What to do with all this food?

The Location: Cambridge, MA
The Books: Heirloom Beans from Rancho Gordo by Steve Sando and Vanessa Barrington 
and Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito
The Recipes: Cannellini Bean Confetti Spread (Heirloom...),  Cowboy Cookies (Baked), and Mushroom Strudel (from epicurious.com)
The Soundtrack: Charlotte Gainsbourg. IRM


My feelings are a little hurt. I was supposed to host book club tonight, but it got cancelled.  I mentioned to Mr. D that I don't understand why I am so upset and he pointed out that it was the first largish gathering that I was going to host in our new apartment.  Maybe I wouldn't be so upset if the cancellation text hadn't come in the middle of a battle I was having with phyllo dough (blast you temperamental pastry that I have not mastered!) an hour and a half before I was expecting guests to arrive.


Since the book club was on a Thursday I did a lot of prep work yesterday and even though I was only planning on making three things (everyone brings a snack to contribute), I might have been a little overly ambitious. Who decides to make a bean spread from dried beans, cookies where the dough has to rest for at least four hours, and a mushroom strudel from scratch for a Thursday night gathering? Well Drunk Cook #2, you know that I would! (And did!) 


Let's talk about the strudel first. Technically I know it doesn't belong on this blog because it didn't come from one of my cookbooks.

 However I am including it because it lets me talk about goose fat. You see this recipe calls for rendered goose or duck fat between the sheets of phyllo dough. Guess who's colleague brought her in a jar of goose fat on Monday? A friend of mine asked how it came up in conversation that I would want goose fat. It was pretty simple, my colleague mentioned he was making a goose and I asked him if he would be using all of the fat. I can't even explain how good this strudel was - the mushroom filling was so rich due to the inclusion of dried porcinis and then the fat was from a goose. Talk about richness. Then you add a flaky pastry? Hell to the Yea. It was worth revisiting my love/hate relationship with phyllo (please tell me if you have mastered this finicky product.)

                       

I had never heard of a cowboy cookie. Regarding the name, the cookbook states "It seems the name  is simply a sly reference to the rugged manliness implied by the cookie's bigness and embrace-it-all ingredients." Manliness implied by bigness? This intrigued me. I think that statement might also make a few men upset... What intrigued me more was the inclusion of pretzels in the dough.  I had never heard of anything like that. They add such a nice crunchy salty element to the cookie that is completely unexpected. However, I think the thing that really took them over the top was the inclusion of expresso powder.

Now I am going to tell you something that might surprise you. I misread the recipe for the bean dip and added too much parmesan. And I didn't have garlic to roast. So I tweaked the recipe.  Instead of measuring the chives, I eye-balled it. I didn't measure the olive oil. I just grabbed a handful of olives. It was liberating. And the result was delicious! Creamy, tangy, briny, delicious! You need to get the heirloom book and start making rancho Gordo beans.

Now the only problem is what am I going to do with all this food?