Weddings and Galas and Buffets, oh my!

Yes, my big brother got married this weekend.  But what's really exciting is all the good food I got to eat!

Thursday night:
Rehearsal dinner at Jensen's Supper Club.  Delicious supper club-y type food including popovers, chicken in a creamy bacon sauce and chocolate cake.  Pretty much everything I didn't want to eat the night before I squeeze myself into a bridesmaid dress, but well worth it.

Friday night:
The wedding! Buca catered and it was amazing.  Penne pasta with chicken breast, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and peas tossed in a white wine cream sauce, prosciutto stuffed chicken in a pesto cream sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans and an Italian salad.  It was a dangerous buffet but I managed to keep it to one trip.  We ate amongst family, friends and candlelight and listened as Katie Gearty and the Tanner Taylor Trio provided the music.  The music was beautiful and the food was a definite hit amongst the crowd.  The food was comforting, familiar, yet sophisticated enough for a wedding reception.

The cake went along with the fall theme of the wedding.  It was apple spice with cream cheese frosting and absolutely delicious.  I love a dessert that is savory and sweet and the spiced apples were perfect with the frosting.

 Each table was sprinkled with Hershey chocolates that had fall themed flavors like caramel apple and pumpkin spice.  The bottom of the kisses had phrases from the poem that was read during the ceremony "I carry your heart" by ee cummings.  They also said "Mr. and Mrs. Jansen" and the date of the wedding.  It was a very cute and original idea and the guests loved to try the different flavors.

Saturday night:

40th anniversary of Jazz 88, KBEM.  A wonderful reason to celebrate and a wonderful reason for delicious food.  The event was held at the International Market Square and was catered by the in-house catering company, D'Amico catering.  I happened to have worked for D'Amico and at IMS many a times and was honored to be a guest.  I got to get dressed up and actually enjoy the event and the food, rather than spilling it all over me and quickly stuffing it in my face behind the scenes.  Ever wonder why a server walks out with a plate full of h'orderves and one is missing?  Yeah, I didn't think you did. I ate on my own terms and enjoyed each of the buffets that displayed eats of various D'Amico restaurants.  3 Tiers Cakes provided the cake and cupcakes including a surprisingly delicious bacon/banana/honey Elvis inspired cupcake.

International Market Square

 

Spicy fried calamari with aioli, beef short ribs and bruschetta

Taco with chicken in chipotle sauce

3 Tiers chocolate cupcake and Elvis cupcake with bacon

Karrin Allyson and the Wolverines Big Band

Overlooking the wedding crowd at the James J. Hill Library

It was an exhausting, overwhelming, emotional, wonderfully delicious, busy weekend to say the least but had to be one of the best weekends of my life.  I got to spend a lot of time with family and eat a lot of delicious food.  What more could a girl want?

Wing Dinged

There are a few (well, many) perks that come along with my parents working in the "biz".  And by "biz" I mean the only biz that might be dying faster than newspapers.  My dad works for Clear Channel, which happens to sponsor a lot of charities and organizations as a copy writer and my mom is a voice talent/radio station manager (KBEM 88.5) who happens to like to talk a lot.  So, combining their radio powers, my dad donates his time to write PSAs for an organization called Tubman Family Alliance and my mom lends her voice for the spots.  The point is, my boyfriend and I got a free night of eating wings and desserts at an event called Wing Ding.

What a concept?  For the 17th time, the Wing Ding brings together local restaurants at the Depot in Downtown Minneapolis to showcase their wings, various rubs, sauces and even homemade blue cheese sauces.  Don't worry ranch lovers, there was plenty of that too.  Throw in some desserts, beer, root beer, a silent auction and live jazz music, and you got yourself a really fun event for a really good cause.


Now, for the wings.  I am not a particularly huge wing person because I don't like to eat food that requires a lot of work and they tend to be messy/sticky/gooey, but these wings were worth it.  There were about 20 or so booths of food and we tried something from just about every one of them.  The wings ranged from Asian sesame to honey barbecue to one so spicy it made my boyfriend cry (well, his eyes were watering).  I leaned toward the less spicy flavors to avoid ruining my tastebuds.

One of my favorites from the event included an absolutely delicious carrot cake muffin (I had two) from Ray-Js.  This little muffin did everything you want a carrot cake to do; creamy, moist, sweet, crunchy, salty and a wonderful bite after a spicy wing.

I also enjoyed a wing that was kind of unique from moto-I.  It was sweeter, and the guy said the sauce had plum in it.  I have wanted to try this restaurant for a while now because they the first place to brew sake outside of Japan.  I thought it was kind of funny that they added a little cilantro to the top of their wing to make it look fancier.  Or something.

The only free non-alcoholic choice, but it was perfect with the wings

Herkimer's offered a nice plate assortment with a spicy wing, a bbq wing, blue cheese and celery

Lyon's Pub uniquely flagged their wings

Green Mill had a Jim Beam wing that actually tasted like Jim Beam

Mini strawberry shortcake from Joe's Garage.

So I overbid on a Minneapolis print (whatever, at least it was for a local artist and good cause), we lost on a bid for 4 VIP tickets to the Daily Show, left completely full of enough wings my stomach could hold, and Tubman raised a lot money.  Can't wait for next year.