Dinner club was a huge success! We ended up having 5 rotations. Kate left us for the 5th one, and it wasn't the same. Jon and Julie did an excellent job stepping up the plate. They actually prepared asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and grilled it for our baseball themed night. I will say I had 2 helpings because it was just so good!

With creating dinner club, I had several goals. I wanted to bring together good friends for great food, wine, and conversation. I also wanted to learn new recipes and tricks for the kitchen. Finally, I wanted to try new food! To recap all the meat I ate during our dinner club: salmon (twice), venison, chicken, and as mentioned above, prosciutto. So let me ask you- should I still be calling myself a vegetarian?

Here are a few pictures from different evenings together. I think I mentioned before, but the host chooses a theme for the evening and is responsible for the main course. The 3 guests rotate an appetizer, side dish, and dessert.

These photos are from the evening Joe hosted. He chose a musical piece as our inspiration. Jared made beet soup (so good!) and I did Ratatoille as a side dish. Joe made Chicken Kiev and Kate baked delicious apple strudel.





Jared had us all over on Valentine's Day. What a guy! The obvious choice for a theme? Aphrodisiacs! I will say everything was delicious. I started us off with chilled mango soup spritzed with champagne. Kate made a fresh greens salad with asparagus and artichokes. Jared outdid us all with his presentation of veal and sweet potatoes. Yes that is melted goat cheese an an accent. Finally Joe made mouth watering chocolate truffles. To wash them down, he also made cherry chocolate liquor drinks. First, he poured chocolate syrup over ice. Then, in a shaker, he mixed chocloate liquor with cherry brandy. OH MY GOD! It was so good we had them again on Easter.







Finally, Kate had us over for an Asian themed evening. Our assignment was to use ingredients purchased from the Asian Market on Grand River Rd here in East Lansing. If you live around here, you should definitely check it out. They have spices and food from all over the world. Joe started us off with shrimp and tofu dumplings that he made in his bamboo steamer. Jared made asparagus with sour sauce and walnuts. Kate spoiled us with back-choy, lemon curry over rice, and salmon. I made a 1000 layer spice cake. (Funny story, my first attempt at the cake started a fire in my apartment. But I didn't burn it down.)







Of course I spilled soy sauce on the nice place mat.



There is the baseball evening to recap still, but I have been sick for over a week and need my sleep. Check back soon. I really have more posts up in the next week.