Another Culinary Event

On Saturday, my friend Marjorie and I headed out to Brooklyn to attend another event by A Razor, A Shiny Knife. That group is an underground supper club headed by the very innovative Michael Cirino, who loves food and is very into the science behind cooking.

We started out with lots of gorgeous, fresh ingredients, of course!

Most of you know that I really love to cook (and that hasn't changed at all since I was banded), and it was so much fun to get out there, roll up my sleeves and prepare a wonderful meal with about 20 other like-minded people! (Interesting observation. . no one there was more than a few pounds overweight. . . well, at least before the meal anyway. .) :)

The scene. .

Hare terrine. . this was a terrine made with rabbit (hare) meat, pork belly, heavy cream, pistachios, walnuts and other lovely ingredients. . . then wrapped in bacon (what?!) I only had a tiny bite, but it was dee-lish!

We made all sorts of wonderful things. . . ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese that we made, and we also made the pasta for it. Here is me, kneading the pasta dough. . .

On the right. . . a big bubbling pot of tomato wonderfulness. . . into which we put lots of chicken and pork, until it just melted off the bone. This became the sauce for our ravioli. . . OMG, was it good!!


I'll refrain from putting up photos of every course, but it was a really amazing meal. I was glad that it was served family-style (unlike the last Razor event I attended), since that let me just take a small portion of the things I wanted. For some reason, my band wasn't that tight on Saturday, so I was able to eat a fair amount compared to normal. But, I didn't overdo it too badly, and -- SHOCKINGLY -- the scale wasn't even up the next day.

I was glad that my band cooperated -- I didn't even get stuck one time that day, I felt like I was really able to enjoy everything, and I don't think anyone thought anything was unusual about the portions I took.

Here is A (who made the terrine) with some incredible beef that was sliced thinly, then folded up around some grated truffle. Each little beef packet was tied with a single chive. Two were put into each of our bowls, and when they were served, hot broth was ladled over . . just hot enough to cook the meat. Wow. That was amazing, and the beef was so tender that I was able to eat it without a problem.

This cracked me up. . . the bottle says "DON'T F*ING COOK WITH THIS. ITALIAN SWEAT, BLOOD AND TEARS." Nice!

At the end, we did a Secret Santa exchange (we all brought little gifts with us), and I wound up getting three sized metal mixing bowls -- something I can always use!

We wound up being at the kitchen from around noon until about 10:30 p.m. What a great day, great meal, and a great group of people. I will definitely be doing some more events like this!

Here is me with my Secret Santa. .