A Day (and Meal) for a Celebration

I am thrilled to be able to share that my good friend, Arwyn, is getting married this fall. She is such a wonderful and loving friend and she deserves all of the happiness in the world!

Being me, the best way that I know to celebrate and express such a thing is with food. So for the occasion of her wedding shower, her mom gave me the honor of preparing the food. I couldn't have been more thrilled! Almost immediately I came up with a list of dishes that incorporated some of her favorite things: goat cheese, butternut squash, thai peanut sauce, and salmon to name a few. Below is the menu that her mom and I ended up deciding on:

• Strawberry, maple walnut, and goat cheese salad with champagne vinaigrette


• Smoked salmon wraps with cream cheese and capers in whole wheat tortillas


• Cheese plate


• Veggie Plate


• Israeli Couscous and Butternut Squash Salad


• Thai Chicken Peanut Cakes

Here's what the spread looked like all put together

And here's Arwyn and I after the party

I for one am super tired tonight. After a long week of working, doing food prep, hanging out with Arwyn, cooking, and then seeing Dark Night last night (so good), I am pooped. So for now, I'm just going to share the first recipe on the list. Look for more to details and recipes come in the next couple days!

Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad
Serves 10-12

2 1/2 cups Maple Walnuts (see below)
8 oz crumbled goat cheese
2 lbs strawberries, cleaned and sliced
3 large bags mixed greens (the pre-packaged ones like you find at Trader Joe's)
Double recipe of Champagne Vinagrette - just double the ingredients and follow the directions for the dressing in this recipe at Epicurious - I made this 1 day ahead of time.

Maple Walnuts
(Make up to 5 days ahead of time)

2 1/2 cups raw walnut halves
1 tbsp butter
2/3 cup pure maple syrup

Heat large skillet over medium heat. Spread walnuts in skillet in a single layer. Toast walnuts, shaking every so often, for about 5 minutes or so. You'll start smelling the toastiness of the walnuts once they're ready. Be sure not to burn.

Remove walnuts to a plate. Add butter and maple syrup into pan. Allow them to melt together and start simmering for about 2 minutes until the mixture starts to look a little thicker. Remove from heat and add walnuts back into pan. Stir thoroughly to coat all walnuts with the syrup mixture.

Remove coated walnuts to a tinfoil lined baking sheet. Spread out in a single layer and let cool until dry, about 1-2 hours. Then add dry walnuts into salad or store in a large ziploc until you're ready for the salad. Try not to eat them all before then ;)

Salad

Pour greens into a large serving bowl. Add in strawberries, walnuts, and goat cheese. Cover with prepared dressing (I used about 3/4 of it). Stir thoroughly and serve.