Dear Tami

Just a little note to my dear friend Tami.

Hey girl,
Garden party was a-ma-zinnggg.
This is the only picture I have of my table.
Ya, remnants of a yummy appetizer course if I do say so myself.
Will you share your photos?
Cuz I got nothin'...

Love,
S~

My Favorite Evening

I'm exhausted...but it was all worth it.
Last night was one of my favorite evenings of the whole year, it was our annual progressive dinner / garden party.
When I get overwhelmed with how much time and energy my yard and garden take...it's all worth it when I can go out with a clippers and a bucket of water and pull together an arrangement for a party. Yesterday I grabbed a couple of slips of scrap paper leftover from making my menus for the party...and ta daaa...the arrangement came together in no time flat - there is just so much to "pick from" here at the farm.
The really great part was that the arrangement perfectly picked up the colors of the drinks I served, sangria with slices of orange and lemons.
The funny thing is I was trying to pull out the colors of the menu and table settings, such a happy coincidence that I ended up with a drinkie matchy matchy, wish I could say I planned it that way ;)

Here is a little peek at the menus from each home...oh goodness gracious it was all so good - there are no words.

The menu for main course here at the farm.


Tami's menu for the appetizer course.


and Karen's menu for the dessert course.

I'm going to try to post recipes later on this week, Tami made a special request for a couple of them and I'm happy to share.

Good food, good friends...good times.

Mango Chutney...by request!

Quilly left a comment requesting my recipe for Mango Chutney. Hey Quilly...I thought I was supposed to come to your house to make it! Hey folks, Quilly lives in Hawaii! I think I really need to go there....all the chopping and simmering, doncha need some help Quill?

I made this for our annual progressive dinner / garden party last month. The inspiration came from a cookbook my mom gave me, Sam Choy's Cuisine Hawaii. Mom had the book for more than twenty years, she loaned it to me thinking I might want to try some of the recipes...well, of course I do!

The recipe that caught my eye was for Baked Brie with Macadamia Nuts...oh yum. The brie was coated in finely chopped macadamia nuts and panko. I served the warm brie on a bed of baby greens drizzled with a Papaya Seed Dressing, a dollop of the Mango Chutney topped the brie. It was wicked good if I do say so myself.

The recipe for the Mango Chutney came from simply recipeshttp://simplyrecipes.com

MANGO CHUTNEY
2 cups sugar
1 cup distilled white vinegar
6 cups mangoes (4 to 5), peeled and cut in 3/4 -inch pieces, I mixed it up and used some honey mangoes....I also chopped them a bit smaller than recommended
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon mustard seeds, whole
1/4 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes (hot), this kinda scared me because I don't care for really spicy food but it wasn't an issue at all

1. Combine sugar and vinegar in a 6 quart pot; bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.
2. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, uncovered, until syrupy and slightly thickened, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir occasionally during cooking.
3. Pour into clean, hot jars leaving 1/2-inch headspace; close jars. Process in a water bath 15 minutes.
Makes 6 (1/2 pint) jars.

* I didn't put it into the jars, I kept it in the fridge and used it on grilled chicken, fish, pork....you name it! I even used it in a wrap with cold grilled chicken, red bell pepper, lettuce and havarti cheese - that was dang good!

Summer Slushy

Okay, so I'm abandoning the good ship Black and moving on to Garden Party recap...I've had requests for recipes so I gotta feed my peeps!
The photo captures a bit of my table setting and of course front and center is the cocktail I chose to accompany my appetizer menu. Oh yeah, we liked it...a lot - a whole lot.

Here ya go folks.
I made the peach mixture the day before and put it in the freezer, if I did it over again I would do it more than one day ahead. You were supposed to be able to make round scoops of this stuff, sorta like ice cream but the sugar and liquor content made it too slushy to scoop.

Peach Bellini Slushy
1 16 oz. bag frozen peaches - thawed
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 cup orange juice
1 cup Proseco
Chambord for drizzling

Heat the sugar and water until the sugar melts, let cool. Put the peaches in a blender on low-med, add cooled sugar water, orange juice...then slowly add 1 cup Proseco. I put this mixture into the freezer in a tupperware container.
When you're ready to serve put a big scoop of the peach mixture into a pretty wine glass (about 1/3 full) drizzle with about 1 teaspoon of Chambord then add some very cold Proseco to the glass and stir. The mixture will fizz so fill the glass slowly. I garnished the glasses with little key lime and kumquat slices, very unusual and pretty dang cute.

So, I've tried these with Champagne, they taste a whole lot better if you use the recommended Proseco - those Italians know what they're doing I tell ya. I've made the original Bellini recipe and even ordered it at Harry's Bar in Venice. This slushy version is a fun twist that I'm quite fond of. I had something similar at The Boathouse Restaurant in White Rock, B.C. and I've been wanting to re-create that recipe ever since, they have them in a giant slushy machine - I need one of those things for the Party Barn!
Tell me what ya think Mar!

Project Black, Take Three

I'm a day behind on my posts for PB, last night was the 7th annual progressive dinner/ garden party that we do with friends. It's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun.
Imagine my delight when I walked up to my friend Tami's patio and her table setting was all in black and white! Yippie! It was so incredibly beautiful I could hardly stand it.

This morning I got out my camera and loaded my pictures onto my trusty little laptop, excited to blog about the event and thrilled I had a photo from the evening that would work for Project Black. When I went to sign on to the internet I got nothin' except an error screen. Ohhh nooooo!
I was flipping out, thought for sure I had some kind of virus. It was then that I realized that I'm a serious blog-a-holic. I went to the other computer (no pictures on that one) and I could get onto the internet, my suspicions were confirmed - the problem was with my sweet little laptop computer.

After hours of trying to figure out what was wrong I found the answer. My computer has been attacked by the dreaded BLACK DEVIL DOG VIRUS - BEWARE.

Here's what to look for when you suspect that BLACK DEVIL DOG VIRUS has attacked your computer or anything that may be connected to your device.

My table for last night is still set up in the back yard, I think I need to go attack those leftovers. See that bottle? I think it has my name on it.

If you'd like to see more photos of the garden party I'll be posting all about it soon. My friend and fellow blogger/garden partier Tami blogged about it today too, she's posted some great pictures - I know she would love it if you stopped by.