Teachers Christmas Banquet & Ratatouille

No. I haven't given up on blogging. It just slows down a lot while my actual work schedule speeds (and loads) up! Right around Thanksgiving, or November in general there are fundraisers, fundraiser meals, breaks, and then I have two Christmas banquets back to back in two weeks time!

The great thing about Teachers Christmas Banquet is the menu can be quite diverse. Probably because a week (or two) later a lot of our staff will be eating a Christmas Banquet somewhere else, or here at the church affiliated with Valley Fellowship Christian Academy. And its most likely going to be the "normal" fare...Ham, turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy, rolls. Yeah, pretty much everything I will be doing for our church banquet. So if your also going to have that at home, that's a lot of the same meal over and over again...Especially just after Thanksgiving.

Teachers Christmas Banquet Menu:

"Surf & Turf"

SURF
Appetizers:
Shrimp Cocktail
Smoked Salmon English Cucumber Cups
Jumbo Lump Crab & Tomato Medley

TURF
Dinner:
Petite Beef Tender - spice rubbed, seared, and finished in the oven...cut into medallions and served with house made Horseradish Sauce.
Chicken Roulade - stuffed with Brussels sprouts, hickory smoked bacon, Manchego & Mozzarella cheese. Topped with a light Cilantro Cream Sauce. (Don't worry, it's not strong)
Scalloped Potatoes - a classic, potatoes, cream, butter, salt & pepper...
Ratatouille - traditionally a French dish of stewed vegetables this will be on the lighter side, baked slow, essentially steaming the vegetables. Including: zucchini, yellow squash, Japanese eggplant, tomatoes, red peppers, garlic, and herbs. (I used Thomas Keller's idea of Confit Byaldi, you would know better as: Ratatouille's Ratatouille - from the movie of the same name)
Fresh Baked Dinner Rolls (from scratch)

Salad: keeping it simple, fresh mix of greens, balsamic vinaigrette...

Desserts: provided by parents.

I want to express this nicely...I don't think the majority of our staff is real adventurous when it comes to food so I usually have to take it slow with incorporating new things (to them) like ratatouille, manchego cheese, or using trendy ingredients like brussel sprouts (which people ate over 20 years ago and still claim to hate). Having all seafood appetizers was also risky. People who aren't to adventurous in food usually stick to shrimp if any seafood at all out of the three I picked to use. BUT I have to say I was very impressed by the amount of appetizers they ate and the rest of the meal went great! Most of the feedback was excellent on that ratatouille and the brussel sprouts was mostly mistaken for artichoke! LOL But I expected as much when we had a trial "taste" of the chicken.

Here are some of the pictures I was able to remember to take:

Jumbo Lump Crab & Tomato Medley
(has a guacamole base)

Shrimp Cocktail

Apparently I missed taking a picture of the smoked salmon English cucumber cups...?

Chicken Roulade - stuffed with Brussels sprouts, hickory smoked bacon, Manchego & Mozzarella cheese. Topped with a light Cilantro Cream Sauce.

Petite Beef Tender - spice rubbed, seared, and finished in the oven
(sorry not the clearest picture)

Scalloped Potatoes

Ratatouille Before cooking

Before cooking

Ratatouille After cooking

The whole meal had great feedback but I think most people were amazed with the ratatouille! They were struck by it visually, BUT later couldn't believe the vegetables it was made of and the amazing taste(s).

Its wonderful to be able to stretch people, or, get them out of their 'comfort zone' a little bit.