The Gourmettes
The Gourmettes recently held their monthly dinner meeting for July at the home of Pat Kaczar. Eileen Small assisted as co-hostess. The evening's theme was recipes from the Church Supper Cookbook. The dining table was set with white patterned china and sage green table linens. Each member's place setting included a miniature glass slipper favor with a sprig of ruby red celosia. A centerpiece of multi-colored summer flowers completed the table. Preceding the business meeting and dinner was the installation of officers for 2012-2014. President Sue Rodgers, Secretary Eileen Small and Treasurer Rose Spann.
The evening's appetizers prepared and served by Rodgers were mushroom quiche, spinach squares and tomato corn rarebit. Small prepared strawberry basil lemonade for the evening cocktail. For the soup course, creamy tomato soup was presented by Kathy Ehrheart. Cranberry salad by Bettie Lachiusa was served as the salad course. The entree selected by Kaczar was pork chop roast with honeyed sweet potatoes and was accompanied by seven minute zucchini prepared by Barb Shalkowski. Wine choices for dinner were dry and semi-dry Rieslings. The meal concluded with lemon bisque by Diana Cross.
For the August meeting the members wilbe lunching at The Brick Room followed by a winery tour and tasting at 21 Brix.
The members chose two recipes to submit and share with the OBSERVER readers.
Pork Chop Roast with Honeyed Sweet Potatoes
3 large sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon brown sugar
6 pork chops, cut 3/4" thick
6 pineapple slices
1/4 cup sifted flour
6 green pepper rings, 1/4" thick
2 teaspoons salt6 onion slices, 1/4" thick
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup pineapple juice
Melted fat
1 cup honey
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
3 tablespoons melted butter
Boil potatoes until soft, then cut in half and peel. Meanwhile, coat chops with mixture of flour, salt and pepper. Brown in melted fat. Arrange chops in shallow baking dish. Spread with mustard and brown sugar. Top each chop with pineapple, green pepper and onion. Pour pineapple juice over chops. Coat sweet potatoes with honey and melted butter and arrange around chops. Bake covered at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes; then remove cover and bake 30 minutes longer, or until chops are tender. Serves six.
Lemon Bisque
1 package (3 oz.) lemon gelatin
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/4 cups boiling water
grated rind of 1 lemon
1/3 cup honey or sugar
1 can (13 oz.) evaporated milk, chilled overnight
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups crushed vanilla wafers
Soak gelatin in a little bit of cold water for 3-5 minutes, then dissolve gelatin in boiling water and ad honey or sugar, salt, lemon juice and lemon rind. Put in freezer for about 15 minutes until partly congealed. Whip evaporated milk until thick, then whip in the gelatin mixture. Sprinkle 1 cup of vanilla wafer crumbs evenly over bottom of 9 x 13 glass dish. Pour bisque mixture over crumbs and top with remaining 1 cup of crumbs. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours. Serves 12-15.
