Dinner, Gifts and Time with Dear Friends.

(Not Uncle P's Meatballs)

So... last Saturday's snow/rain/sleet storm prevented Uncle P from having a holiday dinner and gift exchange with some of my oldest and dearest friends, with whom I get together every few months for a culinary experiment. This time we weren't taking any chances, but planned a simple and traditional Italian meal of lasagna and meatballs. Luckily, both freeze well and we were able to reschedule for tonight.

Mary's lasagna was just delicious and 17 of Uncle P's 18 rustic meatballs marinara were consumed by the seven of us. Of course, Q's delightful salad with thick, sweet Black Walnut Balsamic and Deb's amazing red velvet cupcakes made it a rather amazing meal. 

After dinner, those of us who hadn't already done so, finally got to exchange our Holiday gifts (I loved everything I got). Of course, as always with this particular group of friends (most of whom I've known for well-over 30 years), the meal and gifts are a far distant second to spending time together. Spending time with these six very dear friends (and a few others) helps make the mendacity of everyday life less so. I hope you have some equally amazing people in your life who make it better just by being a part of it.

Tomorrow I will be having my last gift exchange of the season, when Dear D and I meet for a matinee showing of Skyfall (which I'll be reviewing tomorrow night), followed immediately by drinks and yet more gifts.

I hope your weekend is as good as mine has been (and promises to continue to be). I'll try and recreate my aborted "American Horror Story" post from last night on Monday, unless something else catches my attention between now and then.

More, anon.
Prospero

You have read this article Cooking / Cupcakes / Dear D / Dinners / Food / Friends / Gifts / Holidays / Italian / Lasagna / Meatballs with the title Dinners. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2013/01/dinner-gifts-and-time-with-dear-friends.html. Thanks!

Cooking with Alcohol

Drunken Desserts

So regular readers know that Uncle P gets together with a group of dear friends from college every couple of months for a themed dinner party. We've had ethnic nights (our very first such dinner was 'Homemade Chinese,' if I remember correctly); chocolate and vanilla; all soups; vegetarian; 'Everything Garlic' and 'Cinqo de Mayo,' to name just a very few. Not all of them have been successful though lately, we've been batting 1000. The list of what we've done in past 25 years or so, is starting to outnumber the things left on the list to try. I know we still have 'Man Food' and 'Carnival Treats' (among several others) left to try.

Tonight's theme was 'Cooking with Alcohol.' We started with appetizers: Beer Bread with Guinness & cheese dip and Drunken Wienies in Rum Sauce. Delicious and decadent. Soup was a shrimp bisque (my least favorite part of the meal - I'm not big on seafood dishes, especially soups) followed by the main course: Coq au vin, meatballs in a red wine marinara, beer-battered asparagus with horseradish remoulade and spinach sauteed with bacon, onions and white wine (the veggies were my contribution). All of it delicious and filling, though we were hardly done.

The drunkest part of our drunken dinner was dessert. While the alcohol had basically been cooked out of most of the food we'd eaten so far, dessert proved to be a whole other beast. There was a Walnut Caramel Pie with Port-infused Cherries; Rum-soaked Fruit Salad; 'Shots O' Cupcakes' and Pecan Bourbon Balls (both of the latter pictured above). The pie was yummy and the cupcakes divine (they had Bailey's and Jameson in the icing) but the Bourbon Balls were both delicious and powerful. The first bite was good, but the second hit you like a double shot and warmed the esophagus all the way down. More than one of those bad boys and I don't think I'd have been able to drive home.

Of course, the food is secondary. The point is an evening spent with people I have known and loved for a very long time. Those evenings are always too few and too far between, making them all the more precious when we do get to have them.

I came home and logged onto Facebook, where my buddy Pax Romano had posted about his meatloaf dinner, which made me sort of sad that our dinner parties are never quite like this:

Oh, who am I kidding? They're all just like that!

More, anon.
Prospero

You have read this article Alcohol / Cooking / Dinners / Food / Meatloaf / Nonsense / Old Friends / Parties / Rocky Horror with the title Dinners. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2012/09/cooking-with-alcohol.html. Thanks!

When an Old Favorite Disappoints

Veal Parmigiana

A local institution here in Lower Bucks, Georgine's has been a family favorite for many years. They even catered my sister's wedding. The food was consistently good and the portions outrageously huge. I can't count the number of times my family and friends have shared good food and good times there. They are particularly famous for their French onion soup and their milk-fed veal parmigiana, which always fills (and often over-flows) the plate. 

It has been several years since we've eaten there, so when my sister and the BIL came up from FL today and wanted to go out for dinner, Sis suggested Georgine's, which our mother and I both agreed was an excellent choice. I had a very tiny lunch today, in anticipation of the soup and veal. By the time we were seated, I was practically salivating. 

We ordered. Mom and I ordered cups of the French onion, while BIL ordered a bowl of it, along with a cup of the seafood bisque. Mom got an appetizer for her entree: a crab and spinach stuffed portobello cap. BIL ordered the seafood platter while Sis got a chicken dish and I ordered the veal. When the soup arrived, we dug in only to be surprised and disappointed to find it extremely salty and lacking in actual onions. This wasn't the delectable treat we remembered. Then came our entrees. Sis reported that her chicken (with tomatoes, mushrooms and a cream sauce) was good, though BIL said his clams casino tasted weird. Mom enjoyed the crab, but thought the mushroom was "vinegary" and my veal parm, while huge, was so salty, I could barely taste the meat. 

We left full but unsatisfied and, after a short discussion, decided that our memories of the food we'd had there before weren't faulty. Now, restaurants change chefs. It happens. But Georgine's prides itself on using the same recipes they've been using since they opened (those belonging to the long-deceased Georgine, herself).  time-honored recipe shouldn't be tinkered with or changed (unless it results in an improvement). I have no idea what actually happened tonight but I do know the food we were served was not the food we had come to love. 

So, my question is: Should we give Georgine's another chance or just give up and find a new favorite? Have you had a similar experience at one of your favorite restaurants? What did you do? Inquiring minds want to know. Leave me your answers in the comments.

More, anon.
Prospero

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Cinco de Mayo fue muy buena!

My 'Taco Pot Pie' w/Toppings

It was the college gang's* latest themed-dinner get-together and since this one just happened to be today, we did a Mexican theme, which I think we may have done before because I've had Deb's enchiladas before, but it didn't matter because everything was just delicious. One of our top five efforts, really.  Along with the enchiladas, Deb did appetizers and sangria. Q made both a green salad and a grilled shrimp & mango salad and Mary made a super-delish pineapple souffle and slow-cooked pulled pork.

Uncle P made two new recipes: a beautifully colorful variation on rice and beans that included diced tri-color bell peppers & fresh cilantro and something that the recipe I based it on called "Creamy Taco Casserole." After making my personal adjustments to the recipe (which were minor and mostly cosmetic), it ended  up being something (while truly very delicious) that wasn't creamy in the least, which is why I was so glad that I offered some toppings (tomatoes, green onion, sour cream & crushed Artisan corn chips) and am officially re-naming it Taco Pot Pie (though it's really almost a taco lasagna). I'm making it again for the Day Job's party on Monday, so I'm glad it worked. If you want my recipes, ask and they shall be yours.

Everything was flavorful and well-seasoned without being too spicy to enjoy it and the combination of dishes was superb; each dish complimenting and working with the others in happily surprising ways to create (you should forgive me) Mexican Umami. Most of us had seconds of almost everything. Then, after a bit of conversation came dessert: Q's cinnamon shortbread-like cookies and a chocolate layer cake. While there were lots of left-overs, not a single person left that table hungry. We've been doing these dinners for a very long and have a list we keep adding to (we just added "A Journey Through Time" which would require genuine period or era recipes) and hopefully will never finish. We always have a great time, whether the food is a win or a fail (and when they fail, they fail spectacularly - though there have been more wins than fails, thankfully). Tonight's Cinco de Mayo dinner was a major win.

*After all these years, I've decided we need a group name. So I think I'm having a contest or something. The person who submits the best name for our group will win... something. What you need to know - these are people who know me better than most of my relatives. Our goal is to create a cohesive themed dinner using recipes we've never tried before. Our rules are flexible. The food is simply a bonus and an excuse  to spend time with one another. I hope you are lucky enough  to have friends in your life like the ones I have in mine.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Submit your suggestion and/or ask for my recipes in "Comments."

More, anon.

Prospero

You have read this article Cinco de Mayo / Delicious / Dinners / Food / Mexican Food / Old Friends with the title Dinners. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2012/05/cinco-de-mayo-fue-muy-buena.html. Thanks!

Cooking Fail/Win + The Gayest Thing You'll See This Week

So, tonight was another theme dinner with friends from college. We'll talk about my pretty massive fail after I talk about the first two fabulous wins. of the evening. We started with cheese-puffs and mini-Reuben pastries (Yum and yum-yum!). Then we moved on to my soup, which I was quite proud of, with the exception of my Super-Ball matzoh balls. I don't understand what went wrong. After consulting three experts, I did everything they told me. I followed the directions on the matzoh meal to the letter. Instead of light and fluffy like every matzoh ball I've ever had (and hadn't made), they were dense and chewy. I didn't have to remake them, so I just went. I warned everyone about them and advised them not to eat them and not to feel bad spitting them out should they in fact, eat one. Everyone took one out of politeness. I declined, saying "Don't say you weren't warned." The soup, everyone agreed was excellent. I do make a mean pot of chicken soup, if I say so myself - though for the first time ever, I cut everything up into spoon-sized pieces, which actually improved the soup because you got a bite of everything with every spoonful.

Then they dug into the matzoh balls, which they had to cut into with a knife. Everyone agreed that they looked and tasted right, but were decidedly dense. Truth be told, my friends are too nice - those matzoh balls were the wrongest matzoh balls, ever. Dale, the only Jew among us for our 'Jewish Food' dinner, joked that they were like Nibbler's poo... At least I know the soup was good. Next came a delicious and tender brisket; tsimmis; kugle and string beans in garlic. For desert: apricot; triple-berry and prune/raisin hammentaschen and black and white cookies. By the time we finished, we were all stuffed with yummy goodness. So despite the Great Matzoh Ball Fail of 2011, everything went well and we all fed each other way too much.

I have no idea what our next theme will be, but if it's going to be as good as the last few have been, I can't wait. 

I know I'm long overdue for a movie review, but D and I will be seeing Insidiouis one night in the coming week. But for now, just enjoy the Gayest Thing You'll See This Week (via); the hilarious anti-stereotyping video called "Gay Dude in Wrestling Singlet Talks About Barbra Streisand" (language NSFW):

More, anon.
Prospero

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Dinner and a Movie

So, I know I blogged once before about my college friends our occasional themed dinners. We try and have at least two or three a year, but as we all get older and wrapped up in our own dramas, it gets more and more difficult to coordinate our diverse schedules, which actually saddens all of us. We've gone from four or five dinners a year to one or two.

Our last theme was "Black and White" and we all made incredibly delicious chocolate and vanilla dishes that were rather amazing. I did dessert; a chocolate and butterscotch apple crisp with vanilla icing. We all left the table sated, bloated and exhausted.

This coming Saturday, we are eating again, and this time the theme is "Movie Food." To clarify, that means foods featured in or inspired by movies. My first instinct was a timpano from the calorie-laden film Big Night, starring Tony Shaloub and Stanley Tucci (yummy enough in and of themselves). I saw that movie with Dale (who will there on Saturday) and we immediately went out for a huge pasta dinner. But I have already made one of those (an incredibly arduous dish requiring more time than I have) and want to do something different. So I deferred that to my longest and dearest friend Janet, who will no doubt, make an amazing version of it.

So, after much brain-wracking and web-searching, I have decided to make a salad inspired by Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood: Warm Goat Cheese and Endive Salad with Pears and Walnuts. The recipe sounds incredibly delicious (I'm always happy with any salad that features cheese, fruit and nuts) and appears to be not only easy, but slightly less labor-intensive than many of the other recipes I found. I suppose I could have done milkshakes, but that seemed a bit too obvious, don't you think? I'll give my full (all puns intended) recap Saturday night.

Of course, a meal like this does nothing to help my quest to lose another 5 or pounds before my 30th (ack!) High School Reunion on the 27th (which will no doubt require a very frightening post of its own). Until then, please enjoy the trailer for There Will Be Blood:

And this rather amusing parody, There Will Be Bud:

More, anon.
Prospero

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