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Last night we invited some neighbors for dinner.

It was a casual get-together, and we decided to do pasta with different options (different kinds of pasta, a few sauce options, and a few meat choices, and veggies) so that hopefully everyone would find something they like.

I made home-made pasta a few days ahead and kept it in the freezer.

You can just take it out of the freezer right when you are ready to cook, and you can put it directly into boiled water; no thawing is required.

I also baked a few loaves of bread ahead of the time (sliced and froze them) and used them to make garlic bread.

Meatballs, roasted chicken, and roasted veggies to go with pasta.

I also prepared marinara sauce, Alfredo sauce, and no-cheese (vegan) basil pesto.

Mini cheese twists for pre-dinner snack to be enjoyed with wine.

A pear almond tart for dessert.

There were some hiccups during the dinner execution, like Alfredo sauce started curdling (I rescued it by using hand blender. It’s magic. All the curdling disappeared and went back to the creamy sauce.), and meatballs and veggies weren’t re-heated hot enough, etc.

There are a lot of things I could have done better… (sigh).

But hey, that’s how you learn to be a better host. By making mistakes and learning from them, right?

This group of people are always just so much fun to spend time with and we had a great time.

After making these toasts and eating them fresh, I still had some raspberries from our friends left.

With Terry’s request, I decided to make raspberry cookies.

I was planning to freeze the raspberries before adding to the dough, but I didn’t have enough time, so the raspberries were still soft.

So when I tried to form cookies, the raspberries would lose their shape and they were getting messy, which made me want to cry.

But I persevered!

The cookies turned out to be DELICIOUS!

Okay I forgot to add lemon zest; Terry’s original request was “raspberry white chocolate lemon cookies”.

But hey, they still tasted fabulous.

Terry likes his cookies soft and gooey.

I like mine chewy but not too soft.

I think I achieved the best texture for the both of us this time!

And the mashed raspberries were not an issue at all.

Raspberry White Chocolate Cookies adapted from this recipe

1 1/4 sticks salted butter, softened
9 oz packed brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 1/4 oz bread flour
4 1/4 oz all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup raspberries (frozen preferebly)

1. Mix all the ingredients except for chocolate chips and raspberries.
2. Add chocolate chips and raspberries.
3. Scoop dough onto a pan lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly.
4. Bake in 350F oven for 10~15 minutes.

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