Holiday help needed!

Hi lady chefs: I'm in a mild panic: I'm hosting Christmas night at our ahem, cozy, abode. We're anticipating 17 people! I don't have room for a sit-down meal and I've informed the family of this. The actual invite says "there will be plenty of food, but not a formal sit-down meal." SO, here's my dilemma: What should I serve?! I want to have a buffet of food that folks can easily eat in their laps -- like cocktail party food. However, it needs to be fancy enough and substantial enough to pass as dinner. All of Kevin's family are good cooks and are willing to contribute dishes. But what should I tell them to bring? What should be the main protein? Any ideas for fully loaded cocktails to get everyone tipsy so they don't notice the food? Comment here or shoot me an e-mail if you have suggestions! Lori lbotterman@tribune.com or here!

food label craft

Anne mentioned we could maybe do a "craft" during one of our craft nights to create labels for our dishes. I thought this one was really cute:

Instructions: http://bit.ly/sVfnuU

I'm Finally Binging!

I'm here with Lori, and I'm trying my hand at my very first blog. What do you gals think?

All recipes now listed

The recipes everyone made Friday for Radically Simple night are now posted on the recipes tab. I think I remembered every dish, but if I didn't let me know and I'll scan what's missing. (Click on the individual pages to view them larger.)

First meeting a success!

Hi ladies! A big delicious thank you to Ann for conceptualizing and then carrying out the Cook Book Club. Our first meeting was a tasty success! In my somewhat tipsy haze, I volunteered to create this blog to help us organize and follow up on our club events. Hopefully this will be a place were all members can communicate about the next meeting, post recipes and tips from the books we are cooking from, and anything else pertinent to the group. I've made all of you blog members. You can either post comments to this blog, or even write your own blog posts. I'm happy to give tutorials. As many of you will probably learn, I'm a better blogger than I am a cook. So, let me know if you have any questions! Lori

Cake wreck

This is the Coconut "Macaroon" Cake that I made. It looked terrible. There was a drama involved during the making of this cake -- a hunt for odd ingredients (unsweetened desiccated coconut? really?), a lack of basic baking implements (zester), and a crucial interruption which caused me to short by one tablespoon the amount of baking powder necessary. Though it won't win any beauty contests, it actually tasted pretty good. Lemony and coconuty all at once. In fact, all the recipes we tried were bursting with flavor. I might just try this again.