Busy …

Haven’t been blogging much this week (I hate it when bloggers give excuses about why they haven’t been blogging) because I’ve been so busy with the renos at the tattoo shop and also planning for a catering job I did this weekend. I couldn’t blog about the catering job because I didn’t want to ruin the surprise!!

I don’t do a lot of catering gigs – they are a lot of work and I’m lazy. *laugh* Just kidding. Kind of. Actually I don’t do a lot of catering gigs because I’m usually asked to do large events (over 100 people) and it’s kind of a drag (for me) to cook for that many people so I’ve been saying NO a lot lately. Plus I’ve been trying to re-charge my creative batteries by staying out of the kitchen and working on other things.

But a few weeks ago I got a lovely letter from Robyn who told me it was her girlfriend Jenni’s birthday (who’s a big fan of the cookbooks) and she and her friends wanted to hire me to be Jenni’s birthday present and prepare them a birthday dinner for 12.

The letter was so endearing and full of love for her friend Jenni that the more I thought about it … the more I couldn’t say no. Best of all the dinner would be here in Victoria (no traveling), the ingredients would be taken care of by Adam & Daisy (the owners of The Root Cellar and best friends of the birthday girl) and I could bring Gerry to be my helper.  🙂

I especially wanted to bring Gerry w/me because he could be my “buffer/body guard”. You never know what people/strangers are going to be like … and this group could have turned out to be a bunch of weirdos. Luckily they turned out to be AWESOME and we had a whale of a good time.  🙂

I showed up early to prepare the appetizers and then Robyn dressed me up in ribbons and bows and I hid in the dining room waiting for Jenni to arrive. When she knocked on the door I jumped out and Jenni was so shocked to see me she started crying. YAY! I love making people cry with joy!!

After the initial excitement of me being “the present” was over … the girls went downstairs to go get dressed up and I started cooking in the kitchen. To make things easier for myself I did most of my prep at home the day before and in the morning of the party and had everything ready in zip-lock bags and ready to go for when I got there. That way I could walk into the kitchen, throw the ingredients into the pot and start cooking …

The Menu:

• Appetizers:
  -Tapenade w/crusty bread – (pg 63 – La Dolce Vegan)
  -Pesto pinwheel puffs (pg 55 La Dolce Vegan)
  -Stuffed cherry tomatoes with Olivada (pg 58 La Dolce Vegan)
• Soup:
  -Curried Squash Soup – (pg 83 – Garden of Vegan)
• Salad:
  -Raw Kale Salad – new recipe I’m working on
• Main:
  -Linda’s Ginger “chicken” (pg 106 – How It All Vegan 10th ann edition)
• Sides:
  -Quinoa (for chicken)
  -Roasted Asparagus w/added greens (pg 185 – La Dolce Vegan)
• Dessert:
  -Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie (pg 153 – How It All Vegan 10th ann edition)
  -w/Raspberry couli & fresh raspberry as garnish

I doubled or tripled the recipes and there was more than enough for everyone (including Gerry and myself). I wasn’t able to get a lot of good photos as the lighting wasn’t great and I was REALLY busy making sure the food got to the table but I managed to take a few …

Linda’s Ginger “Chicken” from HIAV-X.

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie from HIAV-X

Happy Birthday Jenni!

Me and The Girls!  🙂

It was such a fun night … Love, love and more love was in that room. Jenni, Robyn, Daisy and all their friends were gracious, funny and really fun to hang out with. I was truly honoured to be a part of their intimate family/friends birthday dinner.

And BIG THANKS to The Root Cellar for all the ingredients.

If you Victorian’s haven’t been – The Root Cellar is located at 1286 McKenzie Ave. I’m ashamed to admit that I had never been there before because it’s a bit of a drive from where I live … but the quality of their produce is soooo worth the drive. I can’t wait to go back and shop for myself!! 🙂