Grange Kitchen & Bar pastry chef Melissa Richards, and Brandon Johns, Grange owner and chef served over 200 guests this week, and the food they made was outta this world good.  Pork confit sammies served on Zingerman’s toasted challah, with a dollop of homemade rhubarb mustard and topped with a gently fried egg was a deeply satisfying flavor and texture combination. Not to be out done, the spring vegetable frittata with Tantre Farm mushrooms and Carpenter Brothers’ asparagus, with spring onions and fresh herbs from our front yard garden was just as popular. So popular that we made a few extra frittata with front garden kale and garlic greens so we wouldn’t run out.  Thanks to our chefs and to our hardworking volunteers, especially the clean-up crew, for keeping Selma Cafe up and running smoothly. You all are the best!

Happy guests, Silas, Trilby and Tomm Becker from Sunseed Farm, and their beautiful CSA share table.  Such a beautiful morning, and perfect for out door seating.

Thanks to the lovely weather we were able to serve everyone who came over for breakfast, with no wait list.  The out door seating gives us 20 extra seats to accomodate our guests throughout the morning, so come on by! If you want updated info on seating and wait lists follow us on twitter @selmacafe.

Looking forward to seeing you in the kitchen (or the back yard) soon,

~Lisa

Thank you Aaron and Chris for another amazing, fabulous, delicious, beautiful breakfast. You two bring it!

Tostada with black beans, asparagus, braised pork and a sunny side up egg, served with an amuse bouche cheddar cheese biscuit with the name SELMA stamped on top, plus, hoop house greens and a churro with chocolate sauce. When Chris and Aaron team up it is perfection on a plate. Thanks also to all the volunteers who helped pull off another week of Selma with a great attitude and wonderful service. (photo by Aaron Van Dyke)

And, we put our new system of serving until 10:00a into effect. There was no wait for seats at all until about 7:30a. Close to 9:00am our waiting list was long enough that we closed it down and were able to seat and serve the 60 guests on the list by 10:15a. I’m sorry for guests who we weren’t able to accomodate, and as the weather warms and we can seat another 15-20 people in the back yard we will be able to handle more crowds. Keep track of the wait list and seating info on Twitter @selmacafe to keep it easy.

Until next time, enjoy everything about spring time here in the mitten, and I look forward to seeing you in our kitchen soon ,

~Lisa

What a fun week at Selma Cafe, with Nick and Kelli at the helm. Eggs Benedict, with Dragonwood Farm eggs, Kelli’s homemade English muffins (and Zingerman’s bread when we ran out), Biercamp Canadian Bacon, Carpenter Brother’s potatoes, Seeley Farm and Green Things Farm greens, and Tantre Farm spinach. Plus, the Ferris wheat pancakes full of Mindo Chocolate chips and topped with Calder Dairy whipped cream. Both specials were amazingly delicious. Thank you Nick, Kelli and all the volunteers who worked so hard to make everyone happy. It was a bit of a challenge due to the numbers.

We had another staggeringly busy morning, serving close to 250 guests. Naturally, we want to feed everyone who shows up, but the reality is we have been pushing way past our capacity when it comes to time and volunteer hours.  We serve from 6:30a to 10:00a, and with a waiting list of 60 people at 10:00a, the clean up crew couldn’t even start until close to noon, when ideally they would be finishing. Soooo, we made some decisions and have a new plan.

As long as we can seat and serve people by 10:00a, we wont turn anyone away. But if the waiting list grows so long that we can’t accomodate our guests by 10:00a, we won’t put any more names on the list. I will be posting updates on Twitter @selmacafe throughout the morning with information on seating and the wait list, and I will also post as soon as we reach capacity to save you a trip over here. If you don’t have access to Twitter, feel free to come on by and check in with our host and buy some produce from Sunseed Farm. Remember that pretty consistently we have no wait if you come before 7:30a.

Thanks for your understanding and patience as we work with our new system, and feel free to contact me at lisa@selmacafe.org if you have other ideas about how we can improve on our plan.

Have a beautiful weekend,

~Lisa

Voila,  left overs are used up, and here is the bread pudding ready to go into the oven for next week’s Selma Cafe breakfast. Later today I’ll pop it in the freezer, and it will be ready to go next Friday. Seems like a good as time as any to catch up on the blog, with the aroma of vanilla, honey and cream surrounding me here as I type at the kitchen island.

Looking back on the last few weeks, starting with Susan Todoroff from Juicy Kitchen who cooked us up some breakfast burritos with chorizo and cheese stuffed French toast:

Thanks Susan and crew for a wonderful breakfast.

The following week, while I was away in Paris, Dan Vernia from The Ravens Club smashed the previous record of guests by nearly 60 people, with a total of 264 breakfasts served. Thank you Dan, Susie Baity, Michelle Fortin and all the many other volunteers who came early and stayed late to get food on plates and clean up the kitchen afterwards. Here are a few photos that capture Dan’s delicious breakfast inspired by my vacation, plus a few more: Soft scrambled eggs with chevre and fines herbes, served with a croissant, a choice of ham or potatoes, and a slice of apple gallette just for the extra oh lala.

This past Friday, we had first time Selma chefs Brad Greenhill and Kathleen Baran making us breakfast. Brad cooks fabulous meals for parties and catering events, including pop-up dinners at Jefferson Market. Take a look at his website to see what’s new and where he is cooking. Kathleen is the chocolate maker at Mindo Chocolate, a pastry chef for special events, and she bakes the gluten free bread at Zingerman’s. The chocolate laced challah she made was unbelievably good.  The two of them joining forces was an awesome combo. Brad brought us ‘nduja sausage topping toasted rustic Italian brushed with olive oil and garlic, served with soft scrambled eggs, sauteed ramps and hoop greens, and Kathleen served homemade chocolate swirled challah french toast, topped with chocolate nip pralines, served with homemade sausage. So wonderful, and we can’t wait for them to come back. Take a look:

Finally, a big thank you and shout out to Lou and Francis Glorie for facilitating the Judges and Filmmakers Brunch for the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival, and the kind donations of food from the generous contributors, including TR Durham’s Traklements, Morgan & York, Zingerman’s Bakehouse and Creamery,  Sweet Heather Anne’s Cakes,  and Dragonwood Farms.

That’s all for now friends. Enjoy this beautiful weekend, and I look forward to seeing you in our kitchen soon.

~Lisa

We were so pleased and excited to have Misty Callies, a chef for the last thirty years, and co-founder and head chef of Zanzibar restaurant, as our guest chef this past week. Misty is down to earth, hard working, creative, and really fun to have in the kitchen.  And, with close to 180 guests to serve, she didn’t stop moving once all morning. (Which is why the above photo is of Misty in some other kitchen that I swiped off Google–we were just too busy to have her pose for a photo!)

Misty and her husband have done some travelling, and her experiences with the rich and aromatic spices and flavors of middle eastern food inspired her to bring a local spin to the classic Mediterranean Fatteh. Traditional Fatteh uses dried and crispy pita bread, covered in roasted eggplant, hummus, and lamb meat balls sauced with a savory warm yogurt, and sprinkled with roasted pistachio nuts. To bring it local, Misty used Michigan northern white beans instead of garbanzo beans, and since eggplant wasn’t in season, and we were all out of the eggplant I had frozen in the fall, Misty substituted squash and home canned tomatoes, along with some roasted tomatoes from the fall that I was still hoarding in our freezer for something special. And, this was something special. Along with the white bean hummus and squash tomato stew, we used local yogurt, pita from Dearborn, and ground lamb from Ferris farms for the meat balls. We sourced all the spices we needed from the Ann Arbor People’s Food Co-op, which has a vast supply at reasonable prices. This dish was so good, I had a number of guests tell me it was one of the best Selma breakfasts they had enjoyed.

Misty’s second special was closer to home. Above, left, she topped a baked Kapnick Orchard’s apple with Zingerman’s farm cheese, toasted walnuts, and a sauce made from reduced Kapnick apple cider and Michigan dried cranberries, served with maple syrup donuts and a side of Green Things Farm’s hoop house greens.  Although every part of this special was spot on delicious, I have to admit that the donuts Misty made were the absolutely best home made donuts I’ve eaten. Just to make sure, I ate at least five of them. good they were just the holes, and not the whole donut. On the right in the photo, is one of Selma’s house specials, Tacos Sancho, with bacon instead of Bier Kamp chorizo on this particular order.

Thanks to all the volunteers and guests for coming out and supporting the good food and good works of Selma Cafe. This week we have Susan Todoroff of Juicy Kitchen cooking us up some delicious specials.

Hope you are all enjoying this early spring,  and looking forward to seeing you in our kitchen soon,

~Lisa

I know! These are not the best photos I’ve ever taken. So sorry, but trying to get both Alex and Allison to stand still for 2 seconds put together was beyond my capacity. These two showed up at 5:30am, just as I was starting the first pot of Roos Roast coffee, and they did not stop moving until way after 10am. AND, this after experiencing the Dexter tornado action first hand the evening before. Oh! speaking of the Dexter tornado, want to know how you can help? Take a look at Dexter Tornado Relief Information, and please consider donating.  Back to Alex and Allison–these two are consumate chefs, making it all happen after a terrible night before. Plus, they both appeared to be having a pretty great time, serving nearly 200 guests some delicious food. Thanks big time Alex and Allison for really coming through for us. For more photos and great commentary,  be sure to take a look at Allison’s sweet blog,  The Last Bite.

Sometimes I wish we had a Selma Cafe photographer, besides me, to capture all the wonderfulness of the food and the people. Especially this week, with Johhny Cakes, Ricotta Cheese Eggs, Housemade Sausage, Hoop Greens, Eggs Florentine, Squash and Potato Latkes and Peach Bread Pudding, . So, this is it. Short and sweet. Want more? Come on over on Friday morning and experience it all IRL. You will be happy you did.

Until then, take care, be well and enjoy,

~Lisa

What a great crew from Harvest Kitchen in the house this week, with Melanie Adams in the lead and Michael Schmid as sous chef. They brought us some wonderful sandwich specials.

The first sammie was a challah French toast, stuffed with ricotta cheese and fruit preserves, topped with a rich Mindo chocolate and Roos Roast coffee mocha sauce and a sprinkle of Harvest Kitchen granola and a side of bacon. This was rich, comfort food and its finest, and very popular.

The savory sandwich offering was a fried egg, cheddar cheese, wilted spinach & bacon on a toasted baguette, with a luscious housemade herbed aioli, served with a side of roasted potatoes and hoop house greens. All the flavors of each ingredient came together into a perfect taste sensation. Thank you Harvest Kitchen crew, as well as all our Selma Cafe volunteers for making breakfast a success!

Next up we have Alex Young from Zingerman’s Roadhouse back in the kitchen again, and you know he will be doing something fabulous. Sign up HERE to receive our weekly email newsletter for menu info. Enjoy all the beautiful sunshine, and see you in the kitchen soon,

~Lisa

Thanks to Dylan and Heidi Stockman for making us breakfast this week! These first timer Selma Chefs were super organized, way fun, and made us some delicious specials. Take a look.

Dylan and Heidi offered (top photo) Spinach Scramble with Dragonwood Farm eggs and Tantre Farm spinach, served with Carpenter Organic Farm’s fried potatoes, Black Oak Farm bacon, Avalon Bakery toast and a side of hoop house greens from Green Things Farm. All topped with feta cheese from LuBelle Farm Dairy, and, Grilled Polenta Cakes topped with Kapnick Orchards apples and cabbage salad, Lubelle Farm Dairy ricotta cheese and Black Oak Farm bacon. Both the specials were hearty and so tasty. Thanks to all the volunteers and guests for coming out and supporting Selma Cafe. You all are the best.

In addition to their greens and veggies, Sunseed Farm is offering eggs! So great to have them here each Friday morning.

It was a very cozy morning at Selma Cafe, with good food, good people, and a lovely fire in the wood stove. This week we have Harvest Kitchen bringing us breakfast. Be sure to stop by!

Looking forward to seeing you in the kitchen soon,

~Lisa

]]> http://www.repastspresentandfuture.org/site/dylan-heidi-stockman-bring-their-seattle-chef-skills-to-ann-arbor/feed/ 0 http://www.repastspresentandfuture.org/site/3rd-annual-selma-cafe-anniversary-volunteer-appreciation-party/ http://www.repastspresentandfuture.org/site/3rd-annual-selma-cafe-anniversary-volunteer-appreciation-party/#comments Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:33:31 +0000 Lisa http://www.repastspresentandfuture.org/site/?p=4918

Thank you, thank you to all our door prize donators! We had some great gifts for our amazing volunteers. Please shop locally, and support our donors. Let’s keep the cash in our community.

Big thanks go to Sweet Heather Anne Cakes for making us this special hoop house cake. It was so beautiful and happy, and so delicious.

These fabulous cream puffs were the handiwork of Chris Wick, of Miette Bakery. Thank you Chris for always making everything you do so tasty and lovely.

Here’s some wobbly shots from the party. No, they’re not all in focus, but they capture the sweet vibe of the night.

Thank you to all the volunteers, chefs, farmers, vendors, and guests for continuing to keep Selma Cafe sustainable, delicious and full of happiness. Here’s to another year of local food breakfasts and building our community food shed together.

~Lisa

When it comes to the Bona Sera Underground Supper Club crew, discretion is key. Photos of the chefs are rare– underground being the operative word. So, let’s just represent them with these fun loving dare devils from way back when. Anyway, it doesn’t matter if you know what they look like. All you really need to know is that when Bad Fairy and Wonder Woman are in the kitchen, the food is good. Damn good. Double damn, hell to the yeah good.

This time around, the two thrilled us with Grits Three Ways: Spicy Shrimp, Bona Sera Porchetta, and Roasted Winter Vegetables, all served with a perfectly fried egg and lovely hoop house greens. Dreamy! Delicious! Delectable! And, of course, B.F. and W.W. make everything more fun, so the more than 150 guests started their Friday happily full and well entertained.

Thanks to all the volunteers and guests who came out on one of the only really snowy Fridays so far this year.

This week we have chef Dylan Stockman in the house, and we hope you come by and enjoy his delicious specials. See you in the kitchen,

~Lisa