Our annual Holiday Buffet was no exception. It’s difficult to make only appetizers and desserts that come together as a cohesive eating experience. On top of that, everyone cooks from different cookbooks. This year we had a mixture of French, Mexican and an olio of our own creations. Between us, Julia, Jacques and Rick Bayless, we celebrated the holiday with a wonderful array of dishes.
Janis created her own Artichoke and Tomato Miniature Frittatas. They were bite sized frittatas that so easily popped in our mouths…it was hard to control how many we “popped!” She used the last of her garden tomatoes and marinated artichoke hearts. 
Her dish was complemented by Willie’s creamy and warm Artichoke Dip that he served with crackers. His too was his own creation and again, difficult to resist dipping into repeatedly. Bill opened a bottle of Elisabeth Goutorby NV Champagne, Brut, Premier Cru that was dry and added to the festive holiday season. We toasted to another successful year of cooking!
Our group of cooks, while focused on healthy and fresh foods, are not vegetarians. So of course we had meat on the menu! Chicken Satay with Gado-gado Sauce and Crispy Flank Steak Shreds with Golden Onions & Red Chile Salsa. Annie prepared the Chicken Satay on bamboo sticks that made it the perfect appetizer since we could pick it up with our hands. The Gado-gado sauce was thick and creamy with a bit of heat and lots of flavors! I had to look it up to see what it was when Bill was trying to decide what wines to serve with it. It is a peanut sauce that is typically used with vegetables in Indonesian countries but it was perfect sauce for the chicken breast strips. Bill decided on 2 wines: Beaujolais Nouveau 2011 Gamay Beaujolais, Georges Duboeuf and a French Cerius 2010 Red Rhone, Cotes du Rhone. He chose the Rhone to go with the Flank steak dish. When typing up the menu, I hadn’t realized that this dish was essentially a taco. . .but what a taco! 
The presentation of the flank steak shredded into a fine threads of crispy beef topped with crispy circles of fried onions was beautiful. A light airy mound of glistening beef threads. It must have taken her hours to shred the flank steak into such thin threads of beef. It is eaten as a soft taco with an avocado guacamole and a bright red salsa spread over the taco and then a small mound of beef placed into the taco. The beef was a bit chewy so I was surprised. I thought it was going to be so crispy that it was going to sort of dissolve in my mouth but it was like a softer version of beef jerky. The flavors were delicious and many went back for seconds. 
And to top off all of these tastes, Annie prepared as an extra dish, her grandmother's liver paté dish. It was served with sliced baguettes. Grandmothers definitely knew how to cook and hers was no exception. The paté was flavorful without being too "liver-like" is the only way I can explain it. I loved every bite!
We all knew that it is a good idea to save room for desserts with our group of cooks. We were rewarded with 3 desserts. One of which came without it’s baker who wasn’t feeling well and sent on her cake without her. Sandy created an upside down type cake of cranberries, oranges and walnuts and called it Cranberry Orange Cake. The cake was a rich buttery pound cake and the topping was tart and sweet and nutty. I love the combination of oranges and cranberries as a Turkey side dish so I knew I’d like her cake! Bill brought an Essencia, Orange Muscat, from Quady winery in Madera. The orange muscat was a perfect choice to go with Sandy’s cake. 
Annie and George made Julia Child’s Dacquoise, a hazelnut meringue layered affair with buttercream in between the meringues. And topped with a chocolate buttercream. Quite an ambitious dessert and to do it as a couple says a lot for Annie and George’s marriage! 
I made the Yucatan Style Fresh Coconut Tart. Rick Bayless called it a pie but it’s made in a tart pan so go figure... I’ve learned the secret to cracking open and peeling a coconut and it’s pretty easy. Rick says to put it in a 325º oven for 15 minutes after taking the liquids out of the center. Voila! It actually starts cracking open on its own. Easy to take a hammer and hit if a few times and shell just falls off! I got the coconut meat in one whole piece doing it this way so it was easy to use a potato peeler and remove the brown skin on the coconut. Since I wrote about the coconut pie earlier in the blog (April 2011), I won’t bore you with the details of the tart.
George added a wine from his collection that was very yummy! It’s called “Difficult Child” wine but I can’t remember the winery...it’s somewhere in Paso Robles, I think. If you know the winery, please add your info into the “comments” area of this post. Thanks!We did our annual white elephant gift exchange and Bill got the crowing coq timer!!! It’s the first time we’ve had custody of our little mascot. I’ve got to figure out a way to add the sound it makes when anyone opens our blog website! It is wa-a-ay too cool...it actually sounds pretty authentic after Janis took it to a jeweler to get it fixed. It will be fun to have it for a year.
We also decided on our venue for next year.
February: Mourad Lahlou's Mourad: New Moroccan. Lahlou's Aziza in San Francisco is the only Michelin-starred Moroccan restaurant in the country, and Mourad focuses on both the modern plated dishes of the restaurant as well as updates on his childhood memories. This will be a fun dinner!Late April/early May (whenever Janis and George are in the country): Brunch. No special cookbook but a Sunday brunch meal. We will all bring our favorite brunch entré's.
July/August: Barefoot Contessa dinner from any one of her myriad of cookbooks.
October: “Retro dinner.” The club members will choose from one of the cookbooks we’ve used in the past 6 years and do another dinner from it. If we can’t come to consensus in terms of which book, I’ll probably make an executive decision based on everyone’s choices. (Survey Monkey will come later for you to make your choice)
December: Annual Holiday Buffet
2012 Field Trip: Members thought it would be fun to do an overnight field trip to either Paso Robles, Amador County or Sonoma to do some wine tasting and dining. We are targeting a 2-day, 1-weeknight trip. Any suggestions would be welcome. We may have to Survey Monkey this one too or make it a topic of discussion for our first dinner.
Let me know if you want to host any one of these dinners.
All in all, 2012 promises to be a good year, of cooking anyway . . . no promises on our political climate or economy though.
Cook on!
Sandi
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