February Gathering

The 16th Ragamuffin Cooking Club is hereby announced!

Theme: Mardi Gras! (Cajun / Creole)
Date & Time: Saturday, February 17th, 6:30pm
Place: Chad & Karen's

We need signups for the following (note, my suggestions are not necessary, just ideas!):

• Main Dish 1 - jumbalaya - Chad & Karen
• Main Dish 2 - (gumbo? shrimp creole? chicken etouffee?) -
• Main / side / other grub (Po'Boys? alligator sausage? turtle soup? crawfish?) -
• Side Dish 1 - Macque Choux (spicy corn) - Michael & Rebekah
• Side Dish 2 - (red beans & rice w/ andouille?) -
• Dessert 1 - White Chocolate Bread Pudding - Michael & Toni
• Dessert 2 - (beignets? king cake? pralines?) -
• Drinks -
• After-dinner coffee - Chicory! (also available at supermarkets) -

As mentioned before, we have a cookbook from the famed Gumbo Shop restaurant in New Orleans and have linked a few possible recipes above. (Can you tell we like N'awlins cuisine?!) Good New Orleans music will be supplied! Bring your recipes. Beads are optional. :)

Tapas

Rachel & Rose

Tapas

Michael & Toni chatting after dinner

Tapas

Brooklyn, one of the newest members of the cooking club!

Tapas

John, one of the newest members of the cooking club!

Tapas

Toni & Michael's dessert empanadas, like little pies. mmm.

Tapas

Rebekah & Michael's albondigas - spicy meatballs - they went fast!

Tapas

Jill & Jonathan's patatas bravas - fried potatoes with a spicy sauce.

Tapas

Rose's fantastic cooking solo debut! Empanadas of three kinds!

Tapas

Chad & Karen's fried cheese with a tomato-sugary jam. Seeing a fried theme here?

Tapas

Rachel's parmesan-fried eggplant. Fried goodness.

Tapas

Jess' tasty crusty bread with aioli. Later we served it with mushrooms.

A TAPAS party?!

No, friends, we did not have a "topless" party this past weekend... it was a TAPAS party. Now that we have that cleared up, the little Spanish dishes were of great variety and were quite festive!

We enjoyed (in plain English as well as Spanish):

• Fried potatoes in spicy sauce (Patatas Bravas) from Jonathan (and Jill, though she was unable to join us)
• Ham and mushroom empanadas (Empanadas) from Rose (Phil was unfortunately at home with a kidney stone)
• Meatballs in tomato sauce (Albondigas) from Michael & Rebekah
• Fried cheese wedges with tomato jam (we used Ramon cheese instead of Los Ibores) from Chad & Karen
• Goat cheese and marinara (Queso de cabre) from Jess
• Crostini with aioli and mushrooms from Jess
• Fried eggplant (Berenjenas con queso) from Rachel
• Three kinds of dessert empanadas - apple and chocolate/peanut butter from Rose and cherry from Michael & Toni

Everyone seemed really willing to branch out and try making new and unfamiliar dishes this time around. Kudos to everyone!

Stay tuned for last-minute pictures (aka the leftovers since I forgot to take pictures as people arrived) and signups for the Mardi Gras fest on February 17!

January gathering

The 15th Ragamuffin Cooking Club is hereby announced!

Theme: Spanish Tapas
Date & Time: Saturday, January 20th, 6:30pm
Place: Chad & Karen's

For those of you not familiar with the "little dishes" known as tapas, check out a definition here with a list of possible dishes. There are about 10 cookbooks at the local libraries available that have tapas recipes, but if you want something online, look here or here or here or here. The key is to make these into small portions, like appetizers. Don't forget to bring your recipes!

We need signups for the following:

• tapas
• tapas
• tapas
• tapas
• dessert tapas
• etc. :)
• sodas
• wine

Also: Amazingly, at our New Year's Eve gathering, we sketched out some club themes through April, and looked at calendars to see if switching to the 3rd Saturday of each month would work... so tentatively, mark the third Saturday off for 2007, and here is the schedule for the next few:

1. Feburary 17 - Mardi Gras (Cajun food)
2. March 17 - St. Patty's Day (British Isles / Irish food)
3. April 21 - Iron Chef competition (secret ingredient)

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!

May 2007 be your best year yet, full of new foods, fun and fellowship!

Phil and Rose hosted a New Year's Day open house with ollie bollen (fried donut balls) and something-or-other (split pea soup) and windmill spice cookies. Yuum. A great foodie start to the year!

Pizza Party

Michael, chowing down on garlic bread

Pizza Party

Rose, enjoying the grub

Pizza Party

Pepperoni and basil pizza...mmmm!

Pizza Party

Heather and Phil constructing the next pizza

Pizza Party

Toni and Chad putting on sauce and cheese

Pizza Party

Pizza dough!

Parrrrty...Pizza Party!

(Ok, so some of you may not recognize the post title's vague reference to the commercial for a game from 1987 (that I loved, by the way) but I will forgive you for that.)

New Year's Eve got off to a great start with our pizza party! We were missing some friends (like Michael, Rebekah, Rejane, Rachel and Jessica), but still managed to have a grand old time with the rest.

We grubbed on a feast of:

• fresh pizza dough from Phil & Rose
• fresh tomato sauce from Chad & Karen
• lotsa cheese and pepperoni from Michael & Toni
• peppers, olives and onions from Rachel (in her absence, she even sent toppings!)
• a lovely chianti and sodas from Michelle
• garlic bread and chips from Heather and her friend Rachel (a different one)

And that's all for the cooking club gatherings for 2006. Coming up - the 15th Ragamuffin Cooking Club and Spanish Tapas!