La Bocca Lunchers - Tasting #1

We're just about 15 hours away from our first menu tasting. (Very exciting - and a little nervewracking to boot.) We decided to enlist my co-workers (and their stomachs) at the dot-com where I work to preview and provide feedback on some potential menu items for La Bocca. Patrick and I headed down to Pike Place Market on Saturday, followed by a quick stop at the grocery store, to select the ingredients we'd need. And, then Sunday, we set to work creating the dishes. You'd think that after working at a restaurant six days out of every week, cooking on his day off (even if it is for our little dream of opening our own place) would be the last thing Patrick would want to do. Not so. He would truly rather cook than pretty much anything else. And, on Sundays, it just means he gets to cook whatever he wants. The tasting menu for tomorrow consists of:

• Warm goat cheese and hazelnut salad with a puttanesca dressing


• Roasted mushroom lasagna (with porcinis, morels, and creminis)
  
• Handmade ricotta-stuffed ravioli with a spicy crab and spinach vodka sauce


• Mushroom soy marinated flank steak (yes, we revisited this tasty marinade)


• Flourless chocolate cake with raspberries

The challenge is trying to re-heat this all for tomorrow and transport it to my office. Fortunately, I don't have a long commute. So, I'll be making a mad dash home around lunchtime to warm everything up and get it back to the La Bocca Lunchers while it's still nice and toasty. Somehow, I don't think the Easy Bake Oven we call a microwave in our office kitchen is going to do the trick.

Hoping this first round will be a hit.