Author: Debbie
Best of Bentonville {Beard Foundation Benefit}
I was pleased to represent Arkansas Women Bloggers as a guest of Crystal Bridges at the Friends of the Beard Foundation Best of Bentonville Benefit held at 21C Museum Hotel on November 8 featuring the culinary work of Chef Rob Nelson of Tusk & Trotter American Brasserie, Chef Matt McClure, a Beard semifinalist for best chef Sotuh, of The Hive and Chef Bill Lyle of Eleven at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Chef Case Dighero served as emcee of the event while engaging the audience during interviews with the chefs and tales of their experiences at chef’s boot camp at the Beard Foundation in New York City. It was especially interesting to hear their thoughts on sourcing locally produced foods for their restaurants. Eating locally from our Arkansas producers and farmers is near and dear to my foodie philosophy. All of the dishes presented during the evening were prepared with ingredients from farms and orchards in Northwest Arkansas.
I will be sharing the recipe for this spectacular dessert of Sticky Toffee Pudding and Arkansas Black Apple Ice Cream created by Chef McClure. You’ll be able to view that on my blog soon
A strong supporter of the culinary opportunity and development as well as the arts in Northwest Arkansas, Alice Walton, chose to entertain her weekend guests by treating them to the Best of Bentonville dinner. Phyllis duPont Wyeth, wife of Jamie Wyeth , and her sister Mimi duPont Abel Smith, were highly complimentary of Crystal Bridges and the NWA area. The Jamie Wyeth exhibition opens at Crystal Bridges in the summer 2015.
Come join me on my blog as I share dishes from our dinner menu.
MENU
Hors d’Oeuvre
Ozark Pumpkin Arancini
Duck Prosciutto–Pepper Jelly Canapés
Chicken Liver Pâté
Black Walnut Moonshine Cocktails
Dinner
Assorted Breads > Garlic–Montasio Cheese Gougères; Skillet Cornbread; and Fried Pork Rinds
Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Pecans and Brussel Sprouts
Braised Arkansas Rabbit with War Eagle Mill Barley Risotto, Minted Black Apples, and Carrot Caramel
Marinated and Grilled Venison Flank Steak with Stewed White Beans, Ham Hocks, Tomato Confit, Pickled Shiitake Mushrooms, Grilled Scallions, and Mountain Bird Coffee Red Eye Demi-Glace
Sticky Toffee Pudding
A selection of fine wines will be served with this dinner.
Many thanks to Beth Bobbitt, Media Relations Manager at Crystal Bridges, for extending the invitation.
Family Holiday Favorites {Foodie Friday}
We’re sharing some of our Family Holiday Favorites for Foodie Friday. We’ll be featuring some of those throughout the holiday season. The linky will remain open through December 6 so feel free to share several of those special dishes that are always present on your holiday menus.
Sunday Link-Up {Nov. 16, 2014}
Cajun’s Christmas Camp Blogger Event
By Sarabeth Jones
Recently a group of Arkansas Women Bloggers enjoyed a lovely Saturday afternoon at Cajun’s Wharf in Little Rock, where they were treated to wine & whiskey tastings, food, and fun. During lunch, they passed around heaping plates of yummy food and tried every dessert, loudly declaring their favorites.
A highlight of the afternoon was a cooking demonstration by Mary Beth Ringold, the owner, who prepared mussels in tomato broth while simultaneously talking through the proper way to brine a Thanksgiving turkey. Beautiful decks overlooking the Arkansas River were the perfect place to wind down the event as bloggers tried out Cajun’s special holiday cocktails, the Christmas Martini and the Holiday-De-Do.
Sarabeth Jones is a creative at Fellowship North who enjoys all kinds of artistic work; her latest project is bringing the national live-reading show Listen To Your Mother to Little Rock. She lives in Sherwood with her husband, Bryan, and their kids, Elizabeth, Jonathan, and Will. She loves to write about they way they make her laugh on her blog, thedramatic.com.
Heather Disarro: Sausage, Leek and Mushroom Pizza {Foodie Friday}
A few years ago when we lived in Colorado we had a favorite place in downtown Boulder called The Med that had a fantastic happy hour. Sure, the drinks were good (sangria anyone?) but our favorite part was the fantastic tapas menu. There was a margherita pizza that we would order multiples of, and we always left so stuffed that there was no dreaming up dinner by the time we got home.
About a year after our first Med happy hour, we were lucky enough to get actual pizza making lessons from the founder in a traveling brick pizza oven, and it was at that point that I started dreaming up a backyard pizza oven for our future dream house. Much like the lovely Zaza’s Pizza here in Little Rock, this pizza oven fired out the good stuff in seconds flat, as a good hot pizza oven should.
While we don’t have our dreamy Pinterest-worthy backyard patio complete with wood-burning oven, I have perfected the art of pizza in our electric range. It requires no fancy equipment, no fancy pizza dough recipe, and you can choose any toppings you like. I love this cozy version with breakfast sausage, butter-sauteed leeks and sliced mushrooms all on a bed of super simple bechamel sauce. It sounds complicated, but it’s really all about rustic ingredients that will bring people closer to the table.
As for the pizza dough, I hardly ever make my own – I’ve found that Whole Foods (or a local pizza place) can supply that need in much quicker fashion than I can. BUT if you have a favorite dough recipe far be it from me to keep you from using it!
As with all food, this pizza is best served with loved ones, a nice glass of wine (if you like) and a fresh salad. Enjoy!
Sausage, Leek and Mushroom Pizza
2014-11-12 14:27:10
Ingredients
- 1 large ball pizza dough (enough for one large pizza - about 20 inches)
- 4 ounces breakfast sausage, browned and crumbled
- 1 large leek, white and light green parts only, cut in half and then cut into ½-inch half moons
- 4 large cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 2 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 cup milk (I highly recommend using cow’s milk of some kind for this)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place a large cookie sheet OR pizza stone (whatever you have on hand) in the oven. You want it to be screaming hot.
- In a small saute pan, melt one tablespoon of butter and add the leeks. Cook until the leeks are tender, stirring occasionally, about 5-7 minutes.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat melt the remaining tablespoon of butter.
- Add the flour and whisk together to create a roux, and cook for about 1 minute to let the flour flavor cook out.
- Whisking constantly, pour in the milk and whisk until all lumps are removed.
- Add the salt, pepper and nutmeg and whisk to combine.
- Let the milk mixture come to a simmer, whisking occasionally, until very thick and then remove from the heat.
- Roll the pizza dough out until it is large enough to completely cover the pan you’re preheating in the oven.
- When the oven and pan are hot, carefully remove the pan and quickly (and carefully!) spread the dough on top.
- Return the pan to the oven and bake for 5-6 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the oven and spread the bechamel sauce evenly on top.
- Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
- Sprinkle evenly with the crumbled sausage, leeks and sliced mushrooms.
- Sprinkle the top with Parmesan cheese.
- Return the pizza to the oven rack by sliding it gently off of the hot pan.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until the crust is slightly crisp and the cheese is bubbly and melted.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for about 2-3 minutes before digging in.
- Enjoy!
Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/
Heather Disarro is a food-centric lifestyle blogger who is passionate about embracing the beauty that surrounds us with in our everyday lives. She is a Texan living the expat life in central Arkansas with her husband, son and two massive dogs. Heather writes her blog, Heather’s Dish, from an office filled with dust, dog fur, toys and plenty of love, grace and music. She specializes in creating delicious and creatively nourishing recipes. Cooking seasonally and with as many local ingredients as possible is an important component to Heather’s style of food, and she revels in the opportunity to bring the love of cooking to the world as a way to love others well!
Sunday Link-Up {Nov. 9. 2014}
Jamie Smith: Social Matrix of Potlucks {Foodie Friday}
I don’t know about you, but I love me a good potluck!
I’m sure potlucks are popular everywhere in the U.S but it seems like church groups and Southerners make them legendary. Oh, and southern churches? Those folks have the granddaddies of all potlucks.
Is it just me or are there a myriad of social rules that surround potlucks? Some are stated and pretty obvious, like “bring your own server spoon” or “label your dishes if you want them back.”
I’m often intrigued by how potlucks are organized. When I was a kid, I vaguely remember it being decided by your family’s last initial. Like A-F brought a main dish, G-M brought a side dish, and so on.
My maiden name is Brunk so we obviously were assigned in the “B” category. What if someone who had the last name Gordon wanted to bring a main dish that and what if my family wanted to bring Grammy’s green bean casserole? Would the social structure of the potluck utterly break down if someone went outside their assignment?
This conundrum is why I love creative potluck themes (or not having a theme at all). Why not bring your favorite childhood dish? Or perhaps simply bring something you know you can eat (which is becoming increasingly important with the various food sensitivities out there)?
What does your tribe do about people who don’t bring food to the potluck? At a place I worked for many years, we had the issue of some people always brought several dishes and then some never brought anything. As in, they didn’t even bother to grab a 2-liter of pop. The manager finally made the rule that if you don’t contribute, you don’t eat. I thought it was fair but having to police that sucked the fun out.
Do you ever worry about what to bring to a potluck? There always seems to be this pressure at Southern potlucks to bring something made from scratch. Only the single people got a pass on bringing that bucket of chicken or *gasp* store-bought rolls. Why is this a thing?
First of all, when I was single I was not a half-bad cook so I enjoyed bringing homemade dishes. But what if you’re that busy mom who doesn’t have the time or energy to whip up magic in the kitchen? Bring the chicken…I can promise you that many people will be grateful for a food they recognize.
Oh, and did your church have that one lady who brought a famous dish that no one dared try to replicate by bringing what would most assuredly be a subpar version? I used to think people were just being weird but as an adult, I realize it’s fear. Fear of not measuring up. Fear of shaking the potluck matrix and it might appear that they were trying to unseat the macaroni casserole queen from her throne.
I have to confess that I have two dishes that I started taking to potlucks and they’ve become pretty popular. In fact, they are often requested.
Link to Jamie’s trifle recipe: http://jamiesthots.com/2013/05/16/home-tip-fruit-and-yogurt-trifle/
My mom’s yogurt trifle is a fantastically easy summer dessert. All it has is fruit, yogurt, angel food cake and Cool Whip. I didn’t realize how prideful I had become about this dessert until my husband asked me to make it last year for his company’s Thanksgiving or Christmas potluck. What?!?? You can’t make that in the winter. It just isn’t done.
I did end up making the trifle but sent it with strict instructions that my husband was to explain to each co-worker that it’s normally a lot better with fresh fruit instead of thawed frozen fruit. Considering the bowl came back almost empty I don’t think anyone cared about the fruit.
The other dish I enjoy making is what I call “Jamie’s Enchiladas.” Basically, they are whatever is on the back of the Old El Paso enchilada sauce can but I use more meat, add sliced black olives and am very strict about using flour tortillas instead of corn. It’s weird to me that so many friends love them but it makes me feel good!
Link to Jamie’s enchilada recipe: http://jamiesthots.com/2014/02/16/jamies-enchiladas/
What are some other rules (spoken or unspoken) that you see at a potluck? What are your favorite potluck dishes? Share your recipes in the comments!
Jamie writes over at Jamie’s Thots where she loves sharing about life, faith, food and her four furkids.
Link to Jamie’s Thots: http://jamiesthots.com/
Sunday Link-Up {Nov. 2, 2014}
#AWBU 2014 Recap Google Analytics Part 3
By Elizabeth Michael
If one of the templates helps you measure your business objectives, then you can set up your goal from a template. Here is how you set up a “Custom” goal.
Click the “Custom” button.
We will go through setting up a custom goal that measures a destination, like filling out an email inquiry form and upon completion, landing on a specific URL (www.yourwebsite.com/thankyou/ with the “/thankyou/” being the important part).
Type the last part of your URL, “/thankyou/” into the destination field and in the drop down menu to the left, select “equals to.” You can assign arbitrary dollar amounts to goal completions. Here, I have said that getting an email is worth fifty cents to me. Then click “Create Goal.”
Once you have created your goal, it will start to track and report your goal completion rates. Above, you can see two established goals and their results. You can view this by clicking on the “Reporting” tab and on the left hand menu, click on “Conversions” and then “Goals” and “Overview.”
And, there you have it! You can now set up Google Analytics and Goals for your blog. I hope this saves you time measuring your success and reporting. If you have any questions, you can contact me on Twitter – @lizzymichael.