Food Creates Community: October

Fall makes us think of comfort food, friends and family - what better way to celebrate all three (if you have friends that are dear enough to be considered family!) than another Food Creates Community dinner?

Yesterday we enjoyed our community dinner at a new location, on the northeast side of the Metroplex. Our trusty chef, Jordan, and crew had made arrangements with a gracious homeowner to allow a larger group to join in the meal.


Per tradition, we spent the first 30 minutes of our evening out mingling with other guests while enjoying appetizers and beverages. The evening drink was a wonderful warm and spicy (adult-only) cider garnished with grapefruit. During the brief get-to-know-you time, we met a stockbroker, a reporter, several teachers, a concierge for an upscale Dallas boutique hotel, a Constitutional law researcher and a church administrator.


At the table, the Wheelers sat across from the Hayleys.

So, of course, the Hayleys sat across from the Wheelers.

The Meal

For an amuse bouche, we were served cabbage steamed in ZiegenBock and deer venison, garnished with radish and persimmon mustard.

The opening course was a very light fennel soup, garnished with sweetened hazelnuts and a cranberry glaze.

The next course featured butternut squash risotto with fresh wilted sage.

The main course was a grass-finished beef roast, drizzled with a demiglaze made from the roast's drippings. The roast was served atop a sweet potato and turnip puree, accompanied by lightly braised brussel sprouts.

Friends, every bite was delicious. And I'm ashamed to admit that we all still had plenty of room for one final course. Good thing, too, as the the dessert was mind-blowingly wonderful!

Pumpkin beignets, dusted with powdered sugar, served alongside homemade maple ice cream with sea-salt caramel syrup. In a word: YUM.

In case I wasn't clear: YUM!!! (Good food brings out my shameless side!)

Honestly, I'm not certain what I love more about the Food Creates Community meals - the food, the opportunity to spend time with friends or the varied conversations.

At the cooking class I took at Lake Como, we used an aged

balsamic that only required 3 drops...

In the 20 years I've been teaching, I would say the students are

pretty much the same. The parents, however, have

changed dramatically.

I was a little late to the profession, but I'm

enjoying what I do now.

The designer hired a model and dressed her like a goat-woman.

I wanted to say: What does this have to do with Valentine's Day?

I love it!

Even better, just as we were about to leave, a woman came up to us and said:

I wanted to say hello before you left!

I wondered if we would see any of the other

regulars here, since it's in a different location.

It made me think that there's something wonderful about being a "regular." This is the type of community that I want to be part of; one that is strange and familiar each time we're together.

We're enough of a community that we've invited Chef Jordan and his wife to the Hayley Open House Party. (And they're coming!)

The Vestals Foods team

(Chef Jordan in the center)