foodie feast

I may not be blogging on a regular basis these days, but I do try to post to Instagram. Last week’s posts seemed to include a lot of food. Specifically, ice cream. This past Saturday night was the annual Foodie Feast event that supports the girls’ school. It’s a really fun night of wine tasting and eating and socializing, and somehow M and I got included in the hosting group a few years back. It’s loads of fun to pretend like we have any clue how to cook and serve six+ courses to forty+ people – we really just plate and serve and stuff our faces between courses.

We were in charge of the dessert course, and this year I was asked to do an ice cream desert that would pair goat cheese and roasted cherries and Kakao dark chocolate. I decided to make an ice cream terrine (seven of them, actually) and although I didn’t get a single shot of them once they were plated, this is the photo from my well-loved, well-used cookbook.

image from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams cookbook

The dinner menu for the evening was incredible, and the whole event was a lot of fun.

Nosh: Featuring local produce, cheeses and charcuterie
Robller Vineyard Villa Rouge and Traminette Wines

Roasted Beet and Shaved Fennel Salad with Fig Vinaigrette
Robller Vineyard Dry Vignoles

Chicken Saltimbocca with Fresh Harvest Succotash / Fried Green Tomatoes over Creamed Corn (vegetarian)
Robller Vineyard Seyval

Roasted Pork Loin with Dried Cherries served over Mushroom Bread Pudding / Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash (vegetarian)
Robller Vineyard Chambourcin

Beef Napoleon: Potato Pancake stacked with Grilled Beef, Sauteed Mushrooms and Spinach / Midwest Pasta’s Mushroom Ravioli (vegetarian)
Robller Vineyard Le Trompier Noir

Kakao Dark Chocolate and Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Tart Cherries
Robller Vineyard Norton

No matter how busy things get around here, I rarely say ‘no’ to an evening of good food and good friends. I was thinking about this past weekend while I was running after work today. It’s pretty easy to lament the amount of hours these days that I’ve assigned to challenging and sometimes daunting tasks. But there are also so many hours of these days that I wouldn’t trade for anything, even a little more sleep. Listening to the little one read (!) one of her books to me, running up Art Hill in this glorious fall air and watching the sun dip behind the museum, slicing up layers of rich ice cream to serve to a room full of friends – all of it is so, so good.