Chow Cows I

I've been so busy with the house stuff that I completely forgot to post about the first Chow Cows gathering last Thursday! Thanks to Jon who just posted some pics and reminded me about it.

So back in NYC, I came up with the Fat Cats cooking club, which was really just an opportunity for my friends and I to get together and overeat and overdrink. I really missed cooking with foodies on a regular basis so I decided to start a new club here in SD called Chow Cows (Pudgy Porkers lost out as a potential name). The format of the club will be organic. To start with, we'll just have a few regular members who will rotate hosting once a month. The host will decide if the gathering will be an intimate dinner or a large scale potluck (many other guests involved). Pretty much whatever the host wants to do goes. For the first meeting, Sophie gracious offered to host a Morrocan dinner at her house. We kept the first meeting small just to see how it worked out with multiple cooks in the kitchen. Here's what we made:

For cocktails, Jon made some strong but tasty basil infused martinis. Usually, martinis and I are like oil and water but I liked these and after two, I really liked these.


Then for appetizers, he made some Morrocan beef cigars rolled in phyllo - flaky and savory mmm.



For sides, I made a carrot salad, an olive and cucumber salad, and a chickpea salad. Sophie bought some flatbread from TJ's for accompaniment. Very refreshing.




For main course, Sophie made a chicken with couscous soup. The meat was very tender and fell off the bones the way a good Morrocan stew should.


And for dessert, Kim made gazelle horns that were super buttery and melted in your mouth.


And throughout the meal, we had many martinis, glasses of red wine, and Bryan even brought out strange concoctions that you could only buy in foreign lands.


By the end of the night, we were all stuffed and drunk - perfect ending to any cooking event. Interestingly enough, Sophie had a balloon kit and Kim was able to show off her newly acquired balloon twisting skills. More pictures from the night can be found here.