DINNER CLUB RECAP: All Things Green

At first, I was thrilled to find out I was hosting Dinner Club on St. Patrick's Day. Then -- after lots of searching -- I found only two Irish recipes that were vegetarian. And they were kinda boring. So, I went green instead. Apps: salsa verde and spinach dip with green crudite. Entrees: asparagus soup, roasted broccoli with cheese, and cod with a cilantro and macadamia nut pesto -- and lime wedges as garnish. Dessert: cupcakes with green sprinkles and mint chocolate chip ice cream. You'll have to take my word for all of this since I didn't have a chance to take photos ... Hope everyone had a fabulous St. Patrick's Day!

DINNER: Ambience, Lisa's Take

I'm going to be one of the odd men out and be a little bit more critical of Ambience than the others! Rogue blogger! :) We were really hyped to try Ambience and the prix fixe meals there, but kind of got mixed impressions. The service was a little bizarre at first; I did feel that there wasn't a whole lot of enthusiasm by the wait-staff when we first arrived and the server didn't seem to know what was on the beer list. To her credit, the waitress got a lot better as the evevning went on. As for the food, I thought some dishes were lackluster and others pretty decent; I think, however, that I was hoping it would be more like the Kitchen or Ella, but I think I prefer Ella. The starter dish was a strange salmon mousse concoction on soft toast. We just said "eh" and looked for the next dish. My tuna dish was pretty decent, although one of the tuna sashimis was mixed with a strange tomato paste/sauce, which didn't seem to go together well. The crab cake, again, was ok; the best part was the baby polenta crouton. Wish I had had two more of those! The highlight of my meal was the veal shank; it was perfect. I also tried the beef tartar, which was not tasty, and the duck, which had a strange texture. The rabbit was decent. If this was Iron Chef, I would give them a 25 on presentation and more like a 19 on food. Very hit or miss selections, although impressive that they have such a wide variety and the plating is excellent!

DINNER CLUB RECAP: Chili and Corn Bread

My last dinner club, in February, needed to be quick and painless, since February is a very busy month at work. I decided to scour the crock pot recipes and get everything ready the night before to decrease dinner club stress. Usually, just pouring lots of wine helps, too. So, in the crockpot went lots of different types of beans, onion, cumin, garlic, crushed tomatoes with jalapenos, etc... For appetizers, we started with deviled eggs, cut carrots, and celery with peanut butter. Very comfort food-esque. Then we had our vegetarian chili with cilantro, cheese, and sour cream on top and yummy cornbread on the side. For dessert, we had port and sliced cheeses and pear. Overall a pretty healthy dinner club!

DINNER CLUB RECAP: Pho

It's been a while since I blogged, but wanted to do a quick update on my past dinner clubs. This one, I think from January, was all about comfort food and pho. The entire theme was mostly asian, with egg rolls to start, and then pho, which wasn't really authentic pho, since I did use udon noodles to make the dish a little heavier entree. I used veggie broth, added udon noodles, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and then for the meat eaters, some precarved deli roast beef. That added some great texture. To me, the best part of pho is the condiments. We had bowls of whatever we wanted to add: bean sprouts, limes, jalapenos, cilantro, mint, basil, rooster sauce, etc... I love pho.