Culinary Fool

9th Dinner Club Meeting – “Picnic” Menu & Recipes

31-Jan-2005

June 2004

It’s June and our thoughts turn to the outdoors, specifically eating ourdoors. With that in mind, K crossed her fingers that the weather would be good and selected "Picnic" as the theme for this meeting. We had a little discussion after she picked the topic about what kind of picnic that was going to be – a big family get together and eat fried chicken sort of picnic or a romantic take a date eat some food drink some wine flirt a lot type of picnic. She chose "b"!

Here’s the menu:

Appetizer: Chilled Cream of Corn Soup with White Truffle Oil
Cocktail: Pimm’s Cup (recipe below)
Main: Chicken Gorgonzola Sandwich (recipe below)
Salad: Avocado, Papaya and Rocket Salad combined with Mango and Avocado Salad
Side: Lemon-Marinated Fennel with Feta
Dessert: Summer Fruit with Wine and Mint and Nut Lace Cookies (from The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Cookies, Biscuits & Bars (Cook’s Encyclopedias), Hilaire Walden)

Pimm’s Cup

1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) Pimm’s No. 1 Cup
1 cucumber slice
1 orange slice
A 2- to 3-inch strip of lemon zest
Chilled ginger ale or club soda
1 mint sprig

In a tall glass filled with ice cubes combine the Pimm’s, the cucumber, the orange and the zest, pour in enough ginger ale or club soda to fill the glass, and stir the drink well. Garnish the drink with the mint.

Chicken Gorgonzola Sandwich

Barbecued chicken breasts (marinated in Johnny’s Garlic Marinade)
Italian Gorgonzola Cheese (semi soft)
Cream Cheese
Olive oil
Fresh thyme
Lettuce
Bread

Mix gorgonzola cheese with small amount of cream cheese and olive oil until it makes a spreadable mixture. Add fresh thyme. Slice bread in half long way and spread cheese mixture on bread. Add cooled chicken sliced in half, and lettuce. Cut into slices.

Meeting Summary

9th Dinner Club Meeting – “Picnic” Summary

31-Jan-2005

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

Starbucks Quotes

31-Jan-2005

Starbucks has started putting quotes on their cups. I’m not sure why because normally they would be covered by the little sleeve. Maybe they think fewer people will want the sleeve so they can read the quote and that would reduce their costs? Anyway, here’s the quote I got yesterday:

in the abstract art of cooking,

ingredients trump appliances,

passion supersedes expertise,

creativity triumphs over technique,

spontaneity inspires invention,

and wine makes even the worst culinary disaster taste delicious.

Bob Blumer, Creator/host of The Surreal Gourmet

His other car is a Toastermobile.

Changes….

29-Jan-2005

Last night we had a dinner club meeting. And while I won’t be officially posting the information until February 28th (I’ll be all caught up with the history by then) I have to mention that last night was V’s last night with the group.

I am so sad. This is our first "loss" and V is going to really be missed. Unfortunately, she needs to devote herself to her studies for her continuing education and certifications and is pretty much wiping out all social obligations in her life. We understand but it doesn’t mean that we have to like it!

I had hoped (unrealistically, I know) that our group could remain intact for years. I imagined that years from now we’d all talk about the early days and remember our evolution and our journey through the ups and downs of friendships.

As I mentioned in the early entry about forming the club and choosing members, when we started we were a loosely associated group of friends/acquaintances. But over the last two years we’ve shared in the celebrations and tribulations of each other’s lives and become fast friends. V will always be part of us but it’s hard to imagine a meeting without her.

And that also brings us to another challenge. I’ve discussed our difficulty in finding people who were the right fit for the group. While we have some ideas about who we might bring in, we have a new issue. Now a new person will need to join an established group – something that’s not always easy. Although we will all welcome whoever it ends up being, just the fact that we have this history will be something that will just sort of be there until the new person has been around for a few meetings and has built a new shared history with us. I hope it will all go smoothly but I worry that it will be hard for someone to fit into the rhythm we’ve established. I’m sure I’m making something out of nothing but I think it’s good that the group is aware so that we ensure we make our club a welcome refuge for the new person, as it’s been for us.

All Cookbooks by Title

28-Jan-2005

List of all my cookbooks, as of June 2005, listed in alphabetical order. I’ve been trying to be good but I’m up to 97!

Title, Author

All Cookbooks by Author

28-Jan-2005

This is a list of all my cookbooks by author, however it’s not in the traditional manner by last name but by first. I just thought it was too much work to convert them to a more traditional method, since this way gets the point across – you can still see groupings from one author.

Author, Title