COOKING CHALLENGE

We were taking holiday gifts to all of our neighbors and spent a few minutes talking with Mary and Ken who belong to more of a supper club than a cookbook club. What they and their friends have been doing for 33+ years is pick a theme for the dinner. The host gets to choose the menu and put together the recipes. They have often decorated their homes to reflect the theme: ie. medieval castle for a medieval dinner. Over the top!

Mary shared their last dinner menu. It had a Spanish theme because they had just returned from a trip to Barcelona, Spain. She borrowed our Made in Spain cookbook for some of the entré choices. Because I wasn’t invited to partake in the fabulous dinner, I can’t describe the dishes to you but I thought you’d enjoy seeing what they prepared and the cookbooks they used. The photos on the menu are ones that Mary took while in Spain as well as some she downloaded from the internet. Here’s the menu:





And here are some photos of the dishes they prepared. As you can see, they are beautifully presented and look pretty mouth watering to me!
This dish is the Almond Soup that Sandy prepared for our Spanish dinner and this one looks just a delicious. I wonder if she had to wring out the almond milk as often?

This sardine dish is so yummy that even Ken, who doesn't like sardines, liked it...alot! I love sardines so I am going to have to get this recipe from Mary. Whenever I go to a Spanish restaurant, I always order the sardine dish, no matter how it's prepared. I fish for them in Monterey Bay when they are in season too because there is nothing like fresh sardines.

And the last photo is of the paella that Mary & Ken prepared. I was tempted to show you the photos of the two of them slaving over the paella pan grilled over the barbeque but decided that you'd all rather see the finished product.

Mary and I talked about getting the group together but couldn’t figure out the logistics of such a large group…obviously going to have to be a buffet. Maybe we’ll make it a ‘extra’ dinner and whomever wants to cook and come will come. I always appreciate and learn from other good cooks and I bet some of you would like to be exposed to this group too!

Mary and I will come up with a date and venue and see who wants to come! And, since they are a couples group, this dinner will be a couple’s dinner for us too.

Sounds like fun to me!