Angelic Farm to Table Sweethearts Dinner

Sara and I had an opportunity to attend a Farm-to-Table Cooking Class for Sweethearts on Friday evening. As it turns the event was an awesome experience and we had a lot of fun sharing with three other couples who took advantage of this tasteful culinary excursion.  Every year I am always attempting to come up with an idea of what to do on our anniversary; this year Sara found the perfect plan. She had discovered Angelic Organics on Facebook and saw they were planning a Farm-to-Table cooking class for Sweethearts!

Angelic Organics Learning Center is located in Caledonia, Illinois you can find more information about them at www.learngrowconnect.org The Angelic Organics Learning Center was established in 1999 by Tom Spaulding and John Peterson along with a group of Chicago area residents.  One of the tenets of the learning center is to establish local food systems.  They are communicators of educational opportunities and bring farmers to the table connecting food and farms together with local communities.  They offer experiences to those who may have never been to a farm or have ever understood the connection between what we find on our table and the farms the food comes from.  Part of the education is to connect, partner and develop a local supply of food for many who may not know where to look or how to purchase a CSA, community supported agriculture. 

We are always on the lookout for unique but fun adventures and especially experiences that offer education as part of the evening. The learning center is very special place; it is built out of hay bales, black locust post and other sustainable building materials.  All night long I was eyeing the design of the building and taking mental notes on some of the methods of construction.  The room above has solar panels on the outside and the floor is heated by radiant heat. Keep in mind outside it was a brisk 5 degrees and with a wind chill of minus, FRICKING COLD! The inside was nice and toasty!  Our menu for the evening was Apple-Curry Butternut Squash Soup, Caramelized Onion and Herb Quiche, Cheese and Goat Sausage Quiche, Micro Greens (I believe they were pea shoots) Lemon Vinaigrette Salad. Each of us prepared parts of the menu and while we cooked we spent time getting to know each other.  One of the couples, Sara and I have known for a very long time, Tracy Madison and her husband Fred were also in attendance and thus we together had some interesting intellectual discussions on various topics including books we have read. As far as the cooking, well I tried to hide my background but when you are attending an event like this and one of the couples knows of your culinary background, it becomes difficult to disguise. Besides the second I diced an onion I was exposed! It did not really matter because the learning center is full of great learning material and I seriously was having a blast as prepared our dinner in a great environment!

Walking into the learning center provided us with an introduction to their cattle, Scottish Highland, and watching these mystical like animals forage on their hay was a fun way to start our evening.  One of the animals had his head buried in the feed as he chowed down his locally grown hay! The animals have a long hair coat; at one point in time during the evening they were announced to be hippie steer!  We also walked past their chicken tractor on the way in and did not realize that was what it was until later we learned of it.  I know, we should have known! The farm also raises goats and the meat for quiche came from the goats raised on the farm.  Sara and I are not usually big fans of goat meat; Sara likes to refer to goat meat as to having a goaty flavor! I tend to agree but this meat did not have a strong goat flavor and later on I shared with Sara my thoughts on the meat, I felt it had a sweetness that was pretty good. 

Our cuisine for the evening turned out to be tasty, although we may have over salted the quiche it still was fun and tasty to eat.  The more important part of our adventure and attendance was about having great conversation while preparing a locally grown meal. 

On a side note, once they discovered I was a chef they asked if I might like to come back to assist in preparing their summer Farm-to-Table dinner.  I have to look at the calendar and if it works out and they still want me to help work with other chefs, I might just have to take them up on their offer.