Another year, another cook-a-thon. We came up with the idea while on our summer trek, and started cooking about two weeks ago, cookies about another week or so before that. As usual, 12 kinds of cookies (not photographed) and 12 dishes. We added a pair of cocktails, The
Glass Slipper make with curacao, vodka, cream, coconut cream, grapefruit and pineapple juices; and we did a pink "Bashful" version that subbed cranberry juice and seltzer for the booze.
The Menu
Cinderella Cheese BoardThe only themed part of this is a pumpkin cheese ball (canned pumpkin in the cheese, pumpkinseeds on the outside), plus Jarlsberg, Rush Creek Reserve, Point Reyes Bay Blue, and an aged Gouda. The cherry jam went very nicely with the RCR.
Elsa - Hygge SaladThe obvious thing to do for Frozen would have been Swedish Meatballs, but we'd done them just two years previously, on our Avengers theme for Thor. But I found a company that makes pasta in snowflake and snowman shapes (why make some of it green though), and put blanched snow peas and carrots, radicchio, red onion and cranberries, with a snowy-looking dressing made from yogurt, mayo, lemon, dill, and dijon (a few other seasonings).
Raya - Sticky Rice DumplingsFilled with beef and mung beans, served with scallion oil, nuoc cham, and pickled radish and carrot. Not 100% happy with these, they didn't stay round and were pretty gooey - the sticky rice dough didn't like to stick to itself and fell apart in a few cases, but very tasty especially with the condiments.
Pocahantas - Cornbread Muffins with VenisonWe started out thinking bison in these, partly because we were in bison country, but two factors changed that: we realized that Pocahantas wasn't from bison country, and Jewel had ground venison on sale. The recipe called for ladling a sloppy joe-like mix over the baked cornbread, we just spooned some into the dough before baking.
Ariel - Crab-Stuffed FlounderThis was the first dish we came up with for the theme, and was funny enough that it cemented the theme in place. Served with a lemon caper butter sauce that never really thickened but was tasty nonetheless. The flavors perfectly brought back memories of 1970s special occasion dinners that my mom cooked. Frozen flounder filets were surprisingly cheap at Joong Boo, which helped offset the crazy prices on lump crabmeat.
Belle - Tea-smoked Chicken Salad Tea SandwichesThe chicken salad was a tea-smoked chicken with tarragon and mayo, watercress on top, then the edges of the sandwich spread with a bit more mayo and rolled in chopped smoked almonds.
Jasmine - KibehKibeh in the Tray from May Bsisu's "The Arab Table" which I've made a few times before. Served with tahini-yogurt sauce and zhug.
Mulan - Classic Egg RollsMade using the
Chicago Tribune recipe "Rolled Up with Tradition". I used the wrong wrappers, though, these were the thin spring roll type, and in keeping warm in the oven after frying got rather soggy. Filling included homemade char siu, chopped shrimp, peanut butter, cabbage, and shiitakes. Served with jarred sweet and sour and hot mustard.
Mirabel - Columbian Cheese BreadMade with casava flour, corn meal, eggs, feta and queso fresco, these are a lot more dense than the similar Brazilian version. Served with a sauce that started out as a Columbian aji with mayo added and came out too thin, but sitting in the fridge a lot of the liquid separated out so it came out ok, but I wouldn't recommend that as a process.
Tiana - Boudin Meatballs(Yes I know Tiana, from The Princess and the Frog, would be creole, not cajun, pththththtbbbb) Pork meatballs with onions, peppers, celery, rice and cajun seasoning, in a sauce made from roux, veg broth, the same veg and seasoning. Tasty, but a little pasty, I'd cut back on the rice if I made these again.
Snow White - Peaches and CreamStretching the theme a bit, Snow is usually described with lips as red as a rose. But this was inspired by Table Twenty Five in Ogden Utah, which served burrata with pickled peaches, microgreens and a great focaccia. Here we used goat cheese (because burrata doesn't divide well), pickled peaches, and thyme leaves, on Sue's homemade focaccia toasted on the griddle with butter. The peaches were from frozen slices. We tried an early batch of pickled peaches and found that sweet spices didn't work at all with the cheese; a saltier, sourer mix with peppercorns, bay leaves, a couple juniper berries, allspice and cardamom pods worked quite nicely.
Moana - Tropical Deviled EggsInspired by the visit to the SPAM museum in Austin, MN, and knowing how much SPAM gets eaten in all the places between the Philippines and Hawaii, I made these with S&B curry, ginger, and scallions in the filling, garnished with seared SPAM, seared pineapple, and crushed macadamia nuts.
CookiesThis year's cookies were the favorites we've accumulated over the years: Pinwheels, peppermint chocolate thumbprints, salted nutbars, red velvet cheesecake brownies, millionaire shortbread, pecan crescents, pistachio, molasses spice, lemon curd filled lemon pecan shortbread, kolache (cheese and raspberry), cranberry oat bars, chocolate crinkle.
What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang