Cooking Club 5.0

Did you miss us?

We missed Cooking Club, too. After many reschedulings (due to work schedules, social schedules, two work promotions, three Chicago Marathons, a trip to Spain--when I was in Spain--and one dehydration resulting in a trip to a Northwestern Hospital), we got the crew together and scheduled our Fall Feast.

The evening started at 3 pm on Sunday, where we decided the menu over coffee at Cornerstone Coffee Shop. The menu decided, we split up into grocery teams: Martha Ellen and Mary Kay hit Fresh Market for veggies and the fancier ingredients (note: FM does not have cooking sherry?); Ben, Bridget and R.J. hit the Broad Ripple Marsh for the basics. Text messages and phone calls were sent between the two teams, and we thought it was going to be a simple feast to prepare.

Culinary Photography from CC 5.0: Taken on Ben's Motorola Q.

Smoke Alarms: 1

Cost: $$ (well, one and a half $)

Fall Feast Menu:
- Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms with Spinach and Goat Cheese
- Butternut Apple Squash Soup
- Ropa Vieja Pot Pie with Pepper Jack Biscuits
- Double Layer Punkin Cheesecake

Key Learnings:
- If you're impersonating a Food Network judge and saying that a dish "needs more acid," check the counter for a lemon, because it hasn't been used in the mushroom recipe.
- A hit of cayenne pepper kicks the soup up a notch (thanks, Mrs. Pipp), but a tablespoon of cayenne pepper--or even a half Tbsp--is too much for pot pies (thanks, Vitamin D milk).
- Green onions are the same as scallions, and can serve as a replacement (per Jerry @ FM)
- Carhardt is perfect for drag races in Kokomo.
- Prepared cheesecake filling may just be worth it. Screw ingredient integrity.
- Need to chill something for 4 hours? Try the freezer.
- The Internet came out during high school.
- Yogurt and/or lemon can serve to "cool" over-spicy dishes.
- Wrestling in High School is good prep for frat parties.
- 30 minutes in the oven mends it all together.
- "Just figure out" - Coach MK

The next goal: expand Cooking Club. In a moment of nails-getting-did inspiration, MK presented the idea to launch Cooking Club as a city-wide invite. We're seeking an industrial-sized kitchen that might want to host the event. If you do have an interest, please contact one of us asap.