Donation Brunch!

Our first Donation Brunch went off without a hitch. We were able to raise $360 for the Jayna Troxel Murray Foundation. We again want to thank all of our great friends for participating in our donation meals. We are going to try and have one more in December. The current plan is an open house with cocktails and appetizers...lots of appetizers. We will keep you all posted.

Now for photos from the brunch!

August Donation Dinner Wrap Up

First off, thanks to our neighbor James for the (VASTLY) improved photos from this dinner. Turns out that camera phones are not actually that good.

Second, thanks to everyone who attended the Wild West Donation Dinner! We raised $270 for Books for Africa, and ate some bison and/or wild boar in the process. There was some debate over how to pronounce boar...but it tasted the same either way.

Third, this was our biggest dinner yet! 17 humans (large and small), and two ill-behaved pups. We had to move the table outdoors again to accommodate all the people. Luckily the warm, sunny, breezy weather held out for us.

The Wild West menu kept us busy right up until dinnertime, without much help from the pups. Hopefully, everyone enjoyed the meal.

During the toasts, Nate and Heather asked Brian to officiate their wedding - which was incredibly touching (and a huge mistake on their part). We will seriously miss those two, who have been at every Donation Dinner thus far. Here is the toast and the whole group - thanks again to James! 

If anyone wants to look up James for some photography needs, he is a super cool dude, decent volleyball player and great neighbor. His website is: www.jtonphotography.com 

Wild West Recipes

We'll post pics from last night's dinner soon...in the interim, here are a couple of recipes from the Wild West menu. Both are adapted from Jamie's America, a Jamie Oliver cookbook. The watermelon salad is from his visit to a Navajo reservation in Arizona, and the baked beans are from his time on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. Both are far west of here!

Watermelon Salad: Serves 4

In a frying pan on medium heat, add a large handful of pumpkin seeds and a large handful of sunflower seeds with a little olive oil, a good pinch each of salt, pepper and chili powder. Toss and fry for a few minutes. Take pan off heat to cool when seeds are lightly colored and toasted. 

Chop the flesh of 1/2 small watermelon into chunks. Thinly slice 3 spring onions. Toss watermelon, a large handful of mint leaves, spring onions and cooled seeds. Squeeze over juice of 2 limes, drizzle over a "good lug" of olive oil. 

Serve with crumbled hard goat's cheese, or chunks of hard goat's cheese to sprinkle over top.

Baked Beans: Serves 8
Preheat oven to 350F. Cover 3 dried chilies with stalks removed, ancho or chipotle, with boiling water to rehydrate them - about 1 1/4 cup. Put a few lugs of olive oil in a casserole dish (or pot) on medium heat. Add 4 red or white sliced onions and 1 heaped teaspoon of smoked paprika and fry for 10 to 15 minutes, until soft and colored. Add a 2 tablespoons of butter to the pan of onions, once it's melted add 6 cans (400g each) of pinto or cannellini beans to the pan along with their juices. Add 2 cans (400g each) of chopped tomatoes,3 dried bay leaves, and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Remove the chilies from the water, thinly slice them, and add them to the pan with the chili water.

Stir the pot! And bring to a simmer. Once simmering, turn the heat to low and cook slowly (just bubbling) for 1 1/2 hours. Add a little swig of white wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons molasses. Taste and add salt/pepper as needed. (Can stop at this point and put in the fridge until ready for the final step - in which case, don't bother preheating the oven!)

Put 8 rashers of FAKE bacon, 2 sprigs of rosemary leaves (not the stems), a large handful of grated parmesan, and 125g of breadcrumbs into a food processor. Pulse until you have a "fine crumb". Sprinkle this over the beans (in a casserole or baking dish) and put into the oven for 40 minutes to an hour, until the top is golden. 

One For The Animals!

Our latest donation dinner was for the Alexandria Animal Welfare League! We had such a great time that we forgot to take photos of the finished food! Overall we raised $240 for the animals. Our next dinner is August 30th and it will be Wild West BBQ.

The Biggest Dinner Yet!

Our fourth donation dinner is now in the books and it set multiple records: most participants, most money raised, and longest menu! We had 14 people and 3 dogs at the dinner and their donations raised $370 for Bike the US for MS (well the dogs didn't donate, but they entertained when needed). A big thank you to everyone who came and contributed! Special thanks to our three amazing friends, Heather, Jill and Elga, who donated even though they couldn't make the dinner. You all make us feel warm and fuzzy about the generous, kind, funny and engaging people we call friends. Speaking of which, our friend Amanda is biking a leg of the trip so all donations went to her ride (visit her site here to read her blog about the dinner).

Now for the good stuff...cooking and eating! And some drinking too. It was a long day that started with Emily making the spanikopita. Lots of filo and LOTS of butter.

We pulled the dinner table outside to accommodate all diners, and luckily the weather was gorgeous. Breezy, warm and no rain. Completely unrelated the irises were in bloom out front. What LUCK!

The mezze course went quickly, and surprisingly all the veggies vanished. Turns out we have healthy friends. Also turns out that hummus for 16 people really does feed 16 people because we had leftovers. 

When the sun went down,the panna cottas came out for dessert and the lights finally did their job! Amazingly we had so much help cleaning up, we also woke up the next day with only a few (14) wine glasses to wash. 

Thanks again to everyone who came and everyone who donated! If you have photos of the evening, please share them, facebook or email,so we can keep improving our lowly blog.

Menu Preview: Supporting a Friend

Our next donation dinner is going to support our friend Amanda who is doing Bike the US for MS. All donations from this dinner will go to her ride and to support MS research, treatment and those who need additional assistance. Please join us on May 9th!

Here is a preview of the next menu:

Donation Dinner #2 Done

Our second donation dinner was just as much fun as the first! We raised $210 for Feeding America. A big thanks to everyone who showed up.

We will give an update on dinner number 3 when we have the details!