March Madness it is!

Interpreted as you wish.  The main association to “March Madness” seems to be a reference to the NCAA basketball championships, which often feature unlikely pairings, but the phrase also has a more carnal definition.  At least if you’re one of these. 😉

On Saturday (3/16) the kitchen will open at 5:30p, serving snacks and cocktails during prep, with the course/pairings to go off as follows:

• 6pm: Prep-time snacks & cocktail: FrancineO
• 7pm: Appetizer: NinaG
• 7:30pm: Soup: Reid
• 8pm: 1st Main: RichardM
• 8:30pm: 2nd Main: JDavid
• 9pm: Small dish or salad: Alicia
• 9:30pm: 3rd Main : LisaS
• 10pm: Desert: BrianH

Feel free to post a comment if you want to announce what you’re cooking, or to alert us to any allergies / phobias / restrictions.  Check the batterie de cuisine for and equipment or ingredient needs you may have, call with any questions, otherwise, see you saturday!

On an administrative note, I think I’ve fixed the broken WordPress-Facebook connection, so we’ll see if this post magically appears on the Facebook page.

Episode #14 assignments & theme.

Theme nominations have been trickling in.  We’re going to have a quick poll, and we’ve already drawn straws for courses — all we need is a theme.  Here is the cast and the courses:

• 6pm: Prep-time snacks & cocktail: FrancineO
• 7pm: Appetizer: NinaG
• 7:30pm: Soup: Reid
• 8pm: 1st Main: RichardM
• 8:30pm: 2nd Main: JDavid
• 9pm: Small dish or salad: Alicia
• 9:30pm: 3rd Main : LisaS
• 10pm: Desert: BrianH

And here’s the poll:

We’ll announce the winning theme monday.

Off and rolling…..right into spring.

We thought we’d celebrate spring with a March 16th FMC. Once we have a group of eight we will vote on the theme.

Episode #13 Assignments

We’ve got a big crowd for this one, so we’re going to have some teaming up.  If anyone wants to switch or co-ordinate courses, make the arrangements and post your intentions in the comments.  Also, post here if anyone has food allergies, or phobias, or things you don’t eat.

• 6pm: Prep-time snacks & cocktail: Rod
• 7pm: Appetizer: JDavid
• 7:30pm: Soup: Courtney
• 8pm: 1st Main + Side: Suzanne & Kent
• 8:30pm  Small dish or salad: Hilary
• 9pm: 2nd Main + Side: Valeria & Ken
• 10pm: Desert: Francine

In addition, we have two guests from out-of-town, one from France, and one from Italy.  They will each be responsible for an amuse bouche (or beverage) to be presented whenever they like, between the above courses.

Dishes for this 13th episode of the FMC should be somehow reference or be inspired by superstition, rituals, etc.  How you interpret that is limited only by your imagination.  Plan on small portions, even for the main courses, and remember — the courses (except for the amuses) are served with a paired beverage.  There may be some surprise guests, so plan on being able to serve 12 portions.  We’re going to have a lot of plates and glasses to flip between courses, so anyone not cooking, be sure to help out with the service.  Any questions about what to expect, check out this post, or prior episodes.  The equipment list has been updated, too.  See you all in a couple weeks!

Episode #13 Winning Theme is…

Superstition!

Very superstitious, writings on the wall,
Very superstitious, ladders bout to fall,
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin’ glass
Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past.

When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way

Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin’ strong,
You don’t wanna save me, sad is my song.

When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way, yeh, yeh.

Very superstitious, nothin’ more to say,
Very superstitious, the devils on his way,
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin’ glass,
Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past

When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way, no, no, no”

Basically, to celebrate the “unlucky” 13th FMC episode and the first in the “unlucky” year of 2013, dishes should reference something to do with superstition, luck, voodoo, lucky charms, mojo, rituals, etc.

Additional inspiration:

http://www.livescience.com/14141-13-common-silly-superstitions.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Superstitions

http://voices.yahoo.com/27-popular-good-luck-charms-symbols-around-1268943.html

http://astrologyguide.knoji.com/list-of-good-luck-charms/

Course assignments to follow…

Episode #13 theme poll

Here are the nominations so far… if you are attending and haven’t nominated a theme, you’re still welcome to; comment below and I’ll add it.

Anyone in the FMC is entitled to vote, and you can vote for more than one theme.  We’ll cook the theme with the most votes.  Vote early, vote often.

Finally, we’re back!!

For whatever reason it’s been a busy season since our last post and we are indeed still a bit behind in our updates of past events.  In order not to delay any longer we’ve decided to put out an event for February 16th.  You know the routine.  Lets round up a cast of characters and banter about a theme.

Looking forward to renewing the FMC in 2013.

Francine

Tar Beach

Thanks to everyone for a spectacular evening. The food was amazing, the portion sizes right on, and your company most enjoyable. Enjoy the rest of the summer.

Episode #12 Tar Beach course assignments

Utilizing a complex non-random algorithm consisting of Dow Jones Industrial vapor line trends for the last decade of thursdays, cross-referenced with Global periwinkle production figures and migratory waterfowl attrition biases, we have derived the following assignments for Episode #12:

Staging + Prep-time Cocktails & Snacks, served @ the ADVentureLoft™ (10th floor) from 5:30-6:30: Francine & David

Snacks consisting of spicey pecans and vegetable spring rolls served with a white or red sangria.

while everyone gathered and prepped.

From there, we’ll gather whatever cooking gear, ingredients, glasses, & serving-ware we’ll need from the loft at which time we will ascend to our own Tar Beach on the roof… Each of next 4 courses will consist of

[A portioned (ie. plated) dish + A passed dish served family-style + An accompanying beverage]

For timing purposes, we’ll aim for serving the 1st main course ~7pm, and each course served 30 minutes or so thereafter.  For each course, plan on providing drinks, portioned + family-style servings for 12 diners– we’re only 11, but you never know when a mystery guest may stop by.  And good news, there’s room on Tar Beach for us to all sit together — no kids table!

1st main course:  Caroline & Stuart

Shishito peppers and……

chicken satay served with an ice cold sapporo beer.

2nd main course: Suzanne & Kent

grilled pizza topped with a sizzling sunny side-up egg paired with a summertime margarita.

3rd main course: Valeria & Ken

Fresh oysters paired with po boy sandwich.

Dessert course: Cassie & David

Key lime pie with watermelon sorbet.

As usual, amuse-bouche’s are open season and always welcome.  Declare any dining allergies / restrictions to the comments of this post, and contact me with queries regarding ingredients and equipment that we already have on hand (check the Batterie de Cuisine page too).

See everyone soon.

Announcing FMC event #12: Tar Beach

We have a date.  We have a theme.  It’s summer.  It’s too hot to invoke the democratic process.  So here’s the 411:

Inspiration:  To you it’s a rooftop.  To us it’s Saint-Tropez.  The spirit of the Tar Beach dinner is that we’re stuck.  But we’re making the best of it.  We will employ ingenuity and use only what’s available here in the city.  It’s summer.  It’s hot.  Nothing exotic.  Nothing fancy.  Simple, fresh, easy.  Let’s show those fancy-pants jet-setting globetrotters that we can have a kick-ass meal infusing ordinary ingredients with a boatload of creativity.

image poached from Faith Ringgold’s book (click image to go to Amazon and check out the book)

Date:  Saturday July 21, Rain date: Sunday July 22.

Location: The ADVentureLoft™ Rooftop.

Our Tar Beach

Time: 5:30pm for Cocktails & snacks during prep at the ADVentureLoft™.

The kitchen downstairs will be available all afternoon for prep, but we’ll head up to the roof around 6pm where all you’ll have available is a gas grill, a Paella pan and burner (can be used as a griddle), a crock pot, any electric appliance you want to carry, a cold water sink, a VERY small fridge, some coolers filled with ice, whatever knives, cutting boards, tools, pots and pans you want to bring upstairs… and your wits.

We’ll cap attendance at 10… once we have the roster, courses will be assigned… we may doubled up on some, and/or we’ll stick to VERY small portions, or incorporate a couple of assigned amuse bouches just so there isn’t an obscene amount of food.

Post your intentions in the comments to this post.  First 8 to commit are in.