Holiday Potluck 2008

After I had a small but very successful Thanksgiving potluck I decided to have another Holiday potluck around Christmas. This one quickly grew in size though from a very comfortable 11 people at the last one to 25+ this time around, but we had plenty of food and just barely finished all the wine after 6 hours of eating, drinking, and socializing so it all worked out quite nicely.

I ended up making a beef & Guinness stew and a spicy roast squash dish. Both of them were inspired by the dinner I had last week at Tamara Reynold’s supper club in Astoria. Actually, by asking for the recipe and inviting Tamara to join I got a little radio shout out by her partner in crime, Zora. My first reference in the public limelight!

Everyone seemed to enjoy the beef & Guiness stew but after having Tamara’s version last week I think mine still needs a bit of work. I made some modifications and think I ended up a bit heavy handed on the nutmeg. But all in all, it turned out pretty good for being my first attempt.

The squash on the other hand was fantastic. I definitely liked it as much as the original version I had the week before and I can probably add it to my list of dishes worth repeating. It works well for potlucks and such because you can make it ahead of time and bring it wherever you need to go or if you are hosting you can entertain guests instead of being in the kitchen. I, of course, never got around to preparing it ahead of time because the oven was already occupied with the beef stew most of the day. I have some very helpful friends though that gave me a hand throughout the night. I’ll be sure to post the recipe for this soon and I highly recommend giving it a shot during the cooler months as a slightly spicy version of roast squash.

Anyhow, there were tons of other great food as well. Baked brie with dried fruits, garlicky bruschetta, cookies from Jacques Torres, deviled eggs, vegan pate, veggie bake, scalloped potatoes, some amazing sourdough stuffing, and an absolutely delicious rum cake that was topped with Cruzan Black Strap rum (delicious stuff… really… Its perfect for holiday desserts).

All in all, it was a great time.
Next up… the Taco-n-Tequila party…