Manda and Mike: March Dinner Club: Andalusian/Spanish style

I've been posting a lot lately about our house renos & updates but we've also been doing a lot of cooking.
The dinner club theme for March was Andalusian (Spain) and the party was hosted by Nellie & Bruce. We were in charge of bringing the appetizer this month. So, Mikey made Mushroom Crostinis. For the bread, he sliced up a baguette and then brushed both sides with olive oil and sprinkled salt and pepper on one side. The pieces were baked in the oven at 400 degrees until golden brown. The topping was made with shitake & crimini mushrooms, chevre cheese, thyme, shallots, garlic and sherry. Once we arrived at the party, everybody built their own crostinis. This recipe was a big hit:

We mingled and drank chardonnay with the appetizer:

Soon enough it was dinner time. The menu featured Andalusian lemon chicken:

with sauteed spinach, olives and almonds and hand-massaged couscous:

"Hand massaged" couscous is from an old chef joke from the days when Mike and Bruce worked together at Chester Creek Cafe. It's been used by chefs to make a dish sound more sophisticated. Do you buy it?

I loved the spinach, almond and olive side dish:

We drank the Syrah & Garnacha wines that we brought with dinner. Both wines paired well with dinner.

For dessert, Frank and Erin brought this adorable tart:

The tart had an almond flavored crust, delicious custard filling and soaked cherries. The final touch was a jalapeno glaze that was drizzled over the top. It was fab! Lyndon cooked up homemade hot chocolate as the perfect pairing for dessert. The hot chocolate was boiled with a tea bag of spices to give it a unique flavor. Bruce declared the tart & hot chocolate as the best dessert pairing to date!

With full bellies, we needed to move around a bit. So, Nellie pulled out the game Catch Phrase- girls vs. guys:

Time was getting away from all of us and it was getting late so we had to say our goodbyes.

I had each couple cozy up for a photo before leaving.
Lyndon & Katie: