Artisan Sandwich Symposium

Last Friday night's club meeting at Scott and Betty's was a chuckling nod to  the "Artisan"  fad that is taking over the food world.  A. S. S. night started out with several Artisan dips for our Artisan chips.  It also featured a wide spread of Artisan Sandwich spreads,  wraps,  bread, cheeses and meats. We assembled our sandwiches and wraps and grilled them in Chad' s fancy pants Artisan sandwich press. Then,  once our bellies were full and our mouths were artisanally pleased,  we played a rousing game of Artisan farkle.  :-) 

- Cathy

A Gift for the FNSC!

     This deserved it's own post, because at our Greenland New Year's meal we finally got a chance to open a gift that supper clubber Vicki sent to the group. Unfortunately, she lives in stupid far away Dallas and can't convene with us as often as we would like her to in Denton, where most of our club meetings are held. Anyways, the gift bag it was in said, "Best Gift Ever" and it lived up to that promise! She made us a custom recipe box for us to record our recipes!! She covered it in duct tape, because duct tape means love guys- learn it, live it, love it.  It had sections titled, "Shit to Try", "Shit We ate",  "Shit we liked" and "New shit to write down". It also housed a tiny pig standing on a tiny book sitting on a tiny chair- squeee! THANK YOU VICKI!! We will put it to good use post haste. :o)
- Cathy

Ukiortaami Pilluaritsi!!

     Or Happy New Year in Greenlandic! Most of the crew got together last night to celebrate Greenland New Year because they are 3 hrs ahead of us, and that would enable us to toast to the New Year at 9pm instead of midnight.  This was something I proposed to the group so that I could partake in some festivities at all since I had to work at 4am today and couldn't stay up until midnight.  Luckily our fun loving bunch was totally down for it and at 9pm we all shouted our versions of pronouncing Ukiortaami Pilluaritsi! 

     So we had an appetizer that went unphotographed,  but it was some delicious wine jelly spread with white cheddar slices. Then the meal itself consisted of my first attempt roast pork shoulder using the recipe my mom procured for me from Colombian master chefs (my uncles lol). I actually had to go to a meat market for the 1st time and watch the butcher cut the piece I wanted from an actual pig... That's when things almost got too real-haha! Then to marinate it I had to stab holes into the flesh and fill them with garlic and shallots.  Then before baking I had to form the flesh into the typical Ham shape and stuff it with green onions and thyme. I'm kind of feeling like a grown up after handling flesh that way! The  black beans were made by Evelyn and her hours of time invested in soaking,  cooking and seasoning them paid off BIG! She also prepared a garlic butter that went onto some toasted bolillo rolls that was perfection. Betty,  our honorary "spic"  stepped up to the plate to make the white rice that rounded out the whole meal perfectly! 

     There you have it,  3 Latinas dug deep into their ancestral roots  to bring forth this new years meal.  Here are some reactions from the group: Cuco said, " In a sandwich made with the garlic bread the pernil was scrumptralescent. "  Evelyn initially said,  " It's terrible,  no one else should eat it." Then later she said,  "The pernil esta bangin' dio Mio!".  And the best commentary came from our new vegetarian member,  Molly.  She said,  " Beans were delicious,  rice was great,  the wine jelly avec fromage went well together.  The meat looked like it tasted like meat,  so way to go savages. " haha,  priceless :-) 

-Cathy 

 

This is the pernil all ready to go in the oven......the humanity! 

 

 This is Betty pouring the au jus over the to go plate for Scott to eat when he felt better.

 

Here's another angle of the money shot.  

Urgent Break of Silence!

I'm sorry, I haven't kept up with the blog like I should have, but I blame technical writing, the root of all evil!!
   Moving on... Tonight Glenn made a mix of cajun & creole gumbo that, Oh.My.God..... There are no words more appropriate than God DAMN!!
And Trish made cookie brownie bars that were off the charts ridiculous! We had a small crew tonight, just 5, but it was a good time with endless amounts of food & Friday night fun time. :-)

"Vegetarian: An old Indian Word for Bad Hunter"

    I found that quote online & it had no credit to it, but I thought it an appropriate header to describe our 1st attempted vegan supper club meeting a few months back, which ended up being only vegetarian. Our intentions were there, but as we learned, just because a package says "meatless" it doesn't mean it's vegan because it may still contain animal products like egg whites, whey, caseins, gelatin etc. We learned this after 2 of our entrees were prepared with a meatless & soy free crumble (actually the same brand was used & they were prepared in opposite sides of town-haha) but it wasn't until after the fact that we realized that one of the ingredients in the crumble was egg whites. So what we learned is to always read the ingredients label when following a diet restriction! But, our night was not ruined & the 1 vegan in the group was still able to partake in mostly everything else, so we're counting this as a lesson learned & a precursor to a future, properly executed vegan night :o)
   Ok the rundown on the food & who brought it will be beneath each picture & hopefully some other club members will chime in to give more details about their dishes- enjoy & stay safe!

Vicki brought an assortment of flavored olives from Central Market- who has the most amazing olive bar! My favorite were the lemon ones, because I love & relish anything & everything lemon flavored ;o)

Betty prepared the meatless, soy free crumble with seasonings & tomatoes if memory serves...I dunno, it was delicious though!

Betty also prepared some spaghetti squash

I made a lasagna with layers of spinach "ricotta"- made from tofu, garlic & nutritional yeast, sauteed zucchini & mushrooms, & the meatless soy-free crumble

Tabouli, prepared by Betty, was the highlight of MY evening because until then I had never been able to try it due to a raw onion allergy. Betty, in her benevolent wisdom made this without onions, but with lemon, tomato, cucumbers & parsely & it was the most glorious thing ever to me! It also prompted me to make & eat a recreation of this every day for a week ;o)

Miss Sarah made these delicious treats by freezing several kinds of berries in fresh fruit juice that she juiced herself- no added sugar & it was deliciously sweet & refreshing.

A toast to the end of another successful club meeting!

    

Yum Yum in our Tum Tums

   So last Friday we had a small group for supper club, but it was just more deliciousness for us so it was totally cool ;-) The cream cheese & artichoke stuffed mushrooms were so so good, as was the sauteed squash, onion & tomato concoction & of course the main course, pseudo tex mex chicken spa, was amazing!    
   Afterwards, we had some ice cream/ popsicle dessert whilst watching the 1st half of the 1st Lord of the Rings movie in honor of the Hobbit's 75th anniversary. And that was that, another successful club meeting is recorded & hopefully soon we can get our thoughts & recollections together enough to properly describe past meetings. For now please enjoy these pics & stay safe everyone!

seasoning to taste

squash tomato & onion concoction

cream cheese-artichoke stuffed mushrooms

Miss Betty fishes out the stirring spoon from the crystal light

A Night of Experimentation

  Tonight betty has whipped up a chicken spaghetti medley that is "pseudo tex mex chicken spa" and sauteed squashed with onion. Also Cathy has brought some artichoke & cream cheese stuffed mushrooms. More details to come as the night progresses, but here's a pic to wet your appetite ;-)

pseudo tex mex chicken spa