Terrier Summer Party - 2019

With three Terrier Dinner Clubs under my belt by summer 2019, I decided I wanted to expand the group a little bit more and invite a few more of my work friends for more of a party rather than a sit-down dinner. The result was a more casual event, but still lots of food and lots of fun. 

Lobster & Chicken Salad Rolls

Buttered Potato Rolls, Celery, Sir Kensington's Mayo, Lemon

I knew I wanted to start the meal with a few small bites of finger food, and lobster rolls are of course a quintessential summer favorite. I like mine with a little mayo, lemon juice, and celery, served on a warm, buttered potato roll. 

A couple of my guests had shellfish allergies so they got the same thing only with chicken instead of lobster, and a bit of ancho-morita hot sauce on top. Both sandwiches were a hit!

Deviled Eggs

Sir Kensington's Mayo, Bacon, Chives

Another snack item that people can't say no to. The trick to getting them to stay on the plate is to spread a small amount of the mayo/yolk mixture down as glue. 

Chilled Watermelon Soup

Shallot, Ginger, Garlic, Lime, Mint, Cilantro

I learned to make this amazing sweet and savory watermelon soup years ago. It's super-refreshing and goes down especially easily during the hot summer months. 

Tacos

Pork Shoulder Braised in Mexican Coke, Onions, Garlic, Ancho and Pasilla Chiles

Corn Tortillas, Pickled Onions, Queso Fresco, Braising Liquid, Cilantro, Tomatillo-Poblano Salsa

Good tacos are on my shortlist of favorite foods on the planet. I do my best to do them justice at home. For the party I got a big 6 lb. pork shoulder and had my butcher bone it out. I then braised it low and slow for several hours in Mexican Coke and a few other things. Served with classic accompaniments, it was absolutely amazing. 

Ribs

Dinosaur BBQ Sauce

Chipotle-Pineapple Glaze

With a little trial and error, you can actually make really good ribs in your oven at home (no barbecue necessary). They're fairly easy to do and are a hit with a crowd. In this case we used two different glazes, one a pureéd reduction of pineapple juice and chiles, and the other good ol' Dinosaur BBQ sauce straight from the jar. Yum. 

Sides

Heirloom Tomatoes, Burrata, Basil, Olive Oil

Esquites

Watermelon Rind Pickles

Jalapeño-Honey Corn Bread

To go along with the ribs, Leah and I made a bunch of sides. A classic summer tomato and burrata, the famous Mexican corn salad esquites, and corn bread (using the Dinosaur BBQ recipe, my favorite). 

The one very strange thing was that the watermelon rind pickles, which I've made before with great success, had an incredibly strong sulfuric taste, like rotten eggs. Not sure what happened, but we threw them out. 

Voila! It was quite a meal. Notice the black plastic tarp on the table to prevent mess. 

Lime Bars

Lime Powder & Zest, Whipped Cream

I love key lime pie, but didn't want to serve anything in slices. I came up with the idea to do basically the same recipe but in the form of individual bars. They came out great!

Peach Cobbler

Bourbon Salted Caramel Ice Cream, Caramel Sauce

I also wanted to make a dessert with peaches, and settled on a warm peach cobbler. Not leaving well enough alone, I also decided to make bourbon salted caramel ice cream, which was spectacular (if I may say so myself)! 

After dinner we all started boozing. I decided to open up this special bottle of experimental wild sour beer Leah and I had picked up recently at Tired Hands Fermentaria just outside Philly. Unfortunately it was absolutely disgusting - interesting to taste but barely drinkable. We managed to find replacement booze to cap the evening off, however =)

Tired Hands Fermentaria

I visit my brother and his family once or twice a year at their home just outside Philly - we usually go out for dinner at a local place he thinks we'd like. Knowing that Leah and I are beer lovers, on this visit we headed to Fermentaria, the casual eatery run by the local Tired Hands Brewery.

The food was hit or miss, but we quite enjoyed the beer, especially their outrageous Extra Vanilla Milkshake IPA!

Tired Hands Fermentaria
tiredhands.com
35 Cricket Terrace, Ardmore, PA 19003

Panorama of the spacious eatery, along with the bar area. Some good looking options up there!

We tried a variety of beers between our group. Most were really great, though we were especially wowed by their absolutely wild Extra Vanilla Milkshake IPA, pictured here. The sweet creaminess of the milkshake flavor really came through and was cut surprisingly nicely by the bitter hops. We loved it so much that Leah and I picked up a few 4-packs of cans to take home!

While we were waiting for our table, Leah and I ran down the block to the Tired Hands General Store, where we perused their larger bottles. We selected three to take home, though only enjoyed one. The other two were a bit too experimental and weren't very drinkable. 

Tomatos & Fresh Cheese

A nice fresh opener, the timeless combination of tomato and cheese. A little plain but still pretty good!

Hush Puppies

Crispy and hot - everything a proper fritter should be!

Tacos

Pork Belly

Fried Oysters

These were pretty tasty, though I recall the pork belly being a little bland and the oysters a little dry.

Burger

This was a major disappointment. I expect a brew pub to have a great burger, and this was pretty sad. It was bone-dry and tiny, only about half the size of the bun. Great fries though.

Ebi-Katsu

My sister-in-law's fried pork and shrimp patty was way better. I regretted not ordering this instead of my little hockey puck burger!

Gnocchi

These homemade gnocchi were delicious, with corn, peaches, and fresh ricotta. A major standout of the menu that night, though the peaches were very under-ripe unfortunately.

Corn

This dessert sounded amazing on paper - so much so that we ordered two of them! In reality it was pretty terrible. The corn ice cream was good, but the crumbled pieces of cornbread were completely dried out and the kettle corn was stale. We left most of it on the plate after eating the ice cream. Ugh. 

Vegan Key Lime Pie

Unfortunately this dessert was memorably bad as well. I'm really tired of service staff trying to sell customers on vegan key lime pie by insisting, "It's amazing - you can't tell the difference!" Guys, we can tell the difference. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that restaurants make offerings for vegans to eat, but the texture here was just terrible, like an entire pie made of solidified pudding skin. I try not to be very negative on this blog, but...yuck.