9th Dinner Club Meeting – “Picnic” Summary

June 2004

Well, I have to admit this may not be one of my best summaries.  It seems I was a little under the weather for this meeting.  I can’t remember exactly what I was celebrating the night before but I woke up feeling not quite as happy as I’d been the previous night. :-(  Unfortunately, the feeling stayed with me most of the day and I had to drag my sorry self to the dinner that night.  I took only a few pictures – and they weren’t all that great.  I hate that!

I do remember that although we had hoped to picnic outside, it was too cool so we made our little picnic on the floor of K’s living room.  We were having a picnic one way or the other!

The Pimm’s Cup was very light and refreshing and would be especially perfect on a warm summer day.  R really outdid herself, however, with the Chilled Cream of Corn Soup.  It was sooooo good!  And she had done a real picnic preparation in that she brought it in a big thermos and then poured servings into espresso cups and topped them with the hint of truffle oil.  I cannot describe how wonderful this soup was! 

We then served everything but the dessert by placing it on our picnic blanket.  The Chicken sandwich was very tasty – we especially liked the marinade that K used on the chicken.  M had sort of combined two salads with similar ingredients into one lovely (divided) Tupperware container.  Both were composed salads made from lots of sliced fruit, avocado and various condiments so we all just mixed and matched to our hearts’ content! The Fennel with Feta was a nice crisp addition to the lineup, and since I love feta cheese I was very happy!

We finished with the Mixed Fruit and cookies.  I thought the fruit was okay but nothing special – not like I had imagined from reading the recipe.  I have so many other ways to lightly dress fruit that I don’t think I’d do it this way again.  The cookies, however, were heaven!  Lacy, slightly crispy and a little chewy with loads of almond flavor (the nut) and a hint of caramel.  Luckily the recipe only makes about 1 1/2 dozen – otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to stop eating them!

Menu and Recipes