Cowboy Christmas Breakfast

Yeah, that's right.  While other Dinner Clubbers are posting seasonally appropriate dinners, I'm still working on Christmas brunches.  My cooking, and thus blogging, has been frustratingly uninspired of late, the worst kind of writers' block (cookers' block?).  Nevertheless, Jaime's recent posting has guilted me into at least trying to get back into the swing of things.

This recipe is from Gourmet, and we made it back in December, on our holiday visit to Madison.  It need not, however, be reserved for Christmas.  Case-in-point, we also made in on our February visit to Milwaukee to see Dinner Clubbers Matt and Nikki.  It serves a crowd and can be put together the night before, which is a valuable morning time saver.  Possibly a good choice for Easter brunch?  Bam!  See how I brought this old brunch post up to date? 

GG's Tea Party - Nov 23, 2012

Chicken Mandarin Orange Spread Sandwiches

This is slightly out of order, but since I'm still playing catch up from two months ago, I'm not too worried about it.  These pictures are from a birthday party for Nick's Grandma, known affectionately as GG, held the day after Thanksgiving.  GG turned 90 this year and we celebrated in style.

Cucumber-Salmon-Watercress Sandwiches

Specifically, we had an afternoon tea party where hats, of any kind, were required.  Nick and I were in charge of organizing the finger sandwiches for the party.  Nan wanted four different kinds, one of them being a pimento cheese sandwich, because it's not a Southern tea party without the pimento cheese sandwiches.

Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

Nick and I picked out three other recipes from this list.  A grocery list was compiled between Nick and me in Minnesota, and Chip and Nan in South Carolina.  Some math was required, but Nick and Chip are good guys to have on your team when that happens.  We got the numbers figured out without incident.  Nick's parents did the shopping, plus pimento cheese making, and Nick and I did the prep work (making the chicken and salmon salads, plus the compound butter for the ham sandwiches) Thursday evening, once the Thanksgiving feast had been cleared from the kitchen.

Party Ham Sandwiches

Then, bright and early Friday morning, a whole crew of family and friends gathered around the kitchen island. Uncles worked next to nephews, sisters worked next to brothers, fathers-in-law worked next to cousins, nieces worked next to girlfriends, and everybody pitched in to make hundreds of tiny tea sandwiches in record time.  We had so much help, in fact, that I had nothing to do besides answer the random question and stand back and admire the flurry of activity, as inside jokes and friendly barbs flew back and forth across the counter.  The rookies were included into the fold as though they had always been there, and the whole, wild and crazy assortment of family members became a happy, and quite efficient, team.   It was my favorite moment of the whole weekend.

Mobile Post: Minnesota State Fair - Sept 1, 2012

I'm trying a little experiment here, attempting to blog from my phone.  Hang with me, Dinner Clubbers, while I figure this out.  It probably won't be very often that I use this function, as the quality of the pictures is not what I consider to be blog worthy, but sometimes I don't want to carry around our big camera on excursions.  The State Fair is definitely one of those times.

Here are Nick and I on our way to the fair, via express bus, ready for the day's excitement, complete with sun-protection accessories.

Our first stop was the FFA Dairy Cattle judging in the new AgStar Arena.  White show pants, clean and clipped heifers, fresh sawdust on the floor, I got a little giddy reliving my college days of hanging out with Dairy Jocks.  Needless to say, I got to school my companions on the intricacies of Dairy Cattle competition.  It was a bit of jackassery on my part, but exciting nonetheless.

Next up, we paid a visit to the small ruminants.  We saw goats galore, but no sheep.  Perhaps the sheep hang out earlier in the week?

After a few more stops, including a visit to the Thom Thumb donut stand, we visited the award winning produce.  There is something about the organization of these fruits and vegetables that I find quite appealing.

And last, but obviously not least, we checked out the giant pumpkins.  These things are pleasantly huge, and delightful in the same way as the State's biggest boar (which we did not see this year).

I think this was a good experience overall.  We managed to leave as the crowds really started to swell and the heat became overwhelming (two reasons we've avoided the fair in the past).  I still have to say, though, that my hometown county fair holds first place in my heart.  Nothing else even comes close.