FBM Holiday Potluck 2010
December 27, 2010 by Feisty Foodie
Filed under Articles, Events, Feisty Fun
I alluded to this with the last potluck: you want to be a part of FBM. We do potlucks, cookie swaps, and happy hours… we know how to have fun. And for our last potluck of the year, of course we went with a holiday theme and – you’ll see how we do 
PS Each and every time I post about these happy hours, cookie swaps, and potlucks, I get multiple comments asking to join in the fun. Happy hours are always open invitation, all you have to do is pay attention at the Midtown Lunch forums for details. In fact, there’s supposed to be one today, but it’s currently weather pending as, well, you know, NYC is covered in snow that hasn’t stopped yet at this writing. As for potlucks & cookie swaps, well… those require showing up to happy hours a couple of times and making friends before you get an invitation into some internet stranger’s home…
Now for the food!
photo courtesy of Chris H.
TT enjoyed kapusta pork from Crocktober Fest so much that he recreated it for our holiday potluck.
Our venerable host, SEaL, made a staple he’s been making for a long time – chicken & dumplings.
CheeeEEEeeese brought cheese, crackers and pepperoni along with his dish, which I hogged towards the end of the night, hah.
Chris H. himself made kale & sausage soup thickened with potato, very surprising to me as I thought it looked like my magic soup, but when you tasted it, the potato was clearly evident which I liked. I have to try doing that sometime…
The new thing I’m trying to do for each potluck: a signature cocktail. This time around, it was mulled apple cider (spiked with rum, of course). Next time… something red, as I imagine our potluck will be in February. Hmmm… (last time was also mulled cider, though I took no photos; the time before that was elderflower steeped honeydew balls+gin+seltzer/tonic/Sprite).
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Goats brought Godfather-style roast beef sandwiches.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Ugh. My offering, artichoke gratinata, which had gone over so well at Thanksgiving this year, was a huge flop. I think I undersalted it in fear of oversalting it… ah well. So far, my potluck offerings have been really weak-sauce…
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Our hostess, SEaL’s girlfriend M, made peanut butter cupcakes injected with jelly.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
CT’s contribution: mini samosas with a mint chutney.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
CheeeEEEeeese also brought magic bars… which I’m sure he’ll share the recipe for below in comments!
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Chris H. also brought green beans with slivered almonds.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Blondie made and brought cheese straws (which I polished off while eating the pepperoni from the cheese/cracker/pepperoni platter above, towards the end of the night, yum).
photo courtesy of Chris H.
She also made and brought onion tartlets, which I somehow missed out on trying, boo.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
TC, our normal booze-man, also brought Peruvian chicken from a place local to him.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Resident beverage expert Beer Boor made a ton of fried foods – fried onion rings (awesome), sweet potato fries (I don’t think I ate any of these?), and french fries. I mean, ahem, freedom fries. Those onion rings were bangin’, and he made a dip he included on the side but I don’t see any pictures of in the bunch. Slightly spicy, creamy, deceivingly cool… perhaps he’ll share the ingredients below?
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Dean made chicken ballotine, which he derided loudly and apparently didn’t like.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Here he is, doing I don’t know what.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
I don’t know who ate this piece, but I took a piece off Dean’s plate and I thought it was pretty tasty. Stuffed with something…
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Our whole spread!
Yes, I took this picture. Haha – starting from the top, artichoke gratinata, kapusta pork, cheese straw, Godfather sandwich, crackers + pepperoni, Peruvian chicken, green beans, chicken & dumplings. All very very yum!
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Allie certainly thought it all looked great. Ok, I’ll admit it…
photo courtesy of Chris H.
I fed her. Even though it looks like I’m smoking “something” and about to ‘puff puff pass’ it to her, I was actually, um, feeding her. From the mouth. Keywee does this sometimes too (if I give her the signal), I kind of felt like I was cheating on her… oops.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Gorgeous photo of one of the Christmas tree ornaments!
photo courtesy of Chris H.
And then, it was time for Yankee Swap / Bad Santa / White Elephant, where you can totally steal people’s gifts…
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Lured in with the promise of bacon floss, Dean unfortunately went for my gift.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
(That should say “your choice what you eat it with” not “your choice”)
Penis pasta (which is so much more expensive than you’d think!), alfredo sauce and clam sauce, ahem. Haha I’m a jerk (but I offered to replace it!).
photo courtesy of Chris H.
Beer Boor wound up with $20 worth of Snack Packs. No, seriously. I’m sure he’ll update us below with how much is left now…
photo courtesy of Chris H.
CheeeEEEeeese opening up a box of Malaysian jerky that he didn’t know what to do with it. So I ate half of it before he left.
photo courtesy of Chris H.
One of the best gifts of the night, in my humblest of opinions, tartufo creminelli - which I tried to buy when I was in Seattle earlier this year… which came with some sort of cheese, a jar, and… other stuff… that Chris H. took home. Yes, I’m perpetually jealous of him, ha.
And for the FBMers who kept asking, this is the complete list:
TT received Williams-Sonoma hot chocolate from SeAL, who received Roni Sue goodies (pig candy, pig popcorn, etc.) from Blondie, who received a bottle of Coppola wine from Chris. H, who received the Tartufo Creminelli, cheese (what kind was it?) & jars from TC, who received a BILF t-shirt and bacon salt from CheeeEEEeeese, who received six types of jerky from Beer Boor, who received Snack Packs from TT.
CT received a Slap Chop, Graty, and stroop wafels from Goats, who ‘stole’ meats & cheeses from Dean that were from M (he did it so fast, I didn’t even see what kind it was), M received a set of Thermos/Snack jar things filled with alcohol and snacks (yum!) from CT.
I received a Sil-Pat from Dean, who received penis pasta, alfredo sauce and clam sauce, from… me.
That’s the whole list, and that’s how we roll (ya like how every single gift is food-related?).
I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday weekend, and celebrated the only way I know how: with excellent food and even better company.
And if you want to be invited to the next potluck, well, start showing up to Happy Hours! 
PS To all FBM’ers, please share recipes if you can in the comments for your contributions!!!
Happy eating!!!
delicious food!
Kapusta Pork
3 pound pork loin, boneless(or pork shoulder)
3 cloves garlic, halved lengthwise
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
3/4 pound bacon, chopped
4 cups cabbage, shredded
1 1/2 cans sauerkraut (approximately 14.5-ounce can)
1 can diced tomatoes (approximately 28-ounce can)
2 bay leaves
1 8-ounce German beer
Insert 6 small slits into pork loin. Insert garlic slices in the slits. Season with salt and pepper.
Place pork loin in slow cooker. Layer bacon, cabbage, sauerkraut, tomatoes, caraway seeds and bay leaf on top of pork loin. Top with beer.
Cover and cook on high for 8 hours.(I did on low for 9-10 hours as 8 hours on high seemed too much.)
Before serving, shred pork and stir all slow cooker ingredients.
Courtesy of Linda Cifuentes
The tartufo creminelli was great, but I didn’t really taste much truffle flavor. It also came w two bags of bacon peanut brittle from The Redhead, which my roommate and I finished off that evening.
Green beans were a re-creation of the greenbeans w/anchovy butter that I really like from Northern Spy Food Co. I don’t really ‘do’ recipes, so these are rough estimates:
Northern Spy Food Co green beans:
2 lbs fresh green beans
1/3 stick of butter
2 shallots, minced
1/4 cup of almond slivers
1 tin of anchovies
1 tsp of arbol chili powder (or whatever other chili powder that suits your fancy, I like chile de arbol cuz it’s powerful stuff).
Blanche beans in boiling salted water for about 2 mins. In the meantime, sweat down shallots and anchovy w/your butter in a saute pan. Drain beans and throw into the butter/anchovy mix. Saute green beans and almonds – enough to melt off the anchovies, but keep the beans al dente. S/P/chili powder to taste.
Caldo verde (Portuguese kale soup):
4 cups of low sodium chicken stock
1-2 lbs of chorizo sausage (linguisa would be more ‘authentic’ but it’s tough to find), roughly chopped
1 head of kale, stems removed and julienned
5-6 large-ish potatoes. Normally use something starchy like a Russett, but I used yukon golds because I had em on hand
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
5 shallots, minced
3 jalapenos, minced
3 bay leaves (remove before blending).
In a soup pot, brown sausage and then remove half before completely cooking (leave the other half in). Add extra olive oil, and sweat garlic, onions, and shallots. Add chicken stock, potatoes, jalapenos, bay leaves and bring to a gentle boil. Boil for 15-20 mins until potatoes are soft. Remove bay leaves, and puree with a stick blender. Bring back to simmer, and add kale and remaining sausage. Simmer for 5 mins until kale is tenderoni.
And then transport in a bag that has better structural integrity. Ugh.
Oh right! Not sure why I thought you got cheese with that. I had the bacon peanut brittle recently – really good, esp with a drink! Also, I kindly didn’t mention how much food and drink (really, a lot more drink) was spilled during this potluck… lol
$18.25.
The dip was about a half-cup mayonnaise and a half-cup sour cream, with two diced onions and a few cloves of diced garlic, all sauteed, processed together, and then about a half-tablespoon sriracha, half a teaspoon cayenne, and salt and pepper. Nothing exciting but pretty tasty.
Ingredients
* 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
* 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
* 1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
* 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
* 1 cup chopped nuts
Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees for glass dish). Coat 13×9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly with a fork.
3. Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store covered at room temperature.
I omitted the coconut for sliced almonds as they were a kind of stratifying layer to hold the thing together.
This is the recipe for MAGIC BARS, in case anyone’s wondering
Thanks!
Also, I JUST realized I’ve been spelling your name wrong! Why did I think it was 3 lc, 3 uc, 3 lc?! Oops! Sorry!
I love the recipes! Thanks – but I really just want a Godfather sandwich right now.
Although I want to make so much of this!
Take care y’all in all that snow up there. Be safe.
I hate that I couldn’t attend. I’m jealous about that Silpat!
But you have one already!
I know, but I want more- I have three baking sheets!
I didn’t get cheese, but got Redhead Bacon peanut brittle as stated above. The other meat & cheese that Goats received was from M I believe.
HAHA. I’m wearing the BILF now.
Thanks to everyone that cooked/ baked/ participated in the Holiday Potluck. Great event!
I wrote that about what Goats got from M
Also, that Yankee Swap gift was tailored for you! Perfect
HAHA. Leave it to Goats to be the only one with the right spirit of the Swapping. Everyone should’ve stolen more. Oh well.
Si, me gusta tee-shirts.
(F)ood and (B)everages) shared by (M)any?
Clever – but no, not quite!
(F)east (B)rought by (M)any
Your first guess was closer.
Should we at least tell him how many words of each part of speech there are?
Nah. Let him keep trying. Fierce Body Mutilators. Fries, Bacon and Mastication.
Your site says that I’ve already said “Wah!” but I don’t see the comment. So WAH! again.
(F)eisty’s (B)acchanalia of (M)unchies
(F)riendly (B)orough-dwellers share a (M)eal
(F)ig-leaf-covered (B)roads cavort while you (M)unch
HAH!
(F)latbush (B)rotherhood of (M)mmmmmmmm
Fat Bald Men – which is an actual company
The first word is FOOD!
Good to know, since I was running out of G/PG-rated words starting with F
(F)ood, (B)eer, and (M)ayhem
Haha I like these… keep it coming!
Mamacita sez:
(F)ood is (B)est with (M)ayo
Ha!
(F)latbush (B)akeries have the best (M)alasadas