November Charm City Cookbooking: Mario Batali

This episode of Charm City Cookbooking had some exciting events.. episode?? what do I think we are famous or something??? Well we’re going to be! At least to the semi interested readers of Baltimore Magazine! Thanks to Dara and Kit, our group was nominated for a story about supper and cooking clubs! The gracious writer Maria Blackburn joined us and we were all so happy to have her join us. She fit in so well with the crazy witty crew we are going to have her join our club for as long as she can stand it!

Here is the lovely Maria. She really jumped in and was helping with the cooking in addition to taking lotsss of notes. Her story is due in January and the article will come out in the March issue of Baltimore magazine!

The night had a plethora of amazing dishes and the best one was the most time consuming of them all.  See Mike (Julie’s husband), Alayne and I doing filling duty for the multitude of ravioli!!!  The men were also invited to the feast.. We usually invite them twice a year and Julie’s large kitchen basement was perfect for the group of 11.

Here was Ned, my wonderful sous chef. He diced up all the mushrooms, onions and parsley! Sure seems like I didn’t actually cook anything that night!

This was the simplest most delicious soup EVER. Most delicious things turn out to be simple anyways!

Here is Suzy Homemaker herself! Getting ready to start making the pasta dough

Frame #1: All eggs + 1 mound of flour

Frame #2: Some eggs + eggs with flour

Frame #3: Egg explosion!!! The flour “bowl” could not contain the eggs! But luckily there was enough hands to keep most of it from falling off the counter!

So back to my soup, the veggies had all cooked down and now were ready for the broth! I was “lazy” and we for Kitchen Basics (no added sodium) and it turned out just fine!

In the soup, we placed three baguette toasts. The mixture smeared on top was made of marscapone cheese, minced rosemary and s&p.

ahhhh delicious simple soup!

Julie’s entree was braised beef oxtails. She had braised them earlier in the day and Ned and Maria were handed the task of extracting the meat from them!

Love this shot…

The appetizer of the evening was Renee’s tart made of prosciutto and figs.

Just beautiful and served with some balsamic vinegar.

Now back to pasta making!
Alayne made the filling with goat cheese and some herbs! (The details are escaping me!)

Here is Julie hard at work in front of her stove, the brand is special, and cannot recall the name, but all I know is that it is kick ass!

Here is Joanney working on her cookies for dessert.

Love this picture… sometimes when we pick a cookbook by a chef that has multiple books, it is simpler to just choose a recipe from that chef. Much easier to get at the library when things are not so specific!

This my friends was pure heaven. Alayne’s ravioli. The filling had the perfect combination of saltiness and savory cheese filling. The olives and shredded romano cheese along with the ravioli was the perfect example of what simple things when combined, can be amazing.

What a colorful looking dinner plate! Julie being the perfect hostess as always wanted to make sure there was enough to eat with the entree. The oxtail was mixed in with red bell pepper and onion slivers. The dish was a lot lighter of a dish than expected.  She also made a salad with (perfectly sliced) butternut squash julienne slices and arugula. I could eat that salad all night! One because arugula is so great and two the butternut squash was perfectly cooked, not mushy but gave a nice texture contrast to the salad. Lastly, Julie steamed up some broccoli rabe. Probably one of the most healthy entree plates we have ever cooked up! And very much in contrast to the meat and potatoes dish we made for Pioneer Woman in October!

Somehow we made it to midnight and then we were served dessert. 😀 Joanne had made a ginger gelato. Boy oh boy that ginger flavor was strong! She also made chocolate cookies with a chocolate ganache filling (remind me of macarons) and almond fingers.  I think I loved the decadent chocolate ones the most.