I tried a slightly different kind of event this afternoon at School Woods – sort of a tea, an afternoon buffet of desserts and snacks. I thought the food was really nice. Only a small group of diners showed up to enjoy it, though – must be the weather, or who knows what. It’s snowing for what feels like the 40th time in March.
For desserts, there were baby cheesecakes with cherries on top. I tried a new brownie recipe with lime and sea salt that was amazing – I overbought on UN-sweetened chocolate at cookie season, and was looking for ways to use it up – and found this recipe. It has 2 oz. of unsweetened in it, anyways, and 4 of bittersweet, and cocoa, and more sugar than my usual brownie recipe, and of course the lime and sea salt. Really good. I also made this Nigella polenta-almond gluten free cake – topped it with blackberries because they were only $1.99/half pint at the store – and I think blackberries are good with cornmeal.
For savories, I put my new mandoline to work, and made a roasted vegetable and shaved fennel salad – roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes, the fennel, and flat leaf parsley. I also made the Ovens of Brittany wild rice salad – which of course is best in the spring when you can get fresh snap peas – but pretty darn good any time. I also made tea sandwiches – olive walnut (except I used pecans) on rye – another Ovens thing – and cucumber on white. I was going to make curried chicken sandwiches, too – but there just weren’t enough people – so I put the chicken salad out in a bowl. There was a platter of cheeses, with various condiments, like pickled beets and peppadews. I also bought some gluten free fruit crackers – that were heavenly with the Gorgonzola, even if I did spend a stupid amount of money to get them delivered from Seattle.
