soup dujour

1/16/08 cooking club was awesome! I want to say thanks to everyone being conscious of the dietary needs of our diverse group. Vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy free, am I leaving anything out? I almost cried. The way that people come together is so amazing sometimes. xoxo Karen M.

Soup-stravaganza

The theme was "New Year's Resolutions" and it seems that many of us resolved to eat more soup. Or maybe we just felt like soup because it was so freakin cold outside. With four kinds of soup plus ice cream, I used my bowl more than I ever have at a cooking club.

Chunky Corn Soup (www.wailana.com)

3 cups potatoes, diced
1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
3 cups water

1 Tbsp. butter
2 1/2 cups corn kernels, fresh or frozen
1 cup zucchini or string beans, diced
1 stalk celery, sliced
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 cup milk
1/2 Tbsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. dried basil
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, minced
1/4 cup fresh chives, chopped

1. In a large saucepan bring the potatoes, 1 cup corn, and water to a boil. Cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes until soft. Mash the potatoes and corn slightly, allowing them to break up a little but not completely.

2. While the potatoes are cooking, melt the butter in a skillet on medium heat. Add the 2 1/2 cups corn, zucchini, celery, and onion and sauté until the vegetables are tender.

3. Add the sautéed vegetables to the potato mixture. Stir in the milk and the seasonings and mix well. Add a little more liquid if necessary. Gently reheat, then serve.

Serves 10

I resolve to go to the next Cooking Club- "Cooking to Song Lyrics"

kisses!
-becca

Free Cooking Demonstrations!

I realize that not everyone would be as addicted to the Food Network as I would be- if I had cable. However, my usual Saturday morning routine to to exhaustively watch the cooking shows on PBS.

Then I learned about Fresh City Life's series of free events through the Denver Public Library, including cooking demonstrations on- of course, Saturday mornings! Nearly every Saturday at 10:30am, a local chef will show you how to make something fabulous in the basement conference room of the Central Library Branch. Isn't that exciting?

This week, the demo is French cocktail party/amuse bouche sorts of items. Or so I gathered from the somewhat cryptic description on the DPL website (under Fresh City Life).

Best of all, you get to eat the stuff afterwards.

--Becky G.

Let's get drunk on food

Instead of posting about the most recent recipe I brought to cooking club, I thought I would start with the very first thing I brought almost two years ago.

The theme was "Cooking with Alcohol" and I actually brought two dishes (wow I used to be an over achiever)

Pears in Red Wine (from Chefs.com)

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
6 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup plus 3 Tbsps. granulated sugar
2/3 cup plus 2 Tbsps. water
2/3 cup plus 2 Tbsps. red wine
1 lemon, zest peeled
1 orange, zest peeled
2 cinnamon sticks
2 cloves
6 ripe pears, peeled
whipped cream, to serve

Directions:

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan over a low heat. Cook stirring until sugar has dissolved. Add wine, lemon and orange zest, cinnamon sticks and cloves. Simmer 4-5 minutes. Add pears to syrup and poach, covered, 8-10 minutes or until pears are tender. Remove pears,strain syrup and serve with cream.

Beer Bread (from CDkitchen.com)

Ingredients:
3 cups self-rising flour*
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
12 ounces beer (or substitute non-alcoholic beer)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and thoroughly grease the inside (bottom all four sides) of a single loaf pan. Reserve. In a large mixing bowl, sift flour and sugar together. Add grated cheddar cheese and chopped green onions. Thoroughly mix all ingredients together. Add beer and stir until the ingredients are uniformly moistened. Spoon bread dough mixture into a well-greased loaf pan. Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until the loaf is golden brown and emits a hollow sound when tapped. Cool on a wire rack, and store in an airtight container. May freeze for up to 90 days. Slice to serve.

*Or you may substitute with 3 cups all purpose flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt.

love from the kitchen, becca

Space Monkeys and Salsa

At least half of the fun of cooking club is the conversations that take place while we are sampling the delicious dishes our friends have prepared. Last night, I mentioned the space monkeys who will climb the carbon nano-tube space elevators to place satellites in outer space in the future and was quite surprised to discover that none of the people in my vicinity knew anything about the space elevator development projects or the 'space monkeys' as we like to call them. Since the theme was the Harvest Moon festival, I think discussing space was quite theme- appropriate. I have no idea how this topic even came up, but the popularity of developing carbon nano-tube space elevators has certainly surpassed that of jet packs, so they are definitely something to take note of.
I'll let the nova video in this link explain it to you since I am certainly no legitimate scientist.
lets just say I always imagined the 'climber' as a space monkey...its only natural.

Here's a summary of how last night's roasted corn and tomato salsa came together - its another one of my last-ditch efforts when my elaborate plan that actually fit the theme fell through:

Space Monkey Salsa:
4 cobs of corn
4-6 Heirloom Tomatoes
1 jalapeno
2 cloves of garlic
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 white onion, diced
salt

• Quarter the tomatoes, roast them along with the jalapeno and garlic in one pan for at least 45 min. at 400 deg.

• While these are roasting, boil the corn for 10 min. on the stove top, remove and allow to cool for a few minutes.

• Slice the kernels off of the cobs and then saute the corn along with a few slices of one of the tomatoes, a small bit of onion, and an additional clove of garlic in a small amount of olive oil.

• Remove the tomatoes from the oven, discard the skins, and throw into the food processor for a quick spin.

• Combine all ingredients, add salt, and serve with chipotle cheddar quesadillas made from fresh tortillas and a bag of chips which is sitting on your counter.

--Cindy

First Cooking Club Blog Post!

Hey Cookers and Eaters!

This is the first post of the Fancy Cooking Club Blog!

OK, so here is how I think that this should work:

1. Cooking Club members can log on at any time (I will send the log-in info in a separate e-mail) and add recipes, pictures or stories from Cooking Club.

2. When you post, in the labels section put your name, the theme and the name of the food (for recipes). Also, if you got the recipe from somewhere (a cookbook, website, your mom) make sure to cite that place with the recipe.

3. We will all be admins and responsible for making sure that people are posting responsibly (no inappropriate content, keep to the general theme of cooking and cooking club). If you feel like changing the colors, style or template, adding things to the profile or changing anything, please do.

4. Post as little or as often as you would like. Feel free to post recipes from past cooking club. If you don't remember the themes or what you brought, some of that info is saved in the evites.

5. Yeah, cooking club!

love, becca