Posted by Trott

The crispy spicy pecans were fantastic. They may not have been as crispy as they were supposed to be—I had lined the baking sheet with a silicone mat. Still, they were crispy enough and possessed an addictive flavor not unlike Chex Mix. (That's supposed to be a compliment.)

We brought the pecans to a party, where everyone seemed to like them barring the folks with nut allergies.

For the party, Humu made raspberry financiers from the Boulange cookbook. They too were fantastic, and a big hit at the party (barring, of course, the folks with nut allergies, as the financiers contained ground hazelnuts).

The food item that caused the most buzz at the party—barring those with nut allergies—was provided by another guest. It was a baked brie + bread + pecans + maple syrup dish that was described by one taster as "brie pancakes". It's hard to compete with brie pancakes. Bravo, Tiki Kaimuki!

I personally refused to stop eating some ridiculously tasty turkey meatballs in some sort of magic awesome sauce. Bravo, Myke and Jay!

The host produced delicious classic mai tais and other tiki cocktails. Bravo, Ron!

I tried to get a jump on the next Joy of Cooking recipe: roasted chestnuts. Chestnuts are getting hard to find, and I thought I was lucky to locate some horse chestnuts at a local grocery co-op.

After I roasted them, Humu and I sampled them. They were unpleasantly and persistently bitter. We didn't eat more than a nibble or two.

Humu googled for bitter roasted chestnuts to find out if we had chestnuts that had gone bad. What she found out instead was that horse chestnuts are poisonous. Oops. I must have gotten them out of the potpourri section of the co-op.

Fortunately, we did not die, go to the hospital, or vomit.

Labels: joy of cooking