A Foodie Weekend

From February 13 to the 19^th there was something on the go every day and evening so my husband and I did not get a chance to eat together. During the week I made dinner as normal packaging up my husband's meal for the following day's lunch. We like going out for dinner Friday evenings so I found a community event with all you can eat pickerel that sounded good. Saturday night we were hosting our monthly larger event with the kids home so I kept dinner simple with homemade individual sized pizzas. I had several goodies planned for the event despite the bad weather that was threatening. In little time the weekend shaped up to be a foodie weekend!

Pickerel Dinner

If you have followed this blogs you will have already read how much we enjoy small community food events. Quite often these are hosted by community service clubs or charity groups as fund raisers. We like to support these efforts whenever possible. Not only does this give back to our community it gives us a nice social night out with good food and entertainment at a very low cost.

Friday night there was an all you can eat pickerel dinner for $12 per person. We went with another couple then stopped at their house for drinks and socializing afterwards. The meal included all you can eat fish, vegetables, French fries, pickles and coleslaw. Pictured is my plate and just take a look at that piece of pickerel! Each beautiful, meaty fillet was a good 12 inches long. I finished one with the fixings while my husband had three fillets. Oh and where they ever good! The nice meaty fillets were cooked to perfection. We will definitely be at their next all-you-can-eat event.

Individual Pizzas

Saturday afternoon I made pizza dough for dinner. Normally we make one or two large pizzas but this time we made 6 individual pizzas topped as desired. My husband even formed a small, grandbaby sized pizza for the little one. Toppings included sautéed mushrooms, pancetta, onions, green peppers, ham and fresh tomatoes. The pancetta was a nice addition.

Italian pancetta is salt cured pork belly that has been spiced then dried for about three months. It is not smoked. It is either rolled as ours was or straight with the fat on one side. Pancetta is usually very thinly sliced. It is more expensive (here $2.69/100 g) to purchase than regular bacon or you can make your own pancetta.

Cured Meats

Three other kinds of homemade cured meat were served during our get together. The kids brought home some Italian sausage (top) made by grandbaby's babystitter. This tasty, spicy sausage that was sliced quite thin. I think this sausage was cured then oven cooked similar to my easy homemade sausage as there was no casing present. The sausage had a nice, firm texture. I really must get the recipe for this sausage!

Two of our friends make homemade venison sausage that is just wonderful. Unfortunately they aren't parting with their recipes so I'm going to have to experiment. One of these friends brought venison sticks (bottom). These spicy, homemade meat sticks are simply delightful! Everyone loves them. They have the texture of the pepperettes (not pictured) that I also served. Perhaps he will share the recipe for the venison sticks.

Making your own sausage and meat sticks is really quite easy. You don't need a lot of equipment either. One reason for making your own is to season according to how your family likes it. Another reason is to take advantage of good meat sales and/or use meats from a successful hunt. In many cases homemade sausages and meat sticks are cheaper than store bought.

Nilla Dips

It always amazes me that sometimes the simplest treats like chocolate pretzels are the most popular at get togethers. Of course this makes entertaining a bit easier. I'm also pleasantly surprised that despite being asked not to bring anything a lot of our guests bring some type of treat. Over the holidays a box of Vanilla wafers made their way into the house. I decided to use them up Saturday night. What I came up with was ever so easy yet went over well.

I melted regular chocolate chips but next time I think I'll use chocolate wafers. Then I spread peanut butter on the bottom of a vanilla wafer and sandwiched another vanilla wafer on top. Once assembled I dipped the little sandwiches into the melted chocolate and set on wax paper to cool.

Normally I have a large batch of chili on the go for this particular monthly get together. The guys love it! Saturday night I decided to do something a bit different and make ultimate hot dogs. My gosh did these ever go over well! So it went for another foodie weekend.