Don’t miss our grand summer picnic. MSSF members and friends meet at the Redwood Glen Picnic area, Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland, on Sunday, August 22nd (rain date: August 29th). Bring something to grill, a dish and beverages to share (excluding hard liquor as per our permit), and other picnic stuff including place settings. The MSSF will provide charcoal and good company. Don’t leave valuables in your car, please.

The MSSF Culinary Group will meet Monday, May 3, 2010, at 7 pm, SF County Fair Building, Golden Gate Park, 9th and Lincoln, SF.

As usual, reservations are required and must be made no later than Thursday, April 29th this month. To make a reservation contact Pat George at (510) 204-9130 or plgeorge33@yahoo.com. We limit the number of diners to 60, including cooks.

Culinary Group dinners are open only to MSSF members in good standing and their guests.
The dinner price will be $16.00, $15.00 for students. Remember to bring your own tableware, beverage and an appetizer to share. Members are listed by city in the back of the membership roster should you(wisely)choose to carpool.

NOTE: We do not meet in June, July or August. There will be an MSSF picnic in August. Details are up-coming in the May newsletter and on the website. Our next Culinary Group dinner will be our yearly potluck, the most splendid potluck you can imagine, on September 7, 2010. We do not meet the first Monday that month, September 6, as it is Labor Day. So we are meeting Tuesday instead.

More Notes:

• We will have our grand raffle again; Curt’s back in town! Bring an interesting raffle item, preferably mushroom themed, and you will get 5 free raffle tickets.
• Please help clean up and put away chairs after the dinner.
• Consider taking photos at the dinner for our website.

SEE YOU AT THE DINNER…
Pat

As Easter Sunday is April 5th, we’ve changed our usual first Monday dinner to the following week.

• Monday, April 12, 2010, 7 pm
• SF County Fair Building (aka Hall of Flowers) Golden Gate Park, 9th and Lincoln, SF
• for a lovely Spring dinner.
• As usual, reservations are required and must be made no later than Friday, April 9th. Late reservations will not be accepted as food orders must be made early for this dinner.
• To make a reservation contact Pat George at (510) 204-9130 or plgeorge33@yahoo.com.
• There are only 60 spaces available including the cooks.
• Culinary Group dinners are open only to MSSF members in good standing and their guests.
• The dinner price will be $16.00, $15.00 for seniors and students.
• Remember to bring your own tableware, beverage and an appetizer to share.
• The MSSF membership roster has a section with members listed by city should you prefer to carpool.

NOTES:

• There will be NO raffle as our rafflemeister, Curt, will be out of the country that night.
• A black laptop style bag with an “American Society of Hypertension” logo on it and a black and red bag with a pie tin was left at the last dinner.
• cooks who need large pans for the dinner can obtain them by calling Al Carvajal’s daughter, Catherine at (415) 310-5432.
• a member would like the recipe for the onions in balsamic appetizer we enjoyed at the Feb. dinner
• bring containers in case we have leftovers to take home
• Lisa Gorman lchanterelle@yahoo.com misplaced a large stainless steel lid at the last dinner. Let her know if you found it.
• We’re recruiting for people to assist with chairing the Culinary Group…

See you at dinner,
Pat

The MSSF Culinary Group, open to members in good standing, will meet Monday, March 1, 2010, at 7 pm. As usual, reservations for the dinner are required and must be made no later than February 26th. There are 60 spaces only available. Reservations are open to MSSF members and their guests. To make a reservation, contact Pat George at (510) 204-9130 or plgeorge33@yahoo.com. The dinner price will be $16, $15 for seniors and students. As well as a splendid dinner, we will feature our famous raffle. If you bring an interesting item to be raffled, you will receive 5 raffle tickets.
We will meet at the SF County Fair Building (AKA Hall of Flowers), Golden Gate Park, 9th and Lincoln, San Francisco. Remember to bring you own tableware as the venue does not provide dishes, etc. Also bring a favorite beverage and an appetizer to share.
Car pooling is encouraged. The MSSF membership roster has a section with members listed by city.
We plan our upcoming dinners at the meeting so be sure to bring you ideas for a menu. We are a volunteer group with a membership of enthusiastic and energetic cooks as well as diners.
OUR MENU FOR MARCH 1ST AND OUR VOLUNTEER COOKS
Appetizers **Everyone
Salad **Honor Sarmento
Flatbread **Toni Kiely
Lamb and Vegetable Tagine **Zoe Amey-Caldwell and
**Jeannette Larsen
Couscous **Stephanie Wright
Galaktobouriko **The Bells
(a Greek dessert of egg custard on phyllo with lemon sauce)
Coffee **Remo Arancio

For more information contact Pat George at (510) 204-9130 or plgeorge33@yahoo.com or Stephanie Wright at (510) 654-6279 or lioness@bytewright.com
See you there,
Pat

Recently, I had the good fortune to attend a TASTEPROJECT event which featured a collaboration between Michael Recchuiti of Recchiuti Chocolates and Kyle Garrone of Far West Fungi. They created an amazing menu with combinations of various fungi grown by Far West as well as wild mushrooms and various types of chocolate made at Recchuiti. Each presentation came with a description of the fungus used, which chocolate was used and how the dish was conceived and created. We also enjoyed a tour of part of the Recchiuti factory and examples of each of the fungi used in the creations. (more…)