Eat Drink and BE Merry! Feeding 14 in style...

I wish i had pictures to prove this but...

On Saturday night we hosted a great dinner party for some very important guests. Team CarewCostello pulled off another excellent collaboration. And the food was a hit!

Here's what we served:

1. Vegetarian Borcht (shiitake, beet and veggie broth; sea salt, beets, shallots and apple cider vinegar) and Caraway Rye with goat's butter

2. Organic Jasmine Tea

3. Mirin tossed glass noodles with ginger and green onion, (mirin is toasted sesame oil, sugar and tamari/ soysauce)

Pan fried sage-breaded Alaska Pollock chunks,

Kimchi and hot Korean honey pepper paste,

Black Rice tossed with sundried tomato ribbons

4. Baked curry dusted Chicken Drumsticks from Rowe Family farms (hormone free, natural feed),

Organic carrot and celery sticks, umeboshi vinegar doused bean sprouts,

and herbed sheep's cream cheese dip

5. Baked Bean Poutine-pintos slow cooked with katsup, oregano, savory, cheese curds and diced onions

6. Excellent tofu & veggie Quinoa by Vanessa Kathleen

7. Cheese plate with cranberry foccacia (thanks mom)

8. Gooseberry cheesecake-see the how to at the end here.

Assorted pastries (thank Liana!)

Stovetop percolated organic coffee with cream.

We will always remember this night as the first dinner party in our home; a true test of our kitchen's capacity, indeed; and the warming feeling that our guests, for whose help we'd be lost without, were well fed, well entertained and well thanked.


***************************************
Here's the Gooseberry Cheesecake recipe:

3 packs phili cream cheese-softened
1 box graham bunnies-crushed
2 tablespoons goat's butter-softened
3 tablespoons organic golden sugar/ cocoa sugar (a new sweetener on the market made from dehydrated coconut water...)
1 cap real vanilla extract
5 scoops of gooseberry (preserved in syrup; use a slotted spoon)
1/4 cup milk (?)
3 eggs
dash sea salt

1. I softened the cream cheese on the stove top and in a macguivered double boiler. Same with the butter

2. I crushed the cookie in a big bowl with my wooden pestle

3. I stirred in the butter, some sugar, sea salt and vanilla

4. pressed the cookie onto a greased glass cake pan

5. beat the cheese smooth with a thin spatula and broke eggs in one at a time. added milk, sugar,

6. spooned out the cheese mixture onto the cookie crust. (it pretty much almost overflowed; need bigger pan for future reference)

7. Smoothed the surface and spooned the gooseberries from the middle radiating outward. they were mainly concentrated in the middle.

8. Baked it for 55 minutes aprox at 350 degrees

9. cooled it for 15 minutes in the freezer, then transfered it to the fridge.

notes: the outer edges almost burned before it seemed to be set enough. And there was a browned outer ring that looked slightly unpretty but was still very edible. I think this may have been due to the use of the coconut sugar.

Still, every one liked it.
and so did I :)

Shout outs to the dishwashing crew, may they always be present in some form for every dinner party: Sophia, Dad, Liana, Mom....and others who I did not notice as I flitted around attending to the party.