Friday, April 26, 2024
It was a fancy feast.
Carol Cook, local author and frequent columnist for the Hood County News, recently told me about the time a French friend of hers asked her to help with a party she wanted to give. The event was to celebrate her husband’s promotion.
They decided to have the party on a Sunday afternoon and serve French Pâté, canapes, fruit, tea cakes and light wines.
I’ll let Carol tell her own story from here.
“It would be a casual gathering, yet have a bit of flair and elegance, the menu featuring a few French touches.
“One dish seemed to be more popular than others, the made-from-scratch Liver Pâté, surprisingly was gone in the first 20 minutes.
“When other food began to disappear quickly Mimi panicked as only ten people had responded with an RSVP, twenty guests showed up!
“We dashed to the kitchen to see what could be added to the empty table.
“Along with ketchup, pickles and sugar, we found jars of baby food and cat food. I grabbed apples from the fruit bowl, peeled and cut into chunks, dumped Gerber’s strained peaches, applesauce, and plums into a bowl, added cinnamon, cloves, and some cognac, stirred it up and placed the sliced apples around it for dipping.
“Mimi grabbed two cans of cat food, opened and tasted it, giving a thumbs up, scooped it onto the empty pâté plate, punched a few toothpick holes in it and spooned a bit of cognac over it, arranging more crackers around the mound of “pâté.”
“By the end of the party not a morsel of food was left on any plate.
“After the last guest left Mimi and I sunk into the sofa and fell into hysterical screeching, crying laughter.
“Our husbands thought we were drunk. We kept our “Pâté refill” recipe (which we renamed, The Cat’s Meow Pâté) secret for years.
npricer@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 226
MIMI’S FRENCH PÂTÉ
aka – The Cat’s Meow Pâté
1/2 pound chicken livers
2 tablespoons butter (do not use margarine)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove fresh garlic, minced (1/2 teaspoon)
1/4 cup chicken broth
Melt butter in skillet over medium heat, place livers, chopped onion, garlic, and broth in skillet, cook over medium/low heat until livers are browned and tender, about 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cool slightly.
Place skillet contents into an electric blender container.
Add to blender contents:
2 tablespoons cognac, or substitute brandy or cream sherry
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons soft, not melted, butter (do not use margarine)
Blend until mixture is smooth. Yields about 1 cup.
Turn into bowl and refrigerate until firm, minimum 2 hours.
After pâté is firm, mold into a mound, place on serving plate, poke a few holes into top of pâté.
Just before serving, spoon a tablespoon of cognac (or brandy or cream sherry) over pâté so it seeps into the holes, smooth over holes.
Serve with English water crackers and pumpernickel toast (cut into triangles).
CORRECTION
The cookie recipe from Brittany Newman that ran in the Wednesday, Nov. 6 issue should have had three cups of flour in it.
Below is the corrected recipe.
NANA’S (MY STEPMOM) COOKIES
3 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts
2 (6-ounce) packages of chocolate chips/M&M’s/cranberries/etc.
Mix all ingredients together, scoop into balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes at 350.
