OCTOBER DINNER CLUB

Upcoming Dinner - October
Hostess - Couscous 
theme - Halloween

September - Squash Theme Dinner

The gals had a gourd ole time with this fall ingredient! Amazingly enough we all used different squash varieties and No One used the most famous of the American plant - the pumpkin!!

Paprika set the appropriate stage for the autumnal equinox.

Saucy started us off with a breaded yellow (summer) squash with marinara.  She used an egg-wash and breadcrumbs for her breading.

Paprika also wanted to try her hand at some breaded squash, only she used a butternut (winter) squash. This "Country Fried Squash" also started with an egg-wash, but cornmeal was used for the breading.

 Both were equally tasty and while they used a similar preparation, they each had their own distinct taste.

Couscous couldn't quite meet the challenge of finding a "squash" wine, so brought a regular old red wine,  Piper Ranch Malbec. (yeah, nothing squashy about this one, except that grapes were squashed to produce it?)

Paprika's main dish was an amazing camouflage of squash, called Posh Squash.  It was similar to a quiche.  The squash was boiled down to mush and mixed with eggs, mayo, onion, bell pepper, Parm cheese and breadcrumbs and baked.  Any winter squash can be used and Paprika learned NOT to use acorn squash next time - little bugger is a *&#$* to peel!!

Couscous kept it simple with a basic spaghetti squash, microwaved, shredded and mixed with sauteed garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper.  Simple, but oh so tasty!

Grapes' creativity was flowing (maybe because of her name) and she selected a thematic appropriate wine - Las Parcelas Carmenere - as it looks like a "squashed" grape on the label!!!  LOL!!

Grapes also camouflaged her squash into a Butternut Squash Bake with evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla,  and topped with pecans and Rice Krispies! She kicked it up by serving it with warm with a vanilla gelato!  A wonderful fall comfort dessert!!!

  Check back next month for our October dinner, which is sure to have an alarming appetizer, spooky sidedish, evil entree, witchy wines, and a devilish dessert!!

Weekly Farm Challenge 9/13/12 - 9/20/12

This week's bounty consisted of: Apple Cider, Parsley, Leaf Lettuce, Beets, Eggplant, Onion, Apples, Tomatoes and Peppers

Busy week of salads and most items are just plain good by themselves (i.e. beets, apples), but Couscous did manage to whip up some Asian Stuffed Peppers!

Weekly Farm Challenge 8/30/12 - 9/6/12 and 9/6/12-9/13/12

Tomatogeddon continues!  We also received eggplant, corn, beans, parsley, romaine, peppers, peaches, watermelon, red leaf lettuce, dill, basil, apples and carrots.

The peaches are so succulent that you simply don't want to spoil them by eating them any other way than plain!  As, is the corn!  Couscous tried a recommended microwave method of husking the corn.  See how easy this guy does it??

Couscous' attempt took more than 2 shakes; she looked more like the ad for the Shake Weight!

It was a slow couple of weeks in the kitchen for us farm gals, but Couscous did whip up a quick batch of dill beans and had caprese on more than one occasion! Yum!!

Next week is dinner club, but Couscous is determined to also make an eggplant dish that Grapes will try and actually like!

Weekly Farm Challenge 8/24/12 - 8/30/12

This week we received corn, tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, peaches, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce and thai basil.

Couscous took a page out of dinner club and made Bloody Mary appetizers.

 

She also tried her hand at homemade marinara.  Little on the runny side, but not bad!