We had Scott MacInnis (r.) from Tranche de Vie Catering and Thad Gillies, from Logan Restaurant bringing us more of their delicious, creative and way awesome food this past Friday, and, as usual with these two fab chefs, the food came out fast, piping hot, and totally satisfying.

Here’s what they served us. On the left, a rich, cheesy, perfectly salted corn grits, Southern Italian style, topped with a mix of wilted chard, kale and spinach, and just right fresh Dragonwood Farms poached egg. A little fresh herbs on top, and mama mia, it was va bene all morning. To the right, a Croque a Chaval, similar to the classic French Croque Monsieur. They started with a grilled slice of Zingerman’s Bakehouse farm bread, topped with Steinhauser sliced ham, another poached egg, and a very tasty bechamel mornay sauce to add even more richness and flavor to the dish. A little local herbs on this dish too, and it was ooh la-la ma cherie yummy in every way.

Thanks so much to the volunteers who helped prep and serve this week: Susie Baity Stearns for facilitating prep, Andrew Bozio for expediting, Michelle Fortin for coordinating the post breakfast clean up, Mel Adams and Solomon Jost for their general kitchen awesomeness, and Cecily Donnelly, Dave Krick, Avery Robinson, Roberta Knox, Giana Fazioli, Mary Rock, Codi Sharp, Michael Schmid, Alyssa Ackerman, Lizzie Olenzek, Rich Kato, Jen DeMoss, Sarah Alexander, Eric Wichenheiser, Nate Lada, Jill Sweetman, Jordan Eckstein, Jennifer Jensen, Brent Beam, Alyssa Francini, Kit, and Carrie Burgess.  Thank you one and all for keeping it all together on a nearly record breaking morning– we had 183 guests!

Get ready for the U-M Catering crew to serve up some wonderful specials this Friday when Peter Veach comes back into the kitchen with his fab team, and in the meantime, keep thinking spring.

Looking forward to seeing you in our kitchen again soon,

Lisa

Elena Levin from Taste Our Goods, created two wonderful new specials this week, which, after two years of weekly breakfasts, is impressive! It’s clear that coming up with her breakfast specials is a solid indication of Elena’s creativity and passion about food.

The first dish was Elena’s own version of eggs Benedict, with spicy cheddar cheese and buttermilk whole wheat biscuits, topped wilted spinach and kale greens, a poached egg, a side of bacon, and a drizzle of a honey mustard sauce. This dish was savory, rich, flavorful and so delicious!

Elena’s second special was an amazing plate of rich buttermilk pancakes with strawberries and peaches, with a big dollop of maple syrup infused farm cheese, and served with a side of bacon.  Both these specials were beautifully presented, and they were a great mix of flavors and textures.

Thanks to all our volunteers who stepped up to help this week, including Michelle Fortin for facilitating Thursday evening prep and after service clean up on Friday, Andrew Bozio for expediting, Mel Adams for over all Friday kitchen management, my sister Mia Gottlieb for making the bread pudding this week, plus Dave Waterhouse, Erica Mooney, Eric Huston, Dorran Dihle, Emily Knoll, Mallorie King, Annie Dugan, Gary Mazzio, Sarah Alexander, Jen DeMoss, Jennifer Jensen, Anthony Nitsos, Yorgos Strangas, Lindsey Kerr, Alyssa Francini, Carrie Burgess Andrea Ridgard, and Kristin Pope.

In addition to the above mentioned volunteers, we had the Tilian Farm farmers in the house volunteering on Friday morning, and they were wearing their cool new t-shirts too. From l. to r., Ben Fidler, Nate Lada, Alex Cacciara , Mark Nowak, and Jill Sweetman. Though not pictured, I want to add a shout out of thanks to Gretchen Adracie from Festifools for volunteering Thursday evening and bringing us a slew of Festifools aprons for our future Selma Cafe chefs and volunteers to wear.

We want to give an extra big thanks to Chris Wick for her idea to host a bake sale during Selma Cafe hours, with all proceeds earmarked for supporting Japanese relief efforts.  Here’s Chris with Erin, with a whole table full of beautiful baked goods that Chris baked herself.

Our neighbor Mary Hathaway was at Selma Cafe on Friday too, with signs to give away to those interested in working towards other things to do with our library lot than what is currently being promoted and  discussed by our city counsel. Come on now folks. We can do way better than that.

We’ve got chef Dan Vernia in the cafe this Friday, and rumor has it he’s got some fab dishes to share. Come by and find out for yourself!

See you in the kitchen soon,

~Lisa

Selma Cafe chefs, and vegan cooks extraordinaire, Phillis Engelbert and Joel Panozzo are the brains, creativity and owners of one of the new food carts opening for business this spring in the latest Down Town Home and Garden project, Mark’s Carts. Their cart, called The Lunch Room will offer a wide variety of vegan options, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, side dishes and desserts.  I recently had a chance to speak with Phillis and Joel about their latest venture, and I’m happy to share it with you here.

What gave you the inspiration to focus on vegan dishes?
We have both carefully considered questions about food and diet for a long time. Joel has been vegetarian his entire adult life. Phillis has been a vegetarian on and off since the age of sixteen. A few years ago, having given up meat again, Phillis developed a lactose intolerance and made the leap to veganism. Joel made a similar shift within the last year. We have looked at a meat-and-dairy free diet as an opportunity to explore the wonderful options of plant-based cooking.

Tell me about your experience as vegan cooks
We are both self-taught cooks, and have focused mainly on vegan dishes for the last few years. Last summer we started dreaming up a cafe where we would serve delicious vegan food. We envisioned a comfortable, inviting space that would involve music, art, gardens, greenhouses, and environmental sustainability. Lacking the financing and experience to open a cafe, we decided to take small steps. We became more adventurous cooks and attempted more complicated menus. Our friends were willing guinea pigs for experimental vegan brunches and dinners. We took their feedback and improved our recipes and skills. In the fall we joined a small group of people offering vegan specials at Selma.

In October we jumped at an opportunity to host a “pop-up” meal at a downtown retailer’s event space. That marked the beginning of a new chapter in our vegan cooking project and provided us with a crash course in cooking for large groups, marketing, business, and more.

We started with an email list of 85 of our friends. Our “Lunch Room” meals grew in popularity and by April our email list had grown to 375 people. Throughout the fall and winter we held 11 events in various locations. Each meal was five courses, everything was made from scratch, and we never repeated a dish. We had various “theme” meals, such as vegan Thanksgiving, holiday brunch, tapas dinner, Thai dinner, Valentine’s Day with heart-shaped items, and a New Year’s Eve Eve (Dec. 30th) party that included special raspberry-tiramisu-amaretto cupcakes. With each successive meal we began creating more of our own recipes and relying less on cookbooks. While we still have much to learn, we feel that we now do have experience as vegan cooks.

How did you decide to commit to a food cart?
In early February an article appeared in annarbor.com describing the vision of Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home & Garden, of a food-cart courtyard where start-up food entrepreneurs would sell gourmet food out of carts, using an adjacent commercial kitchen. Several friends sent that article to us, urging us to look into it. We spoke with Mark that day and soon thereafter sent in a business plan and application.  We learned that our proposal had been accepted on Valentine’s Day. We were cooking for a big dinner that night and found it hard to concentrate, we were so excited. Once we were accepted, we did not find it hard to commit. It felt right; like a logical next step for our food business.

What is your goal for bringing a vegan food cart to the community?

Our goal is to serve people delicious, satisfying food that happens to be vegan. We are not preachy. We cook and eat this way because we prefer it; we feel good about it and like how it makes our bodies feel. We are also serious eaters. Last summer I went with a friend on a canoe trip through the Boundary Waters — five days of wildnerness travel carrying all our own food and supplies — and we ate gourmet vegan meals the whole time. Cooking and eating, for us, are expressions of joy. We love to do it and share it. So you could say our goal is to make others happy by providing them with wonderful food and to make ourselves happy by doing what we love to do.

What will you serve?
We will have a pretty extensive menu of breakfast, lunch, and dinner items, plus sides and baked goods. There will be some fairly permanent items, like homemade coconut milk yogurt with granola, fruit-yogurt smoothies, coffee cake, summer rolls with peanut sauce, curry-chickpea-potato wrap, tangy slaw, roasted potatoes, crostini with tapenade, blackstrap gingersnaps, raspberry bars, and spicy chocolate snickerdoodles. Then we will rotate in items like homemade bagels with spread, gingerbread cupcakes, apple cake, Caesar salad, barbeque seitan sandwiches, hummous with veggies on rolls, tempeh with brocolli on wild rice with wild mushroom gravy, and lemon bars. Our menu will vary with in-season produce and other factors.

What will your price range be for your offerings?
Inexpensive; probably starting at $1 for cookies. Everything will be under $10.

When will the cart be up and running?

That depends on when the courtyard construction is finished. Hopefully by mid to late April.

Will you do any vegan catering for parties and events, in addition to your cart?
This is something we are considering. People have asked us about it and we want to get our feet wet first with the cart. Then we’ll see what else we can handle. In the off-season, catering is definitely a possibility.

What are your favorite vegan dishes?
Wow, there are so many! But when we just cook for ourselves and our partners or a small group of friends, we most often go for summer rolls. They are so versatile; you can put almost anything in them. Just grill some tofu, cook some rice noodles, chop up vegetables, reach for some fresh basil and mint leaves, whip up a nice batch of spicy peanut sauce, and roll it all up in a soaked rice-paper wrapper. Voila — you have a little piece of heaven! We’ll also be coming out with a Lunch Room cookbook sometime this summer, and we will sell it at our cart. Be sure to come by!

Thanks Phillis and Joel for taking the time to share your vision, and best of luck in your new adventure.

~Lisa

Thank you Sarah Ladd and Gabe Bluer from Mill Pond Bread Bakery for making us such a delicious and satisfying breakfast.

For starters, they brought boxes and boxes of Mill Pond’s amazing blueberry scones, enough for everyone to have one to start their breakfast experience off with a wonderful treat.

Mill Pond makes really perfect biscuits, and this time Gabe and Sarah topped them with a rich and flavorful sausage and milk gravy, served with a fresh fried egg and a big side of hoop house greens.  They also featured a vegetarian gravy, made with Mama Mofoods seitan and milk.  Both gravy’s were a wonderful complement to the biscuit, egg and greens. Hearty and satisfying, there’s nothing like it!

For those pancake lovers among us, Sarah and Gabe’s second special was exactly right for such a cold and damp morning.  Buckwheat pancakes, filled with diced apples, topped with warm apple compote and roasted walnuts, butter and maple syrup was just so darn yummy! Served up with some hoop greens and a side of bacon, it felt like the best possible way to start a Friday morning.  With nearly 170 guests this week, I didn’t have time to sample the specials until later when I went to work after Selma Cafe. I was fortunate enough to pack a bit of each special to take with me, and thoroughly enjoyed them both, one after the other, for lunch.

We sure had a lot of help this week! Huge thanks to Susie Baity Stearns for facilitating prep, Andrew Bozio for expediting, Mel Adams for rocking out the bacon and waffles, Michelle Fortin for facilitating Friday clean-up and for everything else, huge thanks also go to Kendal Kuneman, Susan Todoroff, Christine Deucher, JD Rubin, Erica Mooney, Roberta Knox, Sam Cheslak, Spencer Michaud, Lizzie Olenzek, Gretchen Gehrke, Michael Schmid, Carrie Burgess, Alyssa Francini, Codi Sharp, Mary Rock, Rich Kato, Jennifer Jensen, Jen DeMoss, Sarah Alexander, Eric Wickenheiser, Kerstin Bamdt, Andrea Ridgard, Courtney Peterson and Robbie Moore.

This Friday we have Chef Alex Young and Chef Kieron Hales from Zingerman’s Roadhouse stepping up to bring you breakfast, and we expect a big turnout. We are very excited to collaborate with these two, and are really looking forward to some big fun and a great meal.

See you in the kitchen soon,

~Lisa

Selma Cafe is pleased to announce our lastest project! Beginning June 15th,  we will build 20 hoop houses in 20 days.  This exciting adventure will culminate on the 4th of July, with an Independance Day party to celebrate our freedom from corporate control of  food, and to enjoy all the fruits of our labor together with food, drink and a beautiful bonfire at Sunseed Farm.

Of course, in order to make this project a success we need your help! We are looking for volunteers to help with logistics and organization, volunteers to work on-site to erect the hoops, volunteers to provide  food and other support for each of the build days, as well as party planning for the 4th of July celebration. In addition to individual volunteers, we are also looking for organizations, churchs, temples, clubs, teams and other groups who want to come together for a day and put their combined efforts towards hoop construction.  Maybe you are part of a group that would be interested, or know people who you think would love to be involved.

Please consider joining us for this summer of hoopla excitement. You can sign up HERE TO VOLUNTEER!  Thank you so much for considering this opportunity to be part of  keeping our community abundant with farms and food, and feel free to email me with any questions. lisa@selmacafe.org

~Lisa