Gluttony Day

A small holiday in which those who do not have daily access to Zingerman's come to my house and we cook. My Faillen brought pears and kale from the Kzoo Farmer's market (of which I have fond memories and trust me the few fond memories I have of Kzoo are precious!), then she, Garth & Kassia, Me & Petey shopped in Kerrytown, we mostly followed each other around and juggled bags of deliciousness giggling and fantasizing about food porn.

We hit the spice store first and only spent about $40 in there. (Smoked salt, sweet Spanish Paprika and two new colors of pepper... oh hey by the way??--don't snort freshly ground white pepper--NOT a smart move!)

I am sure our comedy troupe was amusing to the general public as we were trying to translate Rollo's instructions (via phone while he laid new flooring at their crib) and not get distracted from THE LIST. Last year we didn't make a list and while everything was incredible--it was...haphazard. This year we had a plan! An actual menu! The chicken, slab bacon & roast beast (grass fed of course) from Sparrow. I love it when Bob Sparrow smiles at me like I am his best friend. Gorgeous Shrimps from Monahan's, salmon from Tracklments.

When I found the red peppers I yelled back to Kassia & Vicky --I FOUND THE PEPPERS!--I know I startled a poor mortal when she jumped about three feet straight up from the fruit stand! But, she had a great sense of humor and yelled right back-- "I found the mushrooms!" Petey & Garth thought they were going to go to the deli w/out us but we womenfolk redirected their cute little asses right back over there and Faillen affirmed the truffle tradition.

Everybody has a dish--Kassia inspired the pesto shrimp & chicken skewers & Rollo finally achieved the chocolate covered bacon we have all been lusting after, and Faillen made a butternut squash risotto with purple Kale. Zoli made Minestrone soup. Izzy was in charge of the fondue into which we dipped challah, banannas, dehydrated raspberries and Zingerman's marshmallows into luscious dark chocolate. She also made her first pastry crust for the pear and cranberry tart. (we forgot the sugar--but it was very light and flaky and married well with the pears) Garth & Pete roasted a slab of bacon over an open fire and then smeared the unctuous dripping onto crusty bread. I was actually alarmed by that and kind of avoided the whole flammable fat on a stick game.

So we snuck in a game of Scrabble (Kassia won) while the beast roasted--OMG! I didn't tell you what we did to the roast!!
A coffee spice rub! Which was a new thing for all of us! For a four lb roast we mixed four tablespoons of freshly ground dark roast coffee, and then one tablespoon each white & red peppercorns, garlic powder, onion powder, & dried sage. That mix just smelled like BEEF--succulent gorgeous meaty YUM. Cooked that puppy til it was fork tender.

We had cheese and bread and wine and beers. It was awesome.