Last night I was in for a huge treat – it sure does pay to have friends with connections! My looooong-time friend Natalie had an extra ticket to a charity event and asked if I’d like to be her date, and I jumped at the chance! First off, it’s always fun to hang out with Natalie, and bonus – this was an excuse to dress up all nice, do my hair all fancy, and partake in amazing food prepared by chefs from throughout Seattle. The whole shindig was a benefit event for the Bailey-Boushay House (and they did indeed raise quite a bit of money – very inspiring!).
Hosted at Pier 66 on the Seattle Waterfront, the setting was very classy.
Pier 66
the lights of seattle's waterfront
But the main event at this event was the food. All about the food. (Oh, and did I mention there was an Alice in Wonderland theme for the decor? Love it!)
The party started out in a large reception space, lined with different appetizer stations hosted by prominent restaurants from around the city. As we made our rounds of the room, our favorites were the Leek & Chevre Dumpling topped with Pickled Golden Beets (TASTE restaurant) and the Pastry-Wrapped Brie with Poached Pears (Bailey-Boushay House). I also really liked the Alaskan Cod on Crostini with Lemon Aioli & Asparagus (Rosebud restaurant & bar), and Natalie liked the Cured Salmon with Apple Compote on Bacon Garlic Tuile (Ivar’s restaurant).
After the opening reception, a select 300 of us got to (read: paid to) go into the dining room, where we were treated to a gourmet 5 course meal. The table settings were lovely and fun.
anyone else see zebra stripes?
Our table had a cute centerpiece of wheatgrass with Gerber daisies – very Alice inspired. 🙂 We shared the table with Natalie’s coworkers, all delightful and fun people, which made it an extra good time!
So, to the FOOD – I managed to take photos of almost every course…
yam bisque
We started with soup – a delicious garnet yam bisque with ruby beet swirl (very pretty as well as tasty!)
Next was the salad course (but I forgot to photograph it, oops!)
Alaskan Ling Cod
Up next was the fish course – Alaskan Long Line Ling Cod with Manila Clams, bacon, and green beans. Very very yummy!
oxtail bourguignonne
And the entree was Oxtail Bourguignonne with carrots, red wine marmalade, Parsnip Puree, pancetta, and Sweet Bread Fritter. All delicious (though very rich, especially after all the food we’d already eaten)! But Natalie refused to try the fritter, because she couldn’t get over the idea of sweetbreads. 😛
mmmm cupcakes!
For dessert we were presented a beautiful array of cupcakes with different frostings (I believe mine was dark chocolate with blood orange frosting – SO good). The most interesting one was the vanilla cupcake with sage frosting (proving green does not always = mint)!
It was a super fun night – meeting fun new people, eating fabulous food, getting dressed up all nice, being out on the town, and hanging with a long-time friend – what more could a gal ask for?
girls' night out
Thanks, Natalie! I’ll be your date any time ^_^
That’s right! This will be a Spring Cleaning Sale for Jadeflower! I am cleaning out all my older stock and items that don’t appear in my shop. And the prices will be LOW!
jadeflower 