Chocolate Martinis or Why You Should Cruise With Holland America!

On our recent cruise to Alaska on Holland America’s Westerdam, I was able to gather many good entertaining, floral design, and food preparation tips. We got to experience a tour of the galley, a demo on making chocolate martinis, a talk on chocolate, a talk on flower arranging, and a cooking class with one of the head chef’s on board.

I’m pondering if there would be a way to deduct some of the cost of the cruise as a business expense since I learned so much that will be useful, either in things I can share with my guests at my Entertaining At Home parties, or in blog posts!  Probably not!

First of all, let me highly recommend Holland America as a cruise line choice if you do enjoy cooking or entertaining. They have a whole stage dedicated to their Culinary Arts Center. Recipes we got to observe being prepared were provided to us on nice recipe cards. When we did the cooking class, we each got an apron bearing the ship’s logo and name of the Culinary Arts Center. And to top it all off, anything we got to see demonstrated, we got to eat! The highlight of that was from the cooking class, where we were served Grilled Prawn Bruschetta with Primavera Salsa, Salmon with Lemon Glaze and Rosemary Crumbs, and Grand Marnier Chocolate Volcano Cake!

So to begin, I’ll share with you the easiest tip of all: making a chocolate martini. The trick to this is taking chocolate syrup, pouring a tablespoon or so into the bottom of a martini glass, and then taking a wooden stick and dragging some of the syrup up the side of the glass in a spoke-like fashion. To make it more decorative, take the stick and make circles around the glass, dragging the stick through the spokes of the chocolate that have been pulled up the sides of the glass. This will make a spider-web design.

That’s all there is to it. Mix your favorite martini drink and strain it into the chocolate decorated glass. Here are a couple of the martini recipes they gave us. Thanks to Holland America for sharing these recipes.

Lightning Fast Chocolate Martini

3 oz Premium Vodka

1.5 oz. Chocolate Liqueur or Crème de Cacao

Double Chocolate Chocolate Martini

3 oz. Premium Vodka

1.5 oz. Chocolate Liqueur or Crème de Cacao

2 tsp. Chocolate Syrup

Chocolate Orange Martini

3 oz. Premium Vodka

2.5 oz. Chocolate Liqueur or Crème de Cacao

1 oz. Grand Marnier

Chocolate Hazelnut Martini

3 oz. Premium Vodka

2.5 oz. Chocolate Liqueur or Crème de  Cacao

1 oz. Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur

Chocolate Espresso Martini

0.5 oz. Cold Espresso

2.5 oz. Premium Vodka

1.5 oz. Kahlua or Sabrosa coffee liqueur

1.5 oz. chocolate liqueur or Crème de Cacao.

For all of these recipes, pour all listed ingredients into a cocktail shaker packed with ice. Shake vigorously for 8-10 seconds. Strain into an ice chilled martini glass and enjoy.

Since I’m a tea-totaller, I’m looking for suggestions as to how to use this  presentation idea with a non-alcoholic drink. Any ideas? Let me know in a comment below. Thanks!

Gorgonzola cheese, honey, and ciabatta bread: Is it a Polish recipe?

I do home parties for my company, Entertaining At Home. Some parties are better than others. Some can be less than desirable from a financial standpoint. The party where I experienced this recipe was one of the latter but I swear the recipe I took away from that party made up for the low sales.

My hostess was from Poland. I tried a  minute ago to Google Polish gorgonzola bread to see if this recipe is unique to Poland. It doesn’t seem to be.

It is however, a very unique and unexpected combination of flavors, which if I hadn’t tried myself, I’m not sure I would believe how good it is.

Here is the ingredient list:

Ciabatta bread

Whole garlic cloves

Gorgonzola cheese

Honey

Olive oil

Technique:

1) Slice the ciabatta bread in half, lay the two halves on a baking sheet and brush them with olive oil lightly.

2) Toast the bread lightly in a 450 degree oven.

3) While the bread is warm, rub a peeled garlic clove or two all over the hot bread. This imparts the lightest touch of garlic flavor to the bread.

4) Crumble the gorgonzola cheese over the bread. I had never had gorgonzola cheese before (and I don’t like bleu cheese). I was pleased to find that gorgonzola is much milder than bleu cheese.

5) Put the bread back into the oven to melt the cheese into the bread.

6) When melted, remove the bread from the oven and slice it into small pieces, a little larger than bite-size.

7) Here’s the magic to the recipe and the stunning finale to the recipe: drizzle honey over the bread. Who would have expected that!

The combination of the pungent cheese, the subtle garlic flavor, and the sweet honey is a taste that must be experienced.

So please try this recipe sometime.  And if you happen to know whether or not this is a Polish recipe, I would love to know. Thanks.

Budget Entertaining: Community Parties (Poker Anyone?)

Another idea presented by Melissa Evans at Entertaining At Home’s 2009 National Conference to save money on entertaining was all of the various ways to divide the cost of the party among more than one family.  Variations include (1) potlucks; (2) block parties; and (3) progressive dinners.

Potlucks are so old school and still so enjoyable, especially it you have some friends from different ethnic heritages. Ask them to bring some food from their backgrounds.

Block parties take more planning, including making sure you don’t run into conflicts with city ordinances or laws or community restrictions.

A progressive dinner is where each course of the dinner is held at a different person’s home: appetizers at one, soup and salad at another; main course at still another; and dessert and coffee or drinks at the last. You can expand the number of hosts to 5 by making the very last home be for entertainment, such as a movie or card or board games.  Another variation (which increases the costs) is to go to a different restaurant for each course.

A progressive dinner is most suited to an assortment of friends who live in the same or close-by neighborhoods. It can also work for an extended family whose members  live within reasonable driving distance of each other.

The progressive dinner can be organized around a theme, such as an Hawaiaan Luau, a location, such as Dinner on the Deck, or an ethnic choice, such as Italian food.

My son Nathan gave me an idea for a twist on the progressive dinner that most likely would increase the men’s enjoyment of the event: Make it a Poker Progressive Dinner. The inspiration for this idea was the Poker Bike Ride Nathan told me about. In this event, the participants ride their bicycles from one restaurant to another, enjoying part of a dinner at each restaurant and retrieving a playing card at each restaurant. At the last restaurant, the person with the best poker hand wins a prize. There was also a prize for the first person to arrive, but that would not be a feature of the Poker Progressive Dinner.

So why not try the same thing with the progressive dinner: at each home, each guest gets another playing card and at the last home, a prize will be awarded to the best poker hand. Since a poker hand needs at least 5 cards, you’ll need 5 homes with different courses for the meal so either add a beverages course to the start of the progressive dinner or plan to go to the last home for continuing entertainment.

I’m curious as to whether anyone has ever experienced a poker progressive dinner? If so, any special tips to make it successful that you can share?