Shoestring Gourmet: Swiss Night |
At November’s Shoestring, we gathered at the Gore place to feast on the cuisine of Thanksgiving, but without any hint of turkey. To set the scene for a traditional celebration of harvest, we nibbled on cheese and a selection of Swiss wines. Bernie Lumbert presented the first dish, an English shepherd’s pie with its beef chunks in vegetable stew. Next, Ken Brown served his zesty curried fish soup with clams. Ursula Gore introduced the entrees with her green salad with vinaigrette dressing Gerry Brazelton’s chewy spinach fettucine. Another Italian specialty, risotto and red cabbage, followed. Glenn Case brought back memories of those great family dinners of old with a well-done but tender standing rib roast. These went well with Linda Brazelton’s stiuffed baked whole apples. The sweet thoughts thereafter were especially good this time, starting with Pat Hull’s sweet potato pie with pecans on top. As a perfect complement, Kebba Buckley baked yam spice pound cake with chocolate swirl. We finished with Kebba’s special-blend coffee.
For December, we’re going to ward off the bone-chilling midwinter cold with a fondue and raclette evening. Fondue is a simple and versatile type of cooking that lends itself to innumerable variations. All fondues have two elements in common: something, generally cheese-based, that you melt into a bowl that you can keep hot as it is eaten, and something that your diners can spear on a fork and twirl in the bowl to form a piquant mizture of two different foods. There are many ways to flavor the cheese, and lots of things which taste great dipped therein. There are variations with wine, fondue Bourguignonne with beef broth, and chocolate fondues for dessert. Oh, and don’t worry if you lack a Real Fundue Set. We have extra fondue sets available if - and please note this - you check with us ahead of time. We’re also going to be trying raclette, which involves melting just the surface of a large hunk of cheese, then scraping the melted part of the cheese off and serving it with different toppings.
So in December we will gather at easy-to-reach north central home of Linda and Gerry Brazelton, and pretend for one evening that it’s at the bottom of a ski slope. Though we will meet at the the regular date, Saturday, Decmember 9 at 6 pm, PLEASE call Ursula Gore by 12/4 at 602-863-9648 if you will be needing to use one of our fondue sets for the occasion. Call Gerry & Linda at 602-997-9057. This is a little earlier than usual, but doing fondue right will make this a truly memorable winter treat.