Category — Entertaining

These buttery rolls are surprisingly light, perfect for soaking up the broth from the lobster bake.

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Along with the “stars” of the night… the actual lobsters, the clambake was the main course of the lobster bake evening.  The lobsters can be cooked right along with the whole “bake” but I, for one, don’t have a pot big enough to hold everything. As a result, the lobsters were boiled separately.

Since I wasn’t sure of any of the guests’ dietary restrictions, instead of the kielbasa I would generally use, I found a fabulous spicy chicken and spinach sausage at Costco and used that.  I also separated out the corn and served it next to some potatoes on the buffet, just because this time it fit better that way. But for that added pop of color, I would usually leave the corn in the “bake” as I have pictured above.

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In all honesty, I am not fully recovered from the big weekend lobster bake… still putting away all that stuff I dragged out of storage. Plus, I have been busy making lobster stock from all those shells.  Therefore, we’ll start the week of recipes slowly and begin with clarified butter. This was used for dipping the lobster and other seafood.

Clarified butter is what is left when melting unsalted butter – after the water evaporates, some solids float to the surface and are skimmed off, and the remainder of the milk solids sink to the bottom and are left behind when the butter fat (the clarified butter) is poured off.

Drawn butter is an American term for clarified butter. It has a higher smoke point than regular butter, which makes it much better for sautéing. It also has a longer shelf life than fresh butter and since is has negligible amounts of lactose, it is more acceptable to people with lactose intolerance.

And just in case you’ve heard of it before and have been wondering… ghee is the East Indian form of clarified butter.

Also note that there is about a 25% loss in the quantity of butter, after clarifying.  You may clarify any amount of butter. I started with 2 sticks (1 cup) but realized that would not be enough for the dinner party, so I ended up clarifying another 2 sticks, or a full pound of butter.

Feel free to save the milk solids you’ve skimmed off.  They can be added to rice, polenta, soups, popcorn, or even your morning toast or oatmeal.  I used them in the boiled potatoes at the lobster bake ~ that recipe will be up in a few days.

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Last night was the big Lobster Bake at the Hopkins’ home. If you weren’t invited, don’t feel bad…. this was a donation dinner from a fundraising event, so unless you were at the fundraiser and had the winning bid…  sorry!

There were eight lovely guests. It is currently 11:30 AM the following morning and Dave and I have just now finally gotten it all cleaned up. Here is a pictorial of the event… recipes to follow.

The lobsters arrive via Fed-Ex from Maine.

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I know I said that today I would post the pictures and answers from yesterday’s game, “What the Heck is That?!?”. I’m going to hold off for a day or two. Maybe by then more of you will play the game. (see the image above of a very sad face). To be fair, I have sent the answers to Dagmar, the only participant besides Marissa. Thanks for playing, Dagmar! (happy face!)

So, what to do today… how about I show you my plans for Saturday? A dress rehearsal of sorts. This Saturday I am delivering on an auction donation I made for a very worthy cause. The donation was this.

The winners of the item chose to have the dinner at my house, so I’ve been busy for the last several days trying to find and round up all my “clambake” “beachy” stuff. Turns out I have a whole bunch of it, even though I live in the dry arid desert. Here is what I was able to find in my cupboards, garage, storage sheds, etc.

I know it’s hard to tell what is what in this photo, so how about some closeups? (not as closeup as the photos in the game that I’d love for you to play), but just closeup enough to explain what things are and what I’ve done with it all.

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This fourth brunch recipe makes two casserole dishes of sausage and egg goodness. And it’s another overnight casserole… breakfast for dinner two nights in a row… just saying! Once again, I thank the photographer, Laura, for providing the photo of her dish. (down a little farther, not the photo directly below)

Before Laura’s dish, here is a final description of the last recipe not yet included in the “four days of le brunch”.  It’s all about Tram’s Banana Crunch Muffins.  You see, long story short, Tram got crunched for time and her hubby, Steve, couldn’t make it, so she brought her friend (and my friend too!) Matt. Matt is not only our friend, but also the producer of Tram’s afternoon show EVB Live, and the former producer of the old Valley Dish. Matt made the muffins, but since he doesn’t really like full-on banana flavor in his muffins, he made banana-pineapple muffins… yes that’s the short version! Matt’s muffins were a huge hit. But since I don’t have Matt’s recipe to share, I will share my “Crunch” recipe tomorrow.

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The best thing about the four brunch recipes my friends made is that they can all be fully or partially made ahead. Anne’s “overnight” French toast obviously fits the bill. Or if your family enjoys “breakfast for dinner” – throw this together before you head out the door in the morning, take it out when you walk in the door, then pop it in the oven and you’ll have dinner (and dessert all-in-one; it’s pretty dang sweet!) on the table with almost no effort after a long hard day.

So another guest who made a dish that won’t be featured in the four days of brunch recipes is Amy’s Smoked Salmon Platter with Dill Sour Cream. It was one of the “no-cook” recipes and was basically thinly sliced smoked salmon artistically laid out on a platter with minced shallots and capers sprinkled on top and sour cream with fresh chopped dill mixed in – served with bagel chips or sliced baguette on the side.  So easy, SO good, and oh so pretty!

Once again, I didn’t get a photo of Amy’s dish or even of Amy for that matter, but I did get a nice shot of her hilariously humorous husband, Scott (and Bubo – Sloane’s pooch).

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Next up is the recipe that my sweet sister, Sloane, made. It’s one of my favorites!

A few of the other guests brought recipes that have already been featured here on the blog… for instance, Peggy made THIS great salad that I wrote about back in September 2009.  And Peggy’s fabulous sister, Terrie, made a beautiful platter of roasted asparagus that was generously topped with crumbled goat cheese, crispy bacon, and lemon.  Regretfully, I didn’t get a picture of either Terrie’s asparagus or Peggy’s salad, (you can go to the link above to see the salad).  But thankfully I did snap a lovely picture of gorgeous Peggy!

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Here is the first of four brunch dishes that I’d like to share with you from our New Year’s Eve Brunch. Since I wasn’t the one cooking any of these, there will only be one picture… no preparation photos. And in some cases, as with this one, I even forgot to take the picture myself and had to ask the creator of the dish to email me the photo taken from the leftovers they brought back home – thanks for this one, Mary!  Oh, one more thing – This is my 800th Post! Wow 800!

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On Monday afternoon, I was looking through the stack of magazines that had been piling up these past few weeks. In the middle of the stack was the January issue of Bon Appétit. The first thing I spotted, down in the right corner of the cover was this-

“Set Up The Ultimate Bloody Mary Bar”  What the heck? Who knew I was so on-trend?  I had just done that very thing two days before!  So I immediately opened the magazine to page 60 and saw this –

This is the “ultimate” Bloody Mary bar? I don’t think so! They have a few good ideas, some of which I had already used on my Bloody Mary bar – like beef jerky, pepperoncini, garlic stuffed olives, and pickled veggies. But come on, 8 snazzy items do not make an ultimate anything! Heads up Bon Appétit… the next time you want something done ultimately, give me a call.

This is how you set up an ULTIMATE Bloody Mary Bar –

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