Friday Find; ISES March Event

Today, our "Friday Find" comes from this month's ISES meeting, which we attended last Tuesday, March 18. The International Special Events Society is a networking association for event vendors and professionals. To learn more about this organization, catch up on our previous blog post, "Introducing ISES"! ISES holds a meeting on the third Tuesday of every month and this month we attended a not-so-normal event venue; Ferguson Bath, Kitchen, and Lighting Gallery. This is number one on our Friday Find list!

• Ferguson Bath, Kitchen and Lighting Gallery

 

Ferguson's is a showroom displaying bathroom and kitchen fixtures by some of the leading manufacturers in the business. However, this isn't your typical fixture warehouse; instead, customers are able to see these fixtures displayed in some of the most gorgeous bathroom/kitchen set-ups. Take for example, the picture shown above (and my personal favorite kitchen design). This suggests that Ferguson's isn't only a retail store, but a great place to go for décor and style inspiration. After taking a tour of this facility, we sat down in one of the biggest kitchen set-ups for a cooking demo and tasting by Village Pantry Catering. Which brings us to our next Friday Find.

• Village Pantry Catering's Chocolate Dipped Palmiers

 

 

How have we not heard about this dessert before?! Village Pantry's Pastry Chef, Sarah Bepler, gave us the scoop on how to make this seriously delicious treat and we're here to share the secret!

• Take a sheet of puffed pastry and cut it in half
• Dust each half with granulated sugar
• Fold 2 inches from both ends inwards and then fold both ends again (the sheet will be folded in fourths lengthwise)
• Dust again with granulated sugar
• Cut each half sheet into 6, 1-inch sections of the puff pastry and then lay on a cookie sheet lined with parchment
• Bake at 350 for 5 to 6 minutes (until they start to brown)
• Then flip them over and bake an additional 4 to 5 minutes on the other side (when they're done, they will puff up like little hearts.)

Once you have your pastry baked, you then dip the ends into melted dark chocolate and set them on a sheet of parchment until the chocolate cools. Now, you start working on the vanilla whipped cream.

• Take 1 quart of heavy whipping cream, 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• Whip these ingredients with an electric mixer until it starts to form stiff peaks

Then using a piping bag with a pastry tip, Village Pantry informs us to pipe the whipped cream on the underside of each palmier and sandwich it together with another palmier. This should make a total of six sandwiches. At the end, you can dust with powdered sugar. Thanks for the recipe, Village Pantry!

This dessert isn't the only thing Village Pantry showed us how to make, which brings us to the next item on our list!

• There's more pasta sauces available than marinara and alfredo

 

Chef Larry of Village Pantry Catering performed a cooking demo of, what they call, the three "mother sauces." Starting off by creating a roux with flour, butter, and cream, he created a basic white sauce, which can then be turned into some secondary sauces. These secondary sauces included pesto cream, Cajun cream,  and alfredo, which let me tell you, were delicious!

He then demonstrated a basic brown sauce, by again making a roux of flour and butter. But this time he added shallots and allowed it to cook longer than the white sauce (creating the brown color). To finalize the brown sauce, he added beef stock and voilà! The secondary sauces of Swedish sauce and marsala were created!

We were impressed with how easy these sauces were to create! To learn more about how to make these incredible sauces visit Village Pantry's blog!

Along with Village Pantry, Epitome Bartending also made an appearance at this month's ISES event.

• Epitome Bartending's Martinez

 

 

Now this drink is no stranger to us, as Epitome Bartending provided the recipe for it in our January "Drinks for Thought" post. However, we had never tried this drink before, until now! This classic version of a martini was the perfect blend of sweet and savory. With 2 parts of Sweet Vermouth, 1 part London Dry Gin, 1/4 part Maraschino Liqueur and then a dash or two of orange bitters, this drink was not your normal martini! See for yourself by checking out our previous blog post to learn more on how to make this dangerously good drink.

A special thanks to Pottinger Photography for the great pictures!

Want to take part in these ISES meetings? Take a look at the ISES website to find out how to become a member.