Saturday Night Football

Saturday night a few of us got together for some good eats and conversation over football (OSU vs Penn State; conflict of interest alma mater vs. first love) and iPad trivia. I think Tinbugs may have added something like 10 new apps to her iPad. (You know you've always wanted to give hot pink highlights to Santa.). While the results of the football game were... slightly disappointing, the company was excellent and the food turned out awesome.

First up the cheese and cracker tray with its 5 kinds of cheese with 3 kinds of crackers and an Italian focaccia cut up for dipping in olive oil and balsamic vinegar:

The Viking getting ready to chow down.

Cheese Plate--
Lemon White Stilton
Blueberry White Stilton
Guggisberg Swiss
Brie
Flax Cheese

Rice Crackers
Multigrain Crackers
Plain Cracker

Olive Oil Dip

The Olive Oil Dip-- Both ingredients for this were special delivery from parts out west--the balsamic vinegar was from Prescott, Arizona and the olive oil was Olivas de Oro from California









A bit of Cheese Trivia:

*Flax cheese doesn't really have flax in it. It was served at the Flax Festival.
*White Stilton can give you some hyper vivid dreams if you eat it too close to bedtime.
*If White Stilton were made in Stilton (the town for which it was named) instead of in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottingshashire, it could not be called a Stilton cheese. Stilton is now in the wrong county- Cambridgshire.

Next we set about making Gyoza and Nori Rolls. Here is a plate full of plump gyoza waiting to be fried and steamed.  

And here are the Nori rolls cooked and sliced and waiting to be lifted with chopsticks and dipped in the sweet chili sauce by happy eaters.










 And to round out our meal with a bit of something more vegetable like, we had a very tasty Artichoke Olive Salad.

Many thanks to ViolinFingers and The Viking for having us over for a wonderful evening. I only wish I lived closer so we could get together more often.

Artichoke Olive Salad courtesy of ViolinFingers

1 can artichokes
1 can whole black olives
sliced cubes Feta cheese
cherry tomatoes, halved

Mix all together and toss with  Italian Salad Dressing or a mix of olive oil and vinegar.









Filling for Nori Rolls and Gyoza (based on Bon Appetit's Crunchy Beef Nori Rolls recipe):

3 caps Shittake mushrooms, diced
1/2 shallot, diced
1 lb. ground beef
3 c shredded carrots
3/4 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 egg, beaten

Fry diced mushrooms and shallot together in butter until cooked through, then mix with the other  (raw) ingredients. Use as directed in your recipe of choice.  Quantity was sufficient for filling 5 eight inch nori rolls and 25 to 30 gyoza wrappers.

For dipping sauces we used sweet chili sauce,  soy sauce with rice vinegar, and faux soy sauce with white vinegar.