Spice Sisters Society 2018!

Hi Ladies,

It's hard to believe that we have been Spice Sisters for a year now! I have really enjoyed all the great food and great company. Thank you to all of our hostesses throughout the year.

I have not posted in a while and I have quite a few to do to catch up. For some of the meetings I will just post the recipes and a few photos so that we have them if we want them. I will also post a few that I typed up but didn't post due to a missing recipe or photo. Desiree reached out to me last week about a recipe from Sabina's club date that she wanted to make and I couldn't even remember what it was. It reminded me that it's nice to have this blog for reference. I have come back to it to find a recipe I've enjoyed if I don't have the book myself.

Enjoy the updates! And I look forward to seeing everyone at Melissa's on April 15th. We'll enjoy cuisine from “The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Come And Get It!”

Here is the Evite link if needed.  http://evite.me/zhZjsY2K1w

Enjoy Spring Break everyone!

March Recap! Entice with Spice, "Easy Indian Recipes for Busy People"

The Sisters: 

Gemma and Sabina 

The Book:

Gemma made Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash 

Sabina made Mater Paneer (Indian cheese and green pea curry) 

Gemma hosted and said that both dishes were delicious! Thank You again for hosting! 

Thanks again ladies. I look forward to creating many memories with all of you and bonding over the love of cooking, food and girl time.

February Recap! Julia Child's "The Art of French Cooking"

The Sisters: 

Gemma, Megan, Melissa and Andrea 

The Book: 

With choosing Julia Child we all wondered if we would be cooking for hours and covered in food and maybe shed a few tears. To our surprise 3 out of 4 of the dishes were not too labor intensive. Gemma's Ratatouille was another story! She slaved away for about 4 hours. I really do believe that I could taste the love and effort. It was so delicious and as someone that just enjoyed it and didn't labor, I really think it was worth the work! 

One thing we all agreed on, Julia knows great food. Megan's soup was amazing and full of flavor, Melissa Quiche Loraine was so rich and delicious and I think my chicken came out pretty good also, it sounds fancy but was something that you could make for the family.  

I did not include the recipes for this book because they are usually written on multiple pages and in very small font. Many recipes are on line. 

Megan- Soupe a l'oignon (French Onion Soup) 

Melissa- Quiche Loraine

Gemma- Ratatouille 

Andrea- Supremes de Volaille aux Champagignons (chicken breast with mushrooms and cream)

Curtesy of Trader Joe's- Macaroons

Thanks again ladies. I look forward to creating many memories with all of you and bonding over the love of cooking, food and girl time.

November Recap! "Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking" By, Dana Shultz

The Book: 

The Sisters: 

Desiree, Gemma, Sabina and Andrea

Thank you Desiree for hosting! It was Thanksgiving week and she had family in town and she still hosted! We were lucky enough to be joined by her Mother and our first male attendee, her cousin. They were both such a pleasure!  

The Minimalist Baker is a vegetarian cookbook. Not all books warrant me wanting to purchase it but this one, I need this one. We all agreed that meat was not missed at all. Desiree introduced us to Jackfruit which has the consistency of meat and it was delicious! I would make every dish again for sure. Everything was full of flavor and just delicious. 

"No Tuna" Salad 

Chickpea Shawarma Dip 

Cauliflower Rice Stir Fry 

BBQ Jackfruit 

Monster glass, fit for a queen! 

Recipes: 

BBQ Jackfruit 

"No Tuna" Salad 

Cauliflower Rice Stir Fry 

Chickpea Shawarma Dip 

Thanks again ladies. I look forward to creating many memories with all of you and bonding over the love of cooking, food and girl time.

November meeting! "Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking" By, Dana Shultz

The next meeting will take place November 19th at 2:00pm. Thank you Desiree for offering to host!

We will cook from "Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking" By, Dana Shultz

Desiree owns this book and loves it. It's all vegan! Dana Shultz started off as a blogger so many of her recipies are online. Check Pinterest. 

All of the details will be included in the Evite which will be sent out soon. Please RSVP when you receive it so we have an accurate headcount and as we get closer please update the Evite with your recipe choice. Thank you! 

October meeting! "How to Cook Indian" by, Sanjeev Kapoor

The next meeting will take place October 8th at 2:00pm. Thank you Sabina for offering to host!

We will cook from "How to Cook Indian" by, Sanjeev Kapoor.

Bonus! This book is available as an eBook from the Charlotte Mecklenburg library. https://cmlibrary.org/

All of the details are included in the Evite. Please RSVP and as we get closer please update the Evite with your recipe choice. Thank you! 

http://evite.me/vg2Z1M6Hhm

September Recap! Ina Garten's "Barefoot in Paris" Take 2

The Book:

Ina Garten’s Barefoot in Paris

The Sisters:

Megan, Desiree, Sabina, Andrea 

The Dishes lovingly prepared:

Salad with Warm Goat Cheese

Zucchini Gratin

Coconut Madeleines

Spinach in Puff Pastry
                                        

                                

The Details:

Thank you Megan for welcoming us into your beautiful home. It was warmly and perfectly decorated for fall and smelled delicious like pumpkin spice. It was the perfect space to spend the afternoon together enjoying great conversation and delicious food. The strawberry basil margaritas were perfect for our fall meeting on a 90 degree day! 

We enjoyed a completely vegetarian meal for the second time in a row and it was delicious. Each meeting we manage to choose things that complement each other perfectly. It is fun to choose the favorite dish which is really just the dish most likely to be made again. This time we couldn’t decide! We all agreed that we would make each dish again.

The salad was a simple salad but what made it unique was the homemade dressing and the toast with goat cheese. The dressing had an egg in the recipe that really added a richness that we all really enjoyed. The zucchini gratin was great. It had a tons of onions which we all loved. “What’s not to love!?” It could definitely stand on its own with a salad and be the main dish. The spinach in puff pastry really had a nice presentation for something so simple. Using puff pastry in this dish was a nice variation verses phyllo dough which is used in spanakopita, a very similar Greek dish. The Madeleines are a very simple but very impressive dessert. Investing in the Madeleine pan is definitely worth it. 

Megan waited to bake these so that we could enjoy them warm, straight from the oven. Delicious!

Looking ahead…

We discussed the topic of attendees and members. This month we had 4 members for the third meeting in a row. We all decided that we enjoy the intimacy! We are getting to know each other and it's very easy to keep the conversation flowing. We have a total of 13 members now, with 3 new ladies recently invited to join the group, so the potential for a large meeting every so often is still a possibility. But the consensus is that the meetings of 4 are equally enjoyable as the larger meetings. So we'll keep it like it is! We all will make some and miss some. 

Spice Sister’s Society’s First Annual “Husbands Too Holiday Party”

Megan had the great idea to include the husbands once a year. We thought what better time than for a holiday party. It will be held on November 19th to avoid December holiday madness. We will also take December off. We can thank them all for  the past months of helping to clean for a party they are not invited to, mixing delicious cocktails they do not get to enjoy and getting lost with the kids! We’ll make this kid free and later in the day so we can all have a relaxing evening. Thank you Desiree for offering to host this one! We’ll decide on a book at the meeting on October 8^th.

Recipes: 

Thanks again ladies. I look forward to creating many memories with all of you and bonding over the love of cooking, food and girl time.

June Recap! Ina Garten's "Barefoot in Paris" Take 1

The Sisters: 

Desiree, Megan, Andrea and Gemma

The Book: 

Although this was almost a year ago I remember it vividly. We were all really chatty that day and stayed well past the end time.  Always such great company with this bunch! It was a very light but fulfilling meal and just happened to be a vegetarian meal.  The funny thing about this book choice is that we all searched for recipes from the Ina and I don't think even one of these recipes was actually from this particular book. Which is why we decided to repeat this one in September at Megan's house! 

Desiree was doing "Mom things" all weekend and ran out of time to make her dish. We all know that feeling too well. But instead of canceling she improvised and set out a cheese plate and it was the perfect accompaniment to the other dishes! Thank you again Desiree for hosting. 

Desiree - Cheese Plate

Andrea - Watermelon, Arugula and Feta Salad

Megan - Tapenade 

Gemma - Vegetable Tian 

Recipes: 

Vegetable Tian

                                                   Watermelon, Arugula and Feta Salad

Tapenade

Thanks again ladies. I look forward to creating many memories with all of you and bonding over the love of cooking, food and girl-time.