Meaningful Meals

Bye for now!

admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:36:30 +0000

Chanda and Serena and busy bees these days. We’ve taken a reprieve from Meaningful Meals. Feel free to check our our menus and photos below, and find us at our other projects!

Chanda is doing great work on her financial coaching at Mindful Money Matters, and continuing her engagement at the Women of Color Resource Center.

Serena is busy as ever writing for local and national publications, blogging about food, and adding titles to her GrassRoutes Guide series.

The August Brunch (and dreams of dinner)

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:55:31 +0000

What fun we all had sipping “Pink Zebra” gazpacho, chillin’ to John Santos tunes, watching the bronze fennel sway in the breeze, and supping on buttery caramelized onion and plum tarts… so delish!
Here are some highlights…

and scroll down to get a glance of future secret supper plans…

Prepping the pollen and fennel seeds for the perfumed sausages, both meat and vegan

The bouquet garni flavored the organic creamer potatoes from the inside out

Lovely Fennel Blossoms!

Potatoes L’Ete Provincal, we called these caper-flecked, white wine-infused ‘taters. This was ANYTHING BUT a potluck potato salad… especially with the addition of black cherry tomatoes…

Is anyone hungry?

Chanda serving Ginzer cookies with balsamic syrup and mint from Serena’s garden

Chante could juggle plates with a smile!

Your seat is awaiting you…

Plating was fun

A special guest…

Chanda added great flavor and color contrast to the pretty purple tarts with her Meyer Lemon zest oil

“Ginzer” cookies for dessert - gingery linzer sandwiches with our own plum and blackberry conserve and some balsamic syrup we dreamed up

Welcome!

A little amuse bouche - Serena has so many pickle recipes she just had to share one - carrot and cabbage miso green mustard pickles

Mimosas and Mockmosas for All! These were mint-blackberry and cucumber-lemon verbena - delish!

Lots of friendly faces!

Serena’s new books were on display - she signed them too!

We had so much fun in the kitchen - Serena just couldn’t stop smiling!

We’re thinking about the fall - butternut squash and apples, rosey-topped turnips, and peacock look-alike kale… filo dough and pastry dough and cinnamon sugar… mmmmm…

We’ve got tasty plans for the fall, once we take a September siesta. Join us in October at new and intriguing locations for scrumptious dinners - sustainable seafood, urban winemaking, and herbal infusions are on the brain!

Stay in touch - eat@MeaningfulMeals.com, join our invitee list by dropping us a note~

See you when we feed you!

Chanda and Serena

Testing, Testing, One, Two, Three…

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:33:04 +0000

We had so much fun recipe testing this week!

And… we still have some seats left for our very last summer Secret Brunch, email us at Eat@MeaningfulMeals.com to save your spot!

We enjoyed orange-lime coconut water mocktails while we cooked, Cheers!

The cukes we used for one of the gazpacho layers were much tastier without the seeds!

Apples, onions, and beets, oh my!

Parts of a whole: we’ve made so many renditions of potato salad this week, but the sauteed summer corn and haricot vert made this batch extra special…

Seriously, this is some pretty in pink soup! The beets and zesty blend of spices cooled out palate…

See you when we feed you!

xo,

Chanda and Serena

July Memories, August Plans

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:23:37 +0000

Last month the tomato tarts, fluffy frittatas and linzer cookies (with our own Meaningful Meals plum and blackberry preserves) reigned supreme… (see pictures below)

For August, we’ve got a Beat the Heat menu on the brain, scroll down to view.

If you aren’t already on the invitee list and would like to be, please email us at Eat@MeaningfulMeals.com!

Ta Ta for now~
xo,
Serena and Chanda

these tart toppers rocked - meyer lemon oil (and zest), aged balsamic, and crumbles of Humbolt Fog blue

I used the canna leaves to cover up stems in the vases and jasmine vines to make little arches over these huge apricot roses, one for each table!

Chanda fried up some of her homemade fennel pollen sausages… yumm…

Natalie and Lorna helped out, while i inspected plates of panzanella salad

We made a few Star Man linzer cookies with the extra dough, maybe next time we’ll get a linzer cookie tool to cut the scalloped edges, but we’re having Bowie-inspired fun for now…

After serving 35 people and two courses, we sat down to enjoy the remaining sunshine, and flip through Lori’s awesome African cookbook for ideas…

Next Menu!

AUGUST 16, 2009

Beat the Heat

Palate Refresher
Raspberry~Beet gazpacho with homemade creme fraiche

Mains
Rustic plum tart with Laura Chenel goat cheese
“Summer potato salad” with fresh oregano, haricot vert, and black cherry tomatoes, served with marinated cabbage.
Fennel pollen-perfumed sausage

Dessert
Blackberry and plum jam linzer cookies

Seatings at 11am and 1pm

Please RSVP and we’ll reserve your spot and give you the directions to our secret location. Please indicate date, time, number in your party and any dietary needs in your reservation ~ thanks!

Email: eat@meaningfulmeals.com

We delight in serving vegan and vegetarian food on request, just tell us when you reserve.
**Vegan request reservations must be made by Friday, August 14th.

$18 plates, $4 morning drink bar, $5 mimosas and mockmosas

CASH ONLY, tips not included in prices

Holy Tomatoes!

admin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:45:00 +0000

The Tomato Tea Party was so much fun! We got a visit from a very curious tomato fairy…

More photos of the food to come!

Inspirations from a Sonoma County Farm Stand

admin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:20:31 +0000

Visit Tierra Vegetables Farm Stand right off the 101 North in Windsor, CA, more here, or read on at my Sonoma Green column here.

…and sign up to be on the Meaningful Meals invitee list by hollering at eat@meaningfulmeals.com…

The yellow shed beckons…

Yummy purple and genovese basil getting ready to be pesto-ed

Anasazi Beans!

One look at these and I want to go pickle, or get grillin’

Farmer Evie’s Dinner Box - $10, is can resist spending all your cash on these liquid-sugar “seascape” strawberries…

Don’t forget your chili jelly!

Or a powerful packet of Tierra’s home-smoked chipotle or Tres Perros blend chili powder to make your own heat

We’ll be back soon!

The Neon Garden

admin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:32:03 +0000

As Chanda and I prepare for our upcoming Tomato Tea Party I can’t help but be amazed at the array of colors going on right now in the garden, here’s a few shots…

I promise I didn’t play with the colors - after all I am still pitiful at Photoshop so I doubt I could have faked these if I wanted!

Newsom’s fresh idea: modeled after Oakland based farm

admin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:43:35 +0000

Newsom made the announcement Wednesday at a junkyard-turned-farm in West Oakland that could serve as a model for how land could be converted in San Francisco. A stone’s throw from BART, it used to be home to old cars and one angry dog, but now is run by the nonprofit City Slicker Farms.

To view the article, visit:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/09/MN5C18L6RG.DTL

Newsom at City Slicker Farms

The results…

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:46:57 +0000

Tomato Tea Party Menu

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:30:03 +0000

Tomato Tea Party Menu

Palate Refresher

Heirloom tomato and Semifreddi baguette panzanela salad

Mains
Early girl tomato tart with Humbolt Fog blue cheese

Foraged mushroom and Genovese basil pesto frittata

Sides

Fennel pollen-perfumed sausage

“Roasted Roots” with Chiogga beets, fennel bulbs, Nantes carrots and fingerling potatoes

Dessert
Candied ginger shortbread scones
served with:
fresh strawberry jam or Meyer lemon curd

Strawberry jam Linzer cookies