Disney/Pixar Potluck fun

 After a long hiatus, the potluck dinners are back!

Jen's Crab Ragoons

Liz's Cheese Monsters, with a  Mickey pepper shake in the background

M3 and Emily's Cinderella Pumpkin dip, complete with Pumpkin coach

Jeremy's Lady in the Lake drink 

A Winne the Pooh dessert by Brooks (photo credit to Linz)

And sadly this is the best picture I got all of the entire food spread.  If you squint, you can almost see the hummus that Moira made, or Linz's leftover, err, I mean Disney Princess Cake.  I also failed to get pictures of the gumbo or meatballs or soup.   But rather than take responsibility for my lousy photography skills, I am going to blame Shanel.  All I did was follow the instructions on the bottle...

But who am I kidding, that helped make Disney Scene it a hell of a lot more fun.  Congratulations to "Russ" for winning the prize of the night!  

Highlight of the game:  Jen screaming BEDKNOBSANDBROOMSTICKS SUCK IT SUCK IT  so fast that some people completely missed she shouted out the right answer.

Team 3, looking quite intense

And lucky for me, there are no videos of me singing my heart out to Disney songs.  Pretty sure I could have given Big Momma a run for her money.  

And since a couple of you asked, I'm including the Ratatouille recipe.   (Adapted from The New York Times)

Ingredients for the piperade:

1/2 red pepper

1/2 yellow pepper

1/2 orange pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion

3 tomatoes (about 12 ounces total weight - so you could be like me and just use one rather large one), peeled, seeded, and finely diced, juices reserved

1 sprig thyme

1 sprig flat-leaf parsley

1/2 a bay leaf

 Step 1:  I put the peppers into my toaster oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes -- the peppers skin began to loosen, and after they cooled I peeled them and then finely chopped them into tiny bits.

Step 2:
 Combine oil, garlic, and onion in medium skillet over low heat until very soft but not browned, about 8 minutes. Add tomatoes, their juices, thyme, parsley, and bay leaf. Simmer over low heat until very soft and very little liquid remains, but do not brown  (Note, here the website said this would take 10 minutes, but I must have had an extra juicy tomato, because it took me quite a bit longer.  Either that or my low heat was a tad too low). Add peppers and simmer to soften them (mine though were already pretty soft from the roasting). Season to taste with salt, and discard herbs. Reserve tablespoon of mixture and spread remainder in bottom of an 8-inch skillet. 

Now we skip over to the Veggie step.

Veggie Ingredients:
1 zucchini (4 to 5 ounces) sliced in 1/16-inch rounds
1 Japanese eggplant, (4 to 5 ounces) sliced into 1/16-inch rounds 
1 yellow squash (4 to 5 ounces) sliced into 1/16-inch rounds 
4 Roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/16-inch rounds 
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic 
2 teaspoons olive oil 
1/8teaspoon thyme leaves 
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Slicing all those things sounds like a major pain, but its not if you have a mandolin!

  
And in case you were wondering, we got ours on sale from HSN of all places.  Came recommended by Bon Appetite, and it cut all those slices with no problems at all.  

ANYWAY, the next step is to to arrange the slices in an alternating pattern around the pan.  Leave about 1/4 inch of each piece exposed.  Then mix the garlic, oil and tyme to drizzle on top of all of the veggies.  Cover with foil and then bake for 2 hours at 275 degrees.  Then uncover and bake for another 30 minutes (don't brown, so if it starts browning, put the foil LOOSELY on this time).  Then, if there is liquid left put it on the stove to cut that off.

At this point, you could save the dish for 2 days in the fridge...  or you could put on the oven to broil so you can brown the dish and then add the vinaigrette and actually eat it. 

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oi

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Assorted fresh herbs (thyme flowers, chervil, thyme)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

For vinaigrette, combine reserved piperade, oil, vinegar, herbs (I used more thyme), and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Drizzle on top and you are ready to go!!

Southern Food: Jambalya and Slushy Whiskey Sours

Congratulations to the East Falls Church Boys for making two of the popular dishes of the Southern Food Night.  Dave's Jambalaya was completely packed full of flavor, and Mark's whiskey sours definately got the party going.  So due to popular demand, here are the two recipes for you to make yourself:

Dave's Jambalya has been adapted from Emeril Lagasse's Cajun Jambalaya.  Don't let the long list of ingredients scare you -- Dave was able to make this recipe after work AND get to my place on time.  I haven't tried it myself, but I was told it was surprisingly quick to make out even when he doubled the recipe. 

Ingredients:

• 12 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped
• 4 ounces chicken, diced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 3/4 cup rice
• 3 cups chicken stock (can substitute water with chicken bullion)
• 5 ounces Andouille sausage, sliced
• Salt and pepper 
• Crushed Red Pepper Seeds (to taste)
• 1 tablespoon Creole seasoning (combine the following ingredients below -- you can store extra in an airtight container for later use)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Step 1:  Season the chicken and shrimp with all of the seasoning.  Dave's adaptation was to throw crushed red pepper seeds to the mix.
Step 2:  Heat the olive oil in a pan to high heat.  Add the green peppers, onions and celery to soften -- about 3 minutes.
Step 3: Now add the garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce to the pan.
Step 4: Stir the rice in, and slowly add your broth (or water chicken bullion mixture, as Dave did).  Make sure to reduce the heat to medium, and stir it occasionally, as you don't want that rice sticking to the bottom and burning.  Rice should become tender after about 15 minutes.
Step 5:  Once that rice is tender, you can add your meats, ie. the chicken, shrimp and sausage.   It should take about 10 minutes before the meat is done. 
Step 6:  And if you watch TopChef, you would know that you always have to try your food before you serve it.  Now is when you get to tweak the taste by adding more salt, pepper and the Creole seasoning as necessary.



Mark's frozen drink is inspired by Slushy Whiskey Sours.  The major modifications were to up the amount of bourbon (I'm sure you are all so shocked) and to grow impatient waiting for it to freeze and to just drink it chilled.  This is, of course, assuming that it would ever freeze with the amount of alcohol Mark likes.

Ingredients:

• 1  (6-ounce) can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 1  (6-ounce) can frozen limeade concentrate, thawed
• 1  (6-ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
• 4 1/3  cups  water
• 1 liter  bourbon
• 1  (33.8-ounce) bottle club soda, chilled 

Step 1: Combine everything EXCEPT the club soda and stir.
Step 2: Freeze. To get it to freeze faster, you can pour the concoction into a zip lock bag for increased surface area.
Step 3: Wait 2+ hours.
Step 4: When you get tired of waiting, add the club soda and serve.  Trust me, it tastes great even if its not slushy. 


If anyone wants any other recipes, let me know or put up a comment, and hopefully the person will be willing to share