July Foodie Night

Foodie Night was another success! Angie was the host for this month's Foodie Night, and she chose Street Food as our theme. We spent most of the evening cooking and prepping and cocktailing (that's a gerund, by the way). By the end of the night, we were happy, stuffed people. As Ryan's husband said, it was nice to finally be invited to "Food Snob" night. Actually, that's Foodie Snob Night. ;)

Angie and Steve made two dishes. They cooked kalbi (Korean BBQ) and al pastor tacos.

  They used the following recipe for the kalbi: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/07/kalbi. I don't have a photo of the dish, but the look on Mere's face explains the complete awesomeness of the BBQ. Half of it was gone before we even sat down to eat:

Their al pastor tacos were modeled after Rick Bayless's recipe: http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=192. (We love us some Rick Bayless.)

 Here's our gorgeous Ryan. She filled the table with guacamole (Matt said he chopped the onions), rice, beans (yum!), and grapefruit margaritas. I'll try to get her recipes to post soon!

Mere made a tasty bean dip, mai tai slushes, and the BEST pineapple dish I've ever had. She'll have to provide the details, but she marinated pineapple spears in tequila, honey, and lemon zest. She then grilled them, served them with vanilla ice cream, and drizzled the marinade reduction on top. The result was this warm, smoky, and sweet pineapple topped with ice cream. It was heaven.

Chris was our Foodie Guest Star this month. He brought nopales and queso fresco quesadillas,  egg and nopales tacos, and his girlfriend, Ashley. The nopales were great. Here he is frying up the eggs:

I made Mexicali corn this month, along with doing some of Angie's prep work. Roasted corn is one of my favorite street foods. I've had it made a bunch of different ways, and I've loved every version...except when it's made with mayo. Don't talk to me about corn and mayo. I also got the inspiration from eating at the Mexicali corn dish at the Meddlesome Moth for Angie's birthday. They served it off the cob and in a skillet. I thought about doing that, but I decided to keep it on the cob instead. The messier the better. I started...well, John started by grilling about 12 cobs of corn.

Once I was done cussing up a storm while shucking the corn right off the grill, I slathered it with a butter mixture I made by blending butter, garlic, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and lemon zest. I then rolled it in shredded queso fresco. It was a tasty, buttery, mess.

We had a fabulous night in all, although we definitely missed Lacy. There was fabulous food and even better company. I think we're all getting dressed up and going to KRLD Restaurant Week next month for Foodie Night. Any votes on where we should go?

It's Foodie Night Week!

This month is Angie's night to host Foodie Night, but we're going to congregate at my house. She chose a "Street Food" theme, but we've been planning our guest stars for a while now. We decided that we would celebrate our partners and invite them, this time around. Normally, they just get to hear about all of the fabulous food and fun after we have come home. John, in fact, has ended up doing quiet a bit of my prep work some busy Foodie Nights, and he maybe gets a few bites saved.

The idea is that we are going to cook for them, and let them relax and hang back. Angie called it, though. Our men are Foodies; they'll probably end up taking over the grills. We'll be short Lacy and her husband this week, as they have a family vacation planned. You know we are going to miss her face. We do get to have Steve, Angie's love, in from LA. Angie also invited one more guest star, Chris. He works with us, and he is a bona fide Foodie in his own right. We normally like to torture him post-Foodie Night with tales of our copious amounts of butter and liquor, so Angie invited him this month. I know he'll be at the grill with the rest of the guys.

I told the girls to bring their recipes, their inspiration, and what they did to make their recipe their own. Once I have that loaded with the pictures, I will get a post up. I can't promise it will be that night. Ryan mentioned something about orange margaritas....

I will be making Mexicali Corn, but not the kind with diced green and red peppers. I got my inspiration from Mexican street corn and from the small plate version at the Meddlesome Moth. I am still trying to think of ways to make it really special. Tequila garlic butter? I don't know... I'd love some suggestions.

I am going to leave you with a little something to dream about. It is from Chris Aeby's blog, and it's a Peach and Basil Smash. You're off to make one now, aren't you?

Love,

Anne

Blueberry Crumb Cake

I love Epicurious. I actually use the app on my iPhone more than anything else. Everything I've made from their recipe index has turned out really well, especially with the tips from users. Though, I tend to only make the recipes that have at least 3 forks. Maybe I'm a snob, or maybe I just trust the other Foodies out there in the world.

I had a bunch of left over blueberries from a pool party I threw this weekend, and they seriously needed to be used. Some friends were coming over, so I decided to make them into a dessert. After hopping on my app, I found this recipe for a basic sour cream cake. I did two things to change it: 1. Instead of cinnamon, I added ginger. (John's not a fun of cinnamon.) 2. I added greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I would say that I was doing this to make it healthier, but really, I  didn't have any sour cream in the house.

The result was a lovely, rustic, and moist cake that I don't have any pictures. of. Yeah, yeah, I'm a photographer, I should have taken photos of the cake, but I didn't. I will promise to post lots of pretty pictures of food sooner or later. ;)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon (or ginger)
• Rounded 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) plus 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups fresh blueberries (15 ounces)

Destructions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Whisk together flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Blend 1 1/2 sticks butter into flour with your fingertips or a pastry blender just until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps.

Transfer 1 1/2 cups flour mixture to another bowl for crumb topping. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar to crumb topping, then blend with your fingertips until large lumps form.

Whisk together eggs, sour cream, and vanilla, then add to remaining flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Fold in blueberries and spread batter, distributing berries evenly, in a buttered 13- by 9- by 2-inch baking pan. Sprinkle batter evenly with crumb topping.

Bake in middle of oven until cake is golden and a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 20 minutes before cutting.

Almost a Year

It's been almost a year since our first Foodie Night, so I thought we would celebrate by starting a blog. Foodie Night is a celebration of food and friends. Once a month, five of us in the Dallas - Fort Worth (with a revolving group of guest stars) get together to cook, eat, and drink.

It started with an idea Lacy had for us to get together and learn to make tiramisu. Meredith offered to host and make us dinner. Once she told what she was making, we all decided to bring side dishes. We didn't end up making tiramisu. Instead, we sat around Mere's coffee table, ate tasty food, drank wine, and bonded. We loved it so much, we decided to do it once a month. Along the way, Angie and Ryan joined the Foodie ranks. We all have our own cooking style and taste, and that is what makes Foodie Night fun.

Here's how Foodie Night usually goes:

1. The hostess for the night chooses a main dish at least a week or two in advance of the night and sends the idea to everyone else on Facebook.
2. The other Foodies choose a side dish, appetizer, dessert, or cocktail to go with the main dish.
3. We gather that day, eat the dishes, and gush over the food.
4. Drink wine and the theme cocktail.
5. Talk. Lots.
6. Brag to all of our friend, families, and coworkers for weeks after about the Foodie Night awesomeness.
7. Think about what we're going to make next (weeks in advance, if you're me).

We will update this blog with our Foodie Night adventures, recipes, and any other adventures we have as lovers of all things tasty.