Dinner Party Donation Fund Update: Had my 2nd dinner party the other night & we doubled the fund! Plus, Heifer sent me all kinds of promotional material, including brochures, a poster, and little animal pins, so I look official. (If you missed the first story about the DPDF, see here.)

The menu, in case you are interested, included:

- Butternut Squash Soup, a new recipe. It was just OK, and I had to crank up the spices off-recipe to keep it from tasting like baby food. Given that a butternut squash cost approximately $6 and had to be roasted and pureed (a little antithetical to the Faux Gourmet ethos), I may stick with my traditional cheaper and easier Curried Pumpkin Soup, using pumpkin from a can. Now that is faux gourmet, kids; no shame.

- Arugula Salad with fresh chevre, grilled pears, roasted red peppers, and toasted pecans. In keeping with the salty-caramel theme (see previous entry and related links), I added a dash of sea salt to the pears once they'd reached their delectable caramel state. I think it worked, bringing out the sweet with the contrast. I often make a grilled pear-prosciutto-pecorino grilled sandwich; the salt in the meat and cheese cover the same ground.

- Baked Phyllo-Dough Wrapped Brie with fig jam, using brie a guest brought.

- Bread and Garlic-Chili Olive Oil (see recipe here; just omit the shrimp for a quick dipping oil).

- Couscous as featured in Mark Bittman's blog, Bitten, and his column in the New York Times' Thursday Dining In section, The Minimalist. It was heavenly the night I made it, filling my apartment with the aromas of orange peel, cardamom, and rosewater, perfect complements to the crunch pistachios, apricot and almond. The next day it was a bit gummy, however, so I'd recommend making day-of or reducing the liquid-to-grain ratio. I haven't yet researched how to make couscous less gummy, but I shall look into it & report.

- Lamb in a pomegranate syrup and olive oil marinade, "grilled" on the stove, drizzled with pomegranate molasses. I went to an Italian butcher, who asked what I was making and selected and kebab-cubed the meat for me, and it was still only $6.99 a pound. Compare to aforementioned so-so squash and that looks like an even better deal.

- Seriously Good Fresh Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Browned Butter Cream Sauce. The ravioli were from Murray's Cheese, and weren't cheap, but were so incredible, and bursting with flavorful filling (not like those crappy, 85% pasta dough ravioli you're used to) they were worth it. Two per person was enough, all things considered.

- Flourless Chocolate Cake, made (more or less) by a guest chef, M. Drizzled with raspberry sauce and served with vanilla ice cream, courtesy my roommate.

Phew, that was quite a job. I wouldn't recommend making all that solo! The dinner was on Wednesday and I didn't finish washing all the dishes til Thursday night. When I finished my Friday appointments, I more or less collapsed and enjoyed me a nice, long sleep. But it was worth it; it always is.

Launch of Dinner Party Donation Fund!

I love to have people over & cook for people; it is something I'm good at and it makes me happy to cozy up with a circle of people I enjoy, in turn making them happy. But some discussion at my church small group the other week got me thinking . . . how can I use this thing I love, this talent, the space I have (what there is of it!), to serve people outside my circle of friends? People who cannot repay me, who have greater concrete needs? (Not to say my friends don't have a real need to eat something tasty from time to time!)

Enter The Dinner Party Donation Fund, a collective effort to allow our enjoyment of good food & good company to benefit more than just ourselves. (Suggestions for a snazzy name, preferably with a really awful--by which I mean, wonderful--pun & some punchy alliteration?) I have dinner parties anyway; people offer to contribute anyway. Now I just provide the no-pressure option to anonymously put some money in an envelope. We'll use the funds to support various organizations that are doing good work and helping people build better lives for themselves. I don't necessarily make more than the cost of the meal itself (my time + groceries), but I don't intend the dinners to function as fundraisers per se. I'm just providing an opportunity for the people who enjoy the experience to tangibly express it.

I'm biased towards organizations that address an underlying problem rather than just doling out a band aid. Consequently, our first project is to buy a cow ("an udderly original gift") through Heifer International, a $500 purchase. Last night we ate gaeng hang lay curry using the recipe of Pee Jam, my Hmong host mother, who worked with Heifer in Northern Thailand. She presided over several "pass the gift" ceremonies, where women who'd received livestock via Heifer gave one of the offspring to another woman. Cows provide milk, with needed calcium and protein, not just for the family, but to sell, turning a profit which can finance things like school fees. When I lived in Central America, another family used their animal as collateral to obtain a loan, with which they purchased a sewing machine and started a tailoring business. Without the animal, they'd have had to use their home, and I think we have a renewed appreciation of the problems with that.

Our first night got us off to a great start, enabling me to move the cartoon cow up the grass pasture thermometer designed by my roommate. (Photos forthcoming.) I am having another dinner on Wednesday, and hopefully many more to follow, moving that cow up towards the goal. If you're in the New York area please email whatsinthepot.blog@gmail.com for an invite.