Annual KTC meeting and dinner at William's

The group convened at 5:30pm last Saturday the 14th to hold our annual Kiss The Cooks meeting and dinner at William’s house. The night opened with a delightful sparkling wine from New Mexico (Gruet?), and in the course of just a few short minutes, small talk degenerated from “Hi, how are things?” to cigarettes to potty training to out-and-out hazing.

After a beautiful welcome and introduction from William, the first order of business was whether to allow Frank, who had left the group the year prior, to re-join the group. Much mirth ensued as current members discussed what would be required of Frank as compensation for permitting him to return. Choices were, 1. prepare dinner for the group, 2. perform a strip tease, 3. write an essay entitled “Umami or Upapi, and Why,” or 4. perform the “I’m a Little Teapot” song with appropriate arm and hand movements.

In short order, we also discussed the following business:

• A “yes” to offering the KTC experience in charity auction events in 2010, but at 2 guests per event instead of last year’s 4 per event
• Improved documentation of our monthly cooking get-togethers, including photos, recipes, and more via a private blog
• In 2010 we would like to try inviting special culinary guests to join us for our monthly cooking get-together
• We’d like to branch out in terms of our creativity, cooking by “themes” and expanding our offerings to include some interesting non-alcoholic beverages
• Traveling together: We’ll try for Lopez or Whidbey in late winter and perhaps look into Walla Walla later in the year to visit Mikey

We called Frank in to give him our enthusiastic approval of his return (as well as a bit of a hard time), and to our surprise (and to many’s disappointment), he elected to cook dinner for the group instead of the aforementioned strip-tease or performance of “Teapot.” At 6:30, dinner was served.

The group filed into William’s dining room, transformed into something even more special than usual by his incredibly beautiful quilted placemats, chargers and table accessories. Stunning stuff!

Now…on to William’s culinary masterpieces (this is the part where we realize that photos would have been particularly nice to have added to this format!):

SOUP: Leek and apple soup in a chicken stock base, with a beautiful velvety texture thickened with potatoes. Perfect for the weather!

SALAD: Slices of heirloom tomato and wine-poached pears served over butter lettuce, topped with bleu cheese, candied pecans, and truffle salt. Yum!

BOEUF BOURGUIGNON: Homage to Julia Child, marvelous execution and rich taste, served over smashed potatoes instead of noodles.

ZABAGLIONE: Sweet Italian dessert made by furiously whipping egg yolks with marsala wine and sugar, served warm in a goblet. Some were eating it straight out of the mixing bowl by the end of the night!

TONIGHT’S LESSON: Cognac is a fabulous secret ingredient. It reduces bitterness caused by accidental over-searing of meats, it enhances complexity of a dish, it adds a special touch to candied nuts…AND it makes the person or persons cooking feel really smiley and warm!