M. Suzanne Terry

So my amazing Supper Club friends let me test things out on them. It’s a symbiosis, really. I get feedback; they get steak and fancy drinks.

They also contribute new ideas and courses. Adriana and Josh brought the first course and the wine and the chipotle mayo, and Becky brought chili to accompany the second course, which was a grand idea that I am totally going to keep. Hats off to them!

Each Feast test will have three courses and be served with a champagne cocktail (for which I will never actually use champagne but rather my favorite Prosecco) and a similar mocktail for those who do not wish to imbibe. This first round tested the recipes from the week we will be enjoying the Holiday Menu.

Holiday Menu:

• Appetizer – Mixed greens salad with vinaigrette or chipotle mayo
• Main – Steak, seared in ghee, and baked potato with chili and cheese (OR, alternatively, garlic mashed potatoes with ghee and coconut milk – great idea, Adriana), served with red wine.
• Dessert – Butter cake (or one of the ten thousand desserts you still have sitting in your fridge after the family leaves)
• Cocktail – White Christmas
• Mocktail – Stick and Ale

Notes and Observations:

• We seared in ghee because one of us is doing Whole 30, and butter does not go on Whole 30, but ghee does.  Which was awesome for us, because steak seared in ghee?  AMAZING. I highly recommend it.
• The plan was to sear the steaks for two minutes on each side and then slide them under the broiler for a couple of minutes to get them to the preferred level of done-ness, which for me is medium. The reality was that I seared the steaks, broiled them, and then second-guessed myself and put them back in because I cut into them (the cardinal sin of steak – I know – I’m sorry!), and they weren’t where I wanted them to be yet. If I had just let them sit for five minutes like you are supposed to do, it would have been fine. They were overdone. I mean, everyone liked it and ate it anyway, because they’re proper humans who don’t complain about steak. It was fine. Tasty, even. But it could have been better if I would just let them rest. Perhaps I should write out 100 times, “I will let the steak rest. I will let the steak rest,” like my teachers made us do in elementary school when we did something wrong.
• You know what’s delicious on steak? Chipotle mayo. That’s the drizzle you see on the steak at the bottom of the picture above. Happy.
• Baked potatoes are super versatile. They’re good with butter and cheese. They’re good with chili. You know what else is good on a baked potato?  Chipotle mayo.
• The White Christmas cocktail can be found under many names. White Christmas. Christmas Kiss (which makes me think it has chocolate and subsequently makes me disappointed that it doesn’t). Merry Kissmas (ick. Just no.). Frosty the Snowman (*blinks*). I chose “White Christmas” because I like my cocktails to have practical names. This is one of my weird pet peeves. I cannot abide a cocktail with a cutesy name that is also impractical. If it’s cutesy, the name better tell me how to make it. For example, a Southern Peach? Southern Comfort and peach schnapps. A Slow Comfortable Screw (other than its obvious purpose of sounding dirty)? Sloe gin, Southern Comfort, orange juice, and vodka. White Christmas? White creme de cacao and the essential Christmas candy icon – the peppermint stick. See? The recipe is basically in the name.

(Look how cute!)

• I was skeptical about the mocktail. It’s ginger ale and peppermint…and that’s it. I wasn’t sure how those two flavors would mesh. It was delicious. In fact, if I made it with a better ginger ale, I might actually like it better than its cocktail counterpart. As an added bonus, if enjoyed with a meal that makes your stomach angry, between the peppermint and the levels of ginger found in proper ginger ale, it will actually help settle your stomach.
• If anyone offers you dessert as a reward for a favor you’ve done for them or as leftovers to take home from a party, take them! They can be a delicious end to a meal you share with friends – with absolutely no effort on your part. Shout-out to Kim and Beth for the delicious butter cake.  All the people thank you.

I consider this fantastic evening a successful first test!