June dinner group reviews

[Jessica]

Well, we don't plan our menus ahead of time, and we ended up with quite the carbo load at our June dinner--this rarely happens. I doubt this was very light in terms of calories but we had a great time.

Appetizer: vegetarian sushi rolls from June. These were delicious with a little soy sauce. The rice had a creamier texture than it does at many sushi places. The woman who made them said they were easy and hers looked very professional to me.

Main course: Black bean tacos from June. Our cooks made a few changes--subbed in chicken instead of seitan and skipped the avocado salsa in favor of a jarred salsa. These black beans are AMAZING--I think the sherry adds a depth to the flavor. I could have eaten them plain or as a dip. I will be making them at home soon.

Sides (here come more carbs): Confetti Rice from the Five-Star Cookbook. Plain rice with multicolored peppers and cumin. Pretty and very tasty--a little zip but not enough to overpower a well-spiced main course.

Fingerling Potato and Prosciutto Salad: This has rich flavors and the prosciutto adds a nice salty tang. The dressing is sort of thick, though.

Corn and Squash Saute from the Website: This is a mild side and I would recommend it only if you have fresh corn to use. You need the flavor of the corn. If I made this dish I would omit the cheese--it adds fat and did not add much flavor. This would be good with a spicy chicken or pork dish.

Desserts: Peanut Butter Banana Pie from June. Our chef accidentally omitted the bananas, so the result was PB pie. We gave it three cheers--loved the cookie crust and the texture of the filling. It might be good with bananas, too :)

Chocolate Zucchini Cake from June. This is a very dense cake and I recommend serving it in thin slices. I could not eat even half my piece. The zucchini really moistens the cake and it does not have a veggie taste to it at all.

[Angela]

Hi! We just had our June cooking group dinner this past Saturday. I used to regularly post what we had, but I've slacked off. Here's our menu:

Stuffed Mushrooms--sorry, don't know the issue it was in. I don't like mushrooms, but these were very good. The breading was nice, not too mushy, not too crumbly, and we all thought the stuffing was great--parmasan and cream cheese.

Arugula Salad with Shrimp and Grapes--June 2002. This was my contribution and it was easy to make. Also a yummy dish. My grocery store didn't have arugula so I used baby spinach. Definitely would make this again.

Chicken Souvlaki Salad--June 2002. I made this 2 weeks ago and wasn't impressed, but this time it tasted better. Not sure why. Very tasty.

Malaysian Chicken Pizza--June 2002. We were divided on this dish. We liked it, but some thought it was too sweet, others thought the peanut butter taste/flavor was too pronounced. We all thought that we wouldn't make it again.

Peanut Butter-Banana Cream Pie--June 2002. We all loved this! In fact I'm going to make it this weekend. Some thought the crust would be better with graham crackers.

Hot Cross Buns-- CL Complete. I was in the mood to knead and bake and I had all the ingred. on hand. These didn't get rave reviews--comments were "These are good." I used dried cranberries instead of dried currants because that is what I had on hand. They were fairly easy to make, but I don't think any of us would repeat.

[jjsooner73]

Our Supper Club was a few weeks ago. We don't do formal reviews (maybe because we don't yet know each other well?). We had a Cuban theme and everything seemed to go over very well. Some things are light, some are not.

Mango Salsa w/ sweet potato chips
Yummy! This was very delicious and refreshing. It's a CL recipe

Shrimp w/ a Ceviche Dip Epicurious
Another hit.

Plaintain Soup I made this and didn't really like it. Everyone else said they liked it. The hostess' 4 year old at a bowl full the next day, so he liked it! The plantains didn't add anything, IMO.

Cuban Potato Salad Food Network
I loved this, but it wasn't light!

Avocado Salad
This was pretty good to. How can you go wrong w/ avocado?

Mojo Pork Tenderloin w/ Mango Papaya salsa Food Network
Very Tasty; the pork was good enough to go w/o the salsa

Mango Cake
Yum!!!

Mojitos CL
These were bland and not at all like the wonderful Mojitas at Cuba Libre' (A Dallas restaurant). We ended up making sugar syrup to sweeten it more.

You can get recipes at my webpage
Supper Club Page (http://www.geocities.com/jenburnes/SupperClub.html)

[Peggy]

It's great to see Supper Club dinner reviews again!! I have definately been slacking off myself and haven't posted any for awhile. I was out of town for our June dinner so don't have anything to report. I will make an effort to post the results of the July dinner.

Thank you all for sharing your reviews and taking the time to post!

Peggy

[dcornelius]

One of our members couldn't make it but she brought over some wonderful crab cakes for us all to enjoy in her absence. We also enjoyed turkey jambalaya, crawfish etouffe and chocolate bourbon cream pie for desert. It was all great! Not all the recipies came from CL but if they were a personal recipe they lightened it to the best of their ability. This is the general rule of thumb at our gatherings we like to try ad keep it light just to prove to ourselves that light can be really good!

[andrea]

where's the MANGO CAKE recipe??? please post, if you can! TIA

[jjsooner73]

click here for the Mango Cake Recipe:
http://www.geocities.com/jenburnes/mangocake.html

[nlh]

Hola! We had our supper club's second dinner this past weekend and here's what we had for our Cuban dinner:

Appetizer: Black bean fritters with sour cream dipping sauce (these were awesome! Didn't need the sour cream.)

Sangria: This just wasn't a huge hit. I drank 3 glasses (more than anyone else and by evening's end had a headache---the cheap wine you think?) Anyway, it was a cool evening and I don't know if it was that or what but it just wasn't the hit I had hoped it to be. (I think I should've gone with rum drinks with umbrellas.)

Main Dish: Pork Tenderloin with Mango/Papaya salsa. This was really good. Our recipe was from Epicurious and it directed that the marinade be wiped off the pork before roasting. How can you wipe off 10 cloves of garlic in good conscious?? So, we didn't. Very flavorful and juicy. We roasted it in the oven with the lid on the roaster and I think it would've cooked faster (the recipe said 40 minutes but it took about an hour and 15 because of the lid).

I hadn't made a fruit salsa before and it was a refreshing compliment to the pork. Would make both again.

Sides: Yuca with Garlic Sauce. Very good. The lime you squeeze over this gives it a slight tang. Very authentic to some my Cuban friend has made. It looks like white potatoes but the texture is firmer and chewy sort of.

Cuban Style Sweet Potatoes. Sweet potatoes are roasted in olive oil, salt and pepper and tossed with lime, garlic and parsley. Mmmmm.

Dessert: Carmelized Banana Creme Pie. This was absolutely heavenly! I don't have the recipe for it yet but we were told it has cream in it and wasn't exactly light. Chocolate cookie crust, bananas in dark rum, a cream layer and topped with light cool whip. Wow!

We're all still getting to know each other but I think we're going to have a fun group. We're from all parts of the country originally and have a lot of different interests and I think we're going to learn a lot from each other.

[Jewel]

Originally posted by nlh
Appetizer: Black bean fritters with sour cream dipping sauce (these were awesome! Didn't need the sour cream.)

nlh, is this a CL recipe? I'd love to see a copy of it if you have one handy! :) Sounds really good!

[JHolcomb]

Originally posted by Jewel


nlh, is this a CL recipe? I'd love to see a copy of it if you have one handy! :) Sounds really good!

I don't think they were light...I think they were fried...but they were GOOD!

As was everything else :D

[magdon]

Wow- great menus & reviews! I was especially impressed with jjsooner73's web page.

Question for everyone: why don't you post these reviews on the Supper Club Exchange page? I love reading them but I'm not fond picking through the massive amounts of posts on the Great Food list. Just curious. I'll continue to read them & be delighted & get ideas wherever they are.

[Holly in KC]

No offense to Magdon, but may I cast a dissenting vote? I RARELY read the supper club posts, and LOVE to read about the menus / successes / failures (or not so successful dishes ;) ) from supper club members. I'd be interested in what others have to say, but I really like reading the posts on this page!!!

[JHolcomb]

Originally posted by Holly in KC
No offense to Magdon, but may I cast a dissenting vote? I RARELY read the supper club posts, and LOVE to read about the menus / successes / failures (or not so successful dishes ;) ) from supper club members. I'd be interested in what others have to say, but I really like reading the posts on this page!!!

Same here. I look at the Supper Club Hub as well, a hub. A foodie dating service, if you will :p. You know, a place to meet up with others in your area that share your interests. But I think the reviews belong on this board.

[magdon]

No offense taken; I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know. Plus, I'm pretty sure that I'm the dissenting vote, given the number of posts on the S.C.Exchange forum. I do think the geographic forums are the "dating" place (excellent analogy) but I see the Exchange forum as the place to Exchange ideas, menus, etc. once you've got going. I'll keep an eye out for y'all over here. Thanks for the input!

[Angela]

I used to post my cooking groups reviews on the Supper Club Exchange page and it didn't get many 'hits' or replies. I hated typing out all the review and then have hardly anyone look at it. There just isn't enough activity in that forum. I think it's great on the Great Food forum.