Slow Food Dinner @ UW Madison

On Valentine's Day this year - I fell in love - with Slow Food! That was the first day I volunteered to help in the kitchen with Slow Food UW Madison for their Monday Family Dinner Nights. A month after that I was their guest chef and on March 26, I lead together a wonderful team of friends in making a delicious dinner. I really haven't sat down to write about my last few months of the Spring semester in the kitchen with the wonderful kids of Slow Food UW. They do so much mind-blowing stuff, please check their website for a lot of cool information and upcoming events! Since then, they have graciously allowed me to cook with them every Monday night. I was a little bummed that they were off for the summer, but now that the semester is starting again, I was back in the kitchen tonight :)

Tonight's dinner was a simple vegetarian fare highlighting some of the fresh produce available at out local Farmer's Market. I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen grating about 2 pounds of cheese and doing a lot of sauteing. The lead chef Michelle, who is also one of the FDN interns made a delicious saute of squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, corn, onions and green beans seasoned with basil. A piece of garlic bread with generous amounts of sharp white cheddar cheese for the side. And the dessert was a rhubarb crumble. All very yummy! The kitchen ran very smoothly today and I so look forward to more dinners. My parents made it to the dinner with me tonight and were very impressed with everything they saw. I am going to be a guest chef again in October and really excited to start thinking about the menu :)

Photo Credit: R. Harris