A tried and true way to show potential clients what your firm has offer is to invite them to your office for an Open House to see what your company does best. Mingling with mutual business acquaintances, clients who already like what you do, and key staff who can talk to the successful things your firm has accomplished, these perspective clients can comfortably learn more about your firm’s successes and it’s mission.

Add to that gathering delicious, easy to eat and professionally served treats and you tell everyone gathered how much you care about the quality of good business and social interaction. Everyone enjoys a party with really great food. It is a perfect setting to make future business happen!

Greet your guests and co-workers with:

Mini quiche served warm from a chafer

House-made mini Danish

Fresh Fruit Salad gently tossed with Mint and Honey

Mini Bagels with a variety of tasty Spreads
Fresh

O J, Coffee and Tea

So easy to organize and such a great way to start the day. Let your people know you care about them and the outcome of your meeting

Seattle Children’s Theater is opening the highly acclaimed play “Help” presented by Holland-based Theater group Max Production.aspx?prod=9093. “Help” is about the formation of a new young band in the late 1950′s called The Beatles. The play is a coming of age story about the early days of forming the band. John, Pete, Paul, George and Ringo struggled with ambition, rejection, friendship, music and growing up that all helped propel them into becoming The Beatles we still enjoy listening to today.

It is our pleasure at Mangetout to come up with a menu for the pre-party for Board members and distinguished guests.
Top of the menu are Bangers, the famous English sausage. Also on the table will be a wonderful Coconut Chicken Curry, inspired by a recipe from VIJ’S At Home and vegetarian Samosas vijs-cookbooks. Stay tuned for pictures and food bites

.
”Help” runs through May 13, 2012

Food for which to be thankful

The rain and cold of November means no more denying summer is gone.

Time to put away the outdoor furniture and winterize the grill (tho there really is nothing quite as tasty as a barbequed turkey!!)

Time to get out the sweaters, the stew pot and the cast iron pans.

Halloween has come and gone, but we still have pumpkins, apples and cider. Thanksgiving is beginning to loom large but we need more than pumpkins, apples and cider! For most of us the overriding question of the moment is how will we spend the day-where and with whom. That is going to give way to food assignments. Whether you are at home or not, feeding one or one hundred, in charge of all the food or one dish, this will become an all consuming topic before any of us turns around twice. It’s a good thing to plunge into the dilemma because it makes us focus on this future event, warm clothes, and comfort food.

Every magazine, food program, and newspaper is starting to overwhelm us with recipes. And we begin to dither about staying traditional vs trying something new, having the favorites, or adding a couple of  special “new items”.   For some of us the whole idea of cooking for this holiday is daunting. For others there are parts of it we look forward to doing, and parts that drive us crazy. Some of us really like to dive in and cook all of the Thanksgiving meal, and some enjoy asking others to help. Goodness-makes one hungry just contemplating!

I don’t mind cleaning my house, decorating, or firing up the BBQ for the bird, and I especially don’t mind going to someone else’s house for the day. But really what I love to do are all the different side dishes. Traditional, slightly different, and even really different side dishes. I like 7 or 8 different choices. We must have mashed potatoes, green beans, and dressing, but why not a slightly different take?  Try offering sweet potato polenta in addition to the usual garlic mashed potatoes, fresh green beans in tomato concasse, along with brussels sprouts with bacon and blue cheese, and traditional sausage dressing as well as cornbread dressing with bacon, sage, and  pears. Try a creamy creamless soup!

Root vegetable soups are creamy and silky without the need of cream. Combine vegetables to make your own tasty concoctions. Garnish with chopped herbs, herb oils, or yogurt.

Enjoy!

Parsnip Soup

• 1 onion chopped   (1 cup)
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 garlic clove minced with 1 Tblsp salt
• 1 Tblsp minced fresh ginger
• 1 tsp chopped thyme
• 6 large  parsnips peeled and cut into 1 inch slices (4 cups)
• 5 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 1 tsp grated fresh nutmeg
• Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté onion in oil until soft. Add garlic and ginger and sauté about 1 minute more.Add parsnips and thyme and cook for 2 minutes more.Add stock and cook at a simmer covered for 30-45 minutes or until parsnips are soft.Puree in blender or food processor. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

If you want help this year with some or all of your Thanksgiving celebration, call Mangetout. We  love doing the whole meal that you can pick up on Wednesday-and we love, love love doing side dishes and pies. Watch for a list of some of the ones we are doing this November.  Eat well!

For 25 years Mangetout Catering has had the privilege to be involved with Seattle Children’s Theater. We donate the pre party for Trustees and donors and the post party for theater goers on opening the night. The  2010 Season  opening play is The Borrowers

Our roll is to provide fun food, loosely fitting in with the theme. Our theme for this play is “little”. We made “little chicken casserole” with tiny bite size Mediterranean couscous, chicken, peas, local corn in a delicious light creamy sauce. Also on the menu were mini toasted cheese sandwiches and fruit salad with local fruit cut to the size of the little Interlaken grape that added so much flavor . The run away favorite at the post party were the baby buttons-thick little sugar cookies marked like a button before baking and dusted with powdered sugar after.

The play is amazing and runs until Oct 31st Blog on the Borrowers

Baby Button Cookies

16 oz        butter, unsalted

3 cups      powdered sugar

1 cup        cornstarch

1 tsp         vanilla

3 cups      all purpose unbleached flour

Method

In food processor, process butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar until combined.

Add vanilla cornstarch and flour and process until a soft dough forms.

Transfer to a lightly floured work surface and divide dough into 4 equal pieces.

Roll each piece into a 12 inch rope, cut each rope into 12  equal pieces.

Mark each cookie with four dots representing the holes on a button using the blunt end of a toothpick.

Bake cookies until bottoms are golden but tops are pale-about 15 min.

Sift remaining powdered sugar over cookies

After two days of rain, the weather broke and the afternoon proved to be one our most beautiful of the month! The sun shone brightly as the guests arrived. Drinks and hors d’oeuvre were passed as guests mingled on the manicured lawn amid the exquisite gardens.

Hors D’oeuvre Reception Menu
Lemon Rosemary Chicken Skewers
Nova Smoked Salmon on Cucumber Rounds
Dungeness Crabcakes topped with Housemade Tomato Conserve
Chorizo Empanaditas
Canape of Pork Rillette with Preserved Apricots
Mini Ham and Chutney Biscuits
Crostini topped with Fresh Mozzarella, Heirloom Tomato and Basil
Dates filled with Blue Cheese and Marcona Almonds
Platter of Local Seasonal Crudite with Saffron Aioli
Northwest Cheese Board with Grapes, Baguette and Crackers

Rustic Tarts are just that-a free form easy dough that is filled with fruit and baked. It is rustic and delicious. The idea is that because it is not fancy or difficult, we will all feel inclined to pick up some fruit and throw one together. As a snack or the finish to a great soup and salad or casserole supper this is heaven!

At our farmer’s markets now farmers from all parts of the state are bringing in a wide varity of fuits.  We choose here to use  plums in our  a rustic tart but any combination of fruits or berries work. We hope wherever you are you are finding great inspiration in your markets as well!

  Types of plums to choose from                                    
            
    Italian Prune plums   Shiro
   Mirabelle                    Plulots
 Green Gage      
Santa Rosa

   Duarte
 

Some of the farmers bringing these beautiful plums to us are
Tiny's Organic
Little Wing Farm
Tonnemaker Family Orchard
Mair Farm Taki

For individual tarts use ¾ of an apple, pear, peach or nectarine per person or ½ a cup of sliced plums or fresh apricots, figs or berries-or any combination-let your taste buds rule- can be made into individual or larger tarts. Remember that if you want to transfer them off of the baking sheet use a baking sheet with no sides and keep the width of the tart to one you can easily manage!

Rustic Fruit Tart Dough

yields 1 discs that will serve about 6 people

Dough:

4 oz butter, unsalted

1 cup flour

3 Tblsp sugar

1/8 tsp salt

2 Tblsp  iced water

Fruit:

3 cups of sliced plums

¼ cup lemon juice

3 tbsp sugar

3 tsp all purpose flour

topping:

1 tsp cinnamon

1¼ tsp sugar

Procedure:

Cut butter into 1/2 inch pieces and put in freezer for 10 minutes.

Put dry ingredients in the cuisinart and pulse to mix.

Add butter, pulse until you have quarter sized chunks of butter mixed with the flour.

With machine pulsing add water and stop before you have a solid mass.

It should be crumbly and may have streaks of butter running through it..

Turn dough out on to a floured board.

Roll dough into a rough circle about 15” in diameter about ¼” thick and place on a parchment covered sheet pan .

Toss fruit in a bowl with flour, sugar and lemon juice

Mound or layer fruit in the middle of the circle with 2 inches of unfilled edges all the way around.

Fold edges over fruit to form a barrier for the juice (dough will cover only a portion of the surface of the tart).

Mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the top before baking.

Bake in 350 oven for 25-35 minutes or until bubbly in the middle and golden brown on  the crust .

Sunday, although cool and overcast , was a perfect day for a birthday celebration.                            
The much loved birthday girl and special friends and family feasted on:

• Garlic Prawns
• Crostini topped with Caramelized Onions and Willapa Hills’ Two Faced Blue Cheese
• Tonnemaker’s Melon wrapped in Prosciutto
• Pesto-Crusted Wild troll caught Salmon Fillet from Mutual Fish
• Grilled Spicy Pork Tenderloin with House made Tonnamakers’ Plum and Martin Farm’s Apricot Mostarde
• Alvarez Corn and Billy’s Cherry Tomato Salad with Basil Vinaigrette
• Oxbow Farms’ Yellow and Green Romano Beans tossed in Blue Cheese Dressing
• Toasted Israeli Couscous Salad with Willie Green’s Peas and Sugar Snaps and Billy’s Baby Zucchini
• Billy’s Arugula Salad with Shidu farms Blue Berries, Hayton Farms’ Blackberries, Figs, Toasted Walnuts and Port Madison Camembert Cheese
• Composed Tomato, Fresh Mozzarella and Basil Salad
• Fresh Peach Cobbler from Tonnemakers white and yellow peaches with Vanilla Ice Cream
• House made Rosemary Lemonade

 

PEACH COBBLER

Filling:

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
8 cups peeled and sliced peaches
1 Tbls lemon juice
2 Tbls butter

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, add the peaches (without any of the juice that has accumulated or it will be too soupy), toss with lemon juice and fill a buttered casserole dish. Dot butter over the top. Bake in a 350 oven for 25 minutes or until fruit is bubbling.

Biscuit Topping:

2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
4 Tbls sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup(4 oz) butter
1 egg beaten
1/4-3/4 cup milk

With you fingers in a large bowl, or in a food processor, short (cut) the butter and the dry ingredients until mixture is like corn meal. Beat the egg with half the milk and add to the dry mixture in a large bowl.Toss mixture with your fingers to form a loose dough. Add more milk as necessary.

When peaches are bubbling. remove from oven, dot top with dollops of dough -no need to cover top entirely, biscuit will grow as it bakes. Return cobbler to oven and continue to bake for 20-25 minutes or until browning. Pull cobbler from oven, carefully pull up a little of the biscuit to see if it is cooked on its bottom. If it is till doughy return to oven for  few minutes more. If it is cooked through, remove, cool and enjoy!

Not just your ordinary taco bar! Mangetout Catering takes it to a new level with this Oaxacan inspired menu. Set aboard a yacht cruising the lake on an exquisite summer evening, guests enjoy margaritas and appetizers on the upper deck, then dine on this casual yet upscale taco dinner. Highlighting corn, peppers, zucchini and tomatoes, which are some of the best of our local late summer farmer’s market produce, this meal is truly a northwest version of a south-of-the-border classic.

Mini Chorizo Empanadas

Shot Glasses of Chilled Green Gazpacho

Oaxacan Braised ChickenHousemade Pulled Pork

Grilled and Roasted Organic Peppers, Onion and Zucchini

Cumin-Black Beans topped with Queso Fresco and Diced Heirloom Tomatoes

Fresh Roasted Corn, cut off the cob, with Lime Cilantro Butter

Fresh Corn Tortillas

House made Green Tomatillo Salsa, Pico de Gallo, Fresh Guacamole

As our mellow summer begins to perk up with back to school, back to work back to meetings and impromptu gathers let, Mangetout Catering help with the overwhelming and the little things. Here, as a great example, is a little menu we delivered tonight for a small after work gathering. A few dozen of each makes a lovely offering!

MENU

Potato Frittata Squares with Romesco Sauce

Cherry Tomato filled with Salmon Mousse

Curry Chicken Phyllo Triangles

Crostini with Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil

Pastry Purse with Savory Cheese Filing

Roasted Vegetable Frittata Squares