Event #19: We Run the School
Menu
February 16, 2020
Appetizers
Everything Bagel Pull-Apart Bread
Hawaiian Pineapple Meatballs
Course One
Silky Chestnut Soup
Course Two
Fennel, Apple, and Arugula Salad
Course Three
Pea, Asparagus, and Feta Cheese Tart
Course Four
Garlic and Herb Roasted Pork with Crackling, Mango Chutney, and Butter Rice
Course Five
Clementine Cake with Honey Ice Cream
Beverages
Bee’s Knees Cocktail
Cabernet Sauvignon
Sauvignon Blanc
This is an AJRB we had talked about for a long long time. Not the menu, per se, but the guest list. And the guest list had evolved a bit since we first discussed it - back when we had John's classmates over for an AJRB - but we were finally doing it, we were inviting over my work friends!
As you can imagine, AJRB permeates every part of John and my lives. We not only invite our friends and family, we use these events as a time to bring people together. We use our cooking and baking talents to do that in other ways too. John likes to bring in ice cream to work after a big meeting, I bring in cakes for people's birthdays at work. I've even been asked to make an engagement cake before (I was beyond ecstatic to make it). AJRB even made it into our wedding vows.
Food, its preparation, and its shared consumption are such a part of us that people around us were bound to notice and take an interest so we were excited to open up our home to my work friends, most of whom had met John while was a student while I worked there.
Some of the stars of the evening were the things we started with - the appetizers and the drinks! Appetizers included an Everything Pull Apart Bread and Hawaiian Pineapple Meatballs (I really pushed for these ones to get on the menu, and I'm glad I did) and the drink was a favorite of any of the ones we've made so far - Bee's Knees. It went from the high of the apps to the most...interesting course of the meal.
Course One was a Silky Chestnut Soup and John had warned me it was a lot of work, but I was dumb and had forgotten what it was like to work with chestnuts. So we used them again, and I very quickly remembered. We also realized after we roasted them what we should have done instead, so there's that. And after doing all this prep, the soup didn't turn out as silky as promised so I was really disappointed but I think we had prefaced it properly to our guests because they were all happy (or at least, kind) with it. Admittedly, we also served smaller portions, because we were unsure of how people would react to it, so I think we set expectations properly on that one.
Course Two was an easy home run though - a Fennel, Apple, and Arugula Salad. It was light and refreshing, and led us into our next, kinda weird course. We did a Pea, Asparagus, Feta Cheese tart topped with these beautiful poached eggs but it was supposed to be served at room temperature? So I think that was the only weird thing, to be honest. The flavors were all really good but it was the temperature that threw it off slightly. Luckily, Course Four (as usual) was a total crowd pleaser).
Course Four was John's Garlic and Herb Roasted Pork with Crackling, Mango Chutney, and Butter Rice. It was the second rendition of Mango Chutney, as the first one, well, burnt a little but it meant we got to really perfect it - and wow, this was really a perfect dish. We barely had any left of it afterwards. And Course Five, my showstopper, was a Clementine Cake with Spiced Honey Ice Cream. It was also the second rendition of the Clementine Cake because I didn't know you were supposed to leave the peels on the clementines the first time I tried making it...but I also learned and made it better the second time. It was also my first ever gluten-free cake! It paired it perfectly with the Spiced Honey Ice Cream.
What I was really proud of that evening was the flow of the menu - even though all the dishes weren't 100% properly executed - we didn't struggle with a Course Three like we normally did. It felt light and happy and very Californian, which is exactly the vibe we set out to create when crafting the menu.