Me being me, one of the first things I did after we moved was go hunting for people to cook with. Having no luck with Meetup.com, I went back to the good old Cooking Light forums and found an old post for a group in the area that was looking for new members. A couple of emails later, and the arrangements were made for a meeting at the end of September.
Every group has slightly different customs, and of course lots of them try to change things up a little bit with every meeting. The host for this one picked an herb theme. I offered to do an appetizer, on the theory that a) I don't get many chances to make those and b) if I ended up missing the dinner due to baby's arrival, I wouldn't be deleting an essential part of the meal. Once we had all settled on a course, the host sent out randomly selected herbs to be part of each person's dish; mine turned out to be rosemary.
A wonderful, easily available herb. Yay. As the weeks went by, I did some searching. I found plenty of recipes that sounded good, but they tended to have one thing in common: they were really easy. I didn't necessarily hope to knock everyone's socks off with gourmet flair (alas, this is not the Noble Pig), but I was anxious to show that I do like to cook and would be a committed member of the group. So I decided I would do three different dishes; none of them would be difficult, but the variety might be nice.
I did all of my shopping on Saturday; alas, no rosemary at the farmer's market, but I did find some fresh at Stop&Shop. Sunday dawned mercifully cooler than the previous day (late pregnancy does little to enhance one's ability to appreciate unseasonal warmth--I would rather it snowed tomorrow than hit 85 again).
The cashews were first. Five minutes' work, if that, and they smelled fantastic. Next up, the dip. Again, five minutes, and the food processor did nearly all of the work. The bread was the only thing that required anything resembling effort, and that not much. I haven't made bread in ages.
Everything was well received, but the bread made the biggest splash (someone wanted to know where it had been purchased!). In addition we had butternut squash ravioli with sage, brown butter, and hazelnuts; a dish of chicken, mushrooms, and tomatoes with tarragon; an orzo salad with tomatoes and oregano; and cookies made with basil (which was... interesting). I met a bunch of the group and had a very pleasant evening; most of them have kids and one is due any day now, so there was plenty of built-in conversational material there.
I'm not likely to make any meetings arranged for October, but we'll see how things go after that.
Showing posts with label Supper Club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Supper Club. Show all posts
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, June 8, 2009
June Supper Club: Fruit
It seems that we are going to try to keep the club going, though perhaps going down to bi-monthly meetings--at least, we're skipping July, given how busy everyone is at the start of that month.
The theme this month was Fruit, and this was our menu:
The theme this month was Fruit, and this was our menu:
- Me: Appetizer, Watermelon and Kiwi Skewers. I had actually had in mind another recipe I saw, but was then unable to find -- I think it had poppy seeds in the "sauce."
- D: Chicken with apricot. The chicken turned out tender and just a bit sweet, very good. And a green salad.
- F: Potato salad with, um, lots of other things, I remember grape tomatoes, raisins, and olives.
- H: Orange rolls.
- K: Not sure what this was called, it was a sort of eggless bread pudding with pineapple. Very sweet, we all agreed that it could have done duty for dessert. Which she also brought, a tart strewn with blueberries and raspberries and was, I think, the high point of the meal.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
April Supper Club: In Memory
OK, so I am way behind on my blogging. The kids have been passing a cold and a stomach bug around, which cut into the time I had hoped to use for catching up over the weekend.
The first overdue entry has to be our most recent supper club meeting. There was (and is) uncertainty about whether the group will keep meeting, but we all made it to Framingham at least one more time for a dinner in memory of our departed friend Pam, who organized the group and whose laughter and forthright manner added so much joy to our meetings. We made some of her favorite foods. Her daughter and mother joined us, and after dinner passed along a few of Pam's cookbooks. It was a good meal and a good way to remember her, but we are all still very sad.
I made an angel food cake--my first one ever.
It turned out perfectly, but I wish I hadn't had to make it for this occasion.
The first overdue entry has to be our most recent supper club meeting. There was (and is) uncertainty about whether the group will keep meeting, but we all made it to Framingham at least one more time for a dinner in memory of our departed friend Pam, who organized the group and whose laughter and forthright manner added so much joy to our meetings. We made some of her favorite foods. Her daughter and mother joined us, and after dinner passed along a few of Pam's cookbooks. It was a good meal and a good way to remember her, but we are all still very sad.
I made an angel food cake--my first one ever.
It turned out perfectly, but I wish I hadn't had to make it for this occasion.
Monday, March 2, 2009
We'll miss you, Pam
Last Tuesday I found out that Pam C., the founder and organizer of our supper club and a woman I have been pleased to consider a friend, passed away. Saturday we attended her funeral. There's been no discussion as yet of whether we'll continue to meet.
Monday, February 9, 2009
February Supper Club - "Stuffed" - Eclairs
More than once on Sunday I found myself thinking, Bloody French and their bloody batteries de cuisine.
Of course, I am given to understand that most normal French people, with a patisserie on every block, would not dream of making eclairs at home. Leave that to those who are equipped for it, and lunatic foreigners.
But supper club time had rolled around again, and with a theme of "stuffed," my imagination leaped straight to eclairs and refused to move. Maybe because they were a much-loved treat when I was small (though heaven knows what sort of provenance those had--a grocery store, Dunkin Donuts?), or because I was sick of bringing bread to every group meeting, or because I wanted to really stretch myself the way I'm always blathering on about here.
Kahlico from the Cooking Light forum answered my plea for advice with her own blogged experience. Check her out for the recipe I used.
I decided to work backwards through the recipe, since the chocolate glaze I could make while keeping an eye on JJ, but I didn't want to be messing around with water baths and stuff with him underfoot; that would have to happen after everyone else got back from church.
So this was my Sunday:
5:00 Get up, check mail, noodle around online doing everything but writing. Lock me in a room somewhere without internet access and I'd finish the damn novel in a week.
7:00 Go to grocery strore for milk, which I forgot on Saturday. It's a gorgeous warm morning, the kind that makes me wish I still jogged.
7:30 Make pancakes for family.
8:30 Start sandwich bread.
9:00 Start chocolate sauce for the eclair glaze.
9:30 Pack baby into stroller and head back to grocery store for the rest of the groceries.
10:00 Make and bake meatballs for later this week.
10:30 Give baby bath.
11:00 Put bread in the oven. Feed self. Feed baby. Make chocolate glaze (utilizing chocolate sauce).
12:00 Make lunch for L (scrambled egg and toast, by request; she actually ate some of the egg this time).
12:30 Make pastry cream for eclairs. I have a deep fear of custards. I don't know why. This one appears to have come off perfectly, looking somehow both demure and luscious in its water bath, but I have my doubts.
1:00 Make notes for this post while pastry cream cools, D gets JJ to sleep, and leaves for BJs with L. Drink half a Diet Coke.
1:30 Preheat oven.
Somewhere in there I also did some laundry and washed every pan and prep bowl I own--twice. (See bloody French, above.) I also realized that I couldn't find my camera. Of all days!!
And then it was time to make the dough. Which meant facing up to the whole piping business. My store did not have any pastry bags, and my cake decorating kit does not have a big enough tip. I have seen plenty of people on Food Network making pastry bags out of parchment paper. I am an intelligent, well-educated woman, and surely I can do the same. I rolled and taped. Prepared my pans. Reread the recipe six or seven times. Measured everything out.
Made the dough. It looked right, even down to taking three eggs to come together. I got out a spoon, and plopped some of it it into my makeshift bag.
I had been warned about the difficulty of working with the dough, but even quite toastily warm it was tough stuff. My bag stuck to itself with the first spoonful, making a second impossible. Of course, I thought, those people on Food Network have been to chef school, where they probably spend an entire week improving pastry bags, just in case they end up in Worcester, MA, and want to make eclairs. Time to stop putting off that King Arthur Flour order, eh? Plan B was a Ziplock bag with the corner cut off, which worked okay. I didn't get 20 eclairs, but I may have been a bit generous with their proportions. For experimentation, I rounded up a few stray spoonfuls and plopped them on the sheet as if they were cookies.
I did more dishes while they baked. I did the propping the oven door thing, felt sick, and wondered what I would do if these bombed, since I was now out of eggs, not to mention time. Why didn't I do a dry run? (As if I would have had the time.) I checked the oven four or five times; were they puffing, or not? Switched the pans around; a couple of them were already starting to look brown in spots. Was that okay?
It was just about 2:30 when I took them out of the oven. They looked just right--puffy and golden.
And they sank almost immediately.
I try not to make a personal thing out of cooking--sometimes things don't turn out, sometimes people don't like your best efforts, and it's not that big a deal. It's just a meal. But I still felt kind of depressed. The good thing is that a) I'm pretty sure what I did wrong and b) the mistake was not due to me being distracted by doing too many things at once, which is where I normally screw things up. I think I made them a tad too large, and should have let them cook a couple of extra minutes (see, if I had done that dry run, I would have known that).
At 3 I started assembly of those I could salvage, which was about half of them, and did some dishes just for a change of pace. I still had the pastry cream, which was pretty darn good all by itself. This is why you should always have a pound cake in the freezer, I told myself.
In the event, due to a nasty bout of pneumonia for P, only three of us came to dinner, so my few straggly eclairs and the leftover cream were a plentiful dessert. K's bread didn't turn out, either, so I guess it was just one of those nights that will occasionally befall any group. We had lasagna rolls and salad at D's house, chatted for a few hours, and called it a night.
Next month we're probably going to do a sort of Irish thing again. Hoping that all of the bad luck got out this time around!
Of course, I am given to understand that most normal French people, with a patisserie on every block, would not dream of making eclairs at home. Leave that to those who are equipped for it, and lunatic foreigners.
But supper club time had rolled around again, and with a theme of "stuffed," my imagination leaped straight to eclairs and refused to move. Maybe because they were a much-loved treat when I was small (though heaven knows what sort of provenance those had--a grocery store, Dunkin Donuts?), or because I was sick of bringing bread to every group meeting, or because I wanted to really stretch myself the way I'm always blathering on about here.
Kahlico from the Cooking Light forum answered my plea for advice with her own blogged experience. Check her out for the recipe I used.
I decided to work backwards through the recipe, since the chocolate glaze I could make while keeping an eye on JJ, but I didn't want to be messing around with water baths and stuff with him underfoot; that would have to happen after everyone else got back from church.
So this was my Sunday:
5:00 Get up, check mail, noodle around online doing everything but writing. Lock me in a room somewhere without internet access and I'd finish the damn novel in a week.
7:00 Go to grocery strore for milk, which I forgot on Saturday. It's a gorgeous warm morning, the kind that makes me wish I still jogged.
7:30 Make pancakes for family.
8:30 Start sandwich bread.
9:00 Start chocolate sauce for the eclair glaze.
9:30 Pack baby into stroller and head back to grocery store for the rest of the groceries.
10:00 Make and bake meatballs for later this week.
10:30 Give baby bath.
11:00 Put bread in the oven. Feed self. Feed baby. Make chocolate glaze (utilizing chocolate sauce).
12:00 Make lunch for L (scrambled egg and toast, by request; she actually ate some of the egg this time).
12:30 Make pastry cream for eclairs. I have a deep fear of custards. I don't know why. This one appears to have come off perfectly, looking somehow both demure and luscious in its water bath, but I have my doubts.
1:00 Make notes for this post while pastry cream cools, D gets JJ to sleep, and leaves for BJs with L. Drink half a Diet Coke.
1:30 Preheat oven.
Somewhere in there I also did some laundry and washed every pan and prep bowl I own--twice. (See bloody French, above.) I also realized that I couldn't find my camera. Of all days!!
And then it was time to make the dough. Which meant facing up to the whole piping business. My store did not have any pastry bags, and my cake decorating kit does not have a big enough tip. I have seen plenty of people on Food Network making pastry bags out of parchment paper. I am an intelligent, well-educated woman, and surely I can do the same. I rolled and taped. Prepared my pans. Reread the recipe six or seven times. Measured everything out.
Made the dough. It looked right, even down to taking three eggs to come together. I got out a spoon, and plopped some of it it into my makeshift bag.
I had been warned about the difficulty of working with the dough, but even quite toastily warm it was tough stuff. My bag stuck to itself with the first spoonful, making a second impossible. Of course, I thought, those people on Food Network have been to chef school, where they probably spend an entire week improving pastry bags, just in case they end up in Worcester, MA, and want to make eclairs. Time to stop putting off that King Arthur Flour order, eh? Plan B was a Ziplock bag with the corner cut off, which worked okay. I didn't get 20 eclairs, but I may have been a bit generous with their proportions. For experimentation, I rounded up a few stray spoonfuls and plopped them on the sheet as if they were cookies.
I did more dishes while they baked. I did the propping the oven door thing, felt sick, and wondered what I would do if these bombed, since I was now out of eggs, not to mention time. Why didn't I do a dry run? (As if I would have had the time.) I checked the oven four or five times; were they puffing, or not? Switched the pans around; a couple of them were already starting to look brown in spots. Was that okay?
It was just about 2:30 when I took them out of the oven. They looked just right--puffy and golden.
And they sank almost immediately.
I try not to make a personal thing out of cooking--sometimes things don't turn out, sometimes people don't like your best efforts, and it's not that big a deal. It's just a meal. But I still felt kind of depressed. The good thing is that a) I'm pretty sure what I did wrong and b) the mistake was not due to me being distracted by doing too many things at once, which is where I normally screw things up. I think I made them a tad too large, and should have let them cook a couple of extra minutes (see, if I had done that dry run, I would have known that).
At 3 I started assembly of those I could salvage, which was about half of them, and did some dishes just for a change of pace. I still had the pastry cream, which was pretty darn good all by itself. This is why you should always have a pound cake in the freezer, I told myself.
In the event, due to a nasty bout of pneumonia for P, only three of us came to dinner, so my few straggly eclairs and the leftover cream were a plentiful dessert. K's bread didn't turn out, either, so I guess it was just one of those nights that will occasionally befall any group. We had lasagna rolls and salad at D's house, chatted for a few hours, and called it a night.
Next month we're probably going to do a sort of Irish thing again. Hoping that all of the bad luck got out this time around!
Monday, January 5, 2009
January Supper Club - Cheese! Dilled Cheddar Cheese Batter Bread
We were even more slapdash than usual this month, the theme being sent out on Friday before we met on Sunday. I dithered for a while and said what the heck, I'll make some bread. I must have gotten this off the Cooking Light bulletin boards, but I didn't note down who posted it there.
I thought that, being a batter, this would be easy to make, but it turned out to have a few problems in the assembly. The first is that there's a typo in the recipe -- the total amount of flour called for in the instructions is more than specified in the ingredient list. I went with the higher number and I think that was the wrong choice, as my dough was quite stiff, not batter-y at all. Second, I didn't have any dill seeds, which I thought I had somewhere, and certainly no fresh dill. I just used a lot of dried dill.
Finally, it took a really long time to rise. I actually thought that I had killed my yeast, a mistake I haven't made in years, but a poke showed that there were teensy tiny air pockets in the dough, so I upped the temperature and it did eventually puff up. Did fine in the oven, too. And the finished product was definitely worth the trouble! I will make this one again, it was quite a hit with the group.
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tablespoons dill seeds, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup canola oil
3 eggs, room temperature, beaten to blend
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 package dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups packed grated sharp cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
Bring first 3 ingredients to simmer in small saucepan; cool to 120°F. Whisk in oil and eggs. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, yeast, salt and 2 cups cheese in large bowl of electric mixer. Add warm liquid mixture and fresh dill; beat 3 minutes. Add remaining 1 1/4 cups flour; beat 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled, about 1 hour 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan. Do not stir batter down. Spoon half of batter into pan; sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups cheese over. Cover with remaining batter; smooth top. Cover and let rise in warm draft-free area until batter reaches top of pan, about 30 minutes.
Bake until bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped, about 45 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool.
Makes 1 loaf.
The rest of the cheesy dinner:
I thought that, being a batter, this would be easy to make, but it turned out to have a few problems in the assembly. The first is that there's a typo in the recipe -- the total amount of flour called for in the instructions is more than specified in the ingredient list. I went with the higher number and I think that was the wrong choice, as my dough was quite stiff, not batter-y at all. Second, I didn't have any dill seeds, which I thought I had somewhere, and certainly no fresh dill. I just used a lot of dried dill.
Finally, it took a really long time to rise. I actually thought that I had killed my yeast, a mistake I haven't made in years, but a poke showed that there were teensy tiny air pockets in the dough, so I upped the temperature and it did eventually puff up. Did fine in the oven, too. And the finished product was definitely worth the trouble! I will make this one again, it was quite a hit with the group.
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tablespoons dill seeds, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup canola oil
3 eggs, room temperature, beaten to blend
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 package dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups packed grated sharp cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
Bring first 3 ingredients to simmer in small saucepan; cool to 120°F. Whisk in oil and eggs. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, yeast, salt and 2 cups cheese in large bowl of electric mixer. Add warm liquid mixture and fresh dill; beat 3 minutes. Add remaining 1 1/4 cups flour; beat 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled, about 1 hour 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan. Do not stir batter down. Spoon half of batter into pan; sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups cheese over. Cover with remaining batter; smooth top. Cover and let rise in warm draft-free area until batter reaches top of pan, about 30 minutes.
Bake until bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped, about 45 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool.
Makes 1 loaf.
The rest of the cheesy dinner:
- D - salad (naturally) - Caesar-type
- K - chicken noodle casserole! with cream of mushroom soup and everything. Also ricotta cookies.
- F - blueberry blintzes
- P - mini-cheesecakes
Mobile Post - Supper Club Ideas
I'm going to use this to keep track of the ideas we've already used, and those we might want to use in the future, and will bump the post up as needed.
Future restaurant suggestions:
111 Chop House
Sole Proprietor
that Italian place that is run by the same people
For future use:
Derby Day
April Fool!
Mother's Day
Starts with __ (Letter)
Spring
German
Polish
Scandinavian
Vietnamese
Ice Cream
Italian (non-Tuscan)
Turkish
non-theme (host picks a main dish)
Movie theme
Herb/Spice theme (a single one, a family, by color...?)
casino night
sleepover
luau
Used (and wow, is my memory bad):
June 09 - Fruit (D's house, and I didn't even realize that we were doing a repeat....)
April 09 - Remembering Pam; meetings go to bimonthly
February 09 - "Stuffed" (D's house)
January 09 - Cheese (K's house)
December 08 - Cookie swap at Framingham Olive Garden
November 08 - "Massachusetts" (H's house)
October 08 - Starts with (first letter of your name)
September 08 - Fruit
August 08 - Stir-Fry
July 08 - Restaurant - Allora Ristorante in Marlboro
June 08 - BBQ/cookout
May 08 - No theme, just a favorite dish
Apr 08 - Eggs
Mar 08 - Green
Feb 08 - Red/pink
Jan 08 - Sandwiches
Dec 07 - Restaurant - Family-style Italian
Nov 07 - Soup night (and a baby shower for me!)
Oct 07 - Pumpkin, squash, or apple
Sep 07 - Back to school (lunchboxes)
Aug 07 - American Cookout
Jul 07 - Restaurant - Thai
Jun 07 - French
May 07 - Indian
Apr 07 - Pizza
Mar 07 - Irish
Feb 07 - Chocolate
Jan 07 - Alpine
Dec 06 - Cookie swap
Nov 06 - Cuban
Oct 06 ? - Greek
Sep 06 - Farmers Market
Aug 06 - Restaurant - Chef Orient (teppanyaki)
July 06? - Crawfish Boil
Jun 06 - Tapas
May 06 - Fish
Apr 06? Baby Shower Tea
Chinese New Year
Wine Tasting
Restaurant - Union Station
Moroccan
Caribbean - my first meeting
It doesn't seem possible that we've been doing this for so long, but I'm pretty sure it was autumn 2005 when I started going.
Future restaurant suggestions:
111 Chop House
Sole Proprietor
that Italian place that is run by the same people
For future use:
Derby Day
April Fool!
Mother's Day
Starts with __ (Letter)
Spring
German
Polish
Scandinavian
Vietnamese
Ice Cream
Italian (non-Tuscan)
Turkish
non-theme (host picks a main dish)
Movie theme
Herb/Spice theme (a single one, a family, by color...?)
casino night
sleepover
luau
Used (and wow, is my memory bad):
June 09 - Fruit (D's house, and I didn't even realize that we were doing a repeat....)
April 09 - Remembering Pam; meetings go to bimonthly
February 09 - "Stuffed" (D's house)
January 09 - Cheese (K's house)
December 08 - Cookie swap at Framingham Olive Garden
November 08 - "Massachusetts" (H's house)
October 08 - Starts with (first letter of your name)
September 08 - Fruit
August 08 - Stir-Fry
July 08 - Restaurant - Allora Ristorante in Marlboro
June 08 - BBQ/cookout
May 08 - No theme, just a favorite dish
Apr 08 - Eggs
Mar 08 - Green
Feb 08 - Red/pink
Jan 08 - Sandwiches
Dec 07 - Restaurant - Family-style Italian
Nov 07 - Soup night (and a baby shower for me!)
Oct 07 - Pumpkin, squash, or apple
Sep 07 - Back to school (lunchboxes)
Aug 07 - American Cookout
Jul 07 - Restaurant - Thai
Jun 07 - French
May 07 - Indian
Apr 07 - Pizza
Mar 07 - Irish
Feb 07 - Chocolate
Jan 07 - Alpine
Dec 06 - Cookie swap
Nov 06 - Cuban
Oct 06 ? - Greek
Sep 06 - Farmers Market
Aug 06 - Restaurant - Chef Orient (teppanyaki)
July 06? - Crawfish Boil
Jun 06 - Tapas
May 06 - Fish
Apr 06? Baby Shower Tea
Chinese New Year
Wine Tasting
Restaurant - Union Station
Moroccan
Caribbean - my first meeting
It doesn't seem possible that we've been doing this for so long, but I'm pretty sure it was autumn 2005 when I started going.
Monday, December 8, 2008
December Supper Club - Cookie Swap - Cranberry-White Chocolate Shortbread
One of our club's longest-standing traditions is that in December we go out for dinner and do a cookie swap, freeing everyone up from having to clean the house (again) to have people over (again) and make a whole meal (again). This year we went to Olive Garden, which I have to admit struck me as a rather peculiar choice, but the food was acceptable (short ribs and tortelloni for me) and since we were there early the place wasn't the usual zoo. L nibbled breadsticks and lettuce and ignored her pizza, JJ sampled two different jars of food and moved from lap to lap once he got restless, and we talked--mainly about the economy and such.
And of course we swapped cookies. I don't have the recipes anyone else, but here's mine, from kraft.com (of all places) via the Cooking Light bulletin boards. I had everything on hand to make them and they looked dead easy, which was a major factor in their selection with the two kids underfoot and very little sleep all weekend due to JJ's cold.
Can you believe that I've never made shortbread of any sort before? These turned out pretty well, I think -- light to the tooth, sweet and chewy with cranberries. I might make them part of my annual repertoire.
And of course we swapped cookies. I don't have the recipes anyone else, but here's mine, from kraft.com (of all places) via the Cooking Light bulletin boards. I had everything on hand to make them and they looked dead easy, which was a major factor in their selection with the two kids underfoot and very little sleep all weekend due to JJ's cold.
2 cups (4 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 cups flour
1 pkg. (6 squares) BAKER'S White Chocolate, chopped
1-1/2 cups dried cranberries
Heat oven to 350°F. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until light and fluffy. Add flour; mix well. Stir in chocolate and cranberries.Drop rounded tablespoons of dough, 2 inches apart, onto baking sheets; flatten slightly.Bake 10 to 14 min. or until lightly browned. Cool 5 min. on baking sheets. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.
Can you believe that I've never made shortbread of any sort before? These turned out pretty well, I think -- light to the tooth, sweet and chewy with cranberries. I might make them part of my annual repertoire.
Monday, November 3, 2008
November Supper Club: Massachusetts-y Foods
For this iteration of the "host picks the theme" plan, our host settled on "foods from Massachusetts" or reasonable facsimiles thereof. It was a later than usual gathering since she has to work on Sundays, and in the newly dark evening we trekked up the Driveway of Doom (she has the steepest one I've ever seen) and settled to... a lot of cranberries. :)
The best thing about the evening? I went three hours and didn't even think once about the election.
- D--Salad with dried cranberries, and cranberry-balsamic vinaigrette.
- H (our hostess)--An ad hoc crock pot meal of pork and dried fruits with spices. I'm actually not sure what the local connection was.
- K--Cranberry Oatmeal Bars
- P--Beans with apples
- R (me)--Maple-glazed Yams with Orange and Cranberries
The best thing about the evening? I went three hours and didn't even think once about the election.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
October Supper Club - Starts with (Letter)
Supper clubs tend to evolve the way they do things over time. For this month, rather than have the whole group try to wrangle out a theme, we decided that whoever was hosting would pick. Looking over our list of ideas, K picked the "starts with (letter)" theme.
For some reason, this one I had a horrible time thinking of something to make. I was given my dish by a friend outside the group while I was communicating my despair over IM. "Too busy to think" seems to have been the tone of the whole weekend for more than one of us, and this was not our most successful dinner; the standard phrase "this is our best one yet" did not get used as it often does (and usually, it's deserved). They can't all be home runs. On the up side, member HK, who has missed a few lately, joined us for this Sunday, and we all had a good time catching up.
6 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
5 medium onions (about 1 pound), coarsely chopped
Bouquet garni: 12 parsley stems, 8 peppercorns, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/4 tsp fennel seed, and 1 bay leaf tied in a double thickness of cheesecloth
3 large red bell peppers (about 1 pound), cored, seeded, and cubed
2-3 small eggplant (about 1 pound), cubed
2-3 medium zucchini (about 1 pound), cubed
5 medium tomatoes (about 1 pound), cored and cut into eighths
Salt
1 lemon
A handful of finely minced fresh parsley
Yields 12-16 servings
For some reason, this one I had a horrible time thinking of something to make. I was given my dish by a friend outside the group while I was communicating my despair over IM. "Too busy to think" seems to have been the tone of the whole weekend for more than one of us, and this was not our most successful dinner; the standard phrase "this is our best one yet" did not get used as it often does (and usually, it's deserved). They can't all be home runs. On the up side, member HK, who has missed a few lately, joined us for this Sunday, and we all had a good time catching up.
- KS - Slow-cooker beef stew
- PC - Cucumber casserole
- HK - Kugel
- RS (me) - Ratatouille
6 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
5 medium onions (about 1 pound), coarsely chopped
Bouquet garni: 12 parsley stems, 8 peppercorns, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/4 tsp fennel seed, and 1 bay leaf tied in a double thickness of cheesecloth
3 large red bell peppers (about 1 pound), cored, seeded, and cubed
2-3 small eggplant (about 1 pound), cubed
2-3 medium zucchini (about 1 pound), cubed
5 medium tomatoes (about 1 pound), cored and cut into eighths
Salt
1 lemon
A handful of finely minced fresh parsley
- In a large, heavy, nonreactive skillet (LHNRS) heat 2 Tbsp of oil over ML heat.Add the onions and bouquet garni and stir to coat with the oil. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender and light golden, 20 minutes. Do not allow them to burn.
- Add the bell peppers, stirring gently to mix, and continue to cook until the mixture is very soft, about 30 more minutes.
- In another LHNRS, heat 2 Tbsp of oil over ML heat. Add the eggplant and stir to coat. Cook, covered, until soft, stirring from time to time to keep the eggplant from sticking to the pan, about 20 minutes.
- In another LHNRS, heat 2 Tbsp of oil over ML heat. Add the zucchini and stir to coat. Cook, covered, until soft, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, about 20 minutes.
- Add the eggplant to the onion and bell pepper mixture. Cook, covered, over low heat for another 15 minutes.
- Gently spoon all of the vegetables into a colander set over a nonreactive saucepan or skillet to collect the liquid. Spoon the vegetables into a large bowl. Place the pan of liquid over high heat and reduce until thick and syrupy, 5-10 minutes. Pour over vegetables and stir to blend. Season wiht salt to taste. Cover and refrigerate 24 hours.
- To serve, remove the ratatouille from the refrigerator about 15 minutes before serving. Adjust the seasoning. Squeeze half the lemon over the top and sprinkle with parsley.
Yields 12-16 servings
Friday, September 5, 2008
September Supper Club: Fruit
A bit of an odd theme perhaps, but I was willing to go with the flow. There were only three of this month, and we met at P's little condo and discussed (among other things) the way the group has changed over the four years (!) of its existence, and people we know who might be interested in joining. These days we top out at five attendees, and there's usually one who can't make it; we could use a few more people to reinvogorate the group. We also agreed that we need to get a little better about planning, as things have been very last-minute for a while now.
For all that, we had a pretty good menu. I went a little overboard and did three recipes, taking advantage of JJ's long Sunday morning nap and the cooler weather to get back into my kitchen.
For all that, we had a pretty good menu. I went a little overboard and did three recipes, taking advantage of JJ's long Sunday morning nap and the cooler weather to get back into my kitchen.
- Eggplant and fig caponata with pita chips (me)
- Chicken cacciatore (P, I don't know what recipe)
- Bulgur Pilaf with Dried Apricots (P)
- Wild Rice Dressing (me)
- Peach crisp and vanilla ice cream (K)
- Mini Fruit and Sunflower Loaves (me)
Monday, June 2, 2008
June Supper Club: Cookout
"All men are a pain in the ass." So declared my friend K halfway through the evening, to much giggling. It was a small group of us last night, and we ended up talking about the things we always talk about -- work (stressing), kids (worrying), the men in our lives (exasperating). We ate burgers and grilled sausages, three kinds of salad, and drank glass after glass of zin or lemonade as our tastes dictated while D's daughters and husband buzzed around.
A fun and relaxing end to a busy weekend. I had gone out Saturday morning to give blood for the first time in a while, and in the afternoon we braved threatening skies and made our way out to what we call The Citadel to seek out summer wardrobes for the kids. While we were at Target I heard rain drumming on the roof, a brief downpour that had ended by the time we left. I threw together a supper of Chicken, Mushroom, and Cheese Quesadillas,* and JJ got his first cereal! He seemed to like it okay, though the spoon gave him some trouble.
Bright and early Sunday morning I caved in and joined Facebook, since it seems like everyone I know has already done so. Despite working in high tech, I have generally regarded such things with suspicion. Part of this is because it would now be possible for me to spend all day every day reading/blogging/commenting elsewhere online about my job rather than actually doing my job, and the potential threat to my precious downtime is even greater. We stopped watching TV because it was interfering with real life, after all.
Later that morning our friend B. arrived, child in tow, from CT to give me a birthday present: 35 pieces of chocolate. (I got a teeny bit of ragging on Sunday night about the "about me" box on this blog, but I really am a ludicrously lucky woman--my family and my friends are some of the best people out there.) In the afternoon, I thumbed my nose at the energy crisis, turned on the A/C and did some baking--Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies, some of which need to be given as gifts to neighbors who saved my butt after locking my keys in the car last week. You have to love a recipe that starts with a pound of butter and two pounds of chocolate.
I also made the lemon cake I brought to our cookout. (It gave me an excuse to finally go out and buy eight-inch cake pans.) Zesting and juicing five lemons was the only difficult bit of the business, and the end result was, I thought, pretty darn good--distinctly lemon-flavored without biting your head off, the partial icing added sweetness without overwhelming. I think I'm going to make this one again when my mother visits next, since she loves lemon.
On the way home from Marlboro I found myself thinking about the funk I've been in lately, how overwhelmed I've been feeling by day to day life, and decided that it probably wouldn't hurt to try thinking a little more positively (it would be easier, my cynical side grumbled back, if I were getting a little more sleep).
"Cheer up," the 107.9 morning DJ told us all this morning. "We'll find an alternate fuel. Your house will sell. The kids won't get arrested."
And on that thought, time to get the week underway!
* Do they need to include "cheese" in the name? I always thought quesadilla must be related to queso.
A fun and relaxing end to a busy weekend. I had gone out Saturday morning to give blood for the first time in a while, and in the afternoon we braved threatening skies and made our way out to what we call The Citadel to seek out summer wardrobes for the kids. While we were at Target I heard rain drumming on the roof, a brief downpour that had ended by the time we left. I threw together a supper of Chicken, Mushroom, and Cheese Quesadillas,* and JJ got his first cereal! He seemed to like it okay, though the spoon gave him some trouble.
Bright and early Sunday morning I caved in and joined Facebook, since it seems like everyone I know has already done so. Despite working in high tech, I have generally regarded such things with suspicion. Part of this is because it would now be possible for me to spend all day every day reading/blogging/commenting elsewhere online about my job rather than actually doing my job, and the potential threat to my precious downtime is even greater. We stopped watching TV because it was interfering with real life, after all.
Later that morning our friend B. arrived, child in tow, from CT to give me a birthday present: 35 pieces of chocolate. (I got a teeny bit of ragging on Sunday night about the "about me" box on this blog, but I really am a ludicrously lucky woman--my family and my friends are some of the best people out there.) In the afternoon, I thumbed my nose at the energy crisis, turned on the A/C and did some baking--Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies, some of which need to be given as gifts to neighbors who saved my butt after locking my keys in the car last week. You have to love a recipe that starts with a pound of butter and two pounds of chocolate.
I also made the lemon cake I brought to our cookout. (It gave me an excuse to finally go out and buy eight-inch cake pans.) Zesting and juicing five lemons was the only difficult bit of the business, and the end result was, I thought, pretty darn good--distinctly lemon-flavored without biting your head off, the partial icing added sweetness without overwhelming. I think I'm going to make this one again when my mother visits next, since she loves lemon.
On the way home from Marlboro I found myself thinking about the funk I've been in lately, how overwhelmed I've been feeling by day to day life, and decided that it probably wouldn't hurt to try thinking a little more positively (it would be easier, my cynical side grumbled back, if I were getting a little more sleep).
"Cheer up," the 107.9 morning DJ told us all this morning. "We'll find an alternate fuel. Your house will sell. The kids won't get arrested."
And on that thought, time to get the week underway!
* Do they need to include "cheese" in the name? I always thought quesadilla must be related to queso.
Monday, April 7, 2008
April Supper Club - Eggs
It was a smaller group than usual, but a convivial evening as always. The conversation ranged over countless topics, but it was mostly families, jobs, and food.
The menu:
F--Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
K--Potato and onion frittata
P--Asparagus bake with hard-boiled eggs
And for me... as you may recall, in March we tried a new sort of planning, which involved random drawing of who did which course; I drew "main." We had already picked eggs as a theme, perhaps a little giddy with sangria or longing for spring. For weeks all I could think of were things that either didn't travel well (souffles) or were so egg-heavy that they wouldn't give much opportunity for everyone else's dishes to shine.
The answer arrived the day before Easter. The April issue of Saveur has an article on Ethiopia, which included a recipe for a chicken stew called doro wat, which includes hard-boiled eggs. Perfect!
I have subscribed for years, but never actually cooked from this magazine. They are the National Geographic of food lit: slim, gorgeously photographed, well-written, sturdily immune to fads, and worth keeping indefinitely. When Dave tried the other night to convince me that I am in fact a "foodie," he pointed to my shelf of back issues as evidence. I have never minded the fact that most of the actual recipes they publish don't strike a chord with me; I treasure the magazine as an island of quality writing in a field where it increasingly seems that advertisers have more to say than the publishers.
Here is their doro wat recipe:
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 large yellow onions, coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp berbere, plus more to taste
4 chicken legs, skinned and divided into drumsticks and thighs
Kosher salt to taste
4 whole hard-boiled eggs
The recipe they included in the magazine for the spice mixture called berbere was a bit too complicated for me, calling for a spice grinder and whole versions of many spices I already have in ground form, so I went with one I found online instead. I used less of the red pepper flakes than it calls for, to be on the safe side of the group's tongues. I have quite a bit left over, so I think I will make this again some time soon.
I also made the injera (flatbread) recipe they included in the article, but I can't say it turned out all that great, though perhaps I just need practice. It was certainly easy to make.
Next month I will be traveling, and everyone will just bring one of their favorite dishes. I'll be sorry to miss it!
The menu:
F--Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
K--Potato and onion frittata
P--Asparagus bake with hard-boiled eggs
And for me... as you may recall, in March we tried a new sort of planning, which involved random drawing of who did which course; I drew "main." We had already picked eggs as a theme, perhaps a little giddy with sangria or longing for spring. For weeks all I could think of were things that either didn't travel well (souffles) or were so egg-heavy that they wouldn't give much opportunity for everyone else's dishes to shine.
The answer arrived the day before Easter. The April issue of Saveur has an article on Ethiopia, which included a recipe for a chicken stew called doro wat, which includes hard-boiled eggs. Perfect!
I have subscribed for years, but never actually cooked from this magazine. They are the National Geographic of food lit: slim, gorgeously photographed, well-written, sturdily immune to fads, and worth keeping indefinitely. When Dave tried the other night to convince me that I am in fact a "foodie," he pointed to my shelf of back issues as evidence. I have never minded the fact that most of the actual recipes they publish don't strike a chord with me; I treasure the magazine as an island of quality writing in a field where it increasingly seems that advertisers have more to say than the publishers.
Here is their doro wat recipe:
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 large yellow onions, coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp berbere, plus more to taste
4 chicken legs, skinned and divided into drumsticks and thighs
Kosher salt to taste
4 whole hard-boiled eggs
- Heat butter in a large, straight-sided skillet over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until deeply caramelized, about 25 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, until softened, 6-8 minutes. Add berbere and 2 c water; stir well. Season the chicken with salt; nestle the pieces in the skillet. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, turning occasionally until the chicken is cooked through, about 40 minutes.
- Uncover skillet and raise heat to medium-high; simmer to reduce the liquid to a thick gravy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs; stir to warm through. Taste and season with more salt and berbere if necessary.
The recipe they included in the magazine for the spice mixture called berbere was a bit too complicated for me, calling for a spice grinder and whole versions of many spices I already have in ground form, so I went with one I found online instead. I used less of the red pepper flakes than it calls for, to be on the safe side of the group's tongues. I have quite a bit left over, so I think I will make this again some time soon.I also made the injera (flatbread) recipe they included in the article, but I can't say it turned out all that great, though perhaps I just need practice. It was certainly easy to make.
Next month I will be traveling, and everyone will just bring one of their favorite dishes. I'll be sorry to miss it!
Monday, March 10, 2008
March Supper Club - "Green"
Our supper club met Sunday, March 9 in Shrewsbury, with five of us attending. After the rain on Saturday, the weather had turned clear and cold, with a biting wind. As usual, we put together a good, solid meal. I thought the salad was the standout, but maybe that's because I hardly ever eat salad at home.
Since I don't know how people will feel about having their names here, I'll stick to initials.
April's theme will be "eggs." We tried something new this time, with each member randomly pulling a course to do (instead of figuring it out as we go along). I drew "main," which may be a challenge, since we're not meeting at my place, and none of the egg dishes I can think of so far travel well. But, that was the whole idea of the drawing; I know I tend to get into a bit of a mental rut and default to baking something, so this should be fun.
Since I don't know how people will feel about having their names here, I'll stick to initials.
- D. - Green salad with dried cranberries and sunflower seeds
- H. - Spinach ravioli
- K. - Broccoli-cheese casserole
- P. - Risotto with peas and green peppers
- R. (me) - Chocolate-Mint Bars, White Sangria, and Mummy's Brown Soda Bread
April's theme will be "eggs." We tried something new this time, with each member randomly pulling a course to do (instead of figuring it out as we go along). I drew "main," which may be a challenge, since we're not meeting at my place, and none of the egg dishes I can think of so far travel well. But, that was the whole idea of the drawing; I know I tend to get into a bit of a mental rut and default to baking something, so this should be fun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)