Attifood

Ah, Gourmet Club! Amazing themed nights with food and drink to the extreme. This particular picture is of delicious pizza toppings including, sautéed onions and peppers, barbequed chicken, sliced meatballs, and ham and pineapple, just to name a few. My husband Dan and I hosted the "Food Court Night." We dressed like various mall employees (Rindy and James in black and white stripes for Foot Locker, Eddie and Sabrina in Olive Garden aprons, and Amy and Jerry looking quite "Gap-ish" ) and ate food such as make your own California Pizza Kitchen Pizza, Joe's Crab Shack cocktails, and Olive Garden Salad. All recipes found at www.copykat.com. We have been doing this for four years and have done various themes such as: Sock Hop, a Hawaiian Luau, a Murder Mystery, Red Neck Night, Kentucky Derby, Low Country Crab Boil, and the list goes on. Here is how to start your own.

1. Get with a fellow foodie and choose who and how many people you want in your club. Eight is a good number. Always best to choose other food enthusiasts with adventurous palates.
2. Decide when and how many times a year you plan to meet, with each host rotating through the dates. Commit to these dates and plan ahead with your babysitters if needed.
3. Two weeks prior to the event the host will send out the "Top Secret" file. This file contains the revealed theme, what each quest is to cook including recipes, and expected attire. Keeping it all secret lends to great anticipation among the gourmands.
4. Create a scrapbook or binder to include recipes, tips, thank you notes, wine lists, and pictures from each event.
5. At each place setting supply a "question", this gets the conversation going and always adds to laughs and memories. Ex. If you could do anything successfully, what would you do? Who would play you in a movie? What was your first job? Describe your first kiss?
6. Be sure to have each quest bring storage containers to share the leftovers-- if any!

Finally! I said we were on the map when Starbucks showed up in our local strip. I said we were really on the map when Clyde's opened up it's flagship restaurant just a few blocks down from our house. Oh, and Bonefish Grill-- we've arrived!

But what I think what really puts a community on the map is the arrival of the Saturday Farmer's Market. And this past Saturday it finally happened-- on the back lot of our neighborhood community center, Farmer John (I kid you not) pulled up his pick up trucks and unloaded palettes of locally-grown produce. I grabbed Graham and we loaded up on squash, beefsteak tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peaches, and a dozen ears of corn. Here's a little tip-- be sure to inspect the ears of corn your five-year-old picks out, they may come with extra, slightly wormy, protein.

I'm also excited about the produce that I've managed to get going in my own garden this year. First, there's an herb garden of thyme, sage, basil, and rosemary. So far I've only used the basil and rosemary as I haven't been cooking as much this summer as thought I would. I will have to remedy that.

Of course, what's a garden without tomatoes. I'm trying out some giant, heirloom beefsteaks. The plant started out a little slow, but midway through the summer it exploded in size and in blooms. It's finally loaded up with fruit and I'm having visions of tomato, mozzarella, and basil salads in my future.

The biggest surprise was my single jalapeño plant. I've harvested quite a few peppers from that plant and it seems I haven't made a dent. There's enough there to try a little experimentation. I think I'm going to try putting a bunch in the smoker and make some of my own chipotle sauce. I'll document how that goes-- it's going to be spicy!

I really enjoy cooking when I am asked to bring something to a party. Oh what to bring, what to bring? The challenge is presented, I comb through recipes, scour my "What to Bring to the Next Party" files, and finally just surf the net for cutting edge, trendy-gourmet, yummy miracles. This past weekend we attended my hubby's office barbeque and I volunteered to bring the dessert because just one week prior I had found "The Real Crepe Cake" #2306 from www.tastespotting.com. Who made this delightful cake? Is there a recipe somewhere? I had to know more, so I clicked the picture and happily found the recipe and its story on this site www.creampuffsinvenice.ca. I was giddy, elated, I could go on and on... Well to make a long story longer, the cake made a huge show, each guest gathered 'round while I brûléed, sliced and served its towering creaminess to their quaking, drooling selves. The heavens opened, the angels sang, and the cake was declared a master piece by all. Doth one exaggerate? Who me?

Last week we journeyed to New England. My birthplace. It was wonderful to see family and friends, relax and explore, and of course EAT! I like to visit my favorite spots (Kelly’s Roast Beef at Revere Beach and the Boston Chipyard in Faneuil Hall) but I added some new ones on this trip. The first place was serendipitous. We were traveling north on Rt. 16 toward North Conway, NH and saw the parking lot of The Pizza Barn packed. We knew it had to be good and we were mighty hungry. What a pleasant surprise that Italian style pizza served in a barn could be so good. The crust was perfect and the pepperoni piled high, five and six slices high to be exact– no lie! The atmosphere was just that of a barn, lofty, open beamed, and filled with picnic tables and benches.

The next was an adorable café in North Conway, appropriately named, Peaches. Although is was raining we chose to sit outside in the tented courtyard. This called for a round of hot chocolate. We were told that the Peaches and Cream coffeecake was to die for and died we did. I picked at it and prodded it until I think I figured out how it was made. There was a familiar, secret flavor in there that I just couldn’t put my tongue on… is it anise? Basil?...Ach! I will post a recipe when I have it perfected so stay tuned. Dan and I savored the Eggs Benedicts which were perfect. The kids gobbled down kiddy-sized French Toast and Pancakes. The crowds never ceased as I spied other patrons plates and envied their choices as well.

One highlight of the trip was heading into Eastie (Boston that is) and eating at the famous Santarpio’s Pizza. (Please do not pronounce the “R” as you will sound stupid! SAN-TAH-PEEYOS!) The skewered lamb appetizer served with cherry peppers and bread was simplicity and excellency on a plate. Their pizza, again a perfect crust and just the right amount of cheese to sauce ratio, was classic. The place was a hole in the wall and the old Italian gold-chain-laced waiter was probably an original, but my Auntie shared her memories of the place as she and my mom grew up just around the corner on Bremen Street. The room in which we sat used to be the bread bakery that sold piping hot bread right from their ovens for 25¢ a huge loaf. Auntie said the bread has not changed and I had to agree it was heaven with its crusty exterior and feathery light interior.

With the smoky scent of Santarpio’s on my fingers, a few extra pounds on me bum, and some great new memories, we headed on south for home.

After searching the net for a copy cat recipe of this lavish coffee cake, discovered at the café "Peaches" in North Conway, NH, a thought occurred to me, a memory actually. I had eaten this before, in fact I have even made this cake in my previous life (BC, "Before Children...") My roommate in college gave me this recipe after she successfully served it to her three starving roomies. I did tweak the recipe a bit so that it lined up more with what I sampled at "Peaches". The result was perfect. I accomplished a coup d'etat of their famous, guarded recipe. Or maybe I am not so clever and the recipe has been lurking in housewives’ recipe boxes for generations as it had mine for the last eighteen years. Que sera sera!

The recipe…
Grease the bottom of a 9" square baking pan
3/4 cup flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3 1/4 oz box vanilla non instant pudding
3 T. butter
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/8 t. anise extract
Combine in a large mixing bowl and beat for two minutes at medium speed and pour into prepared pan. Drain a can of peach halves (reserve the juice), you will need 5 halves sliced very thinly and placed evenly over the batter. In the same mixing bowl (no need to mess another), mix one 8 ounce brick of cream cheese, 3 tablespoons of the reserved juice, and 1/2 cup of sugar. Pour this over the peaches with in one inch of the edge of the pan. Sprinkle top with cinnamon and a little sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until crust is golden and filling is still soft but a little bubbly. Eat warm and store in fridge and reheat as needed.