AN EASY HOLIDAY (or every day) APPETIZER

So it's the three day countdown to the biggest foodie day of the year and I simply could not be more excited. As a food-oriented blog, I felt obligated to post SOMETHING for this foodie occasion, but the internet is so saturated with Thanksgiving ideas and tips, that there is really not a whole lot left to say. So, instead of talking about brining a turkey or how to make the perfect pie crust, I'm posting a little appetizer that looks wonderful on a fall table but could really be used year round.

We used this recipe for BRULEED BRIE for a luncheon that we catered this week and it was a definite hit! 

(And it's so easy!)

Go to the store and select your favorite wheel of brie cheese. We personally love talking to the well educated cheese mongers at the Whole Foods counters because they are consistently friendly and passionate about their cheese selections.

All you do is this:

Slice off the top rind of the brie (make sure to keep the side and bottom rinds on because it will hold the melted cheese together when it's baked). Lightly beat an egg white and paint on a light coating on top of your brie wheel. This will give your brie some color when baked and well help the other ingredients adhere. Lightly sprinkle somewhere between 2 tsp. and 1 tbs. of sugar on top (depending on your preference of sweetness). We used your run-of-the-mill sugar here but you could certainly use light or dark brown sugar depending on your taste preference. Brulee this in a 400 degree oven for somewhere around 2 minutes (this will largely depend on the oven you're using!) When the brie starts to just barely brulee, add your choice of nuts. We chose almonds because we had some on hand but we think that pecans would be lovely as well. (Note: if you choose pecans, perhaps decide to stick to the lower end of the sugar measurement because pecans are naturally sweeter than, say, almonds.) Stick it back in the oven for some further bruleed color (about another 2 minutes). Be careful that your nuts don't burn. 

We served our bruleed brie wheel with some figs that we roasted with honey and maple syrup, some dried cranberries and golden raisins, an assortment of crackers, and a pumpkin seed pesto. It's a modern twist on the boring cheese platter with cubed Monterey Jack. Using brie automatically sounds fancier and the colors are to die for on a fall table. 

{Flower props go to Robin of Inspire Floral. inspirefloral@hotmail.com}

Try this at your next soiree and tell us what you think!

xo,

                     Ms. Fork

Pairing Wine with Thanksgiving Dinner

If you're lucky enough to be one of those people whose mother or grandmother slaves for three whole days on cooking up a fantastic Thanksgiving spread and all you have to do is show up, unbutton the top button of your Sunday trousers, and gorge, good for you! But if you're anything like the non-cooking members of my family, chances are you're at least asked or expected to bring the wine. Which proposes an excellent and controversial question:


How does one pair wine with a Thanksgiving spread?


There are so many different side dishes and flavors on each Thanksgiving table that knowing which bottle of wine to bring can be very confusing and intimidating. From cranberry relish, to white and dark meat turkey, to herb filled stuffing, pickled this, peppered that...is there really one bottle of wine that can see you through the whole meal? Even among the most educated wine scholars, this very issue is argued in depth each year.
If you research this topic on the internet, you'll find every recommendation under the sun from champagne to cabernet sauvignon. But don't be overwhelmed. Just stick to a general rule of selecting drier whites with some acidity and light-bodied reds with elegant tannins that will accompany the turkey nicely but will not be wiped out by the flavors of the other side dishes.


As far as whites go, here are some agreed upon favorites:


The innate flavors of apple, apricot, and honey and the acidity of a good, drier style Riesling give it a significant pairing edge with dishes like sweet potatoes, turkey meat, and spice-laden stuffing. Be careful when choosing a Riesling that you choose one that's got some acidity on the finish and that's not cloyingly sweet. We like an Alsatian Riesling (that means it's from Alsace, France) for its dryness. Washington Rieslings can also be appropriate because while it's a New World wine, some have a toe in the Old World style, making for an overall crowd pleaser.


A personal Thanksgiving favorite for Mr. Fork and I is Gewurztraminer. If you choose a good one, it has some oomph on the nose but a nice spicy palate that appeals to the flavors in turkey and gravy quite nicely.


For some red wine options, try these:


Pinot Noir is an easy choice. It's lighter body and usually elegant mouthfeel, appeals to a crowd and it's earthy flavors, usually with some mushroom undertones, is an easy pair with the flavors traditionally found in turkey and stuffing.


Want to try something new this Thanksgiving? Pick up a Beaujolais Nouveau, made from the Gamay grape. It's light bodied, usually fruit forward, and has little tannins, making it an easy pair for your turkey and its friendly side dishes. Best part is, there are a lot of Beaujolais bottles at great values so you'll be bringing a French bottle of wine which looks very fancy and impressive without dipping into the savings account. But don't go looking for one just yet. Under French government laws, these bottles aren't released for sale until the third Thursday of November. These wines are meant to be drunk young, so no need to hide it in the dark corners of your closet for your unborn child's high school graduation party. Drink it now.


At the end of the day, don't get wrapped up in all of the do's and don'ts. If all goes as planned, the focus will be on all of the things we all should be thankful for this year. Good wine being one of them.


Happy Thanksgiving from Mr. and Ms. Fork!


xo,
                Ms. Fork

A Tip From Mr. Fork: Using Coconut Water in the Kitchen

So, as the holidays are quickly approaching, Ms. Fork and I are trying to get the belt tied one notch tighter as preventative measure for all of the holiday food we will inevitably consume. Not to mention there will be a wedding next year and we need to start thinking about getting into top-notch shape (just so we can blow it all on a gourmet honeymoon, of course). Problem is, as the food lovers that we are, it is just not feasible to expect ourselves to eat unseasoned 4 oz. chicken breasts every night with a side of steamed broccoli. In fact, I braised oxtails for lunch yesterday, meaning that we basically spread fat onto bread and called it a meal. But delicious fat it was.

Anyways...this whole "diet" thing doesn't really work for us. We love to indulge and we do it often. But we have found a few tricks that work well for our inner foodie (and the fat people that live inside us). One of them is so fantastic we couldn't help but share....

Have you guys jumped on the coconut water wagon yet?? I'll admit, the first time I tried it, I expected coconut milk or something close to it so it took one or two sips to acquire the taste. But it's quickly become a staple in the Fork refrigerator. While I'm sure it's great for hardcore athletes, a hardcore athlete I am not. What I do know is that it's a great thirst quencher for anyone with a sodium-heavy diet (guilty!!!) and best of all, I have found ways to use it as a culinary tool! While you can use any coconut water in these recipes, we recommend using C2O Coconut Water. We've tried every coconut water on the shelves, and we just think that C2O has a creamier, richer taste which translates wonderfully for cooking.  They get their coconuts exclusively from Thailand, and just like grapes for wine, the region really makes all the difference! Give these recipes a try or come up with your own! We'd love to hear your feedback!

C2O WASABI SOY-DRESSING

1 clove of garlic, finely minced

1 tsp. wasabi (more or less, depending on your taste)

1/4 cup of C2O Coconut Water

1/2 tsp. ginger, finely minced

1 tbs. soy sauce

1 tbs. honey

1 cup canola oil

Pepper to taste

Whisk all of the above ingredients together, except for the canola oil. If you're doing this in a food processor, you can throw the ginger and garlic in first so the processor does the mincing for you. But if you don't have the equipment, just mince it yourself and throw it in a medium mixing bowl. Add your canola oil in a slow but steady stream either through the feed tube of your food processor or slowly into your mixing bowl while vigorously whisking to make sure the oil gets incorporated into the rest of the ingredients.

And that's it! We use this as a dressing for poki cubes. (We dice up raw ahi tuna, dress it with this coconut soy dressing, and serve it as fancy appetizer on wonton chips or vegetable wafers). But you could easily use this as a salad dressing or a condiment for your favorite grilled fish.

C2O COCONUT CURRY SAUCE

16 oz. of your favorite curry sauce (we recommend yellow curry for this recipe)

1 shallot, finely minced

1 garlic clove, finely minced

Juice of 1 lime

1/2 cup C2O coconut water

Saute shallot until lightly translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes being careful to not brown garlic. (If you brown your garlic, it will give the entire dish a burnt, bitter taste. So go ahead and start again if this happens. But, no sweat, that's why there's a whole bulb!) Add whatever your favorite curry sauce is. There's some great ones on the shelf, so this is one of the times where we think, take the shortcut! We love the Patak brand, but you can certainly make your own. Try substituting C2O Coconut Water in place of the coconut milk that your recipe calls for. After the curry sauce is heated, add your lime juice and your coconut water and heat through.

We love to serve this with our signature Shrimp and Crab Cakes but you could certainly use it with vegetable, chicken, fish, or in any other context that yellow curry is used.

We hope you give these a try and let us know what you think!

Thanks for stopping in.

           

                 

                                        - Mr. Fork

A FORK IN THE ROAD ENGAGEMENT!!

So after a little over 6 years of dating and having started this blessing of a business together, Mr. Fork has asked me to become his Mrs.!! 

We've taken the last month and a half to enjoy the excitement of it and are now starting the planning process. You'd think as an industry girl, that it'd be no big deal...a total breeze.

But I'm definitely experiencing the stress and the struggles of any other bride. 

However, it's been such a humbling experience to get to see the industry from this side of the table.

We can't wait to keep you updated as our wedding comes together piece by piece, with the help of all of our industry magicians, of course!

xoxo,
                                             Ms. (soon to be Mrs.) Fork

MASS MILITARY WEDDING

Since we've had this blog and have yet to make use of it, we figured we'd start by highlighting one of the events we're most proud of thus far. Although we were not responsible for any catering services at this event, even the smallest involvement in an event with this cause, gave us great honor.

Back in May, we were invited to provide sweets for a dessert table designed by the dolls of Charm Event Design. This event was a mass wedding ceremony and reception for 21 deserving military couples, sponsored by K-Earth 101 and hosted by the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa.

The event has since been featured on blogs including Style Unveiled, California Wedding Wave, and Style Me Pretty. We had so much fun working with all the vendors that put this event on, most of all Wenda Evans of More Than Just Weddings and her team who were the event planners, a.k.a. fairy godmothers, of the whole event. Thank you to her for inviting us to be a part of such a great cause!!

And a special thanks to Molly of Luminaire Images for providing all of the pictures below...

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo, 

                      Ms. Fork

HI THERE...

Fork in the Road Catering has finally joined the world of blogging! 

As our website is in the process of being redesigned, we wanted to give our fans, friends, & favorite vendors a way to follow us as we continue to grow.

JUST A LITTLE INTRODUCTION...

Kyle and I had been dating for a few years when we found ourselves bored with our current professions. We'd come home and cook ourselves spectacular meals and complain about our day jobs to each other. Little by little, people that we knew started to ask if we could cater their small gatherings, and then their friends started to ask, and so forth...

It didn't take long for us to realize that our true passion and talent was in the kitchen, so we took a giant "fork in the road" and started our catering business.

We are now a full-service catering company offering services that range anywhere from wedding cakes to photography to event rentals and, of course, catered food! We never take it for granted that our clients are inviting us into their homes on the most important days of their lives. This is so important to us that we customize each of our menus to perfectly fit the personality of each event, our staff are the most attentive people we've ever come across, and we limit the amount of events we book so that our clients receive the attention they deserve.

 Ultimately, we know how blessed we are to be doing what we love to do, together. So, thank you for taking a peek at where we are in our paths today and we hope that you keep dropping by to watch us as we grow.

xoxo,

                    Ms. Fork