Astranoir

Last Monday was food club. Our theme was casseroles:

Brandon made an eggy, spinachy bread bake:

Maggie made Paula Deen’s chocolate bread pudding (recipe here):

Marisa made a white lasagna (recipe here):

Maggie S. and Karla made a casserole with brown rice, muenster and greens:

Max and Jenna made a ratatouille with fennel sauce on the side:

Tyler made a red lasagna with quinoa:

I made a tuna noodle casserole (let me know if you want the recipe):

I hosted food night at my house this evening.  Turnout was a bit sparse, but we knew that it would be ahead of time, so we just decided to make hand foods/finger foods.  As always, everything was delicious.  We ate pretty quickly, so I have some pictures of my food that I took previously, and then a couple quick shots that I took after-the-fact.

I decided to try making savory scones.  I had never made scones of any type before, but this recipe really caught my eye, so I tried it out.  I didn’t use fresh dill because I couldn’t find any (I used some dried dill weed), but I otherwise stuck pretty close to the recipe.

Brandon brought cucumbers stuffed with cheese, sour cream, walnuts, and paprika.  Crisp, refreshing, and delicious.

Drew brought a few things: some lemon curd from a previous dinner party, fruit skewers, and polenta.  The texture of the polenta was fantastic.  I think he said it was from local yellow and green corn that had been milled nearby.  Yum!

After eating, we watched Hot Fuzz, which is always awesome!  Overall an enjoyable night.

Tonight’s food club theme was “raw food.”  I brought all my components in containers so I could frost the cake when we got together.

In addition to the carrot goji cake I brought, people brought a surprising variety of food including zucchini “pasta,” apple butter, curried coleslaw, borsht, shrimp ceviche, and gazpacho.

All the food was delicious, check out this Flickr for more pictures!

While I had fun with raw food this evening, I don’t think it’s something I could do as a lifestyle, or even often.  It’s kind of exhausting remembering which nuts/legumes/etc. have already been cooked at high heat before I even buy them.  It did help me be more mindful of my food, though, which is generally great!

Sorry I didn’t include Brandon’s dessert.  I didn’t get a picture of it, and couldn’t remember what it was called