24 September 2016 – Etowah Harvest Dinner

There was no Sunday Supper tonight, but did I ever do some cooking for last night's Harvest Dinner to benefit the Upper Etowah River Alliance! The organization's director, Diane Minick, asked me if I would be interested in being the guest chef for a fundraising dinner a few months ago, and I said yes. The UERA does amazing work in our community to protect, clean and promote the Etowah River, so it was a worthwhile contribution. Cooking a five course meal plus appetizers for 30 guests, however, was quite daunting. The event was hosted by Liz Porter in her beautiful kitchen at Buckeye Creek Farm. I really enjoyed working with Liz and Diane, and we had a lot of fun amidst the hard work. 

When I began to think about the menu, I really wanted to try and source as much of the ingredients as possible from local farmers and purveyors. After publishing my blog for nine years, I have made a lot of contacts, and I was thrilled to work with some of my favorite suppliers for the meal. In the end, I was able to get all of the main ingredients from local sources, and their in kind contributions ensured an even more successful evening. My client, Mercier Orchards, generously donated their delicious hard cider for the appetizers and some amazing apple cider doughnuts for the bread pudding. Jeff Dobson supplied his Two Willows Appalachian Artisanal Ham for my appetizer ham biscuits. Whim-Wham Art Farm supplied the greens, tomatoes and ground cherries for a wonderful salad course. Loud Mouth Farm delivered the most amazing elm and oyster mushrooms for an earthy cream of mushroom soup course. For the main course, I stuffed heritage pork tenderloins with sausage, collards, apples and goat cheese and then wrapped them in bacon for a triple pork jackpot. All of the heritage pork products were kindly contributed by Suzy Wright of Mountain Valley Farm in Ellijay. Her Farm Store is off the charts, and the pork and grass fed beef she sells can not be beat. It is worth the drive, but she told me that she will be starting to do weekly deliveries to Canton in October. I am so excited! I also made "gritlenta" to go with the pork from Liz Porter's fresh ground grits and cornmeal. I loved them both, so I combined them to create the gritlenta. For the cheese course, Diane sourced some amazing Mediterranean Feta, Fromage and Chevre from CalyRoad Creamery in Sandy Springs. I combined some of each, along with some chives, black pepper, walnuts and freeze dried strawberries, to form cheese lollipops. To end the evening, I made individual apple cider bread puddings and served them with a bourbon creme anglaise. Believe me, no one complained about dessert.

Liz and Diane worked all evening to make the dinner a success, but I would have been lost without Jeff. He served as my sous chef and expediter, and I only had to go Gordon Ramsey on him a time or two. I could not have survived the evening without his help, and I was honored and touched to have so many friends supporting in the crowd. I spent three nights preparing for the event, and it was nice to have it completed. I really enjoyed the evening, and the dinner went much better than I had ever imagined. Now, however, I am really counting the days until we leave for Dubai and Australia. I am more than ready for a nice long vacation, a grand adventure and some outstanding meals prepared by real chefs.

When you have a chance, please visit etowahriver.org and support their efforts.

19 September 2016

Summer is wrapping up even crazier than it started, but a cool, rainy Sunday reminds us that Fall is on its way. The drenching rain was such a welcome sight, and it inspired a lot of catching up on inside chores, scheduling and organizing for the weeks ahead. The three week countdown to our Australian adventure has begun, but we have a lot to accomplish before the epic journey. Next Saturday, September 24, I am honored to be the guest chef for a fundraising dinner to benefit the Upper Etowah River Alliance. This group does really great work in calling attention to the importance of the Etowah River to our community, and I am happy to support them in any way possible. Next week, thirty guests will gather at Buckeye Creek Farm to taste appetizers and a five course meal prepared from locally sourced ingredients. It's been a lot of fun putting the menu together, and the connections I have made with local farmers and purveyors over the past few years has really paid off. In addition to Liz Porter's outstanding contributions from Buckeye Creek Farm, I am thrilled to work with Mercier Orchards in Blue Ridge, Whim-Wham Art Farm in Canton, Jeff Dobson's Artisinal Appalachian Ham in Knoxville, Loud Mouth Mushroom Farm in Talking Rock, Mountain Valley Grass Fed in Ellijay, CalyRoad Creamery in Sandy Springs, Feather's Edge Vineyards in Ball Ground and other local suppliers. In addition to food items and produce, my awesome client, Mercier Orchards, is also donating a selection of their natural hard ciders to enjoy with the appetizers! Grant Design Collaborative did all of the package design for Mercier's ciders, and it's been a blast working with them. We were amazed to see our packaging for this client featured last week by Russia's largest online design association, so Georgia's products are getting some international recognition.

In preparation for the Etowah Harvest Dinner, I have been experimenting with some of the dishes at One Britt, so tonight's Sunday Supper featured a few of them. I am happy with one of the appetizer creations, pimento cheese cups with cayenne pepper jelly. It is a simple combination but a perfectly balanced bite. Someone may take away my Southern card for admitting this, but I have an aversion to mayonnaise, and my pimento cheese is made without this condiment. However, I think it tastes just as good! For the second course of the Harvest Dinner, I am using some of Loud Mouth Farm's beautiful mushrooms to make a creamy, earthy soup. You can find them at the Canton Farmers Market or featured on the menu at the best local restaurants. They are amazing, and I have now made this soup three times to ensure the right flavors. It was especially satisfying on a rainy Sunday night! For the main course, I am preparing a collard and apple stuffed heritage pork tenderloin from Mountain Valley Farm in Ellijay. Susie Wright has been very generous, and her grass fed beef and heritage pork are the best around. It is worth the drive to Ellijay to shop at her farm store which is open seven days a week, 10 am - 6 pm. For tonights Sunday Supper, however, I substituted turkey tenderloin for the pork, and it was almost as delicious. As a side dish, I made some "gritslenta" from Buckeye Creek Farm's medium grind grits. They are simply the best, and I can't wait to feature them at the dinner. I was going for polenta, but the grind is somewhere closer to grits, so I am calling them gritslenta. I aslo used Buckeye's fresh ground corn meal to prepare some jalapeno cheddar mini cornbread muffins, and they were heavenly. I will serve these in a bread basket along with my salt and pepper "crack" cream biscuits.

I will save the remaining dishes and event details for another blog, but I am hoping for a successful outing. Until then, wish me luck, and if things don't go well, at least I will be hiding out Down Under for a few weeks until my reputation recovers.


The Menu:

- Pimento Cheese Cups with Whim Wham Cayenne Jam

- Cream of Loud Mouth Mushroom Soup

- Collard and Apple Stuffed, Bacon Wrapped Turkey Tenderloin

- Buckeye Creek Farm Gritslenta

- Buckeye Creek Farm Mini Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread Muffins


The Recipe – Cream of Mushroom Soup


Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter

2 pounds sliced fresh mushrooms with 1 pinch salt

1 yellow onion, diced

1 1/2 TBSP all-purpose flour

6 sprigs fresh thyme

2 cloves garlic, peeled

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup water

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 TBSP Sherry or to taste (optional)

1 TBSP red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves for garnish, or to taste


Directions:

Melt butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add mushrooms with 1 pinch salt and cook until they give off their juices. Reduce heat to low and continue to cook, stirring often, until juices evaporate and the mushrooms are golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Mix onion into mushrooms and cook until onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
Stir flour into mushroom mixture and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes to remove flour taste.

Tie thyme sprigs into a small bundle with kitchen string and add to mushroom mixture along with garlic cloves. Pour chicken stock and water into mushroom mixture and bring to a simmer. Cook for around 1 hour.

Remove thyme bundle then transfer soup to a blender in small batches and puree on high speed until smooth and thick. I use an immersion blender to make this job easier! Return soup to pot then stir in cream, sherry (if using) and vinegar. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve in bowls garnished with reserved mushroom slices, a few thyme leaves and a squeeze of lemon if desired.