Field-to-Table Dinner Sept. 26

Our final dinner of the year! And like all of them, it came together with a lot of elbow grease and not a little magic. This was our biggest meal of the year (we set places for 50, but some of those places were for children that never really sat down all night), and it happened to fall on our tiny town's Homecoming night, so our typical crew of local teenagers was mostly unavailable. Luckily we had a crack team that came together with volunteer adults, a college student and a teen from another school district., or I would NEVER have pulled the meal off. As usual, we had a ball in the kitchen and the picture above is proof! Our motto here at Circle M is "Play with your food!" and we did. I rarely run a recipe ahead of time, so the kitchen magicians had to basically translate on the fly the concepts I had in my head and somehow get them to the plates. A lot of chaos went into those seven courses, and a lot of love, too. The reward was great food, great company and an unbelievably gorgeous full moon over the prairie. Can't wait to do this again next year! Here's what we had:

Booze and Cruise (We cruised the farm behind a vintage tractor this time!)
Aronia Fizz
Bloody Marys
Duck Fat Popcorn
Chips and Salsa
Tomato Bar
 
Appetizers
Scallion Pancakes w/ Plum Sauce
Make-Your-Own Spring Rolls w/Thai Peanut Sauce
 
Breads
Pumpkin Bread, Caramel Apple Bread, Gluten Free Rolls
 
Salad
Arugula and Endive Salad with Duck and Cherry Balsamic
 
Soup
Pumpkin Coconut Curry
 
Main Dish
Deconstructed Mousaka (Roasted Eggplant, Pulled Smoked Lamb, Bechamel Potatoes)
Stuffed Tomatoes w/ Israeli Couscous and Roasted Peppers
 
Dessert
Yeasted Apple Cake with Aronia-Raspberry Coulis and Whipped Cream
Gluten Free Meringues with Coulis and Cream