October Cooking Club Menu and Recipes

[Vanquisher]

I am so glad that so many people are involved. What fun! I can't wait to see what everyone thinks of the recipes. As for me, it will have to wait a bit. My husband (I know, who?) is actually coming home for the weekend, so cooking will have to wait until next week. I haven't decided if I am going to make all three recipes yet or not.

In the meantime, I will have to start thinking of a menu for November. With Thanksgiving in the mix, I could throw in some Thanksgiving type recipes or go completely another direction. If you have any thoughts, let me know, and if you have a dish you are dying to try or make PM me, and we'll see what we can come up with.

[Meenah]

Thanks again Heidi. I roasted the beets last night while I was roasting the onions, and then I proceeded to eat half of them. I'll get more beets on my way home tonight.

I am in on this too!
Will make next week when DH has a couple days off. I will have to modify the soup recipe to make vegetarian and allow for my lack of dutch oven and cute serving dishes, but it looks SO GOOD I have to try.

[bokelley]

When my husband finally comes home I'm going to run screaming from the house directly to the Le Cruset outlet and buy myself a dutch oven just so I can make the soup properly.

Excuse me.. There is an outlet?? That is only my fav cookware, I am not aware of an outlet!!! Please tell me this is true!!!!!!!

we have one here ...

[bokelley]

Oh my!! There will be a shopping trip your way soon then!!!

[Meenah]

We have an outlet too!!!!

I made the onion soup yesterday and we ate it tonight. Totally delish!!! I can't wait to make it again. It did taste a little like it was missing something, so I added a splash of red wine tonight while it was reheating.

[mommax3]

I was going to graciously offer to visit some of you and eat these marvelous-sounding recipes.....but none of you live quite close enough. They sound awesome but I do not have time to do anything but the pumpkin cake.....and I would just eat the pumpkin cake, which is not part of my diet plan. I will sure enjoy reading about your experiences, though!

[DCJenn]

Come on down Sally!

J

[mommax3]

You don't know how tempting that sounds! We are actually considering it for Spring Break again....it has been (almost) four years, after all!

Oh my!! There will be a shopping trip your way soon then!!!

If you'll stop at Trader Joe's for me on the way, I'll totally buy you lunch while you're here.

[DCJenn]

OK- so far here are my results-

The soup was great on Day One. Since tomorrow night is poker night- I'm planning on having it again and I imagine it will only get better. So here's what didn't happen- I forgot to get the sherry and since I drank all of the sherry we had a few months back I punted with Marsala and it tasted fine. I also picked up the wrong thing of broth and ended up with two things of chicken so that's what I used. I definitely think it lacked some depth that would have come from using beef broth. I also couldn't find decent looking thyme so I used a pinch of dried thyme. I really don't like thyme as a general rule so that worked out just fine.

The salad was great- used spinach instead of arugula because I had some that needed to be eaten TODAY. My dressing was a little thick but I think it was because I used more cheese than was needed. (eh, I like me some blue cheese)

The cakes- apparently everyone in san antonio is a med spouse because there were no regular sized bundt pans to be found. I finally found mini bundts at the FAB kitchen store (just opened since the girls were here) at the Pearl Brewery [repurposed brewery now home to the main farmer's market, a bunch of great restaurants, the Aveda school and some residential condos.] that were smaller pans that you put together to make the cakes look like a pumpkin. They're done, cooled and wrapped in plastic wrap until I can get them iced. I had a 5yo with a DOOZY of a temper tantrum tonight so I chose Plan B- wine and the internet.

How'd everyone else do so far?

Jenn

I've got the soup made, but we'll be eating it tomorrow. The recipe said that it was optimal to make it a day ahead of time, so I went with it.

I will not be doing the salad (much to dh's dismay). He'll be heading out of town on Monday, and he's the only one that would eat beets or gorgonzola.

IF all goes well tomorrow, I'll make the bundt cake.

[Meenah]

Soup is done,will eat tomorrow. Beets are half done (again), and I'll make the cake tomorrow.