This past weekend I was in charge of the food for a fundraiser dinner for the Flatlander Fund.  You can read more about the Flatlander Fund on its site, or in recent entries about community kitchens or planning for the dinner on this blog.  After a very short planning period, only advertising on Facebook, Twitter, and a few email lists, we had sold almost all the tickets.

In the days leading up to the event, I was testing or re-testing recipes in any spare moments I could gather.  I had to come up with produce orders, shopping lists, and coordinate with some of the other people who would be cooking with me.  I just prayed that I remembered everything.

Many of the components of the meal were things that I’ve cooked a number of times and was confident about their success.  Some were items that I’d only cooked small portions of, and would have to make adjustments for the scale or the cooking equipment available for the event.  Let me tell you, I lost a lot of sleep over empanadas and flan last week.

Saturday came, and I picked up boxes and boxes of fresh produce from our local vendors.  Much of the quality of the food we ended up serving was a direct result of the ingredients that went into it.  Blue Moon Farm, Moore Family Farm, Nature’s Finest, Kilgus Dairy, Tiny Greens, Prairie Fruits Farm, and that guy I bought the watermelon from (SE corner of the market… anyone know?), all had top-notch products that we used for this meal.  Much of this and the rest of the ingredients (purchased at Common Ground Food Coop) was organic.

Once we started cooking (in the generously donated kitchen space at Prairie Fruits Farm), we in some small way, got a little closer to the leagues of many talented, qualified, professional chefs that have cooked there before us in their Dinners on the Farm series.  None of us really had restaurant cooking experience, but our passion and talents kept us on the right path.  I think we all learned a lot from that experience.

I learned that Crocs really are pretty comfortable to stand in for hours in a kitchen.  I learned that kitchens get damn hot, you can’t hear anything under the exhaust hood, and you can never have enough prep space.  I learned that restaurant stoves can be quite finicky, and sometimes you find that their knobs are missing, or upside-down, or that sometimes you need to find a lighter to evoke a flame.  I learned you can never have enough storage containers for prepped food, and having a prep list goes a long way in keeping you organized.  I learned, not surprisingly, that it can take a long time to prepare that food for 40-60 people.

After the hours of cooking on Saturday, then waking up and cooking more on Sunday, we were just about done.  When the cooking was over, and everything was packed up to go to the Corkscrew, I think we were all excited to get on with the evening.  We unloaded and it seemed like we had almost too much time.  As is my (bad) habit, I neglected to take the time to eat much of anything, but I wasn’t feeling it over the excitement of the event.  I finally got to spend time at a cutting board, slicing open tomatoes for the tomato caviar and cubing watermelon.

I wore a chef’s coat that I got on Amazon.  I almost felt like an impostor, like I was just trying on Dad’s suit coat or something.  But in other ways it felt real, like it would help other people see what I’m trying to show them.  As I was standing behind the Buvons wine bar, slicing tomatoes and cubing watermelon, multiple people came up and remarked at how I looked like I belonged there, like I was so relaxed–and I was.

Then the volunteers came, so many volunteers!  This wonderful group of people who smiled and looked around as though they were just so happy to be helping work at this event.  After running around and trying to make sure we had everything, Alisa (chef at Prairie Fruits Farm) helped me pull them over to have a front-of-house meeting.  I thanked everyone and started going over the menu.  I shared my spark of interest in the food, and they reacted.  At this point, I’m in love with this menu.  In my mind, I couldn’t help but think of the flaws in some of the dishes, but I couldn’t help but express love for this food.  That’s a feeling that I hope I was able to share with the volunteers.

As we were talking, guests started coming in, and we soon needed to start plating the first course.  Once we got into service, the next hours were all a fun ride.  Everybody did such a great job, I couldn’t stop thanking people and marvelling at how my food (and the dishes of my colleagues) was going out, on plates, into a dining room.

It’s been a dream, really, to serve food to people in this kind of environment.  I talked with Dan many times about how I wanted to do a dinner party with plated dishes, but we never got the chance to do it together.  Dan inspired me to believe that I could do something like this, that I just need to go for it.  I’m so glad that I finally did.

As the desserts were eaten and I went to see my brother in the dining room, I saw smiles on people’s faces, and heard the chatter of a few dozen conversations.  I couldn’t help but feel like I had accomplished something.

I didn’t accomplish it alone, though.  So many people were necessary, from Laura, who helped organize the event, to all the people that helped cook (Jason, Kristin, Laurence, Mel, Patrick, Shameem), the volunteers, too many to name them all but they all were so wonderful, and of course all the guests–without whom there would be no event at all.  I thanked them all many times that night, and I mean it.

There will be future events… maybe bigger, maybe smaller.  I’ll probably cook, but someone else will probably take the reins.  There are a lot of talented people who are passionate about food in this town.  I love that I’m able to be a part of it.

All the pictures in this post are from Justine Bursoni, one of the guests.  She has a whole collection of photos from the evening, and I highly recommend you go browse through them.  Click through to see an even bigger collection on her Zenfolio.

Image from Flatlander Fund

I’m really excited about this event, in part because I’m in charge of the food!  In collaboration with the Dine in My Back Yard group (which Dan helped to start), we’ll be preparing a number of delicious Spanish & Latina dishes from fresh, local ingredients.  I hope this is a gateway to more tasty events held not only to raise money for a good cause (in this case, the Flatlander Fund), but to offer great food from the best ingredients.

Here are all the details on the upcoming event.

On Sunday, August 29 from 6-9PM the Corkscrew Wine Emporium will host a fundraising dinner in their new Buvons Wine Bar to support Dan Schreiber’s dream of a community kitchen for Champaign-Urbana. The event will feature a 3-course gourmet dinner with wine pairing. Tickets are $100/person and seating is limited. For reservations, contact Laura at 217-778-1687 or donate@flatlanderfund.org. Dinner payments can be made online here (put “dinner” in the memo line, please) or by mailing a check to Prairie Table/Flatlander Fund, 201 W. Green, Urbana, IL 61801. Click here for more details, the menu, and to read more about the Flatlander Fund.

I like our local University meat salesroom.  You may have read about them on ChambanaMoms, where I was quoted lamenting letting the reader in on the UI meat salesroom because “you’ll all grab the good stuff before I get there.”  It’s true, this place has gotten very popular–for good reason!

The boss, Chuck, usually sends out the “meat mail” every Tuesday and Thursday to let everyone know what they have and what’s new.  Today he mentioned that they made some fresh chorizo.  If you know me, you know I love Mexican food, so I had to run down and try it.  Good thing I did, because there wasn’t much left (I forgot to ask if they had more in the back).

As you can see, it’s not the typical red chorizo that you’ll find vacuum-packed in the grocery store, nor is it the bland, over-salted store-brand crap.  This is a slightly different style, using fresh jalapeños and cilantro.  I took a link, removed the casing, and browned it up in a pan.  Once it was pretty much cooked, I tasted it.  It had a great fresh taste, and the cilantro really came through.  It’s not spicy-hot, but it’s miles ahead of any grocery store chorizo you could buy.  For chorizo, it’s quite lean, but it’s tender and not too finely ground.  Chuck knows how to make some good sausages.

It was good, but I realized what I really wanted a more paprika-laden chorizo, so after I tossed in a quarter of an onion, diced, I added some hot smoked paprika and some regular sweet paprika.  After the onions were cooked and the chorizo well-browned, I added two beaten eggs.  Heat up a few tortillas, sprinkle with a little cheese, and that was dinner.  I spooned it straight from the pan onto warm tortillas with a little salsa on top to add a bright kick to my tastebuds.

You may have noticed that I recently joined the FoodBuzz Featured Publishers program.  One thing I get out of it is a chance for a little extra exposure, but since joining, I’ve heard about various opportunities to write special posts for various causes.  These “Top 9 Takeovers” are events where Foodbuzz asks all their Featured Publishers to post on a theme.  Then, for one day only, all the Top 9 posts reflect the theme.  This time around, it’s banana splits!

Electrolux and Kelly Ripa are partnering with Foodbuzz to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF).  According to the OCRF, ovarian cancer is the 5th leading cause of cancer death among women in the US.  Because symptoms are rarely matched with ovarian cancer, most women (81%) aren’t diagnosed before the cancer has spread.  The OCRF’s mission is to fund research to better detect and ultimately find a cure for ovarian cancer.  When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

Just for writing this post, they’ll donate another $50 to the Fund.  If you want to help out, visit Kelly Confidential and build your own banana split.  For each one you do (up to one per day), they’ll donate another $1 to the OCRF.

I’m not always a dessert guy, but this opportunity piqued my interest.  I wanted to create a banana split that was a little different from what you’d get at your corner ice cream shop.  I thought about the tropics, and I thought about Elvis.  I thought about bananas foster and pad thai.  It’s not traditional, but it was tasty.

I started with the defining element: a split banana.  Some small scoops of vanilla ice cream went on top, then I drizzled the whole thing with a brown butter caramel sauce, made super simply by browning some butter, adding in brown sugar, then a little cream to smooth it out.  The wackiest element is the dry peanut butter.  I made this fluffy powder by combining some creamy, natural peanut butter with tapioca maltodextrin (TMD is available on Amazon).  It’s pretty cool stuff, when you put the ultra-light peanut butter powder in your mouth it instantly dissolves into that sticky, peanut buttery taste and texture.  Then, feeling a little inspiration from pad thai, I grated some lime zest over the whole thing.  The color is great, but the citrus flavor also brightens up and enlivens the dish.

I only had two bananas, so I made one for me and one for my wife.  I think if I did it all again I’d add even more lime zest… or maybe squeeze some lime juice over the top.

Some facts and statistics taken from the OCRF page.  I have not and will not receive any monetary payment from FoodBuzz as a direct result of this post, but I do have a chance to be featured in the Top 9 on Monday, July 19th.

A few weeks ago, while shopping at the Coop, I came across a vegetable I hadn’t prepared before–fresh fava beans.  I’ve heard much praise for their buttery texture and nutty flavor, but I’ve only had dried favas which don’t have quite the same appeal.  Fresh favas are a Spring delight, so get them if/when you can.

The biggest problem with fresh favas is the labor required to get at the beans.  Start with a big pile of the fresh pods, then extract the beans by hand by unzipping the big fuzzy pods.  You’ll get a disappointingly small pile of waxy bean-shaped things.

Next that waxy coating has to come off, but it’s not easy either.  You need to blanch them for a few minutes to soften the coating, then dig your fingernail in and pop out the beans.  One by one, the dark green favas pile up.

The now depressingly-small number of beans you have could be eaten as-is, or they could be tossed into a salad or sauteed with some bacon.  But just look at these things, they’re kinda creepy looking, right?