Supper Club - Incidentals & Conclusions
Here are the recipes for the desert of the Supper Club meal we hosted on 2/21. All that's left after desert is a little cleanup.
Incidentals
Sprecher Root Beer, Cream Soda and Ginger Ale (a 4-pack of each)
White Grape Juice
Danzante Pinot Noir (2007, Italy)
Donnigan Hills Chardonnay (2007, U.S.)
We were very close to our budgetary edge when we bought the wine, so cheap was the main priority. This probably explains why it was all fairly ordinary. The 'grown up' root beer and cream soda were good, the ginger ale less so. The grape juice was mostly because we had two people attending who don't typically drink. There was also plenty of water.
Compared to our last Supper Club, this one felt more chaotic. Only one dish (the jello shots) was prepared before the day of the event, so we had dishes going in and out of ovens and things flying around the stove right up until dinner time, whereas the last time we had many things prepared beforehand and it was much calmer. We originally planned for 5 courses, but 1 + 2 were conflated into a single line of appetizers. Last time it felt like we contrasted the courses better; here there was little delineation of the flavors. Instead the courses bludgeoned the attendees over the head with very rich food.
Our budget was dicey due to some poor planning. For instance, we bought way too much cheese for the macaroni & cheese, so that was $15 right there that we couldn't spend on better wine. We ended up cutting the grappa from the budget altogether. If we hadn't had 90% of the spices already we would have been hurting, and as it was I think we ate $10-$15 in costs (so to speak). Since we got the leftovers I have no complaint.
On the bright side, with the sole exception of the soup everything came out somewhere between good and excellent; the soup was certainly not bad but I wouldn't make it again. We spent relatively little time in the kitchen once the meal started. We had to plate the soup (or bowl it, as the case may be), prep the desert and hustle drinks around, but that was about it. We could have easily fed another three people with what we had on hand and everybody still would have left full; since we had three cancellations in the last week due to illness and babysitter issues this means that our original estimates were pretty dead on. Nobody left hungry, and several people took leftovers with them.
Since xhollydayx did the bulk of the cooking, including all the most complicated steps, I volunteered to wash every single dish. One thing is for sure: we are getting a new dishwasher before we host again, because I'm not doing that many dishes by hand again. Part of the tax refund is already earmarked for it.
Incidentals
Sprecher Root Beer, Cream Soda and Ginger Ale (a 4-pack of each)
White Grape Juice
Danzante Pinot Noir (2007, Italy)
Donnigan Hills Chardonnay (2007, U.S.)
We were very close to our budgetary edge when we bought the wine, so cheap was the main priority. This probably explains why it was all fairly ordinary. The 'grown up' root beer and cream soda were good, the ginger ale less so. The grape juice was mostly because we had two people attending who don't typically drink. There was also plenty of water.
Compared to our last Supper Club, this one felt more chaotic. Only one dish (the jello shots) was prepared before the day of the event, so we had dishes going in and out of ovens and things flying around the stove right up until dinner time, whereas the last time we had many things prepared beforehand and it was much calmer. We originally planned for 5 courses, but 1 + 2 were conflated into a single line of appetizers. Last time it felt like we contrasted the courses better; here there was little delineation of the flavors. Instead the courses bludgeoned the attendees over the head with very rich food.
Our budget was dicey due to some poor planning. For instance, we bought way too much cheese for the macaroni & cheese, so that was $15 right there that we couldn't spend on better wine. We ended up cutting the grappa from the budget altogether. If we hadn't had 90% of the spices already we would have been hurting, and as it was I think we ate $10-$15 in costs (so to speak). Since we got the leftovers I have no complaint.
On the bright side, with the sole exception of the soup everything came out somewhere between good and excellent; the soup was certainly not bad but I wouldn't make it again. We spent relatively little time in the kitchen once the meal started. We had to plate the soup (or bowl it, as the case may be), prep the desert and hustle drinks around, but that was about it. We could have easily fed another three people with what we had on hand and everybody still would have left full; since we had three cancellations in the last week due to illness and babysitter issues this means that our original estimates were pretty dead on. Nobody left hungry, and several people took leftovers with them.
Since xhollydayx did the bulk of the cooking, including all the most complicated steps, I volunteered to wash every single dish. One thing is for sure: we are getting a new dishwasher before we host again, because I'm not doing that many dishes by hand again. Part of the tax refund is already earmarked for it.