Monthly Archives: November 2009

Fall Harvest Party 2009 = Success!

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Whew I am EXHAUSTED after this weekend! But all the hard work was well worth it — I had a great time hanging out with friends and enjoying some delicious Fall-inspired food. Missy and I were most nervous about the 2 meat dishes since we had never tried the recipes before, but I’m happy to report they were a smashing success. Not surprisingly, Missy and I went all Top Chef competitive on each other — once the guests arrived we were trying to sway them to our own dish :P

Anyway, enough babbling, here are some photos of the dishes. Note: I am by no means a food photog so you’ll have to excuse the amateur quality of the photos. I did, however, do my best not to make these look like the dreaded “all-food-pictures-look-like-vomit” shot. :)

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Fig and port sauce (for the roasted pork) reducing on the stovetop

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The finished roasted pork dish

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Filet of beef w/ gorgonzola sauce

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Crudite platter with assorted hummus dips

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Baked brief (stuffed with sauteed apples)

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Individual Pumpkin Delight Desserts

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Preview: Annual Fall Harvest Party

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Instead of a Fave Recipe Friday entry this week, I’m going to do a quick sneak peek of the dinner party I’m co-hosting with my friend this Saturday.

Fall is without a doubt my most favorite time of the year. For one thing, I was born in the fall, but I also love how the leaves change colors and the weather turns a bit cooler. Even more, I love all the great flavors and ingredients that define the season – pumpkin, butternut squash, apples, figs, just to name a few.

Since my friend also happens to love fall, we started a tradition a few years ago where we host a group of friends for a fall-themed dinner party. Being the wannabe chefs-slash-event planners that we are, we always go all out for these parties. Below is our menu for this year’s gathering – stay tuned for a recap and more photos next week:

Starters

  • Baked brie with sautéed apples (Missy’s AMAZING recipe…I will share in next week’s Fave Recipe Friday entry)
  • Butternut squash soup
  • Crudité platter with assorted hummus
  • Salad greens with feta and lemon-dill vinaigrette

Main dishes

Desserts

Beverages

And finally, our guests will get a home-made caramel apple as a party favor:

caramel apples

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Foodportunity Recap

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As I mentioned in my previous post, I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd Foodportunity networking event led by Seattle-area food blogger Keren Brown (aka the Frantic Foodie) and hosted at Tom Douglas’ Palace Ballroom. It goes without saying that an evening full of great food/wine among other foodies and local culinary experts is absolute bliss, and this event was no exception!

The evening kicked off with a panel discussion with Ethan Stowell, Kurt Dammeier, Tamara Murphy and moderator Mina Williams of NorthWest Stir. They provided some interesting tidbits about the food world and offered some good advice on getting your foot through the door.

As Missy and I were perusing the booths and trying all the delicious food, we ran into Robin Leventhal from Top Chef – small world, huh?!

Here are some pictures from the evening — I broke my camera midway through the night from all the excitement so most of the pictures didn’t turn out, including the one of me and Tom Douglas (dammit!).

Anita's frog legs

I tried my very first frog leg from Anita’s Crepes

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One of my favorite nibbles of the night: Sweet corn potstickers from Huiyona

IMG_2086The decadent desserts from Alaska Silk Pie Company

IMG_2071I tried THE BEST cupcake of my life – the red velvet from Wink Cupcakes

IMG_2076Me – full and satisfied :)

We ended the night at Lola (another of Tom Douglas’ restaurants) to take advantage of the 10% off coupon we received at the event — it was only good for that night and we didn’t have the heart to let it go to waste!

Great food + great company = networking success! I look forward to the next Foodportunity event!

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So much to say with so little time

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I’ve been crazy busy this week at work and also planning the Fall dinner party that my best friend and I host every year… so this post is really just a teaser for the more in-depth and thought-provoking posts that will be coming in the next few days.  I definitely want to recap the exciting Foodportunity networking event I attended last night at the Palace Ballroom (thank you to Frantic Foodie for coordinating!). I’ll also share the menu of Fall-inspired dishes we’ll be serving at our party this weekend.

Talk to you all in a bit!

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