October Dinner Club

Dinner Club is back in swing. With summer being so crazy, we took a break but are now back at it. We've had some big changes with our dinner club. We lost 2 couples but have gained a new one. Kaija & Dean are off to Antarctica for a year and Nikki & Henry are finding themselves too busy so they are out. Our new couple is Frank & Erin, but I'll introduce them properly at the end.

Bruce and Nellie hosted this month and the menu was all about Autumn. We were in charge of the appetizer and so we did a cheese & wine tasting. There were four types of cheese: Mobay, Manchego, Gorgonzola & Wasabi Gouda (clockwise starting at the top):

I had wanted to bring sliced pears and grapes but as I pulled the (newly purchased) fruit out of the fridge, I discovered the grapes were molding and the pears were hard as apples. Major bummer. Going to a dinner party with foodies, I thought I'd spice things up a bit by adding some info. about each of the cheeses:

People seemed to like the Marietta Old Vine Zin that we brought to go along with the cheese.

Bruce brought out the first course- 2 Squash Soup and rye bread- and Nellie got us all situated with drinks- High Life: the champagne of beers.
The two different soups had contrasting flavors but as we swirled them together in the bowl, it was the most perfect pairing. This was my favorite item of the night!

The main entree was a Russian potato & whitefish gratin with an apple & green salad:
I've never had whitefish gratin and this was quite good. It was the perfect Autumn meal.

Frank & Erin were in charge of dessert and Erin impressed all of us with her pie making skills. She made a pear pie with a crumble topping and it was garnished with little leaves made from the leftover pie crust:
There were flavors of cardamom, cinnamon and coconut in the pie. It was very unique and very good.
And now, here are the happy dinner clubbers...
The Hosts- Bruce & Nellie:
The newbies- Frank & Erin (Frank works at UMD and he & Nellie used to work in the same department):
and us:
Once again, dinner club was a great time. We really enjoyed the great conversation and lots of laughter. We can't wait to host at our house in December!!