Janis created & prepared Gazpacho with Cheese Straws. She made the soup with Green Zebra tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, mangoes, ancho chilies and thai chilies, and except for the mangoes, all from her back yard vegetable garden. She added the mangoes as a result of a suggestion from her husband and it was a perfect addition to the tart Zebras. It was a fantastic gazpacho. Her Cheese Straws were rich and crispy and a creamy contrast to the cool soup. They had a white cheddar and herb filling intertwined with puff pastry. Yum! Bill chose a blended wine from David Caffaro winery in the Dry Creek area of Sonoma, called Fesco. David is known for growing very esoteric grape varieties and making unique blends. His 2009 Fresco is a blend of 22% Alvarelhao, 21% Tempranillo, 21% Tinto Cao, 20% Peloursin, and 16% Carmine. It’s appearance is a deep rosé and it tasted like a light raspberry, strawberry, pomegranate, and cherries. It did not stand up to the soup but boy did I enjoy it as a wine!
Sharon created a Bountiful Potato Gratin [recipe following] to replace the Candied Yams that we always have for Thanksgiving. She started with the yellow sweet potato, then added the Garnet yam, Russet and Yukon potatoes. After making this version with half & half, she added caramelized onions and sliced Granny Smith apples for some sweetness and then added bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese sprinkled with extra virgin olive oil on the top. Her spices were nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Her family enjoyed her trials and also made suggestions each time. The end result was a delicious gratin that was more flavorful than a traditional potato gratin and less sweeter than the traditional candied yam. 
Sandy’s Asparagus with Mixed Mushrooms and Parmesan and Asparagus Jus was a big hit. Just click on the recipe title to get to the website with the recipe. Sandy defined herself as a recipe-kind-of-cook and brought a dish from Jean Georges Vongerichten’s cookbook, Cooking at Home with a Four Star Chef. She found a recipe that uses the lower stem part of the asparagus that all of us find inedible but hate to throw away. After removing all the asparagus trimmings, she chopped the bottoms and boiled them in salted water, drained then puréed it all with little of the poaching liquid. What she found interesting is that the asparagus got cooked twice, first blanched and then sautéed in olive oil. Bill served a special Austrian wine that is especially nice with asaparagus; Gruner 2009 Gruner Veltimer, Austria. It is considered to be the only wine to serve with asparagus and for once “they” are right!
Willie prepared an old favorite that he’s been making for years, Fettuccini Alfredo Carbonara He makes his own fettuccini to begin with. He never measures the ingredients but tastes as he goes. It has the traditional ingredients of cream, pasta, butter and cheese, to which he added the carbonera component, fried pancetta, that added a nice crunch and salty accents. We served his dish along with Sandy’s asparagus and the combination was perfect! Bill chose a very rich and delicious, 2005 Chardonnay from Rochioli, South River Vineyard, Sonoma. It stood up to the creamy fettuccini and was delicious all by itself!
Sandi chose to “redo” a Midwest favorite of her family. Frozen Fruit Salad Dessert. The original version uses iceberg lettuce, green Jello, Cool Whip, canned fruit cocktail and marshmallows. She first made homemade marshmallows and then tried to make a pistachio pudding but the color was olive drab and the texture too gritty. She decided to stick with the Jello pudding but made the rest of the ingredients using real whipping cream, fresh fruits, and her homemade marshmallows. Everyone loved her resulting dish and prompted a lengthy stroll down memory lane, recalling all those dishes our mothers took to pot lucks.
My Sort-of-Crispy Doughnuts [recipe follows] & Miso Ice Cream, did not come out as I had planned. First let me describe the ice cream. I was going to make an unusually flavored ice cream and use miso as a flavoring but my cousin sent me an ice cream recipe with miso in it so it wasn’t an original recipe but it sure was delicious. It tastes like salted caramel and cream. Sharon picked out the brown sugar but no one picked up on the miso. Do try this recipe because it’s a good one! Just click on the recipe title to get to the website with the recipe.My doughnuts did not come out well As my doughnut dough was rising, I decided to have a light lunch and was getting some avocados and tomatoes sliced and stabbed myself in the hand. Not normally a big deal but that cut wouldn’t stop bleeding after an hour so Bill drove me over to the nearby Clinic to get some stitches.
During this intermittent activity, my doughnut dough wasn’t rising for some reason but I didn’t have time to make another batch so I cut them out to rise in their shapes and left for the clinic. After getting stitched up, I arrived at the dinner. . I decided to just make doughnut holes since we had a pretty rich dinner and one dessert/salad already. The irritating thing about doughnut holes is that not all of them will turn over in the hot oil so I always end up tossing several out because I can’t get them browned on both sides. The doughnuts had a strange almost bitter taste (and, no, I did NOT bleed into the dough!) so I wasn’t happy with the results but it may be because they only got one rising. Sigh….I may never figure out how to make crispy doughnuts.Bill served a Tokay wine as an after dinner drink, a 2000 Royal Tokaji, 5 Puttonyos from Hungary. A fine ending to a creative evening!
I, for one, have decided to leave the creative recipe tasks to others and return to cookbooks and recipes….wa-a-a-y easier!
Over our dinner conversations, several great ideas emerged for our cookbooks for next year:
1. Each of us choose one of our own cookbooks to use in depth for the entire year
2. Barefoot Contessa books
3. Regional cooking in the US
4. Family favorites
Start thinking about next year and we’ll discuss and decide at our Annual Holiday Buffet at Annie & George’s home in December. Date to be determined.
Cook on!
Here are the homemade recipes:
Sharon’s Bountiful Potato Bake
Caramelize 4 large yellow onions and line bottom of a 13x9 casserole.
Peel and thinly slice a variety of potatoes. I used 2 medium russets, 2 yams, 2 sweet potatoes and 2 Yukon golds.
Peel and thinly slice 2 granny smith apples.
Soak potatoes and apples in 4 cups half and half.
Add 2 teaspoons nutmeg, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper.
Arrange potatoes and apples in overlapping rows. Add leftover half and half to casserole. Cover and bake at 375º for 50 minutes.
Combine 2 cups of breadcrumbs with 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese. Cover potatoes. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 450 for 8-10 minutes until breadcrumbs are golden brown.
Sandi’s Sort-of-Crispy Doughnuts
A
• 1-1/3 C Bread Flour
• 1/3 C Cake Flour
• 1/3 High Gluten Flour
• 3 t Instant Yeast (1 pkg of Red Star rapid rise)
B
• 5 T sugar
• 2½ t salt
C
• 1 egg, room temp.
• ½ C bottled water, room temp.
D
• 5 T unsalted Butter, room temperature
Directions
1. Mix all ingredients A, and B together in mixer bowl.
2. Mix eggs with water in small bowl until well blended.
3. Add to dry ingredients and beat using k-beater (regular Kitchenaid paddle) at #2 speed for 5 minutes.
4. Using the paddle attachment knead for 5 to 8 minutes on #2 speed, adding sprinkles of flour if the dough is too sticky (It should not look like bread dough though)
5. Add in butter and beat additional 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.
6. Leave the dough aside on floured surface and let the dough rise for another 30-60 minutes till double in size.
7. Roll the dough properly into ¾” thickness.
8. Let the dough rise for 10 minutes
9. Dip cutters in flour and cut out in doughnut shapes or holes.
10. Transfer cut-out doughnuts to a tray sprinkled with flour,
11. Leave aside for another 30 min. or more to allow the dough to proof further.
12. Heat the oil to 325º - 350º
13. Fry the donut dough until very light golden brown. Keep oil temperature constant. It just takes a 2± minutes per side.
14. Place fried doughnuts on rack to drain.
15. Return oil to 325º - 350º and refry the doughnuts. Do quickly to not burn the doughnuts.
16. Dust with powdered sugar or dip in glaze (that I haven’t created yet)
