Monday, October 18, 2010

Dinner Club: The Opposite of Bacon

Each month...six friends get together for great food and good times! Check out the recipes and rundown.

The Jaegers hosted and made the appetizers and entree. The Shalins brought over tasty beverages, and the Shooks were in charge of dessert. The theme was Vegetarian. After last month's Bacon Bonanza, our hearts needed a break. Here's how it broke down:

Appetizers
Squash Soup in Pumpkin Bowls
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/squash-soup-in-pumpkin-bowls-recipe/index.html

Cranberry-Brie Bites
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/saras-secrets/cranberry-brie-bites-recipe/index.html

Grilled Honey-Orange Figs with Mascarpone and Pistachios
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/grilled-honey-orange-figs-with-mascarpone-and-pistachios-recipe/index.html

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spicy-sweet-potato-fries-recipe/index.html

Main Course
Potato Gnocchi with Wild Mushroom Sugo
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/potato-gnocchi-with-wild-mushroom-sugo-recipe/index.html

Dessert
Pumpkin Brownies (served with vanilla ice cream)
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Brownies/Detail.aspx

Sensational Chocolate Sauce
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sensational-Chocolate-Sauce/Detail.aspx

Drink
Cucumber Martini
http://www.drinknation.com/drink/cucumber-martini

The Rundown: Anytime you eat soup served from a hollowed-out pumpkin bowl, you know life is good. A hollowed-out, soup-filled pumpkin bowl to 30-somethings is like a three-kegger to college students. Staying with that theme, I treated those figs like they were jello shots...I popped about eight of them. So d@mn good. You haven't eaten a fig? Try it. The gnocchi was cooked to perfection and the pumpkin brownies really tasted like pumpkin. Judging by the plates, everyone enjoyed them. Conversation ranged from the Jaeger's dog Nona getting hit by a car (and surviving and back to normal) to head lice (non of us have it, at least at the time of this posting).

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