Stir It 28… The Actual Event Had a Ripple Effect

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You know about the ripple effect. You toss a stone into the water and see the endless ripples project out from the center of  where the thrown object landed. That’s what Stir It 28 was for me. I will not lie to say I was worried about meeting the expectations of the rest of the group for the Chicago side. From the get go, I had my network of people who were willing to help, and boy did they help. I could have never done it with out them. In between work and Master Chef auditions, February was just tight for time and focus. I was worried about the sales, as I had the least online sales compared to ATL, LA, and NYC. You cant say I didn’t promote the hell out of it via twitter and Face book, but the sales were not there. Chicago is huge city and asking for $30 on top of a cash bar with competing Restaurant Week  other fund raising initiatives and other events was hard. But I tried to stay positive and just wanted to get through Sunday. The words of  my mother  “Fret Not and to worry is a sin” stayed with me through out the day. I know fund raising is hard work and I approach it realistic expectations.I am grateful for every little bit I can get. At first I thought the venue would be too small. but in the need it was just right. At the stroke of 2:30 fabulous volunteers took charge and helped me set up  the place. Talk about tons of amazing food! The volunteers came through with some amazing dishes. One could barely make it down the buffet  and their plate was full. It would have taken three to four trips alone to sample all. The cash bar was flowing too. The afternoon was perfect and , while a small crowd, we managed to take in more at the door than online. Chicago foodies had a chance to meet and connect with others. Through their tweets and re tweets they inspired others to donate or attend one of the other cities events.  It was classic Midwest, down to earth , simple, and real.So you see the ripple effect happening here?

 And in the end, after we all cleaned up , the beginning of another heavy snow started. With so much food left,  even after people took their share, we had a few trays left. Homeless shelters in Chicago don’t allow you to donate leftovers  food from restaurants ,events, etc. due to health laws.So Certain Someone and I packed the trunk up and drove down to Lower Wacker. Lower Wacker a long running street underground that the many homeless people live on. Its not unusual to see tents and men and women making a home in a dark corner buffeted from the harsh  lakefront winter winds or sweltering summer heat. So Certain Someone and I found a man in his blankets who was eating something in wrapper. We stopped the car and explained we had food leftover from a party. He was happy to get it and the some paper goods so he could share it with others in his community. See the ripple effect at work here. It takes a massive devastating event to remind people to come together and  care for one another. Stir It 28 did that. Haiti will continue to need help even after these next few months. Rebuilding will take years. So whether your efforts are grand or small, everything is and will be appreciated. I cant say Thank You enough.


A Taste of Stir It 28 Chicago… Sunday February 21 at Three Peas Art Lounge

                                                                      
 Wow! When Chrystal and Bren approached me about raising funds for Haiti, who knew it would blow up into a multi city event. In a little over a month we have really planned something phenomenal. But planning aside, we really need your help, where it counts the most! We need those tickets sales for Chicago, LA, Atlanta, and Christy in New York. In between our busy schedules we have come up with some great donors of space, food, and time. I admit I could not have done it without Joelen Tan of the What’s Cooking Meet Up group. She really came together and got us a bunch of great cooks and dishes for this Sunday. Also Proud Italian Cook and Beth , and Afrobella have been remarkable. BUT WE NEED YOU to buy tickets and make donations so this is not in vain. Click on the left sidebar to purchase and  make donations.
Alan Richardson of Hello Cupcake has graciously donated copies of his fabulous book to all cities for a door prize.  Thanks to Christy and a shout out from Dorie Greenspan on Twitter.  We have some great support, now we need the participants! Visit our Facebook page now.
So all we need is you. Here is a taste of some of the dishes that will be served Sunday at the Fabulous Three Peas Art Lounge. There will a top shelf cash bar and sublime cupcakes for sell as well at Three Peas Art Lounge, out gracious donors of space.
 
Avocado Citrus Salad

Risotto

Baked Farfalle with Italian Sausage & Mushrooms

Sage & Balsamic Pork with Creamy Pumpkin Polenta

Italian bruschetta with Toasted Ciabatta Triangles

Cilantro Lime Chicken Skewers with Sauces
 
Haitian Griot in both traditional Pork and Turkey versions
 
Rice and Beans
 
Fried Plantains
 
Vegetarian Chili
 
Shrimp  and Orzo Salad
 
and much , much more!
$30 online and $35 at the door. What a better way to spend Sunday Afternoon from 3-6pm.
*online ticket sales cut off Saturday at 6pm EST.
I hope to see you there!

The Winner Is…. and Read All About My Master Chef Auditions


I have been under the weather this week and now juts getting around to posting a winner of  Ciao Italia: Five Ingredient Favorites by Mary Ann Esposito. Thanks for all the comments. As I stated for every comment I will donate one non perishable food item for One Comment One Eats. That’s 31 food items! Excellent and Thank you.

So the winner is Kathleen of Gonna Want Seconds!
Enjoy the book and be sure to email me you shipping information.

If you want to read about my Master Chef audition process, click here to go to EbonyJet.com.

Stir It 28 Campaign ,Chocolate Hazelnut and Banana Tarts, and a Book Giveaway


photographer and graphic designer, Dave Patterson of RH Media Group for creating the STIR IT logo!

Is it February already? Hard to believe it. This month has been filled with so much activity and emotion all over the globe. I don’t think there was one person who hasn’t been touched, moved, or affected by the recent earthquake in Haiti. Never have we felt so helpless as we see both tragedy and miracles on the television. So “What can I do ? “, you may ask. I love to see the blogging the community come together in Haiti’s hour of need. A few of my blogger friends have decided to put our heads together and come up with a multi city effort. You may have seen us tweeting about it or sharing the news with on Face book already. Well here is the whole deal if you are interested. If you look to the left sidebar you will find the link to donate or purchase tickets for your cities event.

Together with Bren of Flanboyant Eats and Chrystal of The Duo Dishes, we have formed Stir It 28: Food Bloggers Align for Haiti Relief–a blogger based fundraising effort to bring money to Haiti. As food plays a very large importance in our lives, we strive to raise money to bring food, water and other necessary supplies to the people of Haiti, which will hopefully do a small part to aid in the short-term relief efforts. We’re calling on all food bloggers to help us make this a nationwide, international even, movement during the month of February. From February 1st through the 28th, we will do our best to come together as a unified group, along with the food community at large, to help bring relief to the island nation. All money raised during the month will go to Share Our Strength and Yele.
Here’s how you can help:

STIR IT 28 FUNDRAISER
Each one of us will be hosting a food fundraising event on Sunday, February 21st in our respective cities–Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago. We’re asking chefs, restaurants, home cooks and food bloggers to participate by donating 2-3 dishes that will feed 15-20 people each. The events will be open to the public with advanced tickets or limited ticket sales at the door. Purchase tickets by clicking the logo image on the top right side of this page. We’re still formulating our respective events, but here are the details so far:
 

Atlanta
Host: Bren Herrera
Where: SPACE Atlanta, 1310 White Street, Atlanta, GA 30310
(historic West End)
When: 4-7 PM
Tickets: $30 in advance
$40 at the door
*
DJ Rev Lee will make you shake your rump
to each food station! 
Special surprise live performance by  
popular Atlanta-based artist!
*
Complimentary wine courtesy 
of Montaluce Winery! 
(visit them at montaluce.com) 
and 2 Cash bars!

 

Chicago
Host: Courtney Nzeribe
Where: Three Peas Art Lounge : 75 E. 16th Street
(Between Michigan and Wabash) Chicago, IL 60616
When: 3-6 pm
Tickets: $30 in advance
$35 at the door
* Cash bar and delicious house cupcakes for sale

 

Los Angeles
Host: Chrystal Baker
Where: Sexy Private LA Residence located at
6602 Cahuenga Terrace, Los Angeles, CA, 90068
When: 4-7 pm
Tickets: $30 in advance
$35 at the door
* Complimentary Valet will be available
for first 50 attendees!


 

Washington, DC
 * Details TBD. If you are in DC, and are interested in partnering with
Bren in hosting an event, please email Stirit28@gmail.com
with the subject: STIR IT-DC.
New York City Just added!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Time:
4:00pm – 7:00pm
Location:
NYU Department of Nutrition –
Food Studies and Public Health
Street:
35 W. 4th Street, 10th floor
City/Town:
New York, NY
The New York foodies have joined the Stir It 28 movement!
If you’re in NY and want to attend, here’s your chance.

Advanced ticket sales only: No ticket sales at the door.
$20 for students and $30 for adults/faculty & staff.
Students must pay via the PayPal General Online Donation
button on www.cococooks.blogspot.com
or www.flanboyanteats.com and indicate
“NYU student ticket” in notes.
Must show student ID at the door.

No tickets at door.

Street parking and parking garages
in walking distance.

Each event requires donations of food, so if you’d like to share your talent of cooking with the public, this is your opportunity. You don’t have to cook to be part of the fundraiser. We’ll need help with media/publicity, set-up/clean up, serving, working the door, etc.
You can be part of this! Contact each respective person to let them know you want to be on the team.
Los Angeles: Chrystal chrystal@duodishes.com @theduodishes
Atlanta: Bren bren@flanboyanteats.com @BrenHerrera
Chicago: Courtney cococooks@hotmail.com @glamah
28 DAYS OF DONATIONS
If you are not in LA, Atlanta or Chicago, you can still help raise money. Perhaps donate what you would normally spend to create a dish for a post or give the amount you’d spend on a lunch or dinner out with friends. It’s not about how much you give, but the spirit in which you decided to help others. We understand that economic times are hard, but even $1 over 500 or more bloggers would make a difference. Spread the word to your friends, tell your families. Talk to restaurants in your area, chat with cooking school, visit bakeries! The idea is to bring the food community together as a whole, so anyone who lives and loves food should hear the word. You can donate through Paypal. The associated email address for the donation is stirit28@gmail.com
ONE COMMENT. ONE EATS.

Bren has a hunger campaign called One Comment. One Eats, and this is a great opportunity to combine this effort with our Haiti relief project. For every comment you receive on your first post of February, we hope you donate one non-perishable food item to Share Our Strength. You can campaign for the full month of February in order to get as many comments as possible. We will let you know how to get your food to Share Our Strength. Email Bren directly at bren@flanboyanteats.com to get your badge that reads: “I gave to One Comment. One Eats.”

SPREAD THE WORD
We can only make this work if everyone bands together. The cool thing about food bloggers is that we are a supportive bunch. Most of us have never met, but we forge virtual relationships with people in our own cities and across the world over food. If we combined that same strength and applied it to a great cause, imagine how powerful it would be! Sign up as a cook/volunteer for the LA, Atlanta or Chicago events, join the Facebook page, use the Twitter hashtag #stirit28, get the word out to your friends, solicit donations. We can make a huge difference! And for anyone in any city who is interested in starting their own fundraiser event, please email stirit28@gmail.com to let us know. You do not have to have a huge blow-out. An intimate dinner of 10 or 15 on Sunday, February 21st will still make a difference! As long as we’re donating as a solid group of the food community, that’s all that matters.



So to kick of my first my first post for the month of February, and to generate many comments, I am giving away the wonderful Ciao Italia: Five Ingredient Favorites by Mary Ann Esposoito. Forgive me as I have been sitting on this book for a month or so. But other evnts and issues have distracted me. I love the premise of the book . Take five ingrediants which we should all have in our kitchens and make quick, delicious, and flavorful meals. From Antipasti to dessert, Mary Anne Esposito has you covered. With everyone talking about Nutella for World Nutella Day on February 5th, I decided to do these amazingly simple and and decadent Chocolate Hazelnut and Banana Tarts. You wouldn’t believe how simple these come together and you don’t even have to be what I consider a true baker to make these . I even added a touch of rum to mine.
Tortine di Gianduja e Banana
Chocolate , Hazelnut, and Banana Tartlets
adapted from Ciao Italia; Five Ingredient Favorites by Mary Ann Esposito

1 sheet puff pastry
1 cup Nutella
8 oz Mascarpone cheese at room temp
3 tablespoons sugar
1 banana sliced

Preheat oven to 450 F
Roll out puff pastry on clean lightly floured work surface and cut out four 6 inch circles ( for 3 inch tart pans) or whatever shapes you chose to use. Press and line your forms, preferably with removable bottoms, with the puff pastry.
Place tartlet pans on a baking sheet and poke shells allover with a fork to prevent puffing while baking. Bake tartlet shells fro 7-8 min or until nicely browned.
Remove tartlet pans from oven and allow to cool completely.
In a medium bowl using hand mixer, whip up Nutella , Mascarpone , and sugar together until well blended.
Place a layer of banana on bottom of cooled shells, then spoon Nutella mixture into the shells. Refrigerate for several hours before serving. Top with additional Bananas.

I will randomly draw a name from the comments generated by this post on Sunday February 7th. Remember , for each comment I get I donate a non perishable item. How easy is that? So spread the word.

Homemade Duck Sausage Caramelized Onions Apples and Gruyere Tart


If you keep up with me via Twitter or Facebook, you know I am in the process of auditioning for the new American version of Master Chef with Gordon Ramsay on Fox. Things are going well so far and its been a crazy few days. Some people have been asking what I brought to my casting call. This post is going to be short and sweet, but I just wanted to share and thank everyone for their support.

Well here it is. I got high marks for this one. Enjoy.

Homemade Duck Sausage, Caramelized Onion, Apple and Gruyere Tart

With Frisee, Dried Cranberries and Pumpkin Oil Vinaigrette

By Courtney Nzeribe

Equipment Needed

4.5 inch tart forms

Kitchen Aid stand mixer, meat grinder and sausage stuffer

Homemade Duck Sausage

1 duckling de-boned with meat and skin from legs, breast, etc.

Natural casing (hog or lamb)

1 tbsp juniper berries

1 tbsp Garlic Powder

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp green peppercorns

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

½ tsp mustard powder

½ tsp ground sage

A few sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme, and marjoram

Soak casing in cold water for a few hours to remove any salt preservatives.

De bone a duck removing breast meat, skin, thigh/ leg meat. Reserve the carcass, wings, and extra fold of skin at cavity. Place the carcass, wings and skin, and bones in a roasting pan, season with salt and pepper and roast at 450 to render some fat. Roast until golden and crispy. Set aside and reserve fat for later.

Using the Kitchen Aid meat grinder, grind small pieces of the duck meat and skin, on coarse grind first. Once done add seasonings and grind once more on a finer grind. Chill meat until ready to stuff into casing.

Prepare Kitchen Aid with Sausage Stuffer attachments. Take the casing and attach the stuffer funnel to one end and run under cold water to flush insides. Add the sausage funnel to mixer and roll the casing onto the length of the funnel. Tie off the end of casing in a knot. Follow Kitchen Aid instructions to stuff sausage. Once all meat is stuffed, cover the sausage with plastic wrap and chill for a few hours or overnight to let seasonings blend.

Caramelized Onions and Apples

1 large onion

1 apple

* 2 tbsp of Duck Fat (see Homemade Duck Sausage recipe)

¼ cup Cognac

Sea salt & black pepper to taste

Fresh Thyme

Thinly slice the onions. Peel and chop the apple. In a large skillet, heat the duck fat. Add the onion , salt, pepper, and thyme and sauté on med low heat stirring occasionally until they start to sweat and become translucent. Add the apples. Every few minutes add some cognac to deglaze the pan and continue to sauté and stir on low heat until soft and slightly browned. Total cook time is about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Tart Assembly

Puff pastry to line forms ( I made my own)

2 cups Farmers cheese

1 cup shredded Gruyere

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

Pinch of fresh grated nutmeg

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Baked Homemade Duck sausage

1 cup Caramelized Onions and Apples

Egg wash (1 egg beaten lightly)

Roll out puff pastry and cut and fit into tart form. Chill until ready to fill.

Bake the homemade duck sausage in a roasting pan with a little water at 450 F until golden and crispy. Set aside and let cool. Slice on diagonal.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a small bowl mix Farmers Cheese, Gruyere, eggs, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add the caramelized onions. Fill chilled tart shells with mixture and add the slices of duck sausage. Brush edges with egg wash. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until golden.

Frisee, Dried Cranberries with Pumpkin Seed Vinaigrette

Wash and spin dry the Frisee. In a bowl mix ½ cup Pumpkin Oil , ½ cup Balsamic Vinegar, 2tbsp Peanut Oil, ½ tsp brown sugar. Add fresh ground Black Pepper and sea salt and beat until emulsified.. Toss the Frisee with some vinaigrette. Add dried Cranberries.

Plate the tarts with the dressed Frisee. Garnish tart with sprig of fresh Thyme or Rosemary and a few cranberries.