Dalí : Les Dîners de Gala by Salvador Dalí for Foodie Reads

As 2017 launches, I forge ahead with my new Foodie Reads Challenge. Years ago Jake and I decided that New Year's Eve was not for a date night, but was for family time. We want to start and end the years with the boys; we have dates throughout the year. There's no need to exclude two of our favorite people on the planet, right?

In previous years, we've eaten dinner at our favorite restaurant, then spent the hours till midnight exploring different new year's eve traditions from around the world. We ate Whole Fish and Leafy Greens; we Banged Bread, Hung Onions, and Tossed Water.

This year, I decided to do something a little bit different, inspired by this new cookbook: Les Dîners de Gala by Salvador Dalí.* I had been meaning to go to  Dalí 17, a new permanent collection of his work at a museum here in town. So, I figured, we'd visit the museum, eat dishes from this cookbook, and do Dalí-esque activities from Salvador Dalí and the Surrealists: Their Lives and Ideas, 21 Activities by Michael Elsohn Ross.*

But, yesterday, Jake wasn't feeling well and D was napping. So R and I were the only two who made it to the museum.

While I enjoyed seeing how prolific he was and in how many different media he created, R said that "there was too much blood...and too many private parts." Okay.

Back to the cookbook...

It's a heavy volume with lots of art. And, for that, I love it. Let me just say: Dalí is a great artist...not such a great recipe-writer.

Using the tip of a knife, cut the strings and your guests will be flabbergasted to see the mussels opening up spontaneously. Let them gobble up the whole thing, using their fingers.

I have another friend who commented on my post. She admitted, "I was intrigued just for the novelty of it, but didn't wind up ordering one." I offered her my copy.

Though we didn't end up using the cookbook for our new year's eve dinner - and I highly doubt I'll ever make anything out of it - we did continue with the Dalí theme and drew while looking through prisms, shared inspiration in the surrealist game 'Exquisite Corpse', and blotted ink dots!

*This blog currently has a partnership with Amazon.com in their affiliate program, which gives me a small percentage of sales if you buy a product through a link on my blog. It doesn't cost you anything more. If you are uncomfortable with this, feel free to go directly to Amazon.com and search for the item of your choice.

Here's what everyone else read in January 2017: here.