Cooking Club, January 2012, & catching up.

Eek! I don't think I've ever gone a month without posting! Clearly I should have made a New Year's resolution to be more attentive to my blog. I will resolve to do better!

At any rate, Happy New Year! We had a great Christmas up in Jackson Hole and a nice New Year's here in Dallas. We enjoyed having Will home for a month, though he wasn't "home" a whole lot - kept all sorts of crazy hours hanging out with his high school friends. Vivian is slowly getting back into the groove of school after two weeks off. She has had several seizures over the past month, which certainly haven't helped her transition as they tend to leave her sleepy and off-kilter for a few days afterward. Dots is doing well; she is busy selling Girl Scout cookies and has finally completed the paperwork for her Girl Scout Silver Award.

Here is the recipe for the wonderful entrée we had at our December Cooking Club:

Shrimp and Wild Rice Casserole

1½ pounds mushrooms, sliced
1 small bell pepper, chopped
¼ cup diced onion
¼ cup butter, melted
2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 cups cooked wild rice
1 10-ounce can cream of mushroom soup
½ cup half-and-half
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
4-ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated

Sauté the mushrooms, onion, garlic and bell pepper in the butter until tender. Add the shrimp and stir until shrimp turn pink. Remove from heat and stir in wild rice, soup, half-and-half, Worcestershire sauce and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a large casserole dish. Sprinkle with the cheese. Bake at 350° for 30-45 minutes. Serves 10-12.

And finally, here are pictures from our January gathering:


I absolutely love the way my friend Barenda sets her table!


Barenda has so many beautiful pieces that belonged to her husband's grandmother, and she has great stories to tell about each of them. I especially covet her silver roosters and pheasant


Isn't this salt cellar exquisite?


Ellen, Priscilla, Karey and Leslie enjoy the fabulous and festive milk punch that Leslie brought


Susan keeps Thayer company as she puts the finishing touches on her Potato Soup


Jill, Barenda and me


I liked these pretty antique cups that Barenda used for our soup


Lunch is served!


We all laugh that we don't eat like this every day


Ellen wasn't happy with how her first dessert (pralines) turned out, so she made an assortment for her second effort

Menu:

French Quarter Cheese (this was really good and very pretty)
Pirate's Milk Punch (yum)
Three-cheese Drop Biscuits
Potato Soup
Crunchy Romaine Toss
Chicken Asiago with Hickory Smoked Bacon
Squash Casserole 1 (I brought this and was not impressed with it - my tip-off should have been that it was sourced from a cookbook I already own that was copyright 1977!)
Michigan Nut and Berry Bark
Oreo Balls

All recipes from Recipes Worth Sharing