The Healing Process

Good supper clubs involve good friends. Some times life is not fair and bad things happen to good people. Supper clubs can be part of the healing process.

Our friends Kathy and Don Bell lost their son Michael in a car accident while he was in high school. They lived every parent’s nightmare. At the funeral I asked Kathy if there was anything I could do to help. She asked if I could write a menu for her for an upcoming supper club. It was just one thing on her mind and the last thing she needed to be worrying about at that awful time.

I will never forget the night a few years later when Kathy stood on her chair during one of our special Impromptu Friday Nights and announced that she had made a breakthrough. She had finally come up with a way to deal with Michael’s loss. It was a beautiful moment and her friends were complemented by the way she shared it with them.

Fast-forward several years. Kathy and Don now live in Charlotte, as do our daughter and son in law. Two years ago we were in town to babysit for our grandson Max then 2 years old while his parents were out of town on business. We invited Kathy and Don over for dinner.

As we were preparing for dinner my wife Susan remembered that it was the anniversary of Michael’s passing. When Kathy and Don arrived Max took over. He took an instant liking to “Uncle” Don. It was almost as if Max somehow knew. He provided a wonderful distraction and a reminder that life goes on.

Besides that we had a wonderful Beef Ragu

We try to get together with Kathy and Don whenever we visit Charlotte. Max and Don continue to share their connection. After their daughter’s wedding last year one can hope that grandchildren are in their future.

It is kind of nice how, in a small way, supper clubs have been part of the healing process.

If you enjoy this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and be on the look out for my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs due out from Morgan James Publishing on January 30, 2018.

Back By Popular Demand

You have to love an appetizer that people ask for time and again. My Cheese Puffs (or Gougères) are always a hit. When my daughter asked: “When are you going to write a blog about your Gougères?” I figured the time has come.

Gougères are a great starter for any supper club meal. Warm right out of the oven they are pretty much irresistible. They are not the healthiest alternative so I usually serve a crudité along with the Gougères. Without fail the Gougères will be gone and the crudité goes untouched.

The recipe for the Cheese Puffs with Bacon and Shallot

My Cheese Puffs are a little different than the traditional Gougères because I add bacon and shallot. These additions follow the old culinary rule that: You can add bacon and shallot to just about anything and people will like it. It can get you in trouble if someone in your supper club keeps a kosher home.

Check out the blog on “Kosher can be fun”

This brings me to my father’s story about our family’s Jewish ancestry. It is a special story because I had an uncle who was a catholic priest on the Jewish side of my family.

Dad was a great storyteller. Before he died I sat down with him and documented several of his stories. One story he told is that we are part Jewish. His father emigrated from Ireland under the sponsorship of his aunt, Selma Diamond who was Jewish and lived in Brooklyn New York.

The story gets special with the twist that my father’s brother Pat was a catholic priest that was trained in a seminary in pre-war Germany. My father claimed that Father Pat (“Rev” for short) had to come home from Germany because of his Jewish ancestry.

Fast forward a few years, after my father had died I went to visit my uncle. Father Pat was then 90 and living in the Augustinian monastery at Villanova University. He was still as sharp as a tack and when I read him my father’s story about him having to come back from Germany he asked indignantly: “Who told you that? I didn’t come home because I was Jewish I was a catholic priest. I came home because it was time to come home”.

There are two morals to this story:

Don’t let a few facts get in the way of a good story
You can add bacon to anything and people will like it

People Eat With Their Eyes

This is so true and it is one reason that while hosting a supper club dinner party I prefer to plate a meal versus serving it family style. Of course the number of people you are serving will dictate. My rule of thumb is that if it is less than 10 people you should try to plate.

The old line: “It is better to look good than to be good” is so true. Arranging the food on the plate in an appetizing manner is a great way to make first impression a good one.

There are a few rules I like to follow:

Have a “Hero” item be the center of the plate and the focus point. It is usually the protein and you should build your plate around it.

Sauce carefully. I like to lay a base of sauce on the plate and build on top of it. Too much sauce on top of the food detracts from the hero effect. Putting the sauce underneath also placates the advocates of “sauce on the side”.

Build your side dishes around the hero. Your sides should look appetizing and bring the eye of the diner to your hero item.

Gimmicks can be good:

Stacking proteins can be done to bring the eye to your hero.
Using forms can be fun. I once provided little sections of PVC pipe to supper club hosts so that they could serve rice in beautiful rounds.
Shapes are great. Cutting a potato casserole into triangles can add dimension.
Squeeze bottles are a great tool to present sauces with stylistic flair.
Fresh Herbs are always a good way to decorate a plate.

One challenge with plating is that you rush things to get the food out and miss the opportunity to make the plate look special. One trick is to lay your plates out and plate them in an organized manner.

You do have to be careful to get your count right. I always remember my sister’s story of serving a dinner party of nine people. Bernadette is a great cook and hostess, but her math skills were a little challenged this one night. She plated 8 salads and sent them out to be served before realizing she was one short. Fortunately, it was the salad and she was able to scrape a little from each plate to make the final plate.

If you have a knowledgeable assistant it is always good. I work real well with my son Brian. He will add a special touch to the plating knowing what I am trying to accomplish. This allows me to focus on getting the plates out and he will add the special touches to make things look just right.

Plating is a fun way to make that supper club first impression really count.