Dinner Party At Jessica's

Menu

 ~

Ramps wrapped in proscuitto

Fried hen

Pear cakes with blue cheese

Arugula salad

Homemade Tiramisu icecream cakes

omg.

Lots of things I shouldn't eat, but did anyway...

new friends, old friends

new alliances

hell yes.

Dinner with some of Love Menu

Bobby and Jeevan telling stories and feeling the good times...

Stewed Plums, pickled grapes, and olives

serious talk. heart talk.

eggs from my chickens!!!

Menu

~

Creamy polenta

Fried egg

Candied shallots

Sauteed mushrooms

Stinging nettles

that I wild harvested that very day.  

Coconut Bliss ice cream

~

While gathering the nettles with a friend, 2 bald eagles soared above us! amazing!

Dinner with the Ladies

Menu

~

Steak

Smoky paprika chickpeas

Sauteed nettles (wild-harvested!)

Spring greens salad

Lots of delicious wine from Daedalus Cellars

The company of amazingly thoughtful and wonderful ladies

even put the white tablecloth out for this one...

Dinner with Lizzy

Menu

Grilled Pork Loin, caramelized peach compote

Roasted beets
Arugula and radish salad

Pears in Moscato

Lizzy is amazing and threw this meal together like it was nothing.

Breakfast with Niko

I sure know the way into a man's heart...

Menu

Gluten Free banana pancakes, with candied ginger and sunflower seeds

perfectly ripe pear

fried eggs (from my chickens)

real maple syrup

I was so hungry I couldn't wait to take the photo!

Dinner with Anna

 

Anna was so blissed out from the food...love her sweet sleepy smile...

   Sprouted Chickpea pancakes

 

The menu:

Sprouted Chickpea Pancakes with homemade peach chutney

Smoked Salmon

Mizuna (from the garden) with apples, cashews and raisins

spring is on it's way

Steak with Jessica

~

Steak 

Puree of Cauliflower

Spinach, Pear, almond salad

white wine

dolin blanc vermouth

a whole jar of pumpkin brittle

 the best conversation with a lovely friend

~

New embroideries from Luxury Dinner Party now ONLINE

I've posted more images from the Luxury Dinner Party entry on my site for sale!



swing by and check them out!





lovemenu.bigcartel.com

Jeremy's Birthday Feast, or Luxury Dinner Party, Project Food Blog Challenge #3

Birthday dinners are always a reason to celebrate with decadent food and drink, but sometimes our busy schedules leave us with little time to plan and less time for evening festivities. I had wanted to throw a wildy epic dinner party, but I was in the middle of packing and moving! There didn't seem to be any time to plan and cook and keep my head screwed on straight.
On top of my own crazy schedule, my beau, Jeremy, was having the craziest week of his life: his company was pitching big bold ideas to new clients, planning a lecture, organizing a photo shoot, building a bar, and somehow hoping to celebrate his birthday...

First Course

Pearl Unpasteurized Cow's milk Cheese

Sliced Baguette

 Captured By Porches Beer

Main Course

Grilled Skirt Steak

Wild Caprese Salad with Local Nectarines

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

Cameron Gehrtz Vineyard Pinot Noir

Dessert!

Salted Caramel and Coconut Toffee Ice cream

Stroopwaffle Honey Cookies

Moet Chandon Champagne

The Project Food Blog Challenge # 3 before me, I knew I could create a meal for him that was special, delicious, fit into my restricted diet, was quick to make. It also had to be fuel for the late night work he and his 2 partners still had to do after the dinner party concluded.

Pearl, unpasteurized cow's milk cheese

His business partner's wife, Victoria, and I planned the menu together, and with her tiny infant, Enzo, in tow, we braved the grocery store. I have actually never shopped with an infant, and this was quite the experience, getting lots of attention! And though he squirmed, our list was simple so we were surprisingly efficient.

Red Potatoes with Rosemary

Wild Caprese Salad with Local Nectarines

Back at her house, she hung a HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner, and set the table with dishes from her wedding. Lit candles around the warm room, and played the new record by The National on the stereo.
Meanwhile I chopped potatoes, tomatoes from her garden, nectarines. Tore the tiny mozzarella into bite sized morsels, and dressed the salad with large basil leaves, so fresh and green against the colorful mix of fruit and tomatoes.

Even thought the guests, totaling 8, would arrive within 20 minutes, I was calm and collected. What is the point of stressing out about things? I may have dropped potatoes on the floor, or dipped my finger in the cayenne instead of paprika, and threw this whole thing together in a matter of a few hours, but I wanted the evening to be fulfilling and special, free of pressure, free of stress. Like a back massage for the senses...

The steak I marinated in a mix of cumin, coriander, paprika, olive oil, salt and pepper. Simple and elegant. My favorite combination. When Victoria's husband, Fritz, arrived, he threw them on the grill for me, and honestly they came out perfectly.

Skirt Steaks, medium rare...yumm!

My plate, with a heaping pile of salad and steak.

Captured by Porches is a great local brewery, The owner used to do DIY style parties where he would show up secretly and serve beer... don't know if that still happens...

Our friend Jack's birthday was the day before Jeremy's. He received this amazing bottle of local Pinot Noir, and decided to share it with the table...I LOVE THIS WINE.

A little fancy, eh? Moet Chandon

The bottle of Champagne was a gift to Victoria and Fritz when their son Enzo was born. It added a touch of class and took the dinner party to a new level of decadence. Sipping it out of mismatched tumbler glasses, sitting with my friends at a long wooden table, we were the perfect mix of high and low brow. Of casual and classy. I love to create an effortless atmosphere that makes you feel like you rolled out of bed instantly looking fabulous.

Lovely's 50/50 makes the best salted caramel ice cream ever.

The dessert was a Stroopwaffle, a sweet cookie of Danish origin, nestled into a scoop each of the delicious Lovely's 50/50 ice creams. Victoria had a box of mixed letter candles to put into Jeremy's dessert. We had the option of T, O, L, I, !, A. I thought about TAIL,  or TOIL, but settled on LIT as being the cleverest, and hopefully not reminding them too much that they were "TOIL"ing for sure with the intense workload.

In the end, everyone was gracious, happy, and full, A success for sure. Jeremy was able to have a luxury dinner party with his close friends, without too much stress.

To me, the most important parts of a dinner party, are to sit and enjoy it with your guests, to not take things too seriously, and have fun. I think that these rules apply to every aspect of life. I am so grateful I get to enjoy it surrounded by such wonder and beauty, so many amazing things to eat, and incredible people to share meals, smiles, and birthday celebrations.

behind your shoulder while you cook

I have gotten a lot of reader response from people wanting to buy the illustrations I have been making.
So, I decided to set up an online store to sell them. I will update it with every blog post so you can get your hands on the most current artworks!


Lovemenu.bigcartel.com




enjoy!

Fruits of the Earth, Fruits of Longing

Moroccan Lamb and Asian Pear Tajine. Freehand Embroidery and Watercolor on Paper

Friday I was in a class all day, so i didn't get the news that I had advanced into the next round of "Project Food Blog" until 4pm that afternoon. How exciting!


The challenge: To cook a dish from another culture that is out of my comfort zone.



My initial thought was something Greek, or Turkish, because I love the cuisine, but I knew that it was also important to stay true to my purpose and my cleanse. I sat on my front stoop in the sun, in cut off jean shorts, sipping mint iced tea, the weather tricking me back to summer. I think of myself as an intuitive cook, rarely using recipes, but for this challenge I knew who to look to for inspiration, what tome would guide me on a spice tour that was delicious, nourishing body and soul, and honoring the ground rules that I have been following for the past 5 weeks.

An additional and self imposed challenge to go along with the cooking is to embroider and sometimes paint all of the food that I make. This time it proved very challenging! How does one embroider rice! I think I did a pretty good job, considering the time frame...

Preserved Lemon Rice. Freehand Embroidery and Watercolor on Paper

I decided to embroider this one last minute! The paint was still wet on the scanner! Freehand Embroidery and Watercolor on Paper

Diana Henry is my new favorite cookbook author. She is my foodie muse. Her book, "Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons" is, as one of my diners said: food porn. I browsed the many delectable North African, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern dishes, and arrived at a perfect late summer menu:

CHILLED AVOCADO AND CILANTRO SOUP
MOROCCAN LAMB AND ASIAN PEAR TAJINE
TOASTED BASMATI RICE WITH
CARAMELIZED ONIONS AND PRESERVED LEMON
FRESH LOCAL FIGS, MANOURI CHEESE, CHESTNUT HONEY

The rice isn't traditional. Couscous is, but that is a grain I just can't eat right now, so I substituted rice. Also, the recipe called for Quince, but there weren't any at the store, so I opted for asian pears instead.

My car was in the shop, so my boyfriend said I could borrow his:

My beau's awesome 1976 BMW 2002. Freehand Embroidery and Watercolor on Paper

I picked up the groceries, and arrived at his house to cook at 7:45. oops! dinner was planned to be at 9, but the recipes called for at least 1.5 hours of cooking, plus all the prep. He had at the very last minute gathered a party of 6 together, and I was excited and nervous to cook this meal, lamb shanks being something I had never prepared before.

the ingredients for everything:

butter
olive oil
onions
leek
garlic
cumin
coriander
ginger
cayenne
cinnamon stick
saffron
preserved lemon
honey
stock(used homemade from a chicken I had made the week previous)
cilantro
harissa
avocados
tomatos
lime
lemon rind
lamb shanks
rice
asian pear
fresh figs: turkish and black mission
manouri sheep cheese (for the figs)
salt and pepper

A pretty simple list of ingredients for a delectable and complex meal...and no wheat! no dairy! (except for the manouri sheeps cheese, but that was for the other guests...)

Chilled Avocado and Cilantro Soup. Freehand Embroidery and Watercolor on Paper

The lamb was fairly easy to cook! hooray! I braised it briefly in my favorite Le Creuset pot (the one I found at the Goodwill for $2), and let everything simmer, stirring the spices into the butter, mixing the garlic, onions and rich spices and letting it cook for what seemed like hours, while the fruit reduced in water, filling the room with perfume. I could almost imagine the heat, scents and colors of the far away lands where this food was born.
The soup chilled in the fridge, and I took a hand blender to it. I love these things. The ease in which they blend!

Fresh Figs, Manouri Cheese, Chestnut Honey. Freehand Embroidery and Watercolor on Paper

Everything took a little longer than I expected, we didn't sit down to eat until 10:30, and I made a huge mess chopping onions for some reason...but the guests arrived and played cards, drank wine, ate dates, and joked, as the darkness grew around us, and the evening breeze tangled with the sweet heady scent of the stove.

The end result was a table of smiling, too full people, and one happy cook. Excited that I had challenged myself with a dish that was foreign to me, I tasted success with every taste bud, felt deep gratitude for and from the room of friends, and best of all, I didn't have to clean up the mess...

Vote for me here: Project Food Buzz