the supper club (AKA the log of yum)

I have been meaning to tell you about this one for a while now... I have these pictures saved that tell part of the story... and I just couldn't bring myself to elaborate on this partial failure. It would be wrong to tell you only about the perfect recipes that are tasty and beautiful and that work out just fine. I have to also tell you about the time that I was in way over my head.

First, I need to tell you about the supper club. There are ten of us now, and to be honest, six of us was a bit easier. Mostly because of space, and also because of ingredients. I may need to buy a new stock pot... (but who really has room in their kitchen for a 20 quart stock pot?) Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the company of all of my friends, and we originally invited this whole group, but somehow in the beginning we were six. To seat more than six at my table you need... well, another table. To seat ten at my table you need to make a run to Crate and Barrel to buy a few more place settings of my flatware. This is all fine with me. I enjoy setting the table, and having lots of friends in my house. I think next time though, we will go with a buffet.

The reason for the expanded supper club and the fancy table with rented linens was this: It was Katie's birthday. What a great excuse to pull out all the stops and try the recipe we had been drooling over since we saw it on TV. When we found the License to Grill show on the food network one lazy weekend afternoon, my husband was thrilled to happen upon a show about food that he could watch. He is an anti-foodie... but more about him later.

Each License to Grill show has a specific theme, or at least reason for Rob to fire things up. Rob Rainford is the host, and he just always has guests coming by for one reason or another. This episode was the Scuba episode. In all seriousness, this is the part where he looks into the camera and says that they are celebrating their final dive (in his pool) to end their Scuba training so he needs to cook up some yummy goodness on the grill. Here is my, well, beef with Rob: I think he is a great cook, and an upbeat guy to watch... but the staged weird interactions with his friends do not add to the show. It is lame, my friend.

But I digress... here is why I am telling you about Rob. Rob loves the grill, and so does my husband. Rob loves veal, and so does my husband. Rob loves to create his own spicy rubs for all the meat he prepares. Rob loves the seafood... This lazy afternoon on the couch we were quite frankly taken aback by the combination of all these things... BEHOLD... THE LOG OF YUM.

The Scuba episode was a memorable one because Rob prepared his Seafood Stuffed Veal Tenderloin that day. Did you hear what I said?? Veal tenderloin pounded out and rubbed down with seafood in the middle. You heard me, that is why we dubbed it the LOG OF YUM. My husband started talking about this recipe with his friends. People knew that it was next up on the supper club circuit. The pressure was on.

One thing that is nice about the club is that we tend to go for Sundays so the cook has the weekend to prepare. I needed every ounce of that extra time. I set out to shop for the ingredients and was met with disappointment when I found that not a single specialty shop or butcher (not even Pete's!) in town carries a veal tenderloin that has not been previously frozen. Bummer. If the pressure wasn't on, (and I hadn't just spent half my paycheck on the other stuff) I would have stopped in my tracks and chosen something new. Who wants to put all this effort into meat that is not perfect? (And where does Rob shop anyway? Maybe they eat more veal in Canada... I don't know...)

Here we go... I get home, I defrost the meat and proceed with the recipe. I pound it out and I find that the previously frozen meat is not behaving. If I had bought this from the butcher in its regular state I would have had them cut it open like a book and pound it out for me, but instead we ended up with some very small parts, some really thick fat pieces although I pounded with all my might. How were we going to roll it up properly if the meat wasn't thin and neat? We shall see...

The rest of it was fairly easy. We set up an assembly line of sorts on our tiny kitchen counter. Yummy prosciutto laid out first, next the mismatched bits of veal, then last but not least all the scallops and shrimp. It looked great while it was being prepared. Then, we began to roll. We struggled a bit with the prosciutto, but after wrapping it all up in the plastic wrap and setting it aside in the fridge to marinate we felt a bit more confident... we looked at each other. "It should be fine, right?" "Sure."

Here is the rest of the story... the prosciutto stuck to the grill and exposed the insides of the roll. The veal that was not large enough exposed the shrimpy scallopy insides and it all sort of fell apart.

We made five total rolls and two of them held up. Once inside on the platter we used to serve all the ingredients mingled together and the crispy salty prosciutto tasted perfect with the now smoky-flavored shrimp and scallops. Everyone agreed, it was ugly, but it was tasty.

I served a couple of odd things that night. My parsley root soup got lukewarm reviews. The log of yum fell apart. My husband did NOT like the napa cabbage salad with homemade buttermilk dressing, or that I blanched the asparagus. "Why is it cold again?" But everyone had a good time. They all pretended that everything was good and we enjoyed each other's company. We all sang "Happy Birthday" to Katie as she blew out the candles on the cake I made from scratch. (And by the way, that cake was GOOD if I do say so myself).

So, the moral of my long story I suppose... is, even if the recipes do not all come together, all is forgiven in the company of friends.