I also enjoyed the fresh ginger limeade the guys from Marche were serving. Very refreshing!

The omnivorous Mr. Eats enjoyed a pork confit banh mi from Marché , sushi-grade seared pepper tuna steak from Chappy’s, a trio of duck hot wings from Café Nonna (I think?), a jalapeno cheddar biscuit topped with bacon jam and a pickled grape from Red Pony, and his very favorite, the Korean bbq taco from Riff’s. If you were one of the large number of people that heard a very tall man evangelizing about this taco, that was Mr. Eats.

There was plenty of great food for me, too. I like how I can count on Porta Via to serve a vegetarian ravioli (spinach), which is what I started with. Tayst was serving these amazing little lemon cakes topped with strawberry jam (at the end of the night, I grabbed the very last one; sorry guys). And The Bloomy Rind was serving a delicious beer cheese soup (Kathleen shared her secret with me—she includes The Lusty Monk mustard in her recipe and now, so will I).

The Riff's crew still working hard at the end of the night

The guys at Riff’s had an interesting pairing—the aforementioned Korean bbq taco (served with slaw and quinoa) that was gluten-free plus a glutinous gluttonous macaroni and cheese panini. It was even better than it sounds. I had my taco meat-free and luckily, had a smoked gouda-topped deviled egg on hand from The Wild Hare to cool my mouth afterward. But the “Egg of the Night” award goes to AM@FM for their farm egg salad. I think a lot of people didn’t realize they were participating, so I made sure to tell everyone to try it. The egg salad was placed on a crostini and topped with capers, (pickled?) mustard seeds and fresh dill. This was not your grandma’s egg salad.

I’m not finished.

Image via twitter.com/biscuitluvtruck

Amerigo had a fantastic white bean hummus bruschetta, the Biscuit Love Truck had a (lard-free!) biscuit topped with (homemade, gelatin-free!) lemon curd and strawberry jam and to continue on with dessert, there was Sweet 16^th. As usual, they brought a huge assortment of their treats, including brownies, fig oat bars, lemon squares, coconut macaroons, and almond cookies. Not surprisingly, they ran out of goodies fairly quickly. I learned they actually create more savory items than sweet at their store these days; I’m going to add them to my “to-do” lunch list.

I missed out on the mushroom and goat cheese puff from Perl Catering, but did get to have one of their spring pea blinis (so happy the peas have come in at the local farms!). But I was stuffed anyway. I was happy to get a coconut water from The Turnip Truck (and chat with blogger Lady Smokey, creator of a smoked gouda biscuit from a previous event that I can still taste on my mind’s tongue).

And this is just about half of what was there. Half! Many thanks to the organizers at Second Harvest for a wonderful event (great idea to open up the back patio!), the participating restaurants and beverage distribution companies and most of all, to the evening’s most important folks—those of you who came out to support the event. It was great to chat with some fellow bloggers as well as a few readers—so glad y’all said “hi!”

For more information on how you can help out Second Harvest all year ’round, check out their website.

I also really love it on a pizza. I’m not sure where I first had (or heard of) arugula on a pizza, but its peppery flavor actually stands up to a wee bit of wilting. A favorite topping of bloggers and restaurants is the prosciutto + fig combination with a little brie and arugula which, of course, doesn’t work for me, so I had to improvise (though when figs are in season, you can bet I’ll have them on my pizza).

For a little texture, I decided to roast some thin apple slices (pears would also work). In lieu of the fresh figs, I just used a thin layer of fig jam as the sauce. I placed the apples on top of the fig jam, thin strips of sauteed shallots, plus brie and cooked the pizza at 450F (according to dough instructions). Just before serving the pizza, I sprinkled it with sea salt and arugula leaves. That’s it!

Notes:
1. Use a simple thin crust dough mix or recipe. I like Weisenberger’s Mill pizza crust, but it’s easy to make your own. Do not use the Trader Joe’s crust; it’s a thick crust, which just doesn’t work well. Use a crust recipe or mix that has an 8-12 minute cook time for best results.

2. Dried apples or pears would work well, also. I just had a fresh apple on hand, so that’s what I used. Roasting it retains the apple flavor while removing the moisture.

3. Freeze the brie for at least 15-30 minutes in advance. That’ll make it easier to remove the rind and will help keep it from melting down too quickly while your pizza cooks.

Tuesday, May 15th
Yazoo Brew & Our Kids, Too

5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Yazoo Brewery
910 Division Street Nashville, TN 37203

$30 per person (or $50 per couple) for 2 pints of locally brewed beer and B&C BBQ (per person). This is a fantastic fundraiser for Our Kids (please check out their very important mission). Purchase tickets online by the end of the day!

Wednesday, May 16th
HAE Fundraiser Wine Dinner
UPDATE: this event is sold out.

6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Amerigo Italian Restaurant
1920 West End Avenue  Nashville, TN 37203

For $50 per person, you’ll get to experience a lavish dinner of five courses with wine (special diets can be accommodated with advance notice) that benefits the Hereditary Angioedema Association. See the Facebook page for details and the mouth-watering menu.

NEW!
Wednesday, May 16th
Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin Slam

6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Holland House Bar & Refuge
935 West Eastland Avenue  Nashville, TN 37206

Just $10 (at the door), this event is a cocktail competition. You’ll get to sample at least 15 different cocktails and soak them up with some complimentary light appetizers. Thanks to Adrien and Chris for the info. All you need to know is right here.

Thursday, May 17th
Generous Helpings

5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Nashville Farmers Market
900 Rosa Parks Boulevard Nashville, TN 37208

Have you checked out the list of participating restaurants? Wow. This wonderful event (benefiting Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee) is well worth the price of the tickets! Buy in advance for $40 per person or at the door for $50 per person. Hope to see you there!

Saturday, May 19th
Savor Nashville Celebrity Chef Dinner

7:00 p.m.
Hutton Hotel
1808 West End Avenue Nashville, TN 37203

Tickets to this event are $150 per person, which includes five-course dinner by guest chefs Bruce Moffett and James Boyce and wine pairings from Cultivate Wines. Plus, guests will enjoy performances from Grammy Award winning songwriters, Tim Nichols and Marv Green. A silent auction will be held to raise funds for Hands on Nashville. More information here. My friend, Beth attended last year and had a fantastic time.

NEW!  
Saturday, May 19th
Vivek’s Epicurean Adventures Supper Club

6:00 p.m.
Nashville Farmers Market
900 Rosa Parks Boulevard Nashville, TN 37208

Fans of Vivek’s blog finally get the opportunity to enjoy the amazing menus he’s got rattling around in his head! $45 per person or $65 per person with pairings of libations. Note: Vivek happily makes substitutions based on dietary requirements; please be sure to make note of that with your reservation. Find out more here (including this month’s menu) and mark your calendar for the next supper club on June 23!

Sunday, May 20th
Savor Nashville Challenge to the Chefs

12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Union Station Hotel Lobby
1001 Broadway  Nashville, TN 37203

For $35 per person, you get to watch some of the area’s best chefs compete against each other in a cook-off using a selection of local products: Goo Goo Cluster, Benton’s Bacon, and Jack Daniel’s Honey. Guests will get to sample what the chefs create, plus enjoy a Bloody Mary bar, samples from Jack Daniel’s Honey, Juice Nashville, and Cascal.  Guests will get to vote for their favorite as well. I probably won’t be doing much sampling, but I do hope to do some friendly heckling to a few of the competing chefs. More information here.

Shew! That’s a lot! I think I’ll have a salad for lunch today!

Mr. Eats excitedly pointed it out to me as we made our way down the line and was incredulous that I’d never heard of it. It’s apparently popular in east Tennessee and the Rivergate Mall location made fans out of many Nashvillians (according to the twitterz). So, what is a Petro? It’s this:

from www.petros.com

They have a version made with vegetarian chili. Despite it being about eleventy billion degrees outside, I got one. And it was darn tasty and quite filling despite its somewhat diminutive size.

As Mr. Eats was eating something (I’m not sure what; I sometimes don’t bother to ask), I could see him pining away for my Petro, recalling trips to the mall food court from his boyhood. Alas, I do not share when he (or anyone) has food that they cannot share with me. Hey, I don’t want to go hungry, y’know.

So, once we got back to Nashville, I decided to surprise him with homemade Petros and assembled them thusly:
1. Fritos Original*
2. Trader Joe’s vegetarian chili (Amy’s makes a good version, too)
3. shredded cheddar cheese
4. chopped fresh tomatoes
5. diced green onion
6. sour cream
7. black olives

Mr. Eats loved it! (As did Mini Eats, surprisingly.) He said it was the closest he’d ever tasted to a real Petro (I imagine their chili is the secret to their success). I think what put it over the edge was the green onion. People think you can skimp on green onion. Don’t.

I served it individual bowls, so preparation and clean up was a snap. A++ on this very easy and very tasty dinner. It’s a bit on the fattening side (I used full fat sour cream because…well, I just like to), but fairly nutritious. Add a side of steamed or roasted broccoli and you’re set!

*Check the list of ingredients on a bag of Fritos Original. There’re only three, which is pretty awesome.

Comment #14 – Nicole!

Congratulations Nicole. And apologies to those of you who didn’t win. But be sure to enter to win over at Fearless Homemaker (by 5pm today!) or at So How’s It Taste (by Friday!) for another couple of shots at free tickets. Or just go ahead and buy your tickets now. They’re just $40 if you purchase in advance (and just $50 at the door). The money goes to the wonderful Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee.

Plus, booze is included!

The next big event featuring a variety of dishes from the city’s best restaurants is Generous Helpings, which benefits the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. For just $50 per person ($40 in advance!), you can sample food and wine/beer from:

55 South
Amerigo Italian Restaurant
Chappy’s on Church
fido
Fish & Co.
F. Scott’s Restaurant and Jazz Bar
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
Kickin’ Coffee and Tea
Kohana Japanese Restaurant
Kroger Chef Shoppes Local Catering
Marche Artisan Foods
Margot Café & Bar
McConnell House
Miel Restaurant
Nashville State Community College Culinary Arts
Noshville Delicatessen
perl Catering
Porta Via Italian Kitchen
Provence Breads and Café
Red Pony
Riff’s Fine Street Food
Second Harvest Food Bank Culinary Arts Center
Sloco
Sol on Main
Solario
Sweet 16th Bakery
Table 3
tayst
The Bloomy Rind
The Local Taco
The Mad Platter
The Turnip Truck
The Wild Hare
Watermark

That’s quite an impressive list. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Also awesome: I’m giving away a pair of tickets to the event! It will be held on Thursday, May 17 at 5:30 at the Nashville Farmers Market. Second Harvest wants to keep you up to date on the great work they do, so all you have to do to enter the giveaway is sign up for their email list. Come back to this post and leave a comment letting me know that you signed up and you’re entered to win!

For up to 3 additional entries, you can also:

1. “Like” Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee on Facebook. (If you already like them, just say so!)
2. Follow @2HarvestMidTN on Twitter. (If you already follow them, just say so!).
3. Follow @lesleyeats on Twitter and tweet Yay! @lesleyeats is giving away tickets to @2HarvestMidTN’s Generous Helpings http://ow.ly/aFeGz or something similar (as long as you include the @s and the link!).

Leave a separate comment for each entry (up to four total!) to make sure you’ve maximized your chances of winning.

The contest will be open from now until Wednesday, May 9 at 1pm CDT. The winner will be chosen at random and be notified by email (please be sure your comment includes a valid email address) that afternoon and will have until Friday, May 11 at 1pm CDT to respond. If there’s no response, I will choose another winner.

Good luck! I hope to see you there!

Looks delicious, doesn’t it? I read through it and made a few notes because (and I’m kicking myself), I didn’t buy the French breakfast radishes at the market and I’ve been out of pine nuts for about two months. I did have just about everything else, so here’s the modified recipe that still turned out (in my opinion) exceptionally well. The major substitutions were:
radishes -> fresh ground pepper
pine nuts -> blanched slivered almonds
sauteed asparagus/broccoli -> roasted asparagus and broccoli

I also sauteed the shallot to take the bite out of it because I served it over a bed of Bibb lettuce. And this dressing? Sounds weird and doesn’t taste great on its own, but when it hits the broccoli and asparagus, it works. Really. When served over the lettuce, it made a nice entree. We also had some crusty French bread smeared with ginger persimmon jam from Perl Catering (also picked up at the West Nashville Farmers Market). They have a limited quantity of this jam, so if you see it, buy it!

Asparagus Salad
adapted from 101 Cookbooks
serves 2-4

Ingredients
10-12 spears of thick asparagus
1 cup broccolini (or broccoli) florets, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces

1 small shallot, chopped
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
big pinch of salt
fresh ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
shaved parmesan

Roast the broccoli at 400F until it starts to brown. Remove from the pan and place in a large bowl. Then roast the asparagus for 3-4 minutes until tender, but al dente. Remove the asparagus and cut on the bias in 1/2 inch pieces. Place in the bowl with the broccoli.

Saute the chopped shallot in just bit of oil until transluscent. Transfer to a small bowl to make the dressing. Stir in the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and mix well.

Place the almonds in the pan used for the shallots and toast slightly over medium-high heat and then add to the bowl of asparagus. Toss all with about 1/3 to 1/2 of the dressing and the lemon zest. Serve as a side dish or add the remaining dressing to greens and serve as a salad. Finish with shaved Parmesan.

Free Frozen Yogurt!
Tomorrow, April 17th Marble Slab Creamery and MaggieMoo’s are giving away free scoops of their new frozen yogurt flavors. Their “Yobate” is meant to take the sting out of tax day. It’s good from 4:00 – 7:00 pm at participating Marble Slab locations (click here for the MaggieMoo’s locations) around the country. Lemon crème? Birthday cake yogurt? Yes, please.

Iron Fork Nashville 2012 – April 25
Once again, the Nashville Scene is sponsoring Iron Fork Nashville. The event is April 25 at 6pm at Marathon Music Works. Get your tickets for just $45 each here (proceeds benefit Second Harvest Food Bank!). Typically, I don’t attend events where you pay a set price and sample from the vendors because there’s usually not enough non-dessert food to keep me from having a massive sugar buzz. However, this event is very vegetarian (and vegan) friendly. I ate quite well last year and just barely had room to stuff in 3 mini cupcakes from Cupcake Collection.

Generous Helpings May 17
The Nashville Farmers Market is once again hosting Generous Helpings (also benefitting the Second Harvest Food Bank) on May 17. Find out all about the participating restaurants and vendors and how to get tickets (just $40 in advance) on the event’s Facebook page.

Savor Nashville May 19-20
“The city’s annual culinary weekend” happens again next month. The weekend kicks off with a celebrity chef dinner (paired with Cultivate Wines, which I happen to know are very good) on Saturday night and continues on Sunday with Challenge to the Chefs, a competition among Nashville Chefs who must use three very special local ingredients in their dishes (Goo Goo Clusters, Benton’s Bacon and Jack Daniel’s Honey). If you attend the Challenge, you actually get to sample their creations! Tickets for the Celebrity Chef dinner are $150 each, but the Challenge to the Chefs tickets are a little more budget-friendly $35 each. Check out which chefs are participating and get your tickets here.

Taste of Music City June 2
Another event that allows you to sample a lot of different restaurants and caterers all at once is Taste of Music City, which actually takes place on the Korean Veterans’ Memorial Bridge on June 2. It’s quite a party! More details coming soon here.

Happy Tastings!

Recently, I attended a wine tasting at Tavern hosted by Cultivate, a wine maker that has assembled a gallery of wines from all over the world to come up with some very tasty results. The wines were paired with specially-prepared small plates (vegetarian for me–love those pierogies!) meant to complement each bottle. We sampled four different Cultivate wines: an Italian Pinot Grigio (Double Blind–light and refreshing and begging for a breezy veranda to enjoy), a California Chardonnay (Dream Walking–medium-weight and suprisingly good and bright because it’s not oaky like most Chardonnays), a California Cabernet-Merlot Blend (The Feast–a wine that requires a meal; it’s not a standalone sipping wine though it doesn’t pinch you in the jaw like some heavy reds), and an Argentinian Malbec (The Gambler–my favorite and the favorite of most of the other tasters; a wonderful sipping wine or great with food, too). All four were very good and very accessible; good enough to please someone with a sophisticated palate as well as wine novices (and those of us in between).

Glass of wine? Why, yes, thank you.

The Cultivate hostess sent us home with two bottles of our choice to enjoy at our leisure. Words cannot express how happy this made me. I can’t (no, really!) finish a bottle of wine on my own at  home,  but I do have a group of friends that likes to get together to sip a bit. It had been far too long since our last event, so this was the perfect excuse to gather and share with Night Cheese.

Night Cheese? Yes, Night Cheese. Y’see, it all started quite a long time ago on Twitter. A mutual love and admiration (and, perhaps, self-identification) with Liz Lemon was the genesis. And an appreciation of Tina Fey’s character’s clever reimagination of a not-great Bob Seger song. And, of course, a love of cheese. And wine. Our Night Cheese is a semi-regular meeting of friends blessed with two X chromosomes and is a refreshingly adult event for those of us in the group who have precious little adult interaction outside our partners/family members.

Those partners and other non-members wonder about our Night Cheese. But there’s no secret to it*; we have no special handshake or speakeasy-style admission. We just sit around, chitchat, drink wine and eat cheese. It’s simple, but a lot of fun. And did you know that eating cheese with wine will actually help prevent red wine from staining your teeth? It does so by neutralizing the acid in wines. So, you see we need to eat cheese with our wine (and cheese without wine is just silly).

And I need Night Cheese. All of my work (both domestic and otherwise) takes place in my home. I need conversation. And interaction. And though my husband is wonderful and my vivacious toddler is learning new words and phrases every day, I must have my Night Cheese. It’s a wonderful break from the ordinary. Topics at the most recent gathering ranged from the various meanings of “swag” to the times when employers provided free health insurance, a member’s gluten-free diet (we got to try Italia’s GF crust, which is good), and the differences among Southern–specifically west Tennessee–dialects (see: tump).

I say it’s simple, but we definitely try to impress each other with what we serve. I think we secretly give each other points for coming with the local cheeseries, Noble Springs and Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese.  Or some concoction like one member’s brie bruschetta. And then there were these totally-amazing-OMG-want-right-now cake balls. But we definitely like to share our old and new favorite wines. So I was quite thankful to get to introduce these Cultivate wines to the group.

As you can see, we had our "work" cut out for us.

The verdict? The Gambler Malbec–of course–was a winner. Enjoyed by all. We didn’t get to open the Dream Walking Chardonnay (as you can see from the picture, we had quite a lot of wine to choose from), but I’m saving it for next time. And I’m already looking forward to it.

*or is there?

ETA: Oh–good news! Cultivate Wines is offering a special 10% discount to Lesley Eats readers when you order from their website, shop.cultivatewines.com and enter the code  LESLEYEATS10.

No-Bisquick Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

Uh, no. Not only am I now too snobby (and vegetarian) to go into a Red Lobster, I also do not keep Bisquick in my pantry. It’s pointless. It’s just a box containing ingredients you already have: flour, baking powder, salt and oil (or butter, as I prefer). And if you don’t use it regularly, it will go bad. In particular, baking powder loses its potency over time (see this post for instructions on testing your powder) and you’ll get flat, little pucks instead of fluffy biscuits.

So here’s a recipe for those of us who don’t have–and don’t want–Bisquick in the pantry! I made these to take to a party and they were a pretty big hit (I made two-bite size biscuits). One of my friends referred to them as “sausage-less sausage balls,” which I thought was pretty funny. I hope that no one was actually disappointed that they were sausage-less, though.

Sausage-less Sausage Balls!

This recipe isn’t too snobby, though. I did use garlic powder. Garlic purists even frown upon pre-minced garlic in a jar; I can only imagine their opinion of garlic powder. Anyway, these are easy to make and guaranteed crowd-pleasers.

Cheddar Garlic Biscuits
yield: about three dozen mini biscuits or a dozen regular size drop biscuits

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder, divided into 2 half-teaspoons
1 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese (4 ounces of chunk cheese = 8 ounces shredded)
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), divided into 3/4 stick and 1/4 stick, both melted
1 cup milk

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and one half-teaspoon garlic powder in a large bowl. Stir in the shredded cheese with a fork. Stir in butter and milk just until moistened. Do not overstir.

Pinch off  (or pick up with fork) desired-size amounts onto a baking sheet and cook at 450F for about 12-15 minutes (until lightly browned).

Stir in remaining half-teaspoon of garlic powder into quarter-stick of melted butter. When biscuits are done, remove from oven and brush garlic butter over the tops of biscuits.

Note: Do not overstir the batter after you’ve added the butter and milk! Overstirring will prevent the biscuits from rising properly, so they won’t be nice and fluffy. And resist the tempation to roll them. The batter should almost be marshmallow-y fluffy. Just use a fork to scrape up the amount you want and drop it onto the baking sheet. Trust me; it was the second batch I made of these biscuits that actually made it to the party.

You can also substitute vegetable oil for the butter in the mix, but butter or a butter-flavored substitute is pretty key for the golden biscuit tops.