dinner with a theme

[cellio]

Dani and I are part of an SCA group that holds roughly-monthly pot-luck dinners. (The group is called Peacemakers. I don't know why, actually; I wasn't there at the beginning.) This month was our turn to host; after we kicked around ideas for the theme based on geography, time period, season, and particular ingredients without finding anything that inspired, Dani came up with a fun idea.

The invitation:

_alutation_! Thi_ month'_ Peacemaker'_ dinner will be on _aturday, November 19th, at 6pm, and will be hosted by _he'erah and Dani.

Plea_e excu_e the mi__ing letter_ in this announcement; the '_' key of thi_ typewriter keep_ jamming. In hope_ of repairing that problem, we a_k that you bring a di_h that begin_ with the letter '_'. We will provide a main di_h of _almon, and _ome _oda to drink.

Our addre__ i_ [...] (in _quirrel Hill). If you need direction_, or other information, you may _end email, or call u_ at [...].

_he'erah and Dani


One response promised to bring "something" and another a "surprise". Here's what we ended up with:
- sweet-and-sour salmon
- spanikopita
- succatash
- scalloped potatoes
- spoon-bread (I had never heard of this cornbread variation before)
- sourdough bread
- salad
- sweet-potato pie
- "sweets" (in the form of a cake)
- shrimp-sherry soup (she brought her own ladle, and obviously I didn't sample this -- she didn't actually know that shellfish isn't kosher)
- "soda" (that's "pop" to me)
- shiraz (wine)

That worked out pretty well! Kind of balanced and everything. :-) And with no one bringing meat (stroke of luck), I didn't have to make decisions about which half of the food to eat.

One nice thing about early sunsets is that we can actually have a dinner at 6PM on a Saturday; we didn't actually eat until around 6:30, which gave enough time for the salmon to cook.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

That's a really cool idea!

[cellio]

Thanks!

(Err, why is that sandwich purple? :-) )

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

For kicks. I use the icon both for food topics and sarcasm.

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

Next time around, pick a color! :D
-- Dagonell

[cellio]

That's an interesting idea. The color would have to be chosen carefully, of course. :-)

We once contemplated doing a theme of "blue", but figured blueberries and bleu cheese can only go so far and we didn't want to encourage bright-blue liquids. We modified it to "once in a blue moon", which supports blue, round, and unusual.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Oh I love it.. nifty idea to begin with but that invite is positively inspired! Or do I mean in_pired? :) And I'm glad to hear that *somebody* finds some benefit in early sunsets, I still can't adjust to how dark it gets so early ::sigh::

[cellio]

Dani gets the credit for the invitation.

All in all the early sunset isn't helpful, but every now and then it turns out to be useful. The part about leaving work on Friday by 3:30, though... not so useful.

[cortejo.livejournal.com]

I am so doing this!

[cellio]

Have fun!

[goljerp]

There's a "C" dish which I'd like to work better than it does:

Couscous, Cinnamon, and Chickpeas. But it needs something else, or else I don't have the proportions down right.

[cellio]

Hmm, I think that wants a small bit of some vegetable, or maybe some nuts, but I can't think of anything applicable that begins with "C". (If I were doing it I might try some finely-chopped broccoli, or pine nuts.)

Hmm, how about cranberries? That could be interesting. I don't think corn would do what you want taste-wise.

An alternate would be to ditch the cinnamon and add cilantro -- maybe with some finely-chopped onions too.