TK dinner ~ September 2014

Little sign written by our 9 year old before she left on her date for the evening.

And then people started arriving and we started serving.

First up were these little bites of Phyllo filled with goat cheese, herbs and fresh strawberries.

Confession - these made an appearance because I had leftover cheese mixture from the mushrooms (below) AND,  since I was already making a GIANT mess with Phyllo dough (Good God what a mess) I decided I might as well make those cute little cups - and then fill them with stuff. (that all makes sense right?)

Next out went roasted mushrooms served with the same goat cheese concoction garnished with fresh chives. 

Carrot soup with curry and coconut milk and the cutest little carrot curls.

Then Plum, Radicchio salad with a lemon mustard vinaigrette 

(Is it just me? Every time I use the word vinaigrette I have to google how to spell it? .....sigh.....)

Main course for the evening was good ol' fashioned steak and potatoes.

Flank steak with a spicy Chimichurri sauce and thin slices of red onion.

Steak was served with Roasted potatoes done with cumin, coriander, caraway seeds and cinnamon.

And a little plate of fresh radishes and baby turnips served with more chimichurri sauce.

Finally it is time for dessert!

Lemon meringue Phyllo plates.

These were served with brownie bites (I had a friend attending who demanded something chocolate - I will refrain from naming her here on the world wide web) 

And spiced molasses cookies.

Whew.

Thank YOU to elizabeth d photography for some of the photos above!

Until next time!

chicken with kalamata olives & bacon

I should probably call this post "how to quickly (and relatively inexpensively) feed twenty five people". The last TK dinner was the largest group we've had yet. Bodies everywhere! 

It was awesome. 

I think I've mentioned before having twenty plus people in our house is not a rare occurrence, it's the sit-down dinner part that got a bit tricky. I served the chicken on a bed of orzo pasta in these big family style platters and just let everyone have at it.

Perfect.

So much easier.

YOU WILL NEED:

about 4 pounds of chicken thighs (or swap out some of the thighs for a few breasts if needed)
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped thyme + few extra sprigs
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary + few extra sprigs
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
10 garlic cloves - peeled
3 slices good peppered bacon
1 cup dry white wine (I used a Pinot Griogio)
2 handfuls kalamata olives (no need to rinse)
salt
pepper

TO DO:

oven to 450
Spray a large rimmed baking sheet with non-stick stuff

Rub all the pieces of chicken with the olive oil.
Lay the pieces - skin side Down -  in a single layer on the rimmed baking sheet.
Generously sprinkle the Thyme, Rosemary, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes all over the chicken.
Flip the pieces over so they are now skin side up.
Repeat the sprinkling process and use up all the herbs and pepper flakes.
Add the herb sprigs around the chicken as well.
Add a few turns of salt and pepper.
Scatter the garlic cloves and bacon pieces all over the chicken.

Into the oven for about 20 minutes.

Carefully pull out the tray and shelf and add the white wine and olives to the tray.

Back into the oven another 15 or 20 minutes.
Check the temperature.

Remove from the oven, cover, let stand 10 - 15 minutes.

Grab some big serving spoons and serve it up! 

TK dinner ~ August 2014

This month I was told "you sure aren't very good at telling people No". 
I guess this might be a true statement since we had the biggest dinner yet! We usually have ten to twelve people for these dinners and they can pretty much fit around the dining room table. This month? Twenty! 

Yikes!

Now twenty persons in our house is not an unusual event. But this many people at a sit down dinner gets a little tricky. My servers ran like mad for most of the night. In and out of the kitchen with plates and platters and water jugs and anything else the guests might have asked for.

Madness...

So fun...

We started with a Caprese salad. Classic. Easy.

Heirloom tomatoes are all over the Farmer's Markets right now so grab as many as you can until there are no more. They are gorgeous and delicious and need nothing but some Mozzarella, fresh basil and balsamic vinegar. Maybe some fresh ground pepper as well. Quick and easy.

Next I did pluot crostinis because, again, they are in season and homegrown. Another quick to come together appetizer that I will serve as long as I can. 

These were done with ricotta cheese, sea salt, wildflower honey and mint.

Thank you to elizabeth d. photography for the above photo - is it weird that I love all the hands in action?

Next up was a watermelon gazpacho. Made with tomatoes, cucumbers and jalapeno peppers. Topped with a sour cream and Feta crema, a drizzle of olive oil and some toasted almond slivers.

Several bowls of fresh grapes went out next.

(pic? what pic?)

Then main course.

Individual plates of a nicoise salad.

This salad is a little crazy to assemble and then deliver twenty individual plates out at the same time. But manage they did and happy everyone was.

The above is loaded with a medley of potatoes, haricot verts, radish, green olives, kalamata olives, capers and a hard boiled egg. Finished with a dijon vinagarette and anchovies. 

Next I did the big family style serve thing and sent the main entree out on big platters.

(I highly recommend this technique for future use)

Roasted chicken with kalamata olives, white wine, peppered bacon and loads of garlic cloves. This we served over an orzo pasta done with heirloom tomatoes and chickpeas. 

Almost nothing was left to scrape off the dinner plates when we were cleaning the kitchen.

Finally, dessert.

Homemade HoHo's and mint chocolate ice cream. Yes, you read that correctly.

I was noticing that this year I seemed to be always doing variations of classic treats from my childhood. Figured HoHos were a logical next step? And mint-n-chip ice cream? Yes please!

We finally finished with what I named "The Meringue Mushroom Forest"

Little bites of meringue cookies held together by a dot of orange chocolate ganache, sitting on a swirl of lemon curd. So delicious and So fun to create.

then WHEW! Another dinner on the books. 

THANK YOU to all the attendees! My apologies again that I do not get to sit down and visit with every one of you - but hopefully I will see you somewhere soon.

And as usual, I will TRY to get all these recipes posted to share with all of you - as soon as I can.

Until then, invite twenty people over and have a party!

:-)

red onion flowers

These are GORGEOUS.

One of those dishes that makes you stop for a moment when you are reviewing your photos.

And taste? Delicious! Just as good as it looks. Super easy to create and quite the show-stopper when you bring it to the table.

recipe found in a special edition of Epicurious magazine.

plate by rae dunn clay

YOU WILL NEED:

6 medium red onions.

6 tablespoons of Olive Oil.

Fresh Rosemary and Thyme stems.

Salt.

Pepper.

TO DO:

oven to 350.

Make 4 cuts through the top of the onion leaving the base intact (as best you can) Creating 8 wedges.

I also left most the skin on. It was easier to remove these little pieces after I sliced the onion.

Place all the sliced onions onto your baking tray.

Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the center of each onion.

Add a few turns of salt and pepper over each onion.

Insert herb sprigs into each onion - careful you don't break the root ends here.

Add extra herb sprigs around the onions.

Into the oven for 30 minutes.

At this point carefully slide the tray out and press open the leaves to create your flowers - again being careful to not snap the root base.

Scoop some of the juices from the baking tray and spoon onto the tops and centers of the onions.

Back into the oven for another 30 minutes or so.

Until the outer petals are dark and crispy (these are the BEST pieces)

Remove.

Sprinkle with a few more turns of salt and pepper.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

figs & prosciutto

This combination of figs and Prosciutto might be one of my favorite summer bites.
Quick to come together and easy to serve.  Every chef and cook I know is making some variation of this at this time of year. The only difficulty I usually have, is grabbing them at the Farmer's Market in the short window of time they are available. This summer it seemed they were only around for a couple of weeks - and only being sold by a few farmers. 
I, of course, scooped up whatever I could get my hands on and served them every chance I had. 

This appetizer started our most recent TK dinner.

I did some with Goat cheese and some with Parmesan cheese. I like both although usually I prefer the hard cheese. These were pan fried in the one non-stick pan I own (was just easier) Then finished with a drizzle of wildflower honey, fresh pepper and thyme.

Easy.

Delicious.

YOU WILL NEED:

Figs

Prosciutto

Goat cheese or Parmesan cheese

Honey

Fresh thyme

Pepper

TO DO:

Slice all the figs in half lengthwise.

Slice all your prosciutto so you have long thin pieces.

Pick your cheese then put a small piece right in the center of each fig.

Wrap each fig/cheese segment with Prosciutto.

Pan to medium/medium high heat.

Place several bites in the hot pan with the seam side down.

Doing this side first helps to keep the fig wrapped and everything looking pretty.

Cook just until the prosciutto is crisp. 

Then flip and cook the other side.

Remove to a plate lined with a paper towel.

When ready to serve, arrange as many pieces as you can onto your serving platter.

Drizzle with a scant amount of honey.

Add pepper then finish with the thyme leaves.

Enjoy.

The following photo I am adding because these were the tiniest, cutest figs I've ever seen! Probably about the size of cippolini onions. So cute!

TK dinner ~ July 2014

A while back I was told "you live a magic life". I can't remember who said this to me but I didn't really give it much thought beyond my reply of Thank You. Then this past weekend we had the monthly dinner and this photo was taken.

I have named this the Clown Car photo since it looks like "how many people can we cram into that itty bitty kitchen?!" And I love this moment. I can't tell you what was said, or what might have been so funny, but this was one moment during the dinner service where we all decided we needed to stop for two seconds and finish our laughter. Perfect. There have definitely been many moments in my life that I would wholeheartedly title "magic" - the above is one of them.
So, on to what we were all doing in the kitchen to begin with! 
July dinner was a larger group than normal with the usual amount of kitchen incidents and shenanigans.  (always shenanigans - see above photo)
We started the evening with little fig, prosciutto bites - some of these were stuffed with goat cheese and some had a little square of parmesan cheese. Finish with fresh thyme and a drizzle of wildflower honey.

Next were these little pluot crostini bites with ricotta cheese and basil. Nice and easy. Quick and simple.

We then served some fresh fruit before starting entree.

Main course for this meal were lamb chops served on a bed of greens. The greens were sauteed with onions, garlic and bacon. The lamb chops were seasoned with cumin, allspice and a lot of mint. DELICIOUS.

Confession time here - during the Sunday dinner I completely massacred one of the racks of lamb and of course THAT plate was served to the one person who photographed and posted to Facebook ( I cannot apologize enough to Greg for serving him such an ugly dish) The above photo is from the Thank you dinner I served last night to part of my kitchen staff. I guess it's sort of a redemption photo? Believe me, if you saw the original pic you would understand.

Anyway, the lamb chops were finished with pepper, sliced onions and cilantro.

With the lamb we served some roasted fingerling potatoes spiced with paprika.

We also had the most amazing looking red onion flowers.

These were gorgeous! And delicious. And super easy.

Finally dessert.

What can I say here? Have you ever made Piroulines?

I told everyone to enjoy these because they will most likely never see them in my kitchen again. Holy Hell! An entire day dedicated to rolling these little creatures. They were originally being served with chocolate mousse so I opted to not fill them - thought it might be too much richness. But, my stand mixer seems to be having some issues therefore chocolate mousse did not make an appearance. We had brownies instead.

Served the above brownie tart with raspberry coulis, some fresh berries and a semi-sweet chocolate sauce.

I did actually serve the Piroulines alongside the above. And they got rave reviews. And I sincerely hope everyone enjoyed them and knows where they might find them in their local grocery.

I mentioned above I had a little thank you dinner for part of my kitchen staff.

Here are a couple photos from last night. They totally deserved this. This is an awesome group of friends who tolerate me a great deal.

And the carcass.

I really love the carcass photo - it makes me happy to see people loved the meal.

I even made them the official dessert - sans Piroulines.

Whew!

Now on to the next project right?

I know I say this every time - but I will get many of these recipes posted to share with all of you soon.

Tremendous Thank Yous to all the people who have been attending these dinners. It's sort of frightening and hugely humbling all at the same time. The response to these invitations blows my mind every time I send it out. Thank you.
And my absolute FAVORITE part? Standing in the kitchen and listening to all the chatter and tons of laughter floating in from the dining room. That part is magic.

dinner @Tate's / august 2013

What do you mean school starts in exactly two weeks??? For some reason this realization just hit me and sent me into a slight panic. Needless to say, I am not ready. Not ready to no longer have my little sidekick with me most every minute of every day. Her and her little antics and constant dialogue and dancing and singing around the house are already missed. I'm a somewhat sad mom right now. Yes...I know...all of you are rolling your eyes at me...why am I here? the reason you're here? oh yes...my dinner post...(sniff...sniff...)

The Summer of Seafood has run it's course. For now anyway. Who knows what will show on the menu for September. In addition to testing recipes for all sorts of seafood I've also been dealing with all the produce that has been given to me. An unbelievably fantastic array of pears, peaches, apples, plums, grapefruit, onions, peppers, tomatoes, on and on this has gone. It has been AWESOME. I have canned and pickled. Made jams, jellies and chutneys. Cooked all of it every which way I think my family will eat it. And for this months dinner I wanted to try and incorporate some of the items that have been swallowing up my kitchen and my fridge. Therefore, we started Sunday dinner with a simple Caprese salad.

(I know - that whole list of produce I just mentioned and I threw some tomatoes and cheese on a plate???!!! What kind of kitchen is this? HA)

Next up was a Brie wheel baked in puff pastry with my homemade spiced peach jam - served with wheat crackers (I was trying to add some nutritional value to this appetizer...think it worked?)

This is one of the worst photos ever but you get the idea.

I let this settle with the guests for a bit and just kept the wine flowing (Best Hostess Ever!) Then served this salad of grapefruit, garlic and ginger marinated shrimp on a bed of arugula, radishes and more heirloom tomatoes with toasted panko crumbs. Additional marinade was quickly boiled and served as dressing - Delicious!

This was followed by an entree of mussels cooked with beer, bacon, tomatoes and thyme. Served with a little homemade wheat pasta and pretzel bread toasts.

I also had a bunch of corn and cherry tomatoes from my market visit so I did a quick succotash sort of dish with fresh basil.

Now I REALLY needed to let everyone sit and rest for a minute (and of course kept the wine flowing) I think everyone was pretty full at this point but I had already made dessert soooooo.....buck up little campers.....here's some homemade plum and brandy ice cream with a drizzle of hot fudge sauce and toasted almonds

Followed immediately by these apple handpies served with the same hot fudge sauce on the side - just in case anyone wanted to put themselves completely over the edge.

WHEW! So what should we have for September dinner@Tate's Kitchen? Thoughts? Suggestions? I promise to not let my tears from missing my daughter get into the food.

:-)

cherry and plum bruschetta

One of the appetizers at the last dinner @Tate's Kitchen. Fresh cherries and plums from my morning Farmers Market visit. A loaf of good bread. A little sweetened ricotta. Salt and pepper and extra virgin olive oil. 
Serve it up!

Filling - but light and refreshing all at the same time.

adapted from a recipe in Bon Appetit magazine

YOU WILL NEED:

2 plums - halved, pitted, thinly sliced
1 cup cherries - halved, pitted, sliced if desired
1 tablespoon sugar 
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 of a fresh vanilla bean 
(you can use vanilla extract - but the bean is so much better)
1 cup whole milk ricotta
1 tablespoon lavender honey 
(if you have - if not use a good regular honey)
1 teaspoon (or so) herbs de Provence
fresh mint

a loaf of really good french bread 
(you're not going to use it all for this but who buys a half loaf? not me...)
sea salt
fresh cracked pepper

TO DO:

oven to 350

halve and pit all that stone fruit.
(and if anyone has a magic way to do this with cherries without using some fancy device please let me know)
all fruit into a large bowl.
scrape the vanilla bean and add the scrapings to the fruit. 
add the 1 tablespoon sugar (I actually used a little less - but taste and see what you think) and a pinch of salt.
mix well.
set aside.

in a medium bowl add the ricotta, honey, herbs de provence and a little salt and pepper.
mix well.
taste.
add salt and pepper as needed.
i would now leave this in the refrigerator until you're ready to use.
and By The Way - this can be made a day ahead of time - just wrap and cover well and store.

slice the baguette.
brush with olive oil.
bake until top is golden brown and edges are just getting crispy.
about 10 minutes or so.

let the toast cool for a few minutes then assemble.

toast.
spread some ricotta cheese mixture on top.
gently place some slices of plums and cherries.
drizzle very little extra virgin olive oil across the top.
couple turns of pepper.
sprinkle a bit of freshly chopped mint.

serve immediately.