Progressive Dinner: Dessert

Melissa  had the great idea to organize a Progressive Dinner this year as a little holiday party before we all disappeared  home for Christmas.  For those of you who are like me and had no clue what she was talking about when she asked if I would participate, a Progressive Dinner is when each course of the meal is served at someone else's home and you move from apartment to apartment (at least in our case).  She asked me if I would be willing to take care of the dessert for this event and I couldn't say no to that.  

Compliments of Melissa's boyfriend Kurt

The difficult part was figuring out what to make to serve 10 to 12 people that was gluten free.  I had just made these pumpkin trifles and had thought about making something similar with rum, but decided it was too soon.  I also didn't feel like making a flour-less cake or a pudding or mousse like thing, I don't know why.  We were all keeping our courses secret, so I had no idea what I should be trying to compliment.  I found this recipe in Great Food Fast, and decided it would be easy to prep and throw in the oven while we enjoyed our entree next door.  I figured it would be kind of light and not too sweet after the previous three courses, which were amazing!  

Before roasting...

The grocery store ended up being the actual problem, which I kind of suspected might be the case and I was prepared to make some substitutions before I even arrived.  I couldn't find any plums and the peaches were tiny so I replaced the plums with pears.  Of course after I bought my supplies, I found out two more decided they would join us for the event and went out in search of plums at a different grocery store.   Of course there were none so I went with apples.  My other change was to use the lemons I had at home instead of buying limes and I didn't really measure so much, just kind of scooped some sugar in.  All in all it was really tasty and the rosemary adds a wonderful touch.   I need to learn how to cut peaches and nectarines though, that didn't go so well...

Roasted Fruit with Ice Cream

serves 12 to 16

After Roasting!

• 6 small peaches
• 5 nectarines
• 2 apples
• 3 pears
• 6 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 7 tablespoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter- cut into chunks
• juice from 3 fresh lemons
• vanilla ice cream

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prick skins of fruit with a fork, then quarter and pit the peaches and nectarines, slice the apples and pears. 
2. In a 9-by-13-inch roasting pan, toss fruit with the sprigs fresh rosemary, tablespoons sugar, butter, and lemon juice.
3. Roast fruit until fork-tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Discard rosemary the sprigs but leave some of the leaves.
4. Serve warm over ice cream. 

mmm mmm mmm

Enjoy and have a great Christmas!