A Collective Birthday Party

Having a joint birthday part is a great idea. Especially if your friend likes to cook as much as you do, has great taste and great ideas. Recently my Nourish cooking partner and I did this and were so happy with the results.

Our Menu

Gougeres
Cheese plate Comte, Monte Enebro, and Brillat Savarin with accompaniments (preserved walnuts, blackberry honey, and rose petal jam)
Prosciutto Wrapped Dates stuffed with Stilton
CaramelizedOnion, Roasted Cauliflower, Pecorino, and Truffle Oil Pizza
Broccoli Quiche
Meatballs with Mushroom Cream Sauce
Citrus Terrine
Crudites

Chocolate Dipped Cream Puffs
Ginger Chocolate Truffles
(Dorie Greenspan’s) Perfect Party Lemon Cake with Raspberry Filling

Prosecco Punch with Lemon Sorbet and Elderflower Syrup

A fun benefit to a joint party is that interesting new people show up. This was the case when a surprise infusion of amazing pastries from Dominique Ansel Bakery showed up. A lovely pastry chef lovey who made the King Cake actually brought it and told us all about it. That bakery has the most delicate, beautiful and delicious treats!

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A Favorite Place

I love going to Vermont in the summer, especially to the farm land around Lake Champlain. There are so many wholesome, delicious places to eat, the people are amazingly friendly, and it smells and feels heavenly.

On a recent trip I was able to help make cheese at Shelburne Farms.

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letting the food be beautiful

This weekend I attended a meditation retreat in Manhattan. I didn’t have time to bring my own food so I went to a salad bar to get something nourishing. Sitting all day seems like it would be easy, but it requires a lot of energy.

The food seemed to arrange itself in my take away container. Shredded yellow squash wanted to be next to bright purple/pink beets. Working with fresh, real ingredients makes it easy to let the food be naturally delicious and beautiful. If it were the season for yellow squash that would’ve been even more brilliant and tasty, but sometimes you have to make a compromise with your choices so you can get your good food and get through the day.

Brooklyn Baby Shower

Here is the menu and some beautiful photos by Alana Rancourt Phinney from our recent Nourish Brooklyn event.

Something for spring

Radish and Lemon Butter Open Face Sandwiches

Ingredients

1. 2 oz Vermont Butter and Cheese Company Cultured Butter, softened (of course you can use any butter you wish)
2. 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
3. 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
4. 7 slices of Orwasher’s White Bread
5. 6 ounces red and watermellon radishes, thinly sliced

To make the lemon butter

MIX the softened butter with the lemon zest, juice, and salt to taste 

To assemble the sandwiches

SPREAD the bread slices with the lemon butter.

CUT bread into desired shapes, you can do long rectangles, triangles, custom shapes, but I like circles for this.

SERVE immediately is the best option because the radish slices will dry out. If you can’t, you can prevent dryness by soaking the slices in lemon water before assembly and/or cover assembled sandwiches with plastic wrap for no more than 2 hrs.

eating sunshine

Came across a quote today from an essay called Dawn Light by Diane Ackerman:

“Solar energy lights our days and fuels the plants that prey animals eat before they’re eaten by predators. We eat the sunshine stored in those plants and animals, burning it for energy, which we spend to work, cook, make love, play music, pursue games. And we’re so connected to every other life-form on Earth…”

This quote speaks to how interdependent we are on this small planet, how the natural world has it’s own intelligent systems that we are apart of. It benefits all for us to honor that natural balance.

Check-out TedxManhattan 2011: Change the Way You Eat

Through the wonderful world of technology you can view the Tedx: Change the Way You Eat talks via the livesteam and here is the schedule of presenters.

soufflé

This has been an amazing winter in Brooklyn. Relentless snow storms have made for many magnificent winter mornings in Prospect Park. The weather in New York has been unusual all year with powerful thunderstorms, tornadoes, blizzards, and hail. I am one of those people who accepts that human activities are causing climate change in ways that are described in this article in the New York Times. While I’m enjoying this winter more than most, I do so with an increased commitment to environmentally responsible living. If you want some more information about environmentally conscious food choices, watch this compelling video of a presentation given by the President of Slow Food USA. Although I realize if you’re willing to watch the video, it’s likely that you already agree with me.

Back to the souffle…goat cheese souffles were a perfect breakfast food to have after we returned from a long snowy walk. Vermont Butter and Cheese Company goat cheese and NY State pastured eggs were the stars of this dish.

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cooking as art

I have a background in art and art administration, so naturally things that combine the two are up my alley.

Recently I participated in artist Tracy Candido’s Community Cooking Club. She describes the project as,”…a socially-engaged program that provides opportunities for friends to prepare, cook and eat food.”

The guest chef was Martha Bernabe, prop and food stylist in New York City. Her recipes were all adjusted for gluten-free eating, which is something I don’t often employ in my own eating habits, have done for others.

The menu for the evening:
Delicata Squash Savory Cookies
Pan Seared Brussels Sprouts
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Garlicky Mashed Potatoes
Bacon, Egg and Frisee Salad
Cheesy Spicy Dutch Baby
Fried Chicken Gluten Free Style
Hot Date Cake with Toffee Sauce

The fried chicken was done with sweet potato flour which was a delicious change from the usual fried chicken. Also, the date cake as out of this world delicious. Most significantly, I had a fantastic time cooking with the thirty or so other participants. In my experience, at times in large cooking classes at accredited cooking schools there is a sharp competition in the air, as people try to prove they have mastered the techniques. I recognize this is a necessary and important aspect to cooking school that encourages students to develop accurate kitchen skills. The difference with the cooking club and the part I really enjoyed about it was the ease with which people were working together, asking questions, and sharing ideas about problem solving to make the meal.  This joint ownership and participation created some delicious food. We couldn’t have wine with the meal because we were in the NYU kitchen, but I don’t think anyone noticed because we were too busy enjoying the experience.

Pie time

Had the BEST time at the Pie for Dinner event at Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

We loved the warmly austere interior of the restaurant. We loved the pie. We loved the staff, especially chatting with Chef Nate Smith. He was kind to answer all of our questions about his crust, specifically how he achieved the billowing crust mushrooming out over the beef pie top. We loved the bottomless Kelso.

Here is the menu from 12/12/10. Sorry, no photos turned out because it was too dimly lit and I was embarrassed to use the flash.

“Leafy Greens and Herbs

Beef and Stout Pie

Cranberry and Sage Pie with Honey Cream

Complimentary locally brewed beers by Kelso of Brooklyn will accompany each pie.”