September End-of-Summer Supper Club

Late in September we finally had a legit Supper Club.  It's been awhile so I decided to make it a good one.  We also invited a new couple in, Mike and Bayly and I had a college friend, Kacie, visiting from Las Vegas.  Inspired by my new riverfront digs, we did a nautical theme.  I collected driftwood, grasses and cattails via a kayak paddle trip and added life (saver) preservers to the printed menus.

On the menu was:

• Apps: Shrimp cocktail, Individual Crudités, http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/227134/individual-crudites & Charcuterie

• Soup: Chicken Corn Chowder (A Cook's Country recipe which can be found at http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-and-corn- chowder-with-sweet-potatoes-285482

• Lemon Plum Sorbet (http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Lemon-Plum-Sorbet)

• Sailor Know Dinner Rolls

• Fried Green Tomato Salad - I attempted to recreate a salad I had at Owen's Fish Camp in Sarasota, FL  http://thewateringmouth.com/owens-fish-camp-sarasota-fl-restaurant-review/

• Crab Cakes http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/baltimore-style-crab-cakes

• Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cake - an insane Martha Stewart cake.  http://www.marthastewart.com/857647/salted-caramel-six-layer-chocolate-cake

• Sparkling Apple Drink and Wine

So we forgot to take pictures of the food, because we were too busy eating it.  Everything was delicious.

But we got pictures of the cake.  Here's what it was supposed to look like:

And here's our version:

I assure you it tasted the same.  But what we think happened is that the layers weren't completely level and with the weight of all 6 layers the cake just kinda collapsed on itself.  And that's how it become a Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Trifle. 

The theme for the next Supper Club will be Fakesgiving :)

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

I've been baking/cooking like crazy - Valentine's dinner and dessert, supper club, plus some goodies in-between.  I was afraid these wouldn't get eaten as quickly as I'd hoped.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE chocolate, but we've been eating A LOT lately.  I didn't want these tartlets to get lost in the chaos of all the other deliciousness.  I wanted them to have their own spotlight, so I took a few days breather from the kitchen and whipped up these babies the night before posting :)

I started the dough on a lazy Sunday and was surprised at how quickly it came together - 5 minutes?  I think it took more time to clean up then to mix it up.

I had 4 - 4.5" tartlet pans so I had to bake in two batches.  The dough was really easy to work with and baked up perfectly.


I mixed up the chocolate according to recipe.  I used a majority of bittersweet chocolate with an ounce or so of semisweet.  I added the milk and white chocolate chunks and since I already had planned for making two batches, I thought of dividing the chocolate mixture in half and using two different mix-ins.  One half I did the biscotti as the recipe calls for; I used store-bought since I was short on time.  The other half of the chocolate got chocolate covered pretzels since I had them handy.  I figured the salty crunch would be a big hit.


I forgot to poke the crusts on the first batch, but it didn't matter any.  The tops remained very glossy, so glossy I didn't think they were done, but I took them out anyway.  The second batch weren't glossy at all, they looked dry like the recipe said they're supposed to.  I like the look of the glossy better.

These were seriously amazing.  I never thought I could have made something like this.  I didn't taste the pretzel ones yet, but how can they be wrong?  Since I'm going out of town this week, they're going in the freezer until I get back!

And My Critic says:  Oh man is that rich! Almost like a gooey brownie.  Put some ice cream on top!

For the recipe please visit Spike of Spikes Bakes, Jaime of Good Eats, Sweet Treats, Jessica of Cookbookhabit and Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon.  They all did a fabulous job!