Our Best Dish of the Seafood Night - Linguine with Clam Sauce!

Wow! Popping with garlic and just the right blend of spices and olive oil, our linguine with clam sauce was mouth-wateringly delicious! We enjoyed our pasta course before the entrée in a moderate-sized portion so we’d have room for the rest, but let me say that I could’ve had two more helpings and stopped in my tracks right there! 

I’ve had plenty of clam sauce concoctions before and this was no mass prepared, bland-for-the-masses spaghetti works style offering. I’ve eaten clams in some very nice restaurants and they had nothing on the flavor of this dish. 

We enjoyed our pasta with the clams already shelled and in the sauce, and although I do love the presentation (and the flavor) of whole, still in the shell clams, for our purposes this style of serving fit the occasion well. If you’re digging into a bowl of clams or clam-sauce pasta as your main meal, it seems more fitting to work your way through, shelling as you go; however, as a light serving for a pre-entrée course, this was best (especially to serve twelve people). 

I’ve included here for you a couple of recipes to give a try. There are so many variations on clam sauce for pasta… the possibilities are nearly endless. Some are simply olive oil, garlic and spices as we enjoyed. Some include cream or cheese as well.  

Experiment and see what you like the best. And if you’re not a huge seafood eater, don’t be afraid! We have people in our group who are not and they LOVED this dish! Come on! Give it a go!

1) Linguine With Clam Sauce

Found at: www.allrecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/linguine-with-clam-sauce/detail.aspx

 Submitted By: Dorothy Rinaldi

Servings: 8

"For a quick and easy clam sauce, toss canned clams in a pan with butter, oil, garlic, parsley, basil and pepper. Serve hot over linguini."

 Ingredients:

5 ounce) cans minced clams, with juice

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon dried parsley

ground black pepper to taste

1/4 tablespoon dried basil

1 (16 ounce) package linguini pasta

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce. Combine clams with juice, butter or margarine, vegetable oil, minced garlic, parsley, basil, and pepper in a large saucepan. Place over medium heat until boiling. Serve warm over pasta.

2) Linguine with Clam Sauce Bon Appétit

Found at: www.epicurious.com

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Linguine-with-Clam-Sauce-131

Usually clam sauce is loaded with cream and butter. Here, only a touch is needed in a lighter version of an old favorite.

Yield: Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 6 1/2-ounce can chopped clams, drained, juices reserved
3 tablespoons dry white wine
3 tablespoons light sour cream
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

6 ounces linguine

Preparation:

Melt butter in heavy medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until translucent, about 8 minutes. Mix in clams and stir 1 minute. Add wine and bring to boil. Stir in reserved juices from clams, sour cream and parsley and simmer 2 minutes to mellow flavors. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook linguine in large pot of rapidly boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Add pasta to clam mixture in skillet. Bring to simmer, stirring constantly. Transfer to bowls and serve immediately.

3) Linguine with White Clam Sauce

Found at: www.foodnetwork.com

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/linguine-with-white-clam-sauce-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

1 pound dry linguine or spaghetti

• Kosher salt
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup water
• 36 little neck clams, scrubbed
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Freshly ground pepper

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and season generously with salt. Boil the pasta until al dente, tender but still firm.

While the pasta cooks make the clam sauce. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and cook until softened but not browned, about 3 minutes. Add the pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds more. Add the wine and water and increase the heat to high. Add the clams, cover, and cook, shaking the pan periodically, until all the clams are opened, about 6 minutes.

Drain the pasta and add to the clam sauce. Add the parsley and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Divide among heated bowls and serve immediately.

Buona mangia! That’s Italian for “good eats”!

We definitely “feasted” on Saturday night. First with our eyes, and then we dug in to a sumptuous seafood inspired meal! I say we feasted with our eyes, partially because the food and drink of the evening was lovely - very holiday-festive - and because the care taken for small details pushed this Dinner Club into the realm of fantastic! 

Details count. The pre-dinner Campari cocktail we enjoyed was one example (see below for a recipe). This meal was supposed to be representative of an Italian Christmas Eve. Holidays call for that extra sparkly-something and this cocktail filled the bill! Campari, blood orange juice and prosecco or moscato di asti (depending on how sweet you prefer things) made a delicious and gorgeous combination in the champagne flutes!



Crab Crostini appetizer

While we sipped cocktails and greeted everyone we chose to dine on our appetizers while mingling rather than seated at the table. The gamberini in sfoglia (shrimp with puff pastry) was buttery-delicious with just the right amount of dill to add a tang. Our lump crab crostini were so simplistic and tasty. They really let the flavor of the high-quality jumbo-lump crabmeat shine through while still managing to be attractive with hints of roasted red bell peppers, fresh chive, basil and olive oil. 







Split Entree Plate



After our pasta course (which, by the way, wins for my “best dish of the night”, we had a split entrée of salt cod with tomatoes and capers on one side of the plate (a small “sample size” portion for each of us) along with broccoli with wine and garlic sauce and a shrimp marsala “housewife style”. 

The cod, as we expected, probably ranked last on everyone’s “thrill list” for the night, but I’m glad I tried it. That’s part of the deal with Dinner Club. Having a setting and an opportunity to introduce yourself to new dishes without the restaurant setting where you’ve paid $30 for an entrée you simply don’t adore! The sauce on the cod, a rich blend of tomato, garlic and crushed red pepper was quite tasty. I’d give it a try on any number of other seafood options or on chicken.

Our finale for the night (and I want you to know it’s a tough choice to make between this dessert and the linguine for “best dish”) was a homemade chocolate chip cannoli! One of our “guy chefs” really went the extra mile here! He made his own cannoli tubes and filled them with a delectable sweet ricotta blend including miniature chocolate chips. His presentation of the dessert wins by a landslide with the care he took to dip each end of the cannoli in a separate garnish!

Fresh fruits, nuts and clementine
tea light holders on the table.

The table-décor really filled the bill this time in evoking the spirit of a Mediterranean Christmas! Rather than the Santa and reindeer route, it was a bountiful harvest of fresh nuts, persimmons, pears, lemon leaves and fresh rosemary sprigs scattered around the nativity (or crèche) – a absolute must of the traditional Italian “la viglia”!





Plating (and garnishing) our
cannoli dessert!

It was a memorable meal and a perfect night to dine together, to catch up on one another’s lives, and simply enjoy spending time chatting, stirring, sipping and smiling! You can’t do that for five or six hours at restaurant! I’ll see you next week for more on our “best dish” for this one and then we’re off into full-force holiday mode around here! Keep reading!



Our pre-dinner cocktails!

Here's one recipe online for a cocktail like the one we enjoyed. Give it a try during the holiday season for a festive (and deliscious) touch to your special meal!

I found this one at: http://laylita.com/recipes/2009/02/14/bubbly-blood-orange-campari-cocktail/

Ingredients:

2-3 large blood oranges, juiced, about 1/3 cup juice

1 oz campari

Chilled sparkling wine – choose from prosecco, champagne, cava, brut, etc

Optional garnish – blood orange peel or blood orange slice

Preparation:

1. Pour 1 ½ oz of blood orange juice in each champagne flute.
2. Add ½ oz of campari.
3. Top off each drink with sparkling wine, garnish with a slice of blood orange and enjoy.

And Feast, We Will! – A Little History on the Southern Italian Tradition of “The Feast of the Seven Fishes”.

One of the things I appreciate about our Dinner Club is the willingness among its members to try dishes and themes that we’ve not been exposed to previously. I love that our group comes with ideas each year that we choose to pursue doggedly, regardless of our own typical eating preferences and “safe” familiar foods.

This week’s Dinner Club is just such an occasion. We will explore a menu based on a Southern Italian Christmas Eve tradition of honoring religious heritage by dining on a meal consisting solely of seafood.

According to www.wikipedia.org, “The Feast of the Seven Fishes (festa dei sette pesci), celebrated on Christmas Eve, also known as The Vigil (La Vigilia), is believed to have originated in Southern Italy and is not a known tradition in many parts of Italy. This celebration is a commemoration of the wait, Vigilia di Natale, for the midnight birth of the baby Jesus.”

Regional gastronomical traditions are a thing we can relate to right here in the United States. For example, most of the Midwestern-rooted families here in Nebraska eat some sort of bread “stuffing” with their upcoming Thanksgiving turkey dinner. My family tradition is different, having emerged from my mother’s southern heritage. We dine on “dressing” from a base of cornbread and biscuits rather than bread.

Again, according to www.wikipedia.org, “The long tradition of eating seafood on Christmas Eve dates from the Roman Catholic tradition of abstinence—in this case, refraining from the consumption of meat or milk products—on Fridays and specific holy days. As no meat or butter could be used on such days, observant Catholics would instead eat fish, typically fried in oil. There are many hypotheses for what the number "7" relates to, one being the number of Sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Another theory is that seven is a number representing perfection: the traditional Biblical number for divinity is three, and for Earth is four, and the combination of these numbers, seven, represents God on Earth, or Jesus Christ.”

The Southern roots of “the feast” are not only in homage to their religious beliefs, but an opportunity to showcase the fruits of the sea so readily available in this region from areas such as Puglia, Calabria and Campania (where Naples is located).

According to an article at www.saveur.com, “The dishes and the types of fish served for La Vigilia are ultimately dictated by geography. In Naples, for instance, the devout leave certain treats on the table overnight for the angel who heralds Christ's birth; for this reason, many dishes are vinegar-based to preserve them. Around Lake Como in the north, large trout, which are only fished during the holiday season, are common.” For the complete article, visit: http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/Feast-Of-The-Seven-Fishes .

For our feast, we’re combining these traditional dishes such as salt cod with tomatoes and capers, with elements that are less experimental, but completely “pesci” (and assuredly palatable to our Midwestern taste buds), such as “gamberini in sfoglia” (puff pastry shrimp) and crostini with lump crab salad. For dessert; homemade cannoli! The meal is sure to satisfy everyone, even those who aren’t “typical” seafood consumers!

Here’s another fun link to a video commentary by well-known chef Mario Batali on his own family history with the “feast”: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/holidays/christmas/batalisevenfishesvideos?currentvideo=5295883001 .

Finally, a recipe to share with you: This is what I’ve been assigned to make for the night. It’s super-simple and sounds amazing! Sometimes the most basic flavor combinations tend to produce the most delicious results; even absent of rich sauces and a lengthy list of ingredients. Here’s hoping it’s as good as it sounds. And if not, there will be plenty else to eat on our menu this Saturday! I’ll let you know how it goes, of course.

We found this recipe online at: http://www.epicurious.com/ :

Crostini with Lump Crab Salad and Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Epicurious | November 2007
Rick Tramonto
Reprinted with permission from Fantastico!
Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Rick Tramonto's book Fantastico!

Don't look any further for a succulent crab salad open-face sandwich. The little garlic toasts piled high with rich, moist crab can be polished off in one or two bites. I can't think of a better way to start a meal! Don't skimp on the crabmeat. You need only a pound, so buy the best you can find. Bon appétit!

Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh lump crabmeat
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 roasted red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
1 tablespoon torn fresh basil
Juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper

8 to 12 slices Rick's Basic Crostini

Preparation:

1. Pick through the crabmeat to remove any bits of shell. Transfer to a nonreactive bowl.

2. Add the 1/2 cup of olive oil, bell pepper, chives, basil, lemon juice and zest and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Top each crostini with about 1 tablespoon of the crab mixture. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.

A Recap of Last Season’s Best and Then on to This Year!

Our "Mad Men" dressed in
their 60's best for dinner!

Before jumping off into the culinary delights and good times with friends for this year, I thought I’d recap the highlights of last year’s Dinner Club season. We had six memorable meals, but there are always a few trips down memory lane that I find most entertaining, appetizing, etc.



Tomato and Gouda Soup



Among them were some dishes I’d never had before, but plan to prepare again because they were simply delish! The purpose of this blog is always to encourage others to cook and entertain themselves, but it also is to remind our group of some of the yummy things we’ve accomplished!



We had volcanoes, mai tai's and more
at our Luau Night!



The food at our Brazilian Churrascaria (see my blog entries from February 2011) was so interesting and some of it was new to me. I’ve eaten Churrasco-style food previously, but we really dug deep and tried to stay true to the authentic foods of this country, although we may have slightly “overdone it” when it came to portion size! Ouch!

I was not able to attend our Cheese Focused menu last season, but my dear friends took pictures and provided me with commentary on the food of that Dinner Club. Thanks everyone! The Brie with Caramelized Onions sounded divine! I intend to prepare it as part of my holiday cooking this year.

Some of our Disco-era attire!

Last season our group did two costumed events... One “all out” for our Night at the Disco; a fondue focused-feast (blog entries from January 2011) and one for our Mad Men dinner party where we toned it down a bit, but still had fun digging into the attire of the 1960’s as well as the foods (April 2011)!

Yes, last year was a good one, but we get better and better as the years fly by. Like fine wine, I think we’re aging with style! With that… on to this year’s Gretna Dinner Club Season. Our first menu is posted below for you to take a look at. I’ll begin later this week with more on the “Feast of the Seven Fishes”, a traditional Italian Christmas Eve meal and begin sharing some recipes with you as well. Thanks for reading!

The ladies at our Mad Men dinner party!

Here's the next menu:

I’m Baa-aack! Yes, it’s that time of year again. Dinner Club is about to begin!

Have you missed me? I know I’ve missed the food, the fun, and certainly some of my friends that I rarely get time with outside of our Dinner Club! Our first gathering is November 12^th this year and it seems like FOREVER since we’ve done this thing!

Our group typically plans to start in October, but life being what it is…. We simply could not find an October Saturday that worked for everyone this year. So, since I’m always preaching flexibility; this time I had to practice what I preach! We all did. Therefore, we’re having Dinner Club November through May this year. Whatever. Let’s get this party started!

With my computer, my calendar
and a few other materials I'm
ready to plan!



The first step on our way to a fantastic dinner club year is already behind us; our planning session. I know what you’re thinking – cue the Darth Vader music – “Planning session? That doesn’t sound like fun to me!” Yeah, yeah… I’ve been in this place before; defending our yearly evening of planning for what it is. And it is definitely not torture!

Here’s the short version. If you want to start a Dinner Club of your own, I’m thrilled for you and proud of you and wish you the best of times. If you want it to last, you want people to show up, you want it to be less stressful, more fun and less last-minute work… Have a planning session! Our group thought I was nuts the first year too.



I lay out cookbooks, food magazines,
etc.. along with our computers
for help if we need it.



That was SIX YEARS AGO! We just do it. We hammer it out. It’s a labor of love. Plus, (hello!) we make it fun! We bring our calendars, our computers, our drink of choice and we plan out our gatherings for the next six months. It takes us three to four hours to plan SIX MONTHS of good times together. We live through it every year and it’s WORTH IT!

This year I prepared a plate of my girlfriends’ favorite little nibbles; BLT stuffed tomatoes. I made some dip, put out chips and set it all up at my big dining room table where we could spread out and do our planning. Our group sat down together (they’ve all been fully on-board with the planning thing for forever now) and we came up with some really great stuff for this year!

They’re getting really good, by the way. These folks come with theme ideas, specific recipes they want to try, cuisines they’re interested in, television shows that inspire them… They really had their “@#$%” together this year, if you know what I mean? J

Don't plan without food! I made my BLT stuffed tomatoes
and some dip. Simple, but it makes it more fun!

I absolutely can’t wait to share with you! Thanks, by the way, for continuing to read. Next week, I’m recapping the highlights of last season and then it’s onward and upward. I will post our first menu for the year the first week of November! Stay tuned and thanks again!

Our Final Dinner Club of the Season Is in The Books!

Hors d'oeuvres table centerpiece!

Our “Mad Men Dinner” last Saturday marks the final meeting of this, our fifth year, of Dinner Club. We agreed with one another over our delicious meal that we’ve indeed gotten better as the years have gone by… Better at cooking, better at presenting, better at planning; we’re much better friends than we were five years ago. We’ve grown close as a group and comfortable with one another. Comfortable enough to make mistakes in our cooking or to wear a beehive hair-do to the dinner table without feeling self-conscious in the least!

This Dinner Club was terrific in so many ways; first, our host and hostess really put some thought into what their home would have looked like for a dinner party in the 1960’s. No, they didn’t go out and buy new furniture. However they did find a few thrift store buys, hand-me-down’s from their parents and borrowed items that set the scene perfectly.

Ash trays aplenty; check! Boxes of cigarettes (candy cigarettes); check! A fully stocked bar with all the trimmings; check! A centerpiece that screamed sixties, a beautifully set table… place cards; check, check and check! The centerpiece of the hors d’oeuvre table, was in fact, an enjoyably ridiculous 60’s spectacle that our hostess came across while doing some research online. (I LOVE that she did research online – and she’s not the only one – keep reading!)

The centerpiece consisted of an enormous pineapple with wooden picks protruding from it. On each pick was a series of pineapple chunks and maraschino cherries, ending with a cocktail weenie and finally a candle. After dinner, we all gathered for cocktails again near the bar and hors d’ oeuvres table where our hostess ceremoniously lit the candles for us all to admire! Hilarious!

We had some very traditional 60’s dishes that we had never before prepared, like the baked Alaska dessert, which was quite tasty indeed. The beef wellington entrée was served in a new, updated format  - as individually pastry wrapped portions – that maintained the classic vibe of the dish, while making it new, different, and easier to serve to a large group. Watch for more later this week on our hostess’ “Individual Beef Wellingtons”! It's a terrific company-worthy recipe to have onhand.

The star attraction of the meal was definitely our Caesar salad; prepared tableside for each of us just as restaurants more commonly did in times-gone-by. Our friend who prepared it had definitely done his “You Tube” research, as well, and knew his stuff! He explained, as he was preparing, just what he was incorporating and let me just say that this freshly-made preparation of a very traditional salad is the way to go. It is so delicious. You simply can’t have a pre-prepared salad or a bottled dressing that will “wow” you the way this does. I’ve done this at home for my family and it’s really not difficult. Do some research and give it a try yourself.

Well, folks... this is it for our Dinner Club season. I'll be taking a "blogging break" for a few months until it's time to gear up again for planning. Call it a summer vacation, if you will! When we're ready to plan for our 2011-2012 season, I'll be sure to pick up where I left off with the fun details for you on how and what we have in store for our 6th year of Gretna's Dinner Club!

Thanks for reading during the season. I hope you'll stay with me and use some of our ideas in the future!
Andrea

This bar setup  was well thought-out and
included all the little details... even drink
recipes of the times for us to try out!

The dining room table was beautifully set for
a proper dinner party of the time.

Martinis, Tom Collins, Old Fashioneds, Oh My!

What happened to the days of the cocktail? In our group they’re still alive and well; we try to incorporate a special mixed drink or two into most of our themed meals, but with the rise of the microbrew and California wines in this country, people are less likely to mix a drink from their living room wet bar these days… so it seems.

Yes, in the sixties, unless it was Riunite (introduced in the US in 1967), expensive - and often unaffordable - French wines, or Schlitz (a favorite of my parents back in the day) you had few choices other than to stir up a little something yourself! So what were the popular cocktails of the “Mad Men” era? Our hostess has done a little research and plans to provide us with the basics for Old Fashions (which I’ve also seen spelled “fashioned” – take your pick!), Tom Collins, Martinis and Mint Juleps. She happens to have most of the needed ingredients on hand, so she’s going to have a 60’s style bar for us to self-serve from! How nice she is!

Some other drinks that come to mind for me are the Highball, the Manhattan and the Boxcar. I’ve heard of these, and remember my grandfather referring to drinking Highballs, but what is in one exactly? According to my beloved www.wikipedia.org, “Highball is the name for a family of mixed drinks that are composed of an alcoholic base spirit and a larger proportion of a non-alcoholic mixer. Originally, the most common highball was made with Scotch whisky and carbonated water, which is today called a ‘Scotch and Soda’….The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests that the name originated around 1898 and probably derives from ball meaning a "drink of whiskey" and high because it is served in a tall glass.” (1)

I’ve included a couple of drink recipes below for you to try if you’re inspired to host your own “Mad Men” themed dinner. I know I’ve said it before, but you know I’ll say it here again: Try something new! Yes, I’ll revert back to my wine drinking ways once I sit down to dinner, but before dinner it’s all about the cocktail, darling!

Dinner Club is this Saturday, so I’ll make sure to follow up next week with my “best dish of the night” recipe as well as photos of our ensembles (mine is an attempt at “Holly Golightly” the main character from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s circa 1961! I’m no Audrey Hepburn, but I’ll have fun giving it a shot, complete with eyeliner, cigarette holder and up do if I can make it work! Wish me luck!).

Thanks for reading! Mix a cocktail this weekend, will you?

The Tom Collins
Found at: www.thebar.com
Ingredients:

• 1.5oz. Gin
• 1 oz. lemon or lime juice
• 1 teaspoon sweet and sour mix
• 1 splash club soda
• 1 slice orange

To prepare:

• In a shaker half filled with ice cubes, add gin, lemon or lime juice, and sweet and sour mix.
• Shake well.
• Strain into collins glass filled with ice.
• Add club soda and stir well.
• Garnish with maraschino cherry and orange slice.

The Manhattan

Found at: http://www.epicurious.com/
September 2009 by Clinton Kelly

Bourbon:
Bourbon is a type of whiskey that is only made in America from at least 51% corn. In that regard, it differs from Scotch and Irish whiskeys, which are made from malted barley. Rye whiskey is made from—you guessed it—rye. There's a helluva lot more you could learn on the subject of whiskeys, but you're not gonna learn it here. All you need to know is that good bourbon is delicious.

Ingredients:

Shaker with ice

Hearty shot of bourbon
Splash of sweet vermouth
Dash of bitters

Preparation:
Fill a shaker with ice.
Add a hearty shot of bourbon.
Add a splash of sweet vermouth and dash of bitters.
You can also add a few drops of maraschino cherry juice, whatever that stuff is.
Shake and strain into a martini glass, and garnish with a maraschino cherry. If you're lazy, or alone, just drink it on the rocks.

The Boxcar

Found at: www.esquire.com

Ingredients:Boxcar

• 2 ounces London dry gin
• 1/2 ounce Cointreau
• 1/2 ounce lime juice
• 1 egg whites 

Glass Type: cocktail glass

Instructions:

Shake ingredients well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass whose rim has been wet with lime juice and dipped in sugar.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/drinks/boxcar-drink-recipe#ixzz1Jd4VRgHn
(1) Quoted directly from Wikipedia.org

I’m “Mad” About Our Final Dinner Club of the Season!

Many of you may know and love the show “Mad Men”. We, as a group, definitely love their style! The hair, the clothing, the scotch during business meetings… those were the days, weren’t they?

In our planning for this year’s get-togethers, we all agreed that this show – quite a phenomenon in current pop culture – was a perfect opportunity at a “period” dinner. We’ve done them before, of course. Our “Last Night on the Titanic” dinner turned out terrific! We had a “Back to the Roaring 20’s” night that was quite the party as well.

For this one we envisioned the classic 1960’s dinner among friends; an era where people actually invited one another over for sit down meals occasionally as opposed to our more hectic lifestyles today. In our “Mad Men vision” our shining hostess would greet guests in her apron and make sure everyone is settled with a cocktail immediately. For those of you who have seen the show, you know there is never a shortage of scotch, martinis, highballs and other drinks of the time. Men and women wound down after their respective days at the home or office with a drink and an appetizer before a fairly elaborate meal (on the nights when they were entertaining, at least).

Luckily for our hostess on this particular 60’s sit-down, it’s Dinner Club, so she doesn’t have to slave away in the kitchen, alone, during the bulk of her fancy-pantsy dinner party! She can actually mingle and enjoy herself because we all share the work of cooking by contributing a part of the meal!

I’ve posted this month’s menu below. We’re having all of the traditional foods of a dinner party of the time, including beginning with a classic shrimp cocktail (recipe is shown below) and ending with baked Alaska (which I have never had – can’t wait to give it a shot!) Watch for more this week on some popular cocktails of the 1960’s and I’ll be posting follow-up photos as well.

By the way, for this one, we’re dressing for the occasion yet keeping it simple. Our group prefers to include only one “full out” costume extravaganza each Dinner Club season. Since we planned for our “Night at the Disco” to be that evening (and it was “full out” and hilarious) for this get-together we’ve left it up to each couple to decide for themselves how far they want to go. If they’ve already got something they can make work in their closet (as I plan to do) – great! Some have picked up a thrift store item or two to present themselves at their 1960’s best! Either way, we haven’t made any significant effort or financial investment in our wardrobe for this one. We simply plan to enjoy a classy cocktail-ridden affair featuring some great food and fantastic friends!

Here’s our menu for the evening (for the shrimp cocktail recipe – see down the page further!):

The Shrimp Cocktail

Found on: www.foodnetwork.com
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 32 shell-on (21 to 25 count) tiger shrimp

For the brine:

• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups ice

For the cocktail sauce:

• 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1/2 cup prepared chili sauce
• 4 tablespoons prepared horseradish
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Few grinds fresh black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Sprinkle Old Bay seasoning

Directions: Using a pair of scissors or a serrated knife, make an incision down the backside of the shrimp, following the intestinal track. Eviscerate shrimp and rinse under cool water leaving shells intact.

Place cleaned shrimp into a bowl with brine and refrigerate mixture for 20 to 25 minutes. While shrimp are brining, place tomatoes, chili sauce, horseradish, sugar, pepper, and salt in food processor and blend until smooth. Refrigerate cocktail sauce until ready to serve.
Place a baking sheet or broiler pan under oven broiler and preheat for 5 minutes. Remove shrimp from brine and drain thoroughly. Rinse the shrimp under cold water and dry on paper towels. In a large bowl, toss shrimp with olive oil and sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning, if desired.
Place shrimp onto a sizzling sheet pan and return to broiler immediately. After 2 minutes, turn the shrimp with a pair of tongs. Return the shrimp to broiler for 1 minute. Transfer to a cold cookie sheet. Refrigerate immediately.
Once shrimp have chilled, arrange with cocktail sauce in a martini glass or as desired.

A Few Notes on Our “Best Dish” of the Night… Then It’s On To Our Final Dinner Club of the Year (In My Next Posting!)

I promised a few tidbits on what I thought was our “best dish” for aphrodisiac night, the “Pepper Crusted Beef with Chocolate Port Sauce”. Let me start by saying that this was divine. It was full-flavored beefy and the sauce did not overwhelm our appreciation of an expensive cut of meat.

Our beef entree, alongside "Gratin Dauphinois" and
sauteed broccoli rabe! Delicious!

The sauce sounds heavy and cloying, but upon further inspection of the recipe (which I posted in my blog on March 21^st) you’ll notice that the port is boiled down to its very essence and the chocolate is but a hint of said flavor, stirred in as a final step to deepen and to thicken the sauce. The flavors of beef and rosemary – excellent with meat – are ever present and very well balanced.

We all agreed it was delectable; so much so for me that I’m actually considering replacing my yearly Christmas Eve beef tenderloin recipe with this one! Mmmmm! So, a few notes on adapting the original recipe to make it more suitable (and easier to prepare) for a large group:

Let’s talk beef tenderloin for a second. A few years ago I watched an episode of Good Eats, featuring Alton Brown of the Food Network. He gave instructions at that time for dry aging your own meat in the refrigerator to “beef up” the flavor. I’ve been doing this for awhile now, and for every recipe I prepare from whole tenderloin as well as for whole standing rib roasts.

Besides the fact that the meat reduces in water weight and deepens in its rich, beefy flavor, it also is something you do AHEAD; therefore it adds to the advance preparation that makes any dinner party easier to prepare for. If you would like to read up on Alton’s process, as I did, you can simply search “dry aging beef at home, Alton Brown” on Google. A few of his recipes come up for you to look at.

For my part, I simply clean the tenderloin VERY well (I hate any remaining connective tissue on my meat), tie it if necessary and place it on a rack in a deep pan so it can release moisture. I cover the pan with aluminum foil and use the end of a wooden spoon to poke holes in the foil to allow air to circulate over, around and underneath the meat. I place it in the coldest part of my refrigerator and leave it for up to four days before I continue with my recipe. Try this! You end up with much more flavorful meat; of the quality you would expect from higher grades often available only to restaurants.

Long story short, for this recipe (which was written for two, when I needed to prepare it for 12) my husband simply grilled the prepared beef – brushed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper – until done, at which point we rested it, sliced it and served it with the amazing sauce. Nothing about the flavors of the recipe was changed; simply the method of preparation to make it MUCH easier to serve twelve people relatively hot beef tenderloin!

As for the sauce, although it did not specifically note in the recipe that it could be prepared in advance, I did in fact do that as well… Nearly any sauce can be prepared somewhat early; especially one that is stock-based such as this. As a matter of fact, I believe that most sauces have a chance to deepen in flavor – much like soups – if prepared in advance. This one was no exception. I simply followed the directions up to just before the introduction of the chocolate (the only part that I feared wouldn’t hold well) and then placed the sauce in the refrigerator. Just before dinner, I pulled the sauce out, reheated it on the stovetop and whisked in the chocolate. Voila! No effort at the last minute to finish and serve!

I hope these tips help you. They can be applied to so many different recipes and meals. The basic point is this: Be unafraid to find your own way with recipes. The things I changed didn’t affect the flavor outcome of the dish (except possibly for the better) and I kept my sanity intact with eleven others hungrily awaiting their entrée at the table!

ENJOY your cooking and good luck!