june dinner club

It's been a busy couple of weeks here. The highlight was hosting dinner club last Sunday. After following me around all afternoon (she loves to help me clean), Annie caught some zzz's prior to the party:
Around Noon, Bruce dropped off his ingredients for the appetizer and some Crispin ciders:
while Mikey got the slaw sweating:


and meticulously cut up a pineapple for me (20 minute process):
We have a Memorial Day-ish tradition of making sangria to kick off the summer. This year I used strawberries, lemons, oranges and pineapple:
They were a hit!
The party started off with fried wonton chips and dips from Nellie & Bruce:
The red dip was pickled cabbage with soy sauce. The orange dip was an Asian carrot dip. I can't recall what was in white and green dip but it was kind of like hummus. I'm over-simplifying the descriptions but they all had a distinct flavor and did a great job of awakening our palettes:

Next I pulled out a graduation gift (German Riesling) that I've been waiting to share with friends:
While we were all enjoying the appetizer, Mikey was hard at work making Soy-Ginger Scallop Ceviche. The scallops were "cooked" by the acid of some lime juice for a half hour. I was pleasantly surprised by the buttery texture of the scallop. The combination of the cucumbers with the soy ginger sauce tasted so fresh!
We all took our Ceviche outside to the porch so that we could hang with Mikey while he grilled the main course:
I tried getting the group to give me their best gangsta pose and it led to quite a few laughs:
This was their best effort:
Just as the sun was setting, we headed inside for the main course. Mikey made Asian themed chicken burgers and slaw:
There was some spice in the burgers but it was mellowed by the peanut butter coconut milk dressing. The peanut coconut theme was carried over to the sauce on the slaw. Everybody loved it and Kaija said it was the best slaw she had ever tasted!!

Nikki & Henry were in charge of dessert and started it off with a milk chocolate tasting. Nikki had 4 brands of chocolate that she placed in each person's mouth one at a time. We were required to close our eyes while she placed the chocolate in our mouth and then write our impression of each one. Dean came out of the chocolate closet and identified the BRANDS of 3 out of the 4 chocolates! Who knew? He and and Kaija are chocolate connoisseurs. The only chocolate he didn't identify was the sugar-free sample and that was only because they don't eat sugar-free chocolate. We were all very impressed and it was a lot of fun!
After the chocolate tasting, Nikki presented the actual dessert:

She let the frozen berries thaw for 15 minutes just to the point where they were sweating. Meanwhile, she made a sauce by heating up a Ghirardelli white chocolate bar and mixing in 1 1/2 cups heavy cream. The sauce was poured over the berries for a hot-cold effect. Nikki said the dessert was inspired by a Barefoot Contessa recipe. It was divine.
Nikki also brought this 2002 Pinot:

It was robust but very smooth. I LOVE Oregon Pinots!
Henry was traveling for work and so Nikki didn't have a partner for the photo shoot but she did a great job flying solo:
We missed you Henry!

Kaija & Dean provided a lot of humor:
Nellie and Bruce told some great stories:
and we had a blast being the hosts:

We LOVE entertaining guests! It'll be autumn the next time we host dinner club.

This past week I had book club on Tuesday (love those gals) and then we went to Mike's co-worker's 50th birthday party last night. Have I mentioned how much I love having my nights and weekends free again?? Last night at the birthday party there was a well known Duluth band called Two Many Banjos providing the entertainment. Mike's co-worker lives on Skyline Drive and so we got to watch ships come in to the harbor while listening to the band, sipping wine and eating really good food. It was a spectacular evening and so much fun to hang out together.
I'm back to being "widowed" for the weekend. Mikey works Fri-Sun and so I'm hoping to get motivated to do a few small house projects. We both cannot wait for vacation in 3 weeks. We're both a little burnt out with work and looking forward to a change in scenery.
Cheers to summer!!