stock. Being a naturally suspicious type, I started quizzing her about whether I had to return the broken one, whether I had to fill out any paperwork, etc. etc. But the entire time, this creepily nice CSR insisted, no, as soon as they came back in stock, they would send me a replacement machine. Then she gave me her name and a case number. Truly, I expected there to be a catch somewhere. Apparently, there isn't. A brand-new Roma pasta machine was delivered by UPS yesterday. *boggles*

By the way, I can highly recommend Roma pasta machines as a result.

Broke php. Actually, broke my website by installing newest version of Wordpress blog, which somehow (and I can't find the bloody bit) is redirecting all 4-error pages to a php script in a subfolder when before the (Apache) server was returning the standard error pages. Help????

The cooking is about to commence! There will doubtlessly be picture posts over the next days or so, but here's the finalized menu:

Grilled Mediterranean Vegetables (Antipasti)
Seafood Salad
Insalata Caprese
Giant White Beans in Tomato Sauce
Date & Bacon Parcels
Cheese & Spinach pastries
Crab-stuffed mushrooms
Olive-Lemon Chicken
Greek Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
Stuffed Baby Peppers
Lamb Couscous, North African Style
Fresh Bread

Desserts:
Profiteroles
Apple pastries
Greek Milk Pie
Greek Almond Cookies - already made!

I had a brief moment of panic yesterday that there wasn't going to be enough food (and meat in particular!) because a coworker convinced me to eliminate the pork tenderloin, but then Nic looked at me with that special look that means "You're absolutely fucking insane, woman!" and I stopped complaining.

To cook!

So I'm not going to say how many people are coming, because y'all are going to think I'm completely bonkers, but this is what I'm toying with so far. The goal is that I'll be done half an hour before guests start arriving and only have to pull things out of the oven from that point forward. I'm also taking Thursday off to cook and will have much more time then than I'll have on Friday (12+ hours instead of about 7). With that in mind, here's what I'm thinking:

Cold/Room-temperature Dishes:
Grilled Mediterranean Vegetables (Antipasti) - TH
Seafood Salad - TH
Thinly sliced stuffed, roast pork tenderloin - F
Insalata Caprese - F
Wild Mushroom Salad - TH/F?
Either giant white bean salad or lentil salad - TH
Cheese & Spinach pastries - F
Fresh Bread - F

Hot Dishes:
Olive-Lemon Chicken - Prep TH, shove in oven F
Greek Meatballs in homemade tomato sauce - Make TH, shove in oven F
Stuffed Baby Peppers - TH/F?
Lamb Couscous, North African Style - Prep TH, shove in oven F
Date & Bacon Parcels - F

Desserts:
Profiteroles - prep TH, finish F
Apple pastries - F
Greek Milk Pie - TH
Greek Almond Cookies - Weekend before

Thoughts? Comments? Anything I'm missing?

Things:

a) I am the bestest wife ever--at least the birthday present zortwife and I put together for Nic was the bestest-not-a-new-iPod present ever! See, Nic keeps on complaining about things he suddenly discovers are not available in this country--like custard in a can, for example. So we got him a care package basket full of foods made in England that are very hard to find here: Ambrosia custard, Cadbury and Maltese drinking chocolate satchets, Heinz Baked Beans, Branston pickle, etc. etc.

b) The Zorts are the bestest enablers ever! Knowing that I have been searching forever and a day for a replacement double oven glove because mine's falling apart, they ordered me two from England! Yay! Thanksgiving cooking is going to result in double the joy without scorched boobs!

c) Now that I am fully Thanksgiving enabled: last calls, please!¹ If you are family-less for the National Day of Gluttony in Northern California, you are more than welcome to join us, but I need to know now-ish to ensure adequate food supplies. <sup>2


1</sup>This message brought to you by C asking this morning "Is it too late to add two extra plates?"
²Anybody who has seen me cook/menu-plan is absolutely not allowed to laugh at this point. Really.

We are stuck on episode 11 of Masterchef Greece and cannot find the next episode!

So who all is going to be over for Thanksgiving dinner?

I need to start with the menu planning to accommodate dietary requirements.

(Also, I need a good argument for firejunkie why "rat" and "dove" are not viable meat courses...)