They Tried To Make Me Go To Rehab But I Said No, No, No....

The theme of this month's Cooking Club was "Rehab." The concept was simple...take a dish from the past that sucked and make it better. I provided a list of options and everyone accepted the challenge. We have been doing this for 8 years, roughly once a month, and there are 6 to 8 dishes every meeting. That's 650 dishes, give or take. It look me a LONG time to even come up with 10 that qualified as needing to be rehabbed. That says a lot.

At the last minute I realized there was no way I could host at my house because it currently looks like this:

Michele very graciously allowed me to use her house instead (thanks again, M). As always she had a lovely table setting.

On everyone's plate I left a can of Rehab and Recovery energy drink with the 12 Steps to Cooking Club Recovery (get it? 12 steps....)

The list was as follows:

1. Stop making shit vegan
2. Realize that liquor is an underused ingredient
3. Sacrifice money for better ingredients
4. Admit that triple-washed actually means still-dirty
5. Remember: presentation is everything
6. Use a meat thermometer; guessing = salmonella
7. Don’t bother with garlic unless it’s freshly chopped
8. Add bacon; it makes everything better
9. Always taste before serving
10. Know that salt won’t kill you. But blandness will
11. Steer clear of jarred pasta sauce
12. Use real butter

We started with my champagne cocktails (one part vodka, one part ginger ale, two parts champagne. Strawberry for effect).

Tina rehabbed Heather's hummus (from Mediterranean). It was delicious and bright orange, due to the red pepper flakes. It was the only vegan dish, thank god.

Elizabeth rehabbed my baked eggplant (from Italian). She sliced and grilled thin pieces of eggplant and then filled them with a ricotta mixture and topped with (homemade) marinara.

Ashley rehabbed Michele's seafood sausage (from Mom's Cooking). She brilliantly separated seafood from sausage (because really, those two things should never go together) and made a very spicy and delicious jumbalaya with both shrimp and sausage.

Michele rehabbed Christina's Chicken Mole (from Mexican) and did a shredded mole over a homemade tostada, topped with avocado, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, sour cream and olives. Yum.

One of the options I gave was to rehab anything from Christina's Backyard BBQ (it was 9 million degrees and for some reason C wouldn't turn on the AC. We all melted and haven't stopped bitching about it since...I think it was sometime in 2006). There was no dessert at that meeting because Michele flaked at the last minute, so I made individual chocolate lava cakes with a melted center (so hot it was melting...get it?), topped with fresh whipped cream and a strawberry.

We missed Bonnie, Christina and Heather. Cooking Club has been a big part of my life since I moved to California in 2003 and I will miss the food, the company, and the inappropriate story telling immensely. I am very much looking forward to hosting "Cooking Club Road Trips to Austin." It's going to be legendary.