Friday, May 30, 2008
Braaaaaainnnnssss!
I got the new cookbook. Whoa boy. If someone makes the lamb brains I ain't tryin' it. Sorry. I also spotted several dishes that included liver. No brains for me, no liver either. I'm not an organ eater, typically.
Friday, May 9, 2008
june book: the complete book of greek cooking, st. paul's orthodox church
Yayyy! Marta picked Greek food. For a place that calls itself a cosmopolitan food capital, the Bay Area has zip Greek restaurants, as far as I know. There are tons of "Mediterranean" joints but no Greeks. I have a soft spot for Greek food, since every time we took a trip to Chicago as a child we would hit "Little Greece" for some amazing food. Greeks live up to the stereotypes, big strapping people with loud voices and free-flowing ouzo. I hate ouzo, but hey, when in Rome... or Athens. I always ordered the "saganaki," which is fried cheese that they cover in brandy and then ignite at the table into a fireball, then yell "OPA!" while they douse it with lemon. So yeah, Im making that for the Klub. I have also always wanted to make home-made pita, so I will bring that too. As for "church" cookbooks, someone should compile the best recipes from those things and put out a book. Its real food that real people make, and they can be thanked for seven-layer dip, artichoke dip, and cocktail weenies in bbq sauce. So, Marta, thank you for bringing back my Midwest memories! -Katy
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Hi, I'm new!
Some of you know me aleady, I'm Meghan! I am looking forward to being involved in the next event! I sure hope in the future we can all cook some Suzanne Somers recipes! I love Suzanne!
See you soon!
See you soon!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
1st Klub, The New Spanish Table, completed!
Wow the first Klub was fucking great, IMHO... I must say at first I
was worried, as more than half of you dropped out in the last 24
hours!~ arrrrrrgh. Was I gonna be left holding the octopus? But them
folks that showed up really dove in head first and we had a great
time!
A couple people were nervous about cooking and having people "judge"
what they made, but i assured them that we are judging the cookbook,
not the cooks. a few of you even tested your recipes before re-making
them for the club! awesome, but not necessary! plus, once we were all
gathered it was pretty apparent that it was super chill... I hope.
I'll write about it in courses... First, I made the pear sangria which
was probably the best of the three things I made. It tasted better
than I had even imagined. I shoulda made more! We also began with the
marinated carrots, and Crystal and Sam (plus Greg) brought an empanada
with tuna and red pepper. It was beautiful, for one thing, and
disappeared really quickly. (You'll have to forgive me, I dont have my
book and can't figure out the exact names of the recipes... ). They
also brought a palate-cleansing granita made with liqeur and green
grapes which we served in little glasses and felt quite chic.
From there we had the octopus and potato salad, which I made and
thought tasted like... er, a potato salad with octopus. Nothing to
special, but totally edible.
Scott and his dad Bob really went crazy and barbecued some amazing
chicken with garlic... then they served another bbq chicken dish that
they served in slices with a side of spicy gazpacho. i thought it was
very very spanish and very very good! they also brought another
surprise but more on that later...
Kitty brought not only a CD of 60s and 70s spanish music (of course!)
but also a honey-lemon chicken. it had a beautiful saffron color and
was just about the tenderist chicken i have ever eaten. i loved it.
Dessert! Shannon made a beautiful cake with powdered sugar on top. I
have to confess I was too full to try it but i have a big bunch of it
in my fridge for breakfasts all week. Marta, the pastry chef, opted
for the pear and blue cheese tart... another thing i couldn't eat but
plan to! dang gastric bypass surgery...
Mostly we all ate and talked and whooped it up. My friend Fred also
showed up, making our gathering about 10 people, and he wants to join
tha klub now. WE NEED NEW MEMBERS! Pass it on.
As the host, I was really touched at how much work and enthusiasm
everyone put into it. you all really honored the book and gave it your
best. I couldn't ask for better co-klubbers!
The verdict on the book? Most everyone said that their recipes didn't
turn out the way they expected... some also complained about typos,
like "add 1/2 olive oil". 1/2 of what?? But everyone liked the book,
and we damn sure wolfed down all the nummy food. I think the book is
worth it for the sangria recipes alone. Still, only about three
people were happy to add it to their collection. The rest were glad
that they used the library or borrowed their friends'.
OK, NEXT KLUB.... we have a queue forming. It looks like Marta will
host the next one at her apartment in Alameda. She mentioned wanting
to go "white trash" so wippee goddamn dee doo to that. Next will be
Shannon, then Kitty. The next one will probably meet at the end of
June. Sorry its so east bay focused! you SFers who want to host may
be able to move to the front of the line...
Oh, yeah, the surprise! Well it wasnt exactly spanish, but bob and
scott brought a pinata shaped like godzilla. i happened to have the
godzilla soundtrack so we played that and wacked it. ok that doesnt
sound right.
xokaty
was worried, as more than half of you dropped out in the last 24
hours!~ arrrrrrgh. Was I gonna be left holding the octopus? But them
folks that showed up really dove in head first and we had a great
time!
A couple people were nervous about cooking and having people "judge"
what they made, but i assured them that we are judging the cookbook,
not the cooks. a few of you even tested your recipes before re-making
them for the club! awesome, but not necessary! plus, once we were all
gathered it was pretty apparent that it was super chill... I hope.
I'll write about it in courses... First, I made the pear sangria which
was probably the best of the three things I made. It tasted better
than I had even imagined. I shoulda made more! We also began with the
marinated carrots, and Crystal and Sam (plus Greg) brought an empanada
with tuna and red pepper. It was beautiful, for one thing, and
disappeared really quickly. (You'll have to forgive me, I dont have my
book and can't figure out the exact names of the recipes... ). They
also brought a palate-cleansing granita made with liqeur and green
grapes which we served in little glasses and felt quite chic.
From there we had the octopus and potato salad, which I made and
thought tasted like... er, a potato salad with octopus. Nothing to
special, but totally edible.
Scott and his dad Bob really went crazy and barbecued some amazing
chicken with garlic... then they served another bbq chicken dish that
they served in slices with a side of spicy gazpacho. i thought it was
very very spanish and very very good! they also brought another
surprise but more on that later...
Kitty brought not only a CD of 60s and 70s spanish music (of course!)
but also a honey-lemon chicken. it had a beautiful saffron color and
was just about the tenderist chicken i have ever eaten. i loved it.
Dessert! Shannon made a beautiful cake with powdered sugar on top. I
have to confess I was too full to try it but i have a big bunch of it
in my fridge for breakfasts all week. Marta, the pastry chef, opted
for the pear and blue cheese tart... another thing i couldn't eat but
plan to! dang gastric bypass surgery...
Mostly we all ate and talked and whooped it up. My friend Fred also
showed up, making our gathering about 10 people, and he wants to join
tha klub now. WE NEED NEW MEMBERS! Pass it on.
As the host, I was really touched at how much work and enthusiasm
everyone put into it. you all really honored the book and gave it your
best. I couldn't ask for better co-klubbers!
The verdict on the book? Most everyone said that their recipes didn't
turn out the way they expected... some also complained about typos,
like "add 1/2 olive oil". 1/2 of what?? But everyone liked the book,
and we damn sure wolfed down all the nummy food. I think the book is
worth it for the sangria recipes alone. Still, only about three
people were happy to add it to their collection. The rest were glad
that they used the library or borrowed their friends'.
OK, NEXT KLUB.... we have a queue forming. It looks like Marta will
host the next one at her apartment in Alameda. She mentioned wanting
to go "white trash" so wippee goddamn dee doo to that. Next will be
Shannon, then Kitty. The next one will probably meet at the end of
June. Sorry its so east bay focused! you SFers who want to host may
be able to move to the front of the line...
Oh, yeah, the surprise! Well it wasnt exactly spanish, but bob and
scott brought a pinata shaped like godzilla. i happened to have the
godzilla soundtrack so we played that and wacked it. ok that doesnt
sound right.
xokaty
Saffron. Yuh-uhm.
You know, saffron is one of my favorite spices. It was well represented in The New Spanish Table and at Sunday's dinner party. Deeee-lish.
(I wrote this part in an email I sent to some of you today and upon Katy's suggestion have reposted it here as a blog.)
I had such a great time with you guys. I raved about Kookbook Klub so much that my reluctant old man, Tim, wants to attend next time.
Ha!
HA!
And when a cookbook gets chosen for next month Tim said he'd check the book store's inventory (used and new) for us...so maybe those of us who want to buy it could maybe buy it used.
Maybe.
I dug the cookbook. I mean, I'm really in love with The Art of Simple Food (Alice Waters) right now and The New Spanish Table was very different (not so, uh, simple). Life feels really complicated to me a lot of the time (I'm complex, what can you do?) so I love the idea of keeping it simple in the kitchen. That was what I found challenging about the book --.a lot of the recipes are fairly complex. I think that is also what makes the book beautiful. My experience of the book was definitely influenced by my relationship to time right now. For me, right now, there's a perceived scarcity when it comes to time and I was extraordinarily resistant to slowing down, planning for, shopping for, and making most of the yummy sounding dishes I found in the book (if it requires a double boiler or more than one or two basic steps it seems I'm not your girl). I almost made a roasted asparagus dish. Simple. I really want to be in a place in my life where I can slow down (my eternal struggle)...with Tim moving in (Yay!) and work being crazy and being gone two weekends out of last month I felt short on time and it impacted my relationship with The New Spanish Table. I can see that this is the beginning of a really wonderful process for me. Every six weeks I get the opportunity to struggle with this stuff. I get to learn to slow down and enjoy the entire process. The choosing, the planning, the shopping, the cooking, the eating. In time I'll be double boiling the shit out of some chocolate...like it was nothin.
Thanks for the rad times.
(I wrote this part in an email I sent to some of you today and upon Katy's suggestion have reposted it here as a blog.)
I had such a great time with you guys. I raved about Kookbook Klub so much that my reluctant old man, Tim, wants to attend next time.
Ha!
HA!
And when a cookbook gets chosen for next month Tim said he'd check the book store's inventory (used and new) for us...so maybe those of us who want to buy it could maybe buy it used.
Maybe.
I dug the cookbook. I mean, I'm really in love with The Art of Simple Food (Alice Waters) right now and The New Spanish Table was very different (not so, uh, simple). Life feels really complicated to me a lot of the time (I'm complex, what can you do?) so I love the idea of keeping it simple in the kitchen. That was what I found challenging about the book --.a lot of the recipes are fairly complex. I think that is also what makes the book beautiful. My experience of the book was definitely influenced by my relationship to time right now. For me, right now, there's a perceived scarcity when it comes to time and I was extraordinarily resistant to slowing down, planning for, shopping for, and making most of the yummy sounding dishes I found in the book (if it requires a double boiler or more than one or two basic steps it seems I'm not your girl). I almost made a roasted asparagus dish. Simple. I really want to be in a place in my life where I can slow down (my eternal struggle)...with Tim moving in (Yay!) and work being crazy and being gone two weekends out of last month I felt short on time and it impacted my relationship with The New Spanish Table. I can see that this is the beginning of a really wonderful process for me. Every six weeks I get the opportunity to struggle with this stuff. I get to learn to slow down and enjoy the entire process. The choosing, the planning, the shopping, the cooking, the eating. In time I'll be double boiling the shit out of some chocolate...like it was nothin.
Thanks for the rad times.
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