January gathering

The 38th gathering of the Ragamuffin Cooking Club is hereby announced!

Theme: Ollie Bollen New Year's Party

Date & Time: Saturday, January 17, 2009 from 5-9pm

Place: Phil & Rose's

Phil and Rose are hosting the Ollie Bollen event - just show up and enjoy the fun! They'll serve snert (split pea soup) and ollie bollen (literally "oil balls," a kind of homemade doughnut), two Dutch New Year's treats!

African cuisine

Fried Plantains with Tomato Salad

Doro Wett - Chicken Stew
Stir-fried Beef Stew

Mashed Potatoes w/ Vegetables
Leek, Apple & Feta
African Wines
Azifa - Lentils with Onions & Peppers
Injera - Bread
Chocolate Rum Cake

January gathering

The 27th gathering of the Ragamuffin Cooking Club is hereby announced!

Theme: African cuisine (Chad & Karen have a cookbook if you would like some recipe recommendations)

Date & Time: Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 6:30pm

Place: **Jonathan & Jill's** (see email for directions!)

We need signups for the following:

• Appetizer (only if we have everything else covered)-
• Main dish 1 - stew dish - Chad & Karen
• Main dish 2 - non-stew dish
• Bread - Phil & Rose
• Side dish 1 -
• Side dish 2 -
• Dessert - Jonathan & Jill
• Wine -
• Non-alcoholic drinks -
• Paper plates & bowls, cups & plasticware for up to 16 -

Hope to see you there!

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)