December Dinner Recap

After a year of appealing appetizers, esculant entrees, scrumptious sides and delectable desserts, we treat ourselves to a night of relaxation.  This year we pampered ourselves with a night of tapas, wine and in-home massages.

Grapes graciously offered to be the hostess of our December "outing" dinner club.
She whipped up a wicked white bean dip.

and "cin"fully good Cinnamon Cream Cheese squares.

Paprika tempted our taste buds with a trio of dips:  garlic-garlic dip, spinach and herb dip and spicy four pepper dip served with beer bread.

We toasted the evening with a tantalizing tempranillo and smooth shiraz.



















Couscous awoke our appetites with an artichoke and roasted red pepper dip

as well as a festive goat cheese rolled in pistachios and cranberries

and oh so yummy orange spiced pecan mix.

Saucy and her out-of-town guest, Salsa, arrived late after some unexpected car trouble,

with Saucy's picturesque personal pizzas; red sauce and white sauce;

and Salsa supplied some scrumptious butter cookies

After we all had at a turn at massages and were feeling relaxed and stress free,

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[Back to our regularly scheduled blog]

Grapes introduced us to a new grab bag exchange game in which we traded our gifts based on the instruction slips we drew.

It was tons of fun and only Salsa wound up with her original gift, but Saucy was her personal shopper, so she was surprised by it anyways AND the Polish pottery dish is perfect for her Polish heritage!!

Paprika procured a bottle of Pinot and a package of honey lotion and a honey candle.

Grapes grabbed a gift of a bamboo set of utensils and a gingham insulated tote

Saucy scored a sassy wine carrier and snowmen glasses

and Couscous collected a classy scarf, snowman slate decor and much needed self-therapy notes! (though, these WILL be shared with ALL dinner club members!)

Another fantastic year of culinary adventures behind us.  What baked ideas will we have for 2014? Astonishing appetizers? Eccentric entrees?  Strange sides? Diverse desserts?  Check back with us in February and see!!!

DECEMBER DINNER CLUB

Another year wraps up after a whirl-wind world tour of France, Puerto Rico, Japan and Italy.  We picked recipes from the berry and pumpkin patches and after a couple of bottles of wine we usually got a little nuts with corny jokes and cheesy blog posts. So now we pack up our pots, pans and muffin tins for a dinner of tapas and wine and treat ourselves to a night of massages and relaxation!!

November Dinner Recap

Couscous hosted one of the first dinner clubs based on cookware!

The infamous MUFFIN TIN!!!

The girls baked up some great dishes for this challenge!

Grapes started us off with Popovers.  But, unless you can eat them inside the oven, the lovely popover will fall. Nonetheless they were still buttery and tasty!!

Worried that her popovers would POP, Grapes made a back-up appetizer of crescent filled mushroom and gouda cheese minis!

No one could find a muffin based wine and while we contemplated drinking wine shooters out of the muffin tins themselves, we quickly nixed that idea!

Instead Grapes shared a meritage by Clos La Chance

Couscous' main course was Lasagna cups made with wonton wrappers, of all things!!  Who would have thought:  Italian + Asian = two great cuisines come together!

Paprika's sides (yes, she couldn't stop at just one!!) mac and cheese cups (all time favorite)!! and......

Green bean casserole!!  Mini versions made with pie crusts and filled with traditional green beans, mushroom and crispy onions!!

Hmmm, great Thanksgiving idea!!

Paprika also provided a recommended red blend, a Murray Curvee

Saucy provided the perfect ending to the evening with chocolate chip lava cookies, served with frozen yogurt.  Oh yeah, they were as good as they sound!

My pictures didn't do this dessert justice, so here's the professional version:

Next month we treat ourselves to some de-stressing before the mad rush of the holiday season!!

NOVEMBER DINNER CLUB W.I.T.

Upcoming Dinner:  November

Hostess:  Couscous

Theme:  Everything made in a Muffin Tin

October Dinner Recap

What time is it??  It's Pumpkin Time!!

Unfortunately Grapes couldn't join us as she wasn't feeling well

But we toasted her accordingly......JUST KIDDIN!

Saucy set a festive autumn table

With gourmet gifts (pumpkin malt balls and truffle) and gourds!

Couscous started dinner off with a Warm Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Dip served with Bagel Chips.  The leeks in this dish really made it!

Paprika had some extra squash (acorn and a Japanese kabocha) that she broiled with apples and cinnamon for a substitute side dish.  Okay, so it's not pumpkin, but they are in the squash family and it was a last minute addition and was yummy!

Saucy's entree was homemade pumpkin pasta (see dinner club Feb 2012 for her first foray into pasta making), with sage butter.  Homemade pasta beats out store-bought every time!  Thanks for all the effort Saucy and thanks also go out to her helper "Flour".

Couscous brought a Malbec (yes, there is nothing pumpkin about this one, get over it).

Paprika perfected a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert (her 1st cheesecake ever! and barely a crack in it!)  And she got a couple bicep curls in delivering it to the table!  Who needs a pumpkin pie when you have this scrumptous dessert?

We had balls of fun at dinner club!!  (Yes, after a couple of bottles of wine our inner teenage boys came out!)!!

Watch for us next month as we travel to "Drury Lane"!