Shoestring Gourmet: De Re Coquinaria

by Alan Gore

When we gathered at the Case home for our February Shoestring, we were greeted by a festive atmosphere. Place settings at one long table gleamed in the glow of candles as we sat down to a long and leisurely romantic dinner in red and white.

We began with Linda and Gerry Brazelton’s creamy corn & chicken chowder, which was a perfect match to Nedra and Glenn Case’s Finnish sourdough bread. From here it was a smooth segue to Ursula Gore’s linguini with roasted red pepper sauce, then her red onion salad with orange slices.

Joice and Chuck Braden led off the entrees with a red chili with all the trimmings. The next dish was a combined effort by Nedra and Glenn, Esther Shaw, and Jane Khatiblou: Esther’s mashed russet potatoes with white cheddar, Jane’s honey and brandy glazed carrots, and Nedra and Glenn’s tender scallops. Nedra served a mixed green salad with cherry tomatoes and couscous.

We enjoyed two desserts. Lynn Bolander favored us with a light strawberry creampuff surprise, served with champagne. Nedra’s final act was cheesecake with Finnish velia, a fruit soup of strawberries, boysenberries and raspberries.

Next month, shortly before the ides of March, when Jupiter ascends to the meridian, we will bring our chariots to the Brazelton palace for an ancient Roman feast. Take a fistful of sesterces to the marketplace and pick up some caroenum, defritum, liquamen, levisticum, passum, saturei and silphium. Don’t worry – not only do surprisingly simple equivalents for these ingredients exist in the heathen lands west of the Pillars of Hercules, but a consultation of the oraculum reticuli (www.google.com) or a visit to your local repository of papyrus scrolls will reveal many recipes. Oh, and don’t forget to bring the household spirits. We meet at VI hours post meridiam on Saturday, March IX. Please dispatch a messenger to Linda & Gerry at 602-997-9057 by Thor’s Day, March VII to coordinate the labor of our slaves, so that we may dine in luxury.