The Latest and Greatest

Food Genre: Spanish
Hostest with the Mostest: Amy
Month: April
Menu: Salmon Ceviche, Gazpacho, Paella, and Sangria

First I have to say that I really, really love my cooking club. It is inevitable that something will not go as planned or hoped for, but we have so much fun cooking, eating, and talking. These girls are just fabulous.

Jonah was along for the ride. 

One of the items on the menu was ceviche, which is fish or shrimp that is marinated in lime juice and seasoning. And that's pretty much all you do! I just found a recipe for Chilean ceviche, which calls for sea bass, grapefruit, and cilantro! I think you can pretty much make it your own, as long as you have a citrus to "cook" the fish.

Lovely salmon.

All cut up and ready for it's marinade.

Also on the menu, Gazpacho. A super-fresh, chilled, tomato-based soup which begins with...bread! 

Cubed bread with fresh garlic being added.

Tomato, olive oil, bell peppers, onion, avacado.

Casey taught us how to peel tomatoes easily. 1. boil for 30
seconds. 2. put in prepared cool water bath for 5 minutes.
3. peel.  4. be amazed.

Then all of this was put in the blender, and chilled until we were ready to eat. I think usually it's good to let it chill for even longer, like over night.

Straining the gazpacho before chilling it. This makes it
a little more thin, since it removes some of the bread.

My personal favorite of the meal was the Paella- a rice dish that traditionally combined leftovers, with seafood, and was cooked over an open fire. We just went ahead and used Amy's stove, you know, since we had one. Seemed like the easier option.

Eves getting the rice started.

Gorgeous, and delicious: tomato, garlic, artichokes,
bell pepper, chicken stock.

The finished product!

There are a couple things I love about cooking club (other than the fabulous company.) One is that we always try recipes that we've never done, or maybe have never even had before! It's always an adventure! As with any adventure, unexpected challenges or problems arise, but that's part of the fun too, because then we have to get inventive and think outside of the cooking "box". Like using panty hose as a strainer. Another one of the things I love is that every time we meet there's something we like, something that's just okay, and something we love. And we are usually surprised about what we end up loving! 

Cheers to another successful cooking club! 

(Our success being measured by a full stomach, a brand-new shared experience,  and a satisfied palette.)

Coming up in Abril...Spanish food!

As in, from Spain!

Home of Flaminco dancers...

beautiful coasts...

and romantic guitar music.

Will we look like this girl when we're done?

Doubtful. 

Parlez vu francais? We don't, but we DO cuisiner de la nourriture française!

February was the month and French food was on the menu. Evonne planned a great menu, and as usual, cooking with these friends was such a fun, delicious, and encouraging time.

Not surprisingly the two most used ingredients were butter and heavy whipping cream. You know you can't go wrong with those two items!

Casey was on the Green Beans Provencal- a simple and fresh dish that would be great in spring and summer.

                               

Green beans were blanched, then put in cool water

Green olives, tomatoes, red onion.

Finished with parmesan, olive oil, seasoning, and garlic

Amy took on the Chicken Dijon, which included mixing up a version of Herbs de Provence, slightly modified due to the fact that we live in Branson, Missouri. 

None of us had ever bought chicken from the butcher!
White butcher paper just makes meat seem more sophisticated. 

We may have added a little too much of the herbs. :)

Finished with a heavy cream, dijon mustard,
 and mushroom sauce. 

Now this next recipe was definitely the MVP of the night! If I said, "Would you like some onion pie?", your response would probably be, "No thanks!" But what if I told you it tasted like a buttery, caramelized oniony, creamy, quiche from heaven? Eh? 

This was the dish we cold NOT stop eating, and Evonne was the lady who put it all together. Tarte a Poignon!

chopin' chopin'

The buttery, caramelized oniony goodness.

And the heavy whipping cream

Eggs added and in the pie shell, ready to bake!

I wish you could smell right now how this smelled
baking. We think it would be perfect for a holiday meal.

I have been thinking about this pie all morning!

Finally, for the desert. This was, in fact, our first ever desert that turned out perfectly! For some reason, deserts have been hard for us to get right previously, but the Tarte au Sucre (Sugar Pie) was a victory!

First pie crust I've ever made!

After making it, it had to rise for a while, then it
was pressed into the pie pan. I saw another
recipe that said to press into the pie pan, and
THEN let it rise. 

By the time we were done eating the meal (i.e. Finally made ourselves stop eating the onion pie!), three of us had retired to Evonne's living room to stretch ourselves out, and hopefully make some room for the Sugar Pie coming up! Evonne mixed up the filling and baked it, so I'm not sure of the exact ingredients, or how she got the layered effect, but this pie was magnificent! Rich, but not too rich. Sweet, but not too sweet. Creamy and just downright delightful with a cup of coffee. I think it was just as good the next day when I shared a little piece with Rob. (That was nice of me wasn't it?)

The finished product had delectable layers of buttery, shortbread-like
crust, sugary-sweet filling, and a creamy, custard top.
It got better with every bite.

I just love...

time spent together...

with these precious girls. 

Bon appetit!

German Fest...minus all the beer.

It was our November meeting of the cooking minds, German was on the menu, and I was the hostess. What to cook? After looking through many blogs and recipe sites online I decided on the following menu: 

Fondue with bread and veggies

Cucumber and Onion Salad w Dill

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

Brandied Meat Patties

Pear & Cranberry Strudel

Only one important ingredient was missing from our night and that was Evonne. :( She must have been really miserable to miss out on great food!

Of course we had to have an appetizer that we could be munching on while we were making the other dishes. You can NEVER go wrong with fondue. 

Fondue: Gruyere, Gouda, garlic, lemon juice, white wine, and nutmeg.

On to the side dishes. We just HAD to have cabbage, and this recipe didn't disappoint! It was the best cabbage I've ever had. You start by sauteing the sliced apples and chopped onions in butter. Then add the cabbage and the other ingredients, cover, and let simmer for a while. Oh man, the smell from the onions, clove, butter and wine was incredible.

Red cabbage, tart apples, red wine, cloves, onion, 
brown sugar, vinegar, butter. YUM!

Our other side dish was the cucumber, onion, and dill salad and Casey was the slicing and dicing queen! 

VERY thinly sliced cucumber, vinegar, sugar, salt,
pepper, red onion, and dill. Chill and eat!

What a cutie. 

The main dish...Brandied Meat Patties! Now that sounds German. Amy was the woman for this job, and she handled it beautifully. 

Ground beef, bread crumbs, yogurt, creme fraiche, salt
pepper, cubes of cheese, and brandy.

The meat patties are filled with a cheese cube or two, and then pan fried in oil and removed from the pan. Then brandy and creme fraiche was added to the pan, heated, and then the sauce was spooned over the meat. It was interesting because the meat patties were actually kind of bland, but then we realized it was necessary because the sauce was so rich. 

adding the brandy

And finally, desert. This course has been a challenge for us every time we've met, but we are not deterred! For this month...Pear and Cranberry Strudel.

We layered 8 sheets of phyllo dough with butter, sugar
and almonds between each sheet.

Then we filled it with a mixture of crasins, pears, sugar, butter,
all spice, ginger, and a little bit of bread crumbs.

Finally we tried to wrap it up, but it started
sticking to the pan, and crumbling.

We finally got it though, and Casey made sure it knew who was boss!

It ended up turning out beautifully, and it was delicious. Triumph was ours once again! I'm telling you, there's not a better way to spend an evening than with sweet friends and scrumptious food. Happy cooking and Merry Christmas!

Missed you Evonne!