Supper 8 Groups are 8 people from a church or an organization who are randomly assigned to a group with the sole purpose of getting to know other people in the said church or secular group. And it works. About every 6 months, the woman who is in charge of our Supper 8 program at Spring Meadows Church in Las Vegas will reassign the members of the Supper 8 to form new groupings.
Supper 8 Dinner Party
The first couple of dinners are usually a little bit awkward as we get to know and break bread with acquaintances, but by the third dinner we are all friends and start to have a great time.
I was assigned appetizers and cocktails for our Supper 8 group on Saturday. I had a bottle of blue Curacao that I’ve been wanting to use so I found a cocktail called a Blue Lagoon.
Drinking Blue Lagoons
Blue Lagoon
2 oz. rum
½ oz. blue Curacao
½ oz. fresh lemon juice
1 t. blueberry syrup
I shook it with crushed ice and pour into a Martini glass and garnished it with blueberries. This drink was tasty…sweet & tart at the same time with a blueberry flavored kick. Blue Lagoons go down easy and pack a hidden wallop which is not surprising given the 2 1/2 oz of alcohol per drink!
Rocco Di Spirito has a recipe for Parmesan Corn Chips that looked good. Just corn chips, brushed lightly with olive oil (actually, I used a spray for ease) and heaped with grated Parmesan and finely chopped fresh oregano then baked at 375 for about five minutes or until the cheese melts.
Pecan Stuffed Mushrooms before baking
Parmesan-Oregano Corn Chips
Baking the Corn Chips
Then I found a recipe for pecan-cream stuffed mushrooms at Epicurious.com. The stems of 24 mushrooms were chopped along with a couple of cloves of garlic and more fresh oregano (1 t.) along with salt & pepper. This mixture was sautéed in butter then mixed with ¼ c of heavy cream and ½ c. finely chopped toasted pecans. The mushroom caps were sprinkled with more s & p and stuffed with the mixture.
For extra creaminess, I reduced a cup of heavy cream to about ¼ cup and drizzled this on top of the mushrooms. This was baked at 375 for about 15 minutes.
Drizzling with Reduced Cream
The last appetizer was Crab Truffles. In case you’re wondering, the theme of this group of appetizers was…..gluten-free. One of the guests was non-gluten so it was fun looking up appetizers that she could eat and that sounded good.
Crab Truffle Ingredients
For the Truffles, I mixed 8 oz of cream cheese with 2 T. of Sriracha, 3 T. of soy sauce and ½ cup of finely diced cucumber and folded in ¾ cup of fresh crab. This mixture was refrigerated for 2 hours and then spoonfuls of it were wrapped around a small diced piece of fresh avocado and rolled in flying fish roe and refrigerated again.
Crab Truffle Mix
The Corn Chips were good with Parmesan-Oregano flavors and they were quick to make so I’ll make them again. The stuffed mushrooms were delicious and unusual with the creamy pecan flavors. That recipe is definitely a keeper. But the Truffles….I had such high hopes for the Crab Truffles!
Crab Truffles
After all, they were essentially sushi but without the rice. I thought they’d be a hit but…..the truffles were just OK, not worth all the pricey ingredients, and work they took to produce. Nevertheless, aided by glasses of the Blue Lagoons, we managed to down most of them.
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