Cooking Club 13.0: Christmas Dinner

Date: December 23rd, 2009
Theme: I don't remember our theme.
Menu: Oysters Rockefellar, Paella and Apple Pie.
Location: Martha Ellen & Bridget's Condo
Attendance: Um, not sure.

To be honest, I don't have more than pictures to represent this evening. Based on our pictures, it looks like we ate well. . .

Key Learning: don't wait a year to blog about Cooking Club nights. Sorry about that, loyal readers.

Cooking Club 12.0: Indian

Date: May 9, 2009
Attendees: Martha Ellen, Mary Kay, Bridget, R. J., Allyson
Theme: Indian Night!

Menu:
- Chicken Tikka Masala
- Aloo Gobi
- Fried Paneer & Spinach
- Naan
- Gulab Jamun

It took two trips to the grocery, one trip to Saraga International Market, and Cooking Club’s first grease fire to complete the attempt at Indian food. And the result was well worth the effort.

Memorable Quotes:
“I mean, this is just sugar and water” – Mary Kay

“There are going to be a lot of key learnings tonight’ - Bridget

Asafetita smells like either “sweaty socks and a Christmas tree” (Bridget) or “a belch” (R. J.)

“I thought the spinach recipe was going to be cheese on spinach similar to a caprese salad” – Martha Ellen

Key Learnings:
- It helps to have a chemist to weigh 200 grams
- Seasoned salt is not turmeric
- It’s pronounced “turmeric”
- Mary Kay would rather pick the thyme leaves off rather than peel pearl onions
- Printed recipes make a difference; Bridget needs visuals
- DMB still makes everyone happy when it comes on the radio randomly
- King Fisher tastes really good – especially with Indian food
- Z stores spices in gallon size containers – we should consider this. But…how long before a spice goes bad?
- ‘The Box’ is a felony but it makes a good box
- C.C members don’t like it when the sponsored guest out audits and out pronounces them.

Cooking Club 11.0: Unknown

There were two cooking clubs that I don't remember the details:

- Dinner @ El Sol

- When Mrs. Pipp stopped by a lunch we made at R. J.'s house with max garni.

I'll keep this post as a placeholder for now and call it "11.0." Details to follow.

Cooking Club 10.0: Best Of Cooking Club

Date: March 6, 2009


Attendees: Mary Kay, Ben, Martha Ellen, R. J. and Bridget

Location: Martha Ellen's condo

Menu: The best of Cooking Club.

Cooking Club was founded on the principle of risk taking. Since inception, our philosophy has been to attempt new techniques, receipes and those dishes that might not turn out so well due to our lack of skill, time, or both. But at least once per meeting, we discover that we have a real talent to create delicious dishes. . .or that we have a particularly good receipe. Cooking Club 10.0 was a collection of the best of the best.

Keep in mind that I'm wrtiting this blog post approximately 1 year, 9 months after the "Best of Cooking Club" actually happened. So I have no idea what happened that night, but judging by the pictures, it looks like we made some good grub.

If you remember back a few Cooking Clubs (or just read through the blog), you'll know that one of our favorite desserts a molten chocolate cake that became part of CC lore--not just because of the way the dessert turned out, but because of the recipe itself.

Of course, we finished the meal with a bang. I'm sure Michael & I would be proud of our success (thus far).