Last Gourmet Club Luncheon of the Year

Our culinary journey through the movies has finally ended. Today we had our last Gourmet Club Luncheon. It was decided we'd hold a pot luck and have everyone bring a dish to share. I decided to make Ina Garten's Lemon Fusilli with Arugula. It's one of my favorite dishes to make. I just love the blend of heavy cream, lemon and garlic! Delish!!!

 This is the sauce starting to bubble away. It's heavy cream, garlic, lemon juice and zest with a little salt and pepper.

Here's the final product all put together. Generally, I like serving this right away. The crunch of the Arugula with the pasta is really one you should all try. But since I had to be up and out the door the next morning right away, I made this the night before. It's still good either way. Plus, it allows the sauce to really soak into those noodles. 

Everyone brought such amazing dishes to be served! It was really hard filling my plate up with a little bit of everything. Especially the desserts! I have a massive sweet tooth, so it's very hard for me to pick and choose! Thankfully the plates were small which only allowed me to take a small portion of each dessert to try. And even then I didn't get a taste of everything. There was just SO much! 

Here's a few examples of what we had:

Chicken Salad with Melon

Garam Masala Deviled Eggs

Cheese and Asparagus Tart

Pear, Arugula, and Pancetta Salad

Scallops with Mushrooms in White-Wine Sauce

 Mexican Brownies

Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting

Fresh Fruit Cheesecake

Pear Almond Tart

Roasted Tomato & Goat Cheese Tarte Tatin

India Delight

Key Lime Pie

Buttermilk Pie

Apple and Blackberry Pie

These are just a handful of the ones I could get pictures of. One of the many reasons why I love Gourmet Club - All the different food you get to eat! Amazing!

After we had all gorged ourselves on the food, it was then time to announce the winners of the 'Best Of' each course. We took all the dishes made throughout the year and had everyone vote on their favorite dish for each course. The winners won the 'Golden Rolling Pin'. It was our very own version of the Oscars.

There winners (and the Movie they were based off of) were as follows:

Best Appetizer

Crisp and Buttery Strawberry-Brie Sandwiches (Breakfast at Tiffany’s - November)

Best Soup

Roasted Parsnip and Vanilla Chocolate Soup (Chocolat - February)

Best Salad

Crispy Duck Salad with Bitter Orange Vinaigrette (Julie & Julia - January)

Best Entrée

Peppered Beef Tenderloin (White Christmas - December)

Best Dessert

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake (White Christmas -December)

Best Table Decoration

White Christmas—Set A—Julie Jensen

Best Take Away

Baklava (Greek Wedding - March)

Best Gourmet Club President

Madeline

It was then time to hand out gifts to our members. New members received their very own Gourmet Club apron with their names on it.

To show you an example, this was mine from last year...

Our returning members received a wood cutting board with 'Gourmet Club 2010-2011' engraved on it and also a bottle of homemade vanilla.

 Madeline also presented us Board Members with our very own gifts. I got an awesome 8x8 baker and cookbook, along with a very lovely heart felt card thanking me for all my hard work the past year.

 It was a very touching gesture and it just makes the fact that Madeline will be PCS'ing to another duty station all that more bittersweet.
Finally, Madeline announced the new Board for next year and everyone seemed pretty excited. So I'm taking that as a good sign and diving head first into the job as President. I'm really ecstatic about it and can't wait until next year!

As for our Gourmet Club for 2010-2011, all I can say is:

That's a Wrap!

A Hammie FAVORITE!

When I was thinking of starting this blog, I was brainstorming through my list of family favorites trying to think, 'What would be the first recipe I should post on this blog?"

After much thought (a good 5 minutes at least!) about it, I decided to delegate the task to Jon.  He said based on what I've been making lately, his very most favorite is VODKA PASTA!

Followers of my family blog, may remember that I had already posted this recipe before when Jon and I decided to have a date night in.

It is one of our very favorite dishes to eat and I absolutely LOVE making it. Something about making the sauce from scratch (mostly)....and the smell of it as it simmers.....the aroma of the fresh basil....not to mention it has VODKA in it! 

I've made it so many times since that blog post that I can pretty much make it from memory now. It is SUCH an easy dish and I really recommend everyone try and make it.

The only thing I can say that would make this dish better would to be to let it SIT for a while. Let all that delish vodka cream sauce soak into those noodles....Mmmmmm......You won't be able to just have one serving! Trust me on this one.

Now, onto the recipe. Giving credit where credit is due; I got this off of the Food Network website, courtesy of Rachel Ray.

Photo courtesy of Jon Hamrick.

"You won't be single" for long Vodka Cream Pasta 

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, once around the pan in a slow stream
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1 cup vodka
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 can crushed tomatoes (32 ounces)
• Coarse salt and pepper
• 16 ounces pasta, such as penne rigate
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 20 leaves fresh basil, shredded or torn
• Crusty bread, for passing

Directions

Heat a large skillet over moderate heat. Add oil, butter, garlic, and shallots. Gently saute shallots for 3 to 5 minutes to develop their sweetness. Add vodka to the pan, 3 turns around the pan in a steady stream will equal about 1 cup. Reduce vodka by half, this will take 2 or 3 minutes. Add chicken stock, tomatoes. Bring sauce to a bubble and reduce heat to simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
While sauce simmers, cook pasta in salted boiling water until cooked to al dente (with a bite to it). While pasta cooks, prepare your salad or other side dishes.
Stir cream into sauce. When sauce returns to a bubble, remove it from heat. Drain pasta. Toss hot pasta with sauce and basil leaves. Pass pasta with crusty bread.

 Hope you all love it as much as we do!

Find my tagline!

"Many aspects of my method are based on my feeling and experience. For instance, I always give my bird a generous butter massage before I put it in the oven. Why? Because I think the chicken likes it—and, more important, *I* like to give it."
                                                                                                                 -Julia Child

I came across that gem of a quote while looking for ideas to incorporate into my tagline for this blog. I thought it was hilarious and hopefully, you'll all find some enjoyment with it too! That Julia was a naughty bird - I like it!

ANYWAY......

In my first post, I announced that I would be making a batch of my delicious, mouth-watering, calorie overloaded Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies to the person who could come up with a signature tag line that I loved the best.

I've been hearing a lot of GREAT ideas!! It's going to be so hard to choose.

But I want to let everyone know that I'll be announcing the winner of the tag line, with my very first recipe post on THURSDAY, APRIL 14TH!

Two more days to get those big brains of yours working and come up with a tag line that I'm gonna fall in love with!

Aren't you excited!?!!  Tune in to the Hammie Gourmet on Thursday for the winner!

Welcome!

So I've been toying around with the idea of starting a food blog for a while. Obviously, if you know me, you know I am quite the 'Foodie'. I love watching any type of cooking show (right now my favorite is the Cooking Channel - ***LOVE***). I am a member of a bunch of different recipe sights. I'm always trying on new recipes to my poor family and I am constantly on the lookout for bigger and better gadgets.

Really, this should not come to a surprise to any of you....

I figure with this food blog, I can somewhat separate what I put up on my family blog - It's Hammie Time and just use this as an outlet for me to gush about everything and anything that's related to the culinary world. Of course my two worlds may collide every once in a while, but I figure you all will be okay with that. ;)

What I really want to drive home is the fact that although this is going to be a 'food' blog, doesn't mean I'll ONLY be posting recipes left and right. My thoughts are that I'll post pictures of the food I make with the recipes (whereas I'll of course give credit to where credit is due). I'll also post pics of food I order at restaurants and various other places I go with food that I may find amazing and I'll also tell of my adventures as next year OWC Gourmet Club President. A title that I have - if I'm being honest, reluctantly accepted. And it's not because I don't WANT to be President. It's just that I realize what a HUGE undertaking this 'VOLUNTEER' position is and of course knowing who I am and what I am capable of, makes me feel pretty nervous. It's definitely not the food aspect of it. But more of being able to run a tight ship and do the job effectively. I really have huge shoes to fill. The current GC President  - Madeline, will be moving very soon. She's been the President for the last 2 years and a member of the OWC Gourmet Club since it's founding, I believe. It'll be a tough job to follow in such wonderful foot steps!

I hope I don't trip!!

Finally,  I realize that this is not everyone's cuppa tea and that is fine by me. But I hope you'll indulge me enough as your friend, a member of your family or even someone you barely know, to take the time and just read what I say here. You don't have to love it but I hope you realize that this is a part of who I am and because of that, you'll support me.

And with that, all I have to say is:

Bon Appetit!

 - Stacy

PS - I refuse to steal Julia Child's tag line so whoever can think of the best tag line for me to use - I will bake you a batch of my world famous (in my mind) Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies. :)  I'll even ship 'em to you if I have to! :)