What we did over summer vacation

Susan started the season with a Backyard Barbecue (ribs) on her back patio in May, and we brought picnic foods:  fruit salad, marinated vegetable salad, potato salad, deviled eggs, cookies and ice cream.  A sampling of recipes:

Zesty Marinated Vegetables - Pamm

Deviled Eggs (as Bruce makes them) - Amy

Corn & Veggie Salad with Lime-Cilantro Dressing - Keri actually brought this to a different gathering (not chicks), but it’s a great salad recipe so we’ll share it here! 

Edisto 2009

Late May found us once again in Edisto, eating eating eating!  (A little talking too.)  Click on the group photo (right) to see a mini-album of the Edisto trip, including pictures from the beautiful Steamboat Landing nature preserve.

In July we went out to eat at Global Restaurant, which we highly recommend!  (No pictures, because all we had was a cellphone camera! 

And in August, Keri hosted us for a “Sizzlin’ Summer Super Secret Ingredient Supper” — complete with surPRIZES for everyone to take home, thanks to the most generous chick we got.  Keri challenged us to prepare dishes that contain an ingredient that might be a challenge to identify (yes, they were hard to identify).  Especially if you wouldn’t know the name of it even if you saw the item in the produce section, Wendy.  Surprise ingredient recipes:

Click here for Amy’s dish:  Black-Eyed-Pea Fritters with Hot Pepper Relish, from Epicurious.com.  (The ground black-eyed peas as the secret ingredient.)

Click here for Susan’s dish:  Oxtail Soup with Red Wine and Root Vegetables, from Epicurious.com.  (The oxtail as the secret ingredient.)

Baked Ham with Wine Poached Plums - Keri (star anise as the secret ingredient)

Radicchio Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette - Pamm (fresh marjoram leaves as the secret ingredient)

Saute’d Choyote - Wendy (the choyote as the secret ingredient).  This was a new vegetable for all of us, and very unusual.  Choyote is in the squash family, but has a texture and flavor all its own.  It tends to take on the flavor of whatever you cook it in or with, in this case onion, garlic, and vinegar.  This is not so much a recipe as a method:

4 choyotes, peeled & sliced thin (include the edible pit in the slicing)
3 T. butter or olive oil, or combination
2 T. minced garlic
3 shallots or green onions, minced
1 t. fine herbs or T. fresh parsley (or any favorite herb blend)
good vinegar (cider or rice wine are good)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute’ the choyote, garlic and onion in butter/oil for 5 minutes over med-high heat.  Add the vinegar and herbs, salt & pepper; cover and simmer to reduce liquid and soften the choyote to desired consistency.  Choyote has a crunch like water chestnuts or apples when lightly cooked, or softer consistency like regular squash when cooked longer.  Most cooks prefer a slight crunch after cooking (not soft).

A Quick Catch-up on Spring Chicks – part 2

Mediterranean Cruise at Amy's

APRIL took us on a Mediterranean Cruise–at Amy’s house.  The fare was first class, and the chicks were dressed for the occasion!  Amy asked us to bring dishes inspired by cuisine of the Mediterranean, with a beautiful Moussaka as the main dish.  Be sure to click on the group photo to see the rest of the pix for this event (click on the first one and scroll through)…’cause we got dressed up, and everything!

Three of the recipes are featured or linked below.

Cindi's missing... but what a nice group shot!

Moussaka – from Amy (click for picture and recipe pdf)

A traditional Greek (mediterranean) dish with eggplants and lamb (or beef, if you prefer) in a tomato sauce, with a creamy sauce on top.  Hearty and delicious!

 

Silky Brie Soup

Silky Brie Soup

An elegant, subtle, and yes SILKY soup – from Keri

 6 T. butter
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup celery, sliced
2 cups chicken broth
1 wheel brie cheese, cut up
5 medium red bliss potatoes, cut in chunks
2 cups light cream
1 cup good dry white wine
Fresh chives

Saute onion and celery in butter.  Add broth and cheese (including white outside skin). 

Boil potatoes in water until soft; add potatoes to cheese mixture. 

Remove from stove and puree in food processor until very smooth. 

Return to stove, add cream and mix until heated through. 

Add wine; mix and heat throughly. 

Serve with fresh chives.

Tunisian couscous with meat and vegetables- from Mary (click for recipe pdf)

A side dish or easily a main dish, with chicken, beef, or lamb (may omit if using for a side dish) and vegetables (including pumpkin or squash).  Mary adds, “I think it was good, but a lot of work.  It would be worth doing it again if it was the only thing you served for the meal.  It’s pretty labor intensive with all the chopping of the vegetables.”

Party shoes!

A Quick Catch-up on Spring Chicks – part 1

Mary's new art medium: pizza toppings!

Sorry to be so far behind in posting, but the dinnerchicks blog editor has been one busy girl this spring and summer!  The next few entries will be a fairly quick retrospect, just to keep the archives complete:

In March, Buffy had all of us bring pizza toppings (the more gourmet, the better), and Amy mixed us up a big batch of homemade pizza crust dough (recipe below).  While munching on Keri’s “Sweet Chix Bacon Wraps” (recipe link below), we had fun combining toppings and cheeses for custom pizza creations, and ended up with about six different versions of home-made pizza!

A side of salad with Cindi’s homemade dressing (recipe link below) and Mary’s very special ice cream sandwiches…I remember leaving this one particularly stuffed, and now I see why.

  

Sweet Chix Bacon Wraps  (from Keri)

  Simple appetizers – just four ingredients, broiled on a skewer in your oven.  You probably have the ingredients on hand.  Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

Italian Bread (or pizza) Dough (from Amy)
      This is taken from a recipe book that is a collection of recipes from a sister of a friend of mine who is a missionary.  Her name is Debbie Peck.  She’s collected recipes from her family and missionary friends.  They’re all great, and most are fairly simple.   I use this one for focaccia, as well, which I love more than pizza!

 2 ½ c. warm water (usually around 105-110 degrees)
1 T. sugar
1 T. active dry yeast
2 tsp. salt
6 ½ – 7 cups unbleached flour (I usually use half bread flour)

I mix the sugar in with the warm water, then sprinkle the yeast on top.  Wait about 5 minutes until it gets bubbly, then add salt and add about 2-3 cups of flour.  When well incorporated, then add 1 cup of flour at a time until mixed together.  I use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and when the dough forms a ball, should not be too sticky to touch.  I continue to mix for a few more minutes – may need to add a bit of flour more. 

Grease a bowl and put the dough ball into it, turning to coat all sides with the oil.  Cover with a towel and set in a barely warm oven, or over a warm bowl of water to rise for 1 ½  to 2 hours, until double in size.

Punch down – if using for bread, divide in half and place in greased loaf pans and let rise again for about an hour, until doubled.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

If using for pizza dough, can make 2-3.  Shape and let rest for about 10 minutes.  Heat oven to about 425, bake pizza dough for 10 minutes, then apply toppings and return to oven.  When outer crust is browned, remove from oven (could be 10-20 minutes).
 

Garlic Dressing (for salads)  (from Cindi)

A tangy dressing you can whip up in your food processor any time from ingredients on hand.  This would also make a great dip for breads or for meat appetizers.

Coastal Dinner, Canadian Rockies Style

Inspired by an article in a certain magazine for women over a certain age (not that she’s OLD or anything…), MARY hosted us for a dinner themed on the Pacific northwest’s penchant for fresh seafood and local (in some cases wild) ingredients. 

We started with a soup that could easily be a fantastic meal in itself:  Whiskey Smoked Salmon Chowder.  Then while Mary fried up the crabcakes, Buffy served Summit Salad (2 colors of shredded cooked beets made this salad special — and we figured out that probably where the recipe says “roasted sunflower seeds” it means the kernels).  The crabcakes were then served hot right out of the skillet, accompanied by Sun-Dried Tomato and Fennel Chutney, wild rice with wild mushrooms, Haricots Verts with Herbed Butter, and grain bread from a local bread market.  Mountain Brownies with fresh strawberries dipped in white chocolate were the perfect ending.  All of this was set on a beautiful tablescape crafted by our favorite artist herself.

Copyright laws technically prevent me from copying the recipes verbatim here, and More Magazine doesn’t seem to publish the recipes online.  But if you want the full menu and recipes, they were published in the Feb. 2009 issue.  Or you can contact a chick, and we can share our copy with you, offline.

Some time I’ll wax political and sarcastic about the silly regulations about reproducing recipes online.  We want to be professional and ethical, which sometimes means that we can’t share proprietary recipes verbatim (though there are time-consuming methods of getting around the silly rules, which seem pedantic and pointless to me, but here I am waxing all political and sarcastic, which I don’t have time for…).

Awesome meal, Mary.  And Cindi, we missed you!

A Sweetheart of a Valentines Party

And the party was just as cheesy as that headline.  Keri pulled out all the stops for this ultra-traditional, ultra Hallmark-cards-style party:  dress red and pink, and expect paper cut-out hearts.  LOTS of them.

Dinner was incredible, of course…starting with the red cocktails complete with battery-lit “ice cubes” (flashing, of course), and ending with just the SWEETest red velvet heart-sprinkled cupcakes.  Chicks put the roosters to shame with their knowledge of all things male (male trivia, that is…).  Though John did surprise us with his knowledge of chick flicks and what YSL stands for in ladies’ cosmetics.

Keri and John, you guys sure know how to host a party!!

 

Magic Skillets!

Cindi hosted us last night with a challenge: get out your trusty iron skillet, and create every part of the meal using the skillet in some way. This was challenging for some dishes (dessert?) — but of course the Chix rose to the occasion. The list of dishes is below, along with recipes for some (asterisked).  I’ll update this post with recipes as I get them, so keep checking.  Cindi’s buttermilk fried chicken was a clear winner. We also brought canned goods to share with those for whom a dinner like ours is only a pipe dream, and brainstormed ways we can purpose this year to bring the blessing of food and fellowship to those who desperately need it. Finally, Cindi challenged us with a skillet quiz. (Do you know the real reason why the classic iron skillet has tapered–not upright–sides?)

Our Menu  (*some are available as pdf – click for links)

Ricotta Fritters (appetizer)
Skillet-roasted Pine Nuts & Legumes in Lime-Cilantro dressing on Fresh Spinach*  (Buffy notes: the beans, corn and pine nuts in this salad combine to create 19 grams of protein per serving (great for Vegan diets!!).
Buttermilk Fried Chicken
Caramelized Onions, Mushrooms and Noodles
Skillet-roasted Corn and Tomatoes
Betty’s Cracklin’ Cornbread in a Skillet (photo and family recipe below)*
Shallot-sherry Chicken Gravy (Wendy’s improvisation)*
Chocolate Gingerbread with Simmered Oranges (click here for the recipe from Better Homes & Gardens, Jan. 2009)
 
Betty’s Cracklin’ Cornbread (A family recipe from Pamm’s mother-in-law)

Put 6 T. of oil in a large cast-iron skillet.  Heat skillet & oil to 400 degrees in oven.

 

 

Blend:
2 c. corn meal mix
2/3 cup self-rising flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 T. sugar
1 plus cups of buttermilk.
(Mix and let rise 5 minutes or so.)

Pour ½ of the oil from the skillet into the batter; keep skillet & remaining oil hot.
Add desired amount of cracklin’s to batter (up to 1 c. cracklin’s, or you can substitute cooked bacon, chopped in bits).  Fold into batter.

Pour batter into hot oily skillet and bake at 400-425 for 20 plus minutes until browned.

What a great idea: a SOUP exchange!

Someone referred me to her friend’s website, containing a GREAT idea for a food gathering.  These girls are on to something, because really, who needs more cookies during the holidays??  Exchange something hearty and healthy instead:  SOUP!  Check it out HERE.

I got all my sisters and me!

Dinner Chicks, November 2008

Dinner Chicks is a group of great cooks and also good friends, in and around Charlotte, NC.  Our group roster has changed only a little over the last five years or so of monthly gatherings, and we have become each other’s extended family.  We share more than meals and recipes; we share each other’s lives.  We also share a deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and our meals are celebrations of his goodness to us.  You can view more pictures of our trips, meals, tables and fun by using the links over on the right.  (When the window opens, click on “slideshow.”) 

The ground rules for DinnerChicks are simple:  all members are expected to make Chicks a priority, and guard their schedules accordingly.  We try to meet on a set Monday night each month, but we sometimes change to accommodate chicks’ travel schedules or unavoidable business meetings.  We take turns hosting the meals in our homes:  the hostess chooses a theme, and prepares the main dish, drinks, and setting.  She assigns what kind of accompaniments are needed from the other chicks:  a salad, a green vegetable, a potato dish, dessert, etc. – the number of side dishes depends on the number of chicks expected that month.  Sometimes we mandate particular dishes or suggest recipes that complement the main dish, and sometimes we let people search for ideas and recipes themselves, within the given theme.

We also have established a few other traditions:  an annual “chicks and roosters” Christmas party (inviting the husbands), an annual trip to one chick’s beach house in Edisto, SC.  We also go out to eat occasionally, and get together often to celebrate family milestones, such as a recent double-shower for one member’s daughter and daughter-in-law who were expecting babies at the same time; and a 50th surprise birthday party for another member’s husband.

On this site we hope to chronicle our memories and meals, recipes, photos of us and our tables and centerpieces — mostly for us to enjoy, but we hope it will inspire Dinnerchicks blog visitors to form a group yourself and enjoy the gift of friendship, food and fun that such a group provides.  Please feel free to leave comments!