The Lost Supper, the Day After

Sunday's Lost feast was a resounding culinary success, and there's no controversy over how satisfying it was (very), unlike certain series finales that aired last night. The episode was going so well - even Kate played a useful role, and had a zinger in the first few minutes - and then the last fifteen minutes happened! It was almost on the level of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows epilogue. Almost. Also, I can't believe I stayed up until 1:30 and suffered through Jimmy Kimmel's bad jokes to watch the "alternate endings" he showed. Bah! But back to food.

Unsurprisingly, not everything on the menu found its way onto the dinner table: even though I bought three pounds of sweet potatoes, I somehow forgot to cook them, and instead of making totally new cupcakes I used the leftover salted caramel cream cheese frosting from last week's cupcake adventure. (I am kicking myself for not taking pictures of those - Vanilla Cupcakes with Lavender Cream and Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting, my infamous Tequila Margarita Cupcakes, Earl Grey Chocolate Cupcakes with the aforementioned icing and caramel drizzled on top.... Oh well, I guess this means I have to make them all again.)

I'm not too sad about the potatoes, though, since I made eleven dishes as it stands. I would have died without my coterie of helpers, though - Karissa and Upasana kept me from slipping from sanity into the frying pan by the apron strings, and it was only Laura, Annie, and Preston's angelic patience that prevented them from strangling me with the dishtowels with which I bid them dry dozens of dishes.

Anyway, pictures are worth thousands of words, so here are the money shots:

Team Tamale finished these up in record time, and Upasana single-handedly saved the day when she reminded me, forty minutes before guests were due to arrive, that raw corn flour dough needs to be steamed. Oops.

Left: Edamame-Corn-Sesame Salad
Right: Creole Stuffed Peppers

The guests, feverishly eating lest I stop them again to take more pictures:

My plate, seconds before I threw aside the camera and dug in. Starting with the purple cabbage and going clockwise: Smokey Grilled Tempeh, Chickpea Cutlet, Chile-Cornmeal Crusted Tofu, Sautéed Collards, Creole Stuffed Pepper, Southwestern Corn Pudding at center. Buried somewhere underneath that mound of food: Green Pumpkin Seed Molé.

Happy endings: Coconut Custard Pie and Mango-Pear Pandowdy. I made mini pandowdies with the leftover pie dough, but I forgot to take a picture. Rest assured that they were adorable and you are missing out.

Not-so-happy ending: