[IronNoggin]

Two nights in a row, The Clan has gathered to celebrate Life once again!
The first eve was your standard rotisseried moose roast, which went off rather well..
Then, in the chat that followed, we began to discuss a rather strange (to me anyway) occurrence in my garden this year. Last fall I received a handful of Acorn Squash from the RoadMaster. They were YUMMY, so I saved the seeds from a few, and then planted them this spring. Noticed a couple weeks ago, one of the plants was already bearing some product, but it certainly looked strange to me. Eventually the damn thing developed into a large zucchini. Yuck, I really don't like them much... Weird, but weirder still is the fact that on the same vine there is a couple of acorn squash developing normally. Never knew this sort of thing was even possible...

So, the conversation turned into just what to do with the strange monstrosity to try and make it edible. My thought was to stuff something good into it, and it turned out that Kat had just brought in about the right amount of fresh spot prawns to begin the idea. That particular train of thought kept us busy for almost an hour, and so, the plan was set to give it a whirl the very next night. That evening my neighbors rolled in, and when I informed them of what I was up to, they promptly invited themselves rounding out the total to nine for Din-Din...

After another refreshing run to the lake, I got down to working up the recipe...

Here's a shot of the "goodies" just before prep:

http://gallery.fishbc.com/albums/Ironnoggin/Zucc_Prep_1.jpg

A good handful of prawns, near 3 pounds of crab, 3 pounds of scallops, a handful of garlic scapes fresh from the garden, some 'shrooms, and 3 whole blocks of Philly! The "hybrid" zucchini wasn't likely in my mind to be quite enough to serve nine, so I tossed in an acorn to round out the meal.

Chopped the prawns in half after shelling, tossed in the scallops and crab, then added the finely chopped scapes. Nuked the Philly for 2 minutes to get it soft, then mixed the whole thing together with a dash of garlic and dill. Then, hollowed out the zucchini and squash, and carefully stuffed each with the mix, adding a splash of dill on top. Tossed them in the big pans and...

http://gallery.fishbc.com/albums/Ironnoggin/Zucc_Prep_2.jpg

Cooking took a tad better than an hour for the zucchini at 350 degrees, and 15 minutes less for the acorn. The smell was AWESOME, and we couldn't wait to dig in to my latest Experiment In Terror!

http://gallery.fishbc.com/albums/Ironnoggin/Zucc_Done_1.jpg

http://gallery.fishbc.com/albums/Ironnoggin/Zucc_Done_2.jpg

And how did it turn out? Man, this one knocked it right out of the Park! I've come up with some good ones over time, but this appears to be amongst the Very Best! All involved gorged to the point of bursting, and all noted they would drop by again for that one "any time"! :lmao:

To top off the feast, Carole brought along her very first homemade cherry pie! What a way to cap a great meal! Fantastic, and there was nada left of that when we wrapped it up either! Excellent Job Carole! :BEERCHUG:

http://gallery.fishbc.com/albums/Ironnoggin/Dessert.jpg

So, there you have it. We've found a way to make even zucchini more than tolerable, and this recipe will be seeing some SERIOUS Use over the coming months!

Bon Appetite! :D

Cheers,
Nog

[liptugger]

Damn sorry I didn't make it over for that one.
Gotta learn to drop everything when I get those invites.

[ken w]

Any chance of joining your dining club? I just moved to Port Alberni from the Drumheller area 3 weeks ago.

Regards
Ken

[RossP]

Dang every time I read one of the post about the dinner club I try and figure out how I can get over to the Island so we can also enjoy the dinner club. I envy the dinners you guys have and the friendships that have been made. Enjoy your food and each other.

[IronNoggin]

ken w, on 30 July 2010 - 09:15 PM, said:

Any chance of joining your dining club? I just moved to Port Alberni from the Drumheller area 3 weeks ago.

Of Course Ken! This is by NO means a closed door circuit, more like a revolving one as it were! In fact, we've found the More The Merrier!
And... Most often each one that comes along has a new (at least to us) recipe or two to tantalize the taste buds of The Clan. Here's hoping you fit into that category! :BEERCHUG:

Unfortunately it is not clear when we will have the opportunity to gather once again. I am off to the commercial troll in moments, and booked pretty heavily guiding out of Ukee immediately following that. T'other Matt is out observing with our Fleet, then off to his "normal" routine with the Big Rigs after that. Uncertain of Kat or Carole's schedules at this point, so it may be a little while. And these things often happen on very short notice, as in: Hey, Whatcha doin' tonight... :lmao: But, bear with us. I will try to remember to give you a head's up when we do gather the next time to see if you can make it. Might want to consider shooting me a PM with your contact numbers in the next little while...
And it will be Great to say in person: Hey, Welcome to The Club (or your Nightmare as the case may be! :lol: )

RossP, on 30 July 2010 - 10:58 PM, said:

Enjoy your food and each other.

Oh we do Ross, WE DO! And of course if you are ever about, the door is open! :BEERCHUG:

Cheers,
Nog

PS: Heheheheh! aYup Randy, you missed the boat on that one Buddy! :P

[Willowbarkus]

We sure do love these diner's club dinners. As usual it was an amazing dining experience.

Matt really has hit on a winner with his latest experiment. I was telling my mom about it and she said "My god! The way you guys eat over there it's amazing you are not all 300 pounds!" I'm going to make it for her one night. She would love it.

Thanks for the din din on both nights mat. They were fabulous meals. That barbequed moose sure didn't taste like the one and only time my mom tried cooking moose. It really was delicious! Now I need to get myself a rotiserie for my barbeque so I can try to do roasts like that.

Ken W I will also keep you in mind when the gathering is at our place. Like Matt said though it is often a case of "what are you doing tonight...." When Matt calls I have no problem at all putting what we were going to have into the fridge or freezer for some other time.

Carole

[ken w]

Thank-you Carole. I do have some wild game I can add to the menu! I will PM you with my contact information.
Thanks again,
Ken

Willowbarkus, on 31 July 2010 - 02:55 PM, said:

We sure do love these diner's club dinners. As usual it was an amazing dining experience.

Matt really has hit on a winner with his latest experiment. I was telling my mom about it and she said "My god! The way you guys eat over there it's amazing you are not all 300 pounds!" I'm going to make it for her one night. She would love it.

Thanks for the din din on both nights mat. They were fabulous meals. That barbequed moose sure didn't taste like the one and only time my mom tried cooking moose. It really was delicious! Now I need to get myself a rotiserie for my barbeque so I can try to do roasts like that.

Ken W I will also keep you in mind when the gathering is at our place. Like Matt said though it is often a case of "what are you doing tonight...." When Matt calls I have no problem at all putting what we were going to have into the fridge or freezer for some other time.

Carole

[Willowbarkus]

Matt I will be cooking this tomorrow when Kent's buddies arrive. I have a couple of Questions first though.

Did you put any lemon in the seafood/cream cheese mixture?

Kent's friends were supposed to arrive today but now they have been held up and won't arrive until tomorrow. I have fresh whole crab in the fridge that I was going to cook tonight. I take it that I need to cook this crab tonight as it was killed today. Now I am wondering, if I cook the crab tonight can I use the cooked crab in this recipe tomorrow night?

Carole

[Willowbarkus]

I made this for our guests tonight. It was wonderful. I followed up with a blueberry pie. Another first for me. It to was pretty tasty.

Our guests were very impressed with the dinner. Coming from the interior they don't have the seafood like we have down here. They liked the dinner so much they said that they would be staying an extra two days. Now I have to figure out what I am going to cook for those extra couple of days.

Carole

[IronNoggin]

Round Two - Dinner for Eight at The Hacienda this very eve! :nana:

Just collecting up all the goodies, then away we go!

Of course I'll letcha in on what The Club thinks this time around... :sly:

Cheers,
Nog

[Willowbarkus]

As usual it all was delicious. You sure do have a winner there Matt. That smoked halibut was out of this world to. Ken brought a very tasty reindeer roast with him. I had never had reindeer meat before. It was delicious! And the blackberry grunt for desert put me right over the edge. I get absolutely stuffed from these dinners.

My turn on Wednesday. It's going to be a traditional roast chicken dinner instead of turkey.

Carole

[bassfreak]

Nice looking spread for sure.

p.s. that bread basket is SO COOL!