Club-Night With the Ladies

Well, it's not what it sounds like. Under the inspiration of my neighbor, Jill, we "ladies" started a cooking club. Our first monthly gathering was last night, hosted by me. The concepts are.... (1) no husbands allowed, (2) kids are allowed, (3) hostess makes an entree dish to serve the ladies, (4) everyone else brings one thing... a bottle of wine, an appetizer, a salad, a dessert, or kid-friendly food. And the last, most important concept is that you have to share the recipe!

Last night was an amazing time of great food, getting to know each other (0ld and new friends), laughs, promises to each other to get together, to exercise together, etc.. The menu was titled Summer Harvest and featured the following treats:

The kids enjoyed bear-shaped sandwiches, fruit, and chocolate banana pops, courtesy of Leslie.

And now I have some new recipes to add to my somewhat unorganized collection. And these new recipes made their debut into my new recipe folders, pictured below.


Thank you, Jill, Brandy, Leslie, Jodie, and Danielle, for joining the new, hottest, club in Yucaipa! Bon appetite!

Beets and Chocolate

Today I remade a dish that I had done this past summer when my friend Holly gave me a bunch of fresh red beets. I love beets, and fortunately so does Steve, Syd and Mel. I usually cook them in the pressure cooker or oven-roast them.

Two nights ago when we strolled down State St. during Market Night in Redlands, I came across white beets. I bought them and cooked them in the pressure cooker, but they came out too tender. So after a day of thought I remembered my recipe for Beet Gnocchi with Rosemary Butter. The only alterations I made to the recipe were (1) I used white beets and (2) I pan-fried the gnocchi after they had cooked in the rosemary butter. That way they had a golden crunch to the outside. They tasted great and Syd even thought they tasted like french fries.

Here are the uncooked white beet gnocchi...


And here they are cooked and golden crunchy....


And since Steve's dad has been visiting us we have been able to spend time "talking shop" about cooking. We had a conversation about chocolate mousse and that led me to pull out my a passion for desserts book by Emily Luchetti. I found a recipe for a white chocolate mousse that was part of her Coffee Chocolate Towers. I made the chocolate cake yesterday, visited the baking store in Redlands this morning to buy the molding rings, and then made the mousse filling and assembled the dessert today. The end result....

The only thing that made it better than the picture in the book was the fact that we could taste it. Very rich and silky smooth, and more than half of mine is saved for tomorrow. But my father-in-law managed to eat it all! Like he said, this recipe is "a keeper."