the feastival of lights

another sunday - another successful supper!

in honor of hannukah, this was a celebration of all foods jewish. i challenged everyone to do their bubbe's proud - even if they weren't sure what 'bubbe' meant. i took on the challenge very with a big, beautiful brisket from florence 5, (one of the best butchers in NYC and lucky for me just one block away.) i braised it the night before, because, like with so many jewish dishes, it's even better after letting it sit overnight.

while it reheated i prepped the apartment

cessie looked on as people arrived with an endless stream of delectable dishes to snack on:

lemony leek cakes (serena), smoked salmon, pickles and herring (lucas), cheeses (max), baguettes and proscuitto (piet and sophia), hummus and pita (melissa) - and to accompany the meal lots of lovely wines and beers, (thank you ceren, joel, will and josiah) and two giant bottles of manishewitz (nick...)

once everyone had arrived it was time to light the candles and sing...

and at last dinner was served!

on the menu: brisket (me), grandma mickey's noodle kugel (allison k), carrot souffle (sara), baked chicken (sharon), challah (candace and josh), "kosher" crab rangoon (kate and jason), a torta, (piet and sophia), homemade many-grains bread (cassidy), and of course no hannukah would be complete without latkes (allison a), and loads of them! accompanied of course with sour cream and apple sauce (nick and laura)

even after all that feasting we were not done! and were onto dessert:

apricot-chocolate rugelach (serena)

toffee-chocolate-almond matozh (candace)

and a fabulous assortments of varsano's chocolates!! (todd)

it was a truly joyous evening, better than i could have hoped for and exactly what the holidays are all about - celebrating with good music, great food, and the best of friends... and cessie!

wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year!

xoxoxo

the fabulous fifties!

round two!

growing up i was thoroughly enchanted by the '50s. i think it had a lot to do knowing that it's when my mom grew up, and i loved "grease" and "happy days" and got into the music and the outfits - for halloween i'd dress up in poodle skirts... a 50s themed party had been in the back of my mind for years and this was the perfect opportunity!

i didn't go for the poodle skirt or even a cocktail dress, felt my best "costume" was a floral apron, went with my very newly died brown hair...

while nick was in the other room watching the Pats kill it!, i whipped up some mini leek and mushroom fritattas - and used the leftover sauteed veggies to make a spread for toast! all about the bite size:


and then i made a tuna salad with white beans and - of course - raisins:

jay and jeanne arrived with oscar in tow! who was 100% the life of the party. they also brought along some killer punch with a homemade sour mix!! and a fruit mold! it don't get much more fifties than that :)




my recently returned to the building neighbor allison DID wear a cocktail dress and pleased everyone thoroughly with her dates stuffed with almonds, wrapped in bacon and broiled. she also felt that a cherry liquor would be right in theme.
serena brought along some friends - jason and kate who lives just down the block!! they brought a few lovely bottles of wine and that led us right into dinner time:


owen and sharon brought an incredible souffle, nick finally got to cooking and did us all proud with some truly tasty pork with a special secret sauce and also fried up some chicken. heck to the yeah! james' bottle of aperol went amazingly well with it all...

everyone chatted away as chuck berry, elvis presley, leslie gore, the platters, jerry lee lewis and so many more classics blasted away on the juke box!!

and then it was just about time for dessert.
i made my mom's FAVORITE dessert growing up - ice cream pie! as allison said, all my favorite words together... this entails mashing up corn flakes (i used organic multi-grain flax flakes) with melted chocolate, forming this into the shape of a pie pan and freezing it to form the crust. then filling with vanilla ice cream (i used alden's, from OR, in-SANE ly delicious) and topping with some chocolate shavings.
went fabulously with julia and igor's apple graham betty and serena's coconut bars!


golly gee it sure was a swell time!!

halloween harvest

the first supper!!

i had been spending many days a week at the farmers markets and quite aware that harvest season was in full force and felt it should be taken advantage of in it's final weeks. and so that's how i decided upon the theme for the first supper. plus it was just about halloween and i quite like alliteration...

i was absolutely blown away by the overwhelming enthusiasm and support i received from my wonderful friends. and more than that - quite surprised at how many rsvps i got! so got to work getting my apartment ready for 25 guests:








lucas & nancy brought a fig-walnut-olive tapenade with a side of goat cheese & fresh thyme and bisuits, erin & her friend brought a selection of cheeses with fresh fruit, chips & salsa AND chocolate bars, sharon brought bread, cheese, macrona almonds (my fave!) and quince paste from murrays, cassidy made bread to be served along with some great wisconsin cheese!


wine and beer were also very welcomed contributions, and we can thank serena, eve and greg, christina, sara and todd for a lovely variety that went along incredibly well with the dinner:

i made roast chicken and a kale salad, sarah and dillon brought beets with goat cheese, becca and ryan made a very exciting penne pasta with all kinds of local veggies, serena made brussels sprouts with apples and bacon, sara cooked up a roasted veggie rice pilaf, melinda and sean picked up an assortment of the most delicious sausages from the new butcher at chelsea market, alicia whipped up some sweet potatoes, foster sauteed some kale and jaime and matt concocted a vegan harvest taco that included the best butternut squash!!

everyone ate up and had fun! and made sure to leave room for dessert!! jaime and matt also treated us to a spicy carrot custard, and emily picked up a few dozen pumpkin woopie pies from one girl cookies and to accompany them we enjoyed the two kinds of vanilla ice cream todd got - adirondack and van leuvan! my oh my!!!

we all said good night very full and very happy and i was already ready for another!