Our goal with April’s dinner was to do some creative spins on suburban chain restaurant dishes. The kitschy meal led up to a family style course of bourbon glazed baby back ribs, which had slow cooked in the the water bath for a full 24 hours. Some things were more successful (pickle powder popocorn, banana bread pudding), while others were complicated and weird (loaded potato skins). Read More for the full menu……
January 13 2014 Dinner Party – Googlicious
Our friends Nick and Lisa directed a commercial for Google Chromecast’s Photowall App and had us host a dinner to get a few shots of the app in action. If you’d like to see my big fat head, you can check out the commercial here. Read more for the full menu…
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April 6 2013 Dinner Party – Mmmmmmbop!
Nov 4 2012 – German Pretzels and Czech Svickova
This meal was inspired by Czech Svickova, a braised beef and sour cream dish Nicole had a long time ago while traveling in the Czech Republic. There was more trial and error than usual for most of the Eastern European themed items on the menu, including failed attempts at making spaetzle and sauerkraut; but we also came up with some recipes that are sure to stick around, like spicy beer mustard and coffee whipped cream. The final attempt at Svickova was pretty delicious as well….
October 6, 2012 – Corn and Cocktails
After a long summer break from using the oven we did our best to squeeze the best of what was left at the farmers markets into one meal. We also came up with a cocktail pairing for each item and bought some new glasses to hold them. The week before was busy freezing ice and coming up with a different ice treatment for each drink. …
May 19th 2012 – Southeast Asian
Spicy Cocktail: Bulldog Gin, Cointreau, cucumber, cilantro, lime, thai chili
Duck Skin Chips
Czechvar Lager, Carton BDG Country Ale
Korean Fried Chicken
ginger soy glaze, pickled daikon
Pomelo Salad
pork wonton, mizuno, cashew, pea shoots, herbs
Duck Pho
duck confit + pastrami, rice noodles, tatsoi
Thai Vegetable Curry
panang curry paste, coconut milk, asparagus, cauliflower, potato, green bean
Vietnamese Coffee
“Ca Phe Trung” – egg coffee, sweetened condensed milk
Mung Bean Donuts
“Banh Cam” with glutinous rice flour and sesame seeds, strawberries, strawberry sauce
March 10 2012 – Beer v. Wine
Thank you to everyone for making our first beer versus wine party so much fun. Each beverage represented well, with a few standouts like the Alycone Dessert Wine (perfect with chocolate with notes of vanilla and a syrupy mouthfeel) and the Fastenbier (tastes like bacon!).
Our neighborhood vendors for the drinks were Mike and Rebecca of The Natural Wine Company (N11th between Driggs and Roebling) and Erik of Brouwerij Lane (Greenpoint Ave and Franklin). Both vendors went far and beyond what we could possibly have imagined in curating the pairings, general support for us, and making the night a success so please please visit their stores and buy lots of booze. Or rather, don’t do it because I tell you but because you know you’ll be getting something delicious along with someone to guide you in choosing what matches your tastes.
The menu follows and you can hear even more details about the meal after the jump.
Spring Cocktail
Aperol, St. Germain, lime, fizzy water
Salty + Sweet Granola
Cherry Rosemary Flatbread with Guffanti Taleggio
Wine Butterfly Riesling Zilliken
Beer The Bruery “Saison de Lent”
Winner* TIE
Linguini with Clams
bacon, tomato sauce, ling cod
Wine Fuso Barbera
Beer Dentergems Witbier
Winner WINE
Caesar Salad
smoked whiting dressing, farmer’s market greens, pumpernickel croutons
Wine Pecorino Terre di Chieti
Beer Aecht Schlenkerla Fastenbier, (aka “the Fastenbier” or “Bacon Beer”)
Winner BEER
Hangar Steak
herb butter, whipped + fried potatoes, glazed carrots
Wine Le Ragose Valpolicella Ripasso
Beer Wandering Star Brewery “Mild at Heart” English Dark Mild Ale
Winner WINE
Molten Chocolate Cake
Amaretto whipped cream
Wine Viñedo de los Vientos Alcyone Tannat Dessert Wine
Beer Rodenbach Original
Winner WINE
*Winners are based on the combined scores of both seatings
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February 11 2012 – Veggie Suds Fest
Thanks to everyone for coming out to a night of eating, drinking, joke-telling, 90s hip hop listening, and general all around merry-making. Two seatings of friends, four courses of (all vegetarian!) food and bottomless growlers of beer from Brouwerij Lane.
The kitchen held a few more disasters than usual this time around, from ice cream that wouldn’t freeze (used our new nitrus siphon to turn it into fancy vanilla bean whipped cream), orange julius pudding souffles that looked and tasted awful (had to throw them out), and a coffee maker that wouldn’t make coffee (switched to tea instead). We also had nine growlers of beer to keep cold and no room in the fridge but luckily the cold temperatures on the fire escape came through. I got to practice having patience (aka being more like Paul) every time the window stuck just as I needed to get to the beer.
Salty Dog
pepper-infused vodka, grapefruit juice
Raw Carrots, blue cheese dressing
Butternut Squash Soup
curried dumpling, roasted squash seed oil
beer: Captain Lawrence Liquid Gold
Roasted Root Vegetable Pot Pie
buckwheat shortcake crust, sunchoke + kohlrabi salad, tahini, balsamic grape reduction
Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA
Deep-Fried Egg
creamed spinach, farro, mushrooms
Peak Organic Oaked Mocha Stout
Lemon Ginger Tart
oatmeal cookie crust, fancy whipped cream
Element Winter Ion (tastes like chocolate!)
As for the constant “we don’t have enough, wait there’s too much” voice in my head that haunts my prep before every dinner party, it was waaaaay wrong when it thought that there might not be enough shaved sunchokes or roasted vegetables (we had mountains of both leftover), but somehow we ended up with just the perfect amount of soup and exactly the right number of slices of lemon tart.
We went pretty earthy with the whole menu, from the health bread dinner rolls to the farro, mushrooms, buckwheat, and oatmeal in later courses. Paul reintroduced us all to the deliciousness of homemade blue cheese dressing and also made a cheesy creamed spinach that was worthy of being licked off the plate. And I was pretty excited with that fancy whipped cream, it was hard not to eat it all myself.
Special thanks to kitchen extraordinaire Julia, vegetable peeler/dish washer/water fillers Jessica and Sam, and Erik at Brouwerij Lane for all his help with the beer pairings. We had a nice range of light beer to hoppier to dark beer, along with a crazy chocolate one (the Element Winter Ion) that made us all wonder how beer could taste exactly like chocolate. We’re still not sure about that one, just that it tasted good.
November 9 2011 – Fall Feast
Thanks to everyone for coming to dinner last Saturday. We’re pretty pumped that the cool weather has given us an excuse to make comfort foods like braised meats and creamy vegetable gratins. Paul also seems to have perfected a donut recipe…and all those tester donuts that were in the kitchen last week brought us officially into the holiday season of eating heavy but delicious things.
Special thanks to Julia for her kitchen skills and to the Natural Wine Company for the wine pairings. It was so great to see you all and hope to celebrate again soon.
Spiced Apple Cider
Popcorn
Donuts with apple cider glaze, sage custard
Homemade Bread + Cheese
ricotta, focaccia, fennel slaw, fried apple
San Giovanni Brut Prosecco
Fall Vegetable Gratin
cauliflower, butternut squash, greens, gorgonzola, gruyere
Opera Lambrusco di Modena Secco
Chicken with Tomato + Whey
braised chicken breast, collard grens, polenta, bacon fat potatoes
Vignetti Massa Sentieri Barbera
Floating Islands
creme anglaise, chocolate crumb, mugolio syrup
July 23 2011 – Heat Wave Supper
Now that summer’s almost gone and temperatures have been cool for weeks, it’s hard to imagine a night when it was 104 degrees. The weather was so gross that weekend that the NYTimes said stepping outside was like being licked by a big, swampy monster.
Yuck. Well, at least we got to eat and drink while the swampy monster licked us. You can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather.
The ice cold water from our new Igloo cooler also seemed to help a little with cooling things down, especially when it got sprayed in your face. At one point I overheard one guest say to another: I know how you like it…which meant she liked getting sprayed on the back of her neck as the water bottle made its way around the table. Touché.
Since this was our last outdoor supper club for a while, we planned a menu that would take advantage of all our summer gear: a charcoal grill, Paul’s trash can smoker, and our brand new oversized propane burner. My favorite dish of the night was Paul’s lamb ribs, which smoked for a whole day and tasted like a lamby version of brisket. It probably didn’t hurt that they were served with french fries, something we’ve been hoping to make for a while. We used a bunch of new toys to cook them, including a wire basket that fit perfectly inside our gigantic pot of fry oil. I also was quite pleased to serve sour cherry pie for dessert and was lucky that supper club happened on a week when I could find those little guys at the farmer’s market.
This was the last big meal in South Slope and it was a real group effort getting all the chairs, tables, and eating supplies up and down those stairs. Special thanks to Julia, Lisa, Sam, Anna, Quincy, and everyone else who helped out. We also had amazing wines provided to us by The Natural Wine Company, delicious gin care of Bulldog Gin, beautiful flowers from Anna c/o Lebak Farm and Flowers and fresh oysters from the guys at McCarren Park’s farmer’s market, Pura Vida Fisheries.
Hope to see you at the next one. Until then Paul and I will be busy combining our kitchens up in Greenpoint…
London Lemonade
Bulldog Gin
Gruyere Flatbread
olive oil, honey, lemon thyme
Shuck-Your-Own Oysters
pickles, mignonette sauce
Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet
Chilled Corn Soup
Market Salad
smoked eggplant, summer squash, beets, sunchoke chips, tarragon-goat-cheese dressing, bread crumbs
Domaine de la Pepiere La Pepe Rosé
Colorado Lamb
smoked lamb ribs, grilled lamb chops, tzatziki, cucumber, french fries
La Sacristie de la Ville Cure Red Bordeaux
Sour Cherry Pie
creme fraiche ice cream