Events/Promotions – Page 3

Invitation – Bisexuals in the Kitchen – Memorial Day edition (5/29)

This is a BiUnity event, but anyone is welcome to attend. Just drop me an email at NoCounterspace at gmail for more information.

BiUnity is a Philadelphia community organization.
The goal is to provide a community outlet for bisexuals, and we welcome anyone who would consider themselves an ally.

Because of the size of the apartment, attendance is limited to no more than 10 people. Minimum number of RSVPs for event to occur is 3.

Saturday, May 29th
10-11am – stroll to Clark Park farmers market to purchase ingredients for the cooking – you are free to join me.

11am-3pm – My house will be open to people who want to hang out and craft, especially if they want to make baubles for Biunity to sell. I can have supplies for that available.

3-8pm – Bisexuals in the Kitchen

This is both a social event and a teaching event. You will have the opportunity to learn how to make a simple summer meal, and you’ll get a chance to help create an improvised recipe for the soup. There are openings for a couple people to help prepping the ingredients for each of these, and feel free to bring your questions. Or – feel free to come just to relax and talk and eat.

tentative proposed menu
soup
spicy corn & lemongrass broth

meat
carnitas (pork)

sides
salsa verde
jalepeno corn salad
quick roasted asparagus

bread
corn tortillas

dessert
depends on what is available at the market

movie – starts at 5:30pm
Velvet Goldmine

Note:Since the meat is entirely separate, I am considering this a vegetarian and celiac friendly event. If you are vegetarian and would like additional food options, let me know when you RSVP, and that won’t be a problem at all. I’m mostly just trying to keep the list simple for people new to cooking and menu preparation

Notes on accessibility:

not wheelchair accessible (stairs at entrance)
very fuzzy cat on premises
no air conditioning

Center City Restaurant Week

From the website:

Enjoy a three-course dinner for $35 and a three-course lunch for $20† at these restaurants, January 17-22 and 24-29, 2010. Those also offering lunch are marked with an *. Most participating Restaurant Week restaurants offer online reservations through OpenTable.com.

And I’m going to limit my choices this year to places with OpenTable because my mother is accumulating points through them.

Here’s my short list:
Bella Cena 1506 Spruce St (has cannelloni! Open until 10 M-Th, 11 on Fri) ETA: 5:30pm Thurs 1/28
Bridget Foy’s 200 South St (lunch looks even better than dinner, open 11am-11pm)
Chifa 707 Chestnut Street (until 10 M-Th, until midnight Fri-Sat)
~~Estia 1405 Locust St (until 10 M-Th, until 11:30 Fri)~~
Joe Pesce 1113 Walnut Street (until 10:30 M-Th, until 11 F)
Meritage 500 South 20th Street (until 10 T-Th, until 11 F)
Noble American Cookery 2025 Sansom St (until 10 T-Th, until 11 F)
Palace at the Ben 834 Chestnut Street (until 10 M-Th, until 11 F)
Square 1682 121 S 17th St (until 10:30 daily)
Time 1315 Sansom Street (M-Sun until 1:30am \o/!)
Valanni 1229 Spruce Street (until 10:30 M-Th, until11 F)
~~Zahav 237 Saint James Pl (until 10 M-Th, until 11 F)~~

I haven’t tried any of these places yet, so they’d all be an adventure for me.

planning a truffle experiment

I’m taking off work tomorrow, and I have vague plans to make truffles all day. I suspect I lack most of the useful knowledge, skills, and tools – but I have about 4 pounds of chocolate, and how bad can that be?

So I’m pondering possible flavor combinations. Let me know what you think.

1) Black Garlic. I got some as a free sample from Marx Foods to review on my blog. So far I’ve made three savory things, and I should make a sweet for comparison. Even the sweet recipe sample on their blog is a truffle – only they just roll the chocolate in a coating of garlic, and that sounds nasty.

So here’s the plan – make garlic butter, add extra salt and maybe some hard cheese. Swirl enough semi-melted chocolate into the butter to make it more like a buttery chocolate center than a center of butter. Make rounds, cool. Dip in dark chocolate

Topping to distinguish them from all others: I’m torn between a quarter of a pecan or some sweet paprika.

2) Earl Grey truffles

She recommends enrobing in a dark milk chocolate, so I’d need to buy more chocolate to make that happen. La la la!

If my skill is up to it, I think I want to decorate these with a drippy swirly, rather than a coating.

3) Masala truffles – I have black cardamom, instead of green. So I think I’ll crush a couple instead of steeping them whole.

Dust with curry powder (and toasted mustard seeds?)

4) vegan coconut truffles

I’d need to buy coconut… and then figure out what to do with the rest of the bag.

5) Almonds – smash some almonds, mix them with the filling

dark coating? milk coating?

dust in cinnamon/confectioners sugar

6) Spicy – center with chipotle, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

milk coating

decoration – If I stud it with a clove, do you think people will know not to eat it? Probably not. Ummm… I could tie it with a strip of cayenne pepper like raffia, but that’s still not tasty. Demerara sugar! And the extra sweet will help moderate the spicy.

7) ginger – I have ginger juice and powdered ginger. Does this also need candied ginger?

decoration – I think powdered ginger on the outside might be too strong, so how about these be the ones rolled in cocoa powder?

to buy:

candy thermometer
good milk chocolate
heavy cream
coconut?
little paper cups

Food on my mind – planning events

First thing I need to organize: bridge this Sunday

I’m taking Saturday off to clean, but it’s supposed to rain. So if I want to get laundry done, it’ll have to be on Friday morning.

Saturday tasks: completely change litterbox, clean bathroom, move chair out of the way and vacuum floor, swipe at dirty spots on kitchen floor, find a space for my exercise clothes that is not on top of the table I use as a buffet for bridge.

remind friends to not mention to my parents: that I have started karate classes, that there are sex offenders living near-ish to my favorite house so far

I’m vaguely flailing in the direction of food to serve for bridge. I am thinking:

sweet potato potato salad, which no one will like, but I want to make anyway
popcorn popped in bacon fat and dressed with cheddar cheese and salt (do you make dipping sauces for popcorn? if so, I’m thinking sour cream with honey and adobo sauce)
maybe a cheese plate
and my mother will bring deviled eggs

Second thing I need to organize: Chocolate Show in NYC – Oct 31

Ticket purchase is through Ticketmaster, so the $28 ticket becomes a $38.20 ticket. It’s $30 at the door, but last time there was an awful line that it was wonderful to be able to mostly skip.

My plan is to get in, eat all the chocolate, take notes, and then abandon anyone else with me to go spend the rest of the weekend with my grandmother. I love you all, but I am behind on my 1 weekend/month plan. I’d like to get to her place no later than 3:30pm.

So who wants to go up from Philadelphia with me? So far I have Merisunshine and Redwizz.

The new location – Metropolitan Pavilion – 125 West 18th Street – New York, NY 10011 – is equidistant between the drop off locations for the Chinatown Bus and the Bolt Bus, it will be slightly easier to navigate to the site from the Bolt Bus.

Possible Bolt Bus times include:

depart PHL	arrive NYC
7:15 AM	9:30 AM
8:00 AM	10:00 AM
9:00 AM	11:00 AM
10:30 AM	12:30 PM
11:00 AM	1:00 PM

ETA: Leaving Philadelphia at 8am!

(And then from the Bolt Bus drop off, walk about 1 block to Penn Station, find the subway entrance for the 1 train, take the train 3 stops south to 18th street & 7th, walk toward 6th – viola!)

All the tickets are around $12 for one way and that day’s $1 fare isn’t until later in the afternoon. So when should we leave?

If anyone’s wondering what the show was like last year, here are my notes from then

Third thing I need to organize: Roman Cooking Workshop – Sunday, October 25th

Apparently, also know as Project Clear Out My Freezer.

I know we’ll be cooking a pork loin. I was very tempted by the cumin, salt, and honey plan of one of the previous workshops. But in the spirit of trying new things, I think I’ll go for the recipe where you brine it with bay leaves.

And then maybe a barley soup recipe that would use up the roast pork leftovers also in my freezer.

And everyone loves a mushroom recipe.

And I’ll look for a couple vegetable recipes.

And maybe brains or organ meats for fun, if I feel like sourcing the innards for it.

Experimental food? Other people experimenting this time.

Philly peeps –

So I have this lovely vacation to Vermont planned (leaving next week!)…

I also have tickets to an exciting local food thing while I’ll be away. September 14th.

Anyone want to buy a ticket to the first Pro Chef-a-Me for $35?

9 courses (with beer, but maybe for an extra charge of $3/glass, or maybe not for the specific pairings. I was confused)

3 professional chefs will be trying to woo your affection to their dishes.

Any takers?

I’ve only got one ticket (but I don’t think it’s quite sold out). Sorry I took so long to post this, but I’d offered it to a couple people first, and I was waiting to hear back from them.