Upcoming Dinner: April
Hostess: Grapes
Ingredient: Cheese
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Lately, we've all felt like we've been Livin La Vida Loca (Living the Crazy Life)!
But this was a month of good news!
From Papa T's release from the hospital!
To a long awaited sale of a home!
To an engagement!
Some much deserved good news all the way around!!! So now onto our Caribbean dinner! Puerto Rican presented a bit of a challenge for our vegetarian friendly, seafood allergy group, BUT, as always we prevailed!! Wepa!!!
Couscous started us off with a Puerto Rican appetizer of Plantain chips with Black Bean, Coconut and Sweet Potato Salsa. She didn't wuss out and included a whole jalapeno! (She donned a Hazmet suit to chop the little sucker, but it was worth it!)
Since PR isn't known for it's wines, Couscous and Grapes looked high and low for Puerto Rican beer; sacrificing many a night at the local beer establishments searching for Medalla Light or Silver Key, but alas they could not find one without traveling to the island itself - and don't think they didn't think about it!!!
But,instead they collaborated to bring a dangerously tasty Puerto Rican Rum Punch!
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| Extra Rum Punch Soaked Pineapple!!! |
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| Puerto Rican Rum Punch |
But be careful Saucy (how do you think she got her name???), too much rum punch leads to funny Puerto Rican hat wearing!
Before too much punch was poured, Saucy presented her entree of Mofongo (fried mashed plantains and garlic crushed in a pilón [wooden mortar and pestle]) . She made a spicy tomato sauce with two different toppings for our finicky crowd to top the mofongo: Shredded pork and shrimp! Complete with fried plantains on the side!
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| With Pork |
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| Or Shrimp |
Grapes' gastronomic gift was Puerto-Rican style Green rice which was rice combined with green tomatillos, green jalapenos, and green cilantro. Makes plain rice green with envy!!
Paprika completed our Caribbean travels with Arroz con Dulce (Candied Coconut Rice), a time-intensive dessert, similar to rice pudding made with coconut milk, raisins, cloves, ginger and cinnamon. Glad she took the time to make it, as it was deliciosa!!
Catch us next month to see what "gouda" dishes we create for dinner club!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Bonjour!!
So, for our French soiree did we have French Fries? NO! French Toast? NO! Mes Amis channeled their inner Julia Child and....Voila!
Grapes started us off with the ultimate French hors d'ouevre.....Escargot!!! She searched high and low (not as low as her frozen pond, thank goodness), and finally found some in Pittsburgh's Strip District (not exactly the French capital of the East Coast, but it works for us!)
Heck if you put garlic and butter on anything and it tastes good, right? Seriously, the snails surprised us all and were actually pretty tasty!! Bon appetit!
Heck if you put garlic and butter on anything and it tastes good, right? Seriously, the snails surprised us all and were actually pretty tasty!! Bon appetit!
She brought a Naked Merlot to accompany those risque mollusks!!
Paprika also brought an hors d'ouevre to sample: tapenade. Wait, is that French? Why, yes it is! It is a Provencal olive spread on a french baguette. Even the olive haters liked it!!
Grapes other hors d'ouevre was a French onion and gruyere tart! Zut Alors!!!
Think french onion soup without the broth. We all had to stop ourselves from eating seconds, thirds and fourths...
Couscous' reason for proposing the French theme was to take on the challenge of making crepes from scratch and found they weren't nearly as complicated as they seemed! Her entree was a savory mushroom, spinach and goat cheese crepe. She also had extra crepes available to go for fruit filled breakfast the next morning!
Paprika's side dish was a delectable white-wine-smashed potatoes which consists of yukon gold potatoes and leeks cooked in white wine - C'est delicieux! These will be making a repeat appearance at many of our holiday feasts!!
Her vin selection was a smooth French blend - Beaujolais-Villages by DuBeuf
Saucy brought some additional French wines which we didn't get to (we will soon though!), but wanted to highlight! Pinot Evil (note the Speak, See and Hear no Evil label LOL!) and Les Abilles Blanc; which part of the proceeds go to Bee Helpful which raises money to help with research to fight colony collapse disorder!
Her dessert was profiterole - french cream puffs! Filled with chocolate and plain whip cream rather than ice cream (yeah, you try filling them suckers with ice cream!), topped with drizzled chocolate or honey!
It was je ne sais quoi!
Merci, mes amis!! The evening was C'est Magnifique!
Au Revoir!!!
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Happy New Year!!
We embark on another year of challenging our culinary creativity!! See if we can stump our dinner-mates this year with interesting ingredients, tricky themes and wild and wacky "whatever your want" menus!
Paprika got us off to a "nutrageous" start for January's dinner club with her choice ingredient: Peanuts or Peanut Butter. Fortunately we are all nut-free, well, as far as allergies are concerned anyway. This is not a statement on our mental health.
Saucy kicked us off with dried figs stuffed with creamy peanut butter. A family holiday tradition that is soon to be a new favorite on all our holiday tables! (Will try it with Chunky PB too!)
She paired this nicely with a white wine from New York's Finger Lakes region. For a northeast wine, it was surprisingly not too sweet.
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| Paprika's Fun Trivet |
Paprika and Couscous should have communicated earlier to prevent duplication, as they both prepared Asian noodles with vegetables and peanut sauce. OOPS! Though it was "twice as nice" and was interesting to compare the dishes side by side. Both were equally good and different from each other!
Couscous' noodle dish was Udon noodles with bok choy, carrots and snow peas with a MILD peanut sauce.
Upon recommendation from JAW, she brought a Chateau Ste. Michelle, Gewürztraminer which also wasn't too sweet for our palates.
Paprika's noodle dish consisted of poolee rice flour noodles with carrots, red pepper, green onions, water chestnuts, tofu and chopped peanuts also with a peanut sauce that was SPICY! (she graciously had the sauce on the side for the wimpy, wimpy, wimpy Couscous)
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| "LUG LUG" ??? |
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| HOT! HOT! HOT! |
Grapes completed the nutty night with a scrumptions Peanut Butter Pound Cake with Peanut Butter glaze and Chocolate drizzle. Thankfully she persevered through not 1, not 2, but 3 cakes to bring us this beauty. Though we would have devoured this in whatever form it came to us!
Check in next month when we transport ourselves to Paris! Vin, Fromage, Pain..I don't see mes amis having any problèmes with this theme!!
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