Last Friday night we hosted our gourmet dinner and wine club. Two years ago when we developed this group we named it Friends Enjoy Eats, Drinks and Mindless Entertainment! In other words… FEEDme! Which is borrowed of course from the play and movie Little Shop of Horrors, one of our favorites. There are a total of 4 couples and every quarter a different couple hosts it in their home. The host is in charge of deciding the theme and letting everyone know that in advance so they can follow the theme with their course. Each couple also provides the wine to go with their course. The other couples get to do the appetizer, first course and dessert. The courses move around so once a year you host and each other quarter you are in charge of one of the other courses.
Our theme this time was Chinese. Last year our theme was “what your grandma would have made” since we had just become grandparents for the first time. We love Chinese food and find ourselves stir frying fairly often during the week. We have been to China and purchased some beautiful chopsticks that we set at the table.
Liz and Werner were in charge of the appetizer. They brought delicious chicken lettuce wraps. They served it with a Mumm Napa Grande Amee 2001 from CA. They mixed it in the glass with one part ginger liqueur and 3 parts sparkling wine. This was quite different and very good. Off to a great start!
Chris and Craig were in charge of the first course. They brought hot and sour soup. This was very tasty. They served it with a 2010 Vouvray (Chenin Blanc) Domain La Peu de la Moriette, from France. This wine was light and a touch sweet, which was a great contrast to the soup.
We served as the main course a spicy mango salsa chicken stir-fry with sweet snap peas. Along with this we served steamed brown jasmine rice. We served it with two different wines that had different effects on the palate. One was a 2008 Dutton Goldfield Pinot Noir, Dutton Ranch, Russian River Valley, CA. This wine was very nice and drinkable, but it didn’t do a lot with the spiciness of the meal. The other was a 2007 Estancia Pinot Noir Pinnacles Ranches, Monterey County, CA. This one was more fruit forward and lended itself better to the spicy meal.
Maria and Jim were in charge of the dessert. They made two different sorbets. One was lemon and the other grapefruit off of her brother’s tree down in L.A. Along with this she served some almond wafer cookies and homemade fortune cookies with self-made fortunes inside. They were very good and a fun way to end the evening. We found out that their children helped them to write the fortunes. Too cute! Their wine selection was a 2009 Rued Winery Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, Dry Creek Valley, CA and a 2007 Chandelle Winery “Estraie” Muscat Canelli, Lake County, CA. Both were great. The Sauvignon Blanc was a bit dryer and was good with the cookies and the Muscat was quite sweet but went really well with the sweetness of the dessert.
We spent over three and a half hours talking, eating and drinking. It’s always a good time had by all. The common thread to these couples was Larry and I. The other three couples never knew each other before we started. Now we socialize outside of FEEDme! I strongly recommend developing a group like ours. It’s a lot of fun, you get to have fun researching your meal, cooking it and serving it, plus you get to try new wines while talking and having fun. Cheers.