The Inaugural Saturday Supper
Carriages at midnight. Ambulances at 2am. Wheelbarrows at 5am. Hearses at daybreak.
What happens when it rains sideways on Saturday, you’ve got a fresh tub of Maryland blue crab meat, and someone gets a hankering for sangria?
These are precisely the types of questions Saturday Suppers are designed to answer. And let me tell you this particular Saturday in September brought all the vibes.
For those who are new here, Saturday Suppers are the one Saturday a month where we gather in our home – friends and strangers – and everyone brings an ingredient or a little tidbit of recipe inspo. Sometimes there’s a theme, sometimes not. After a welcome cocktail and a snack, we all look around at the ingredients we’ve gathered and decide what to collaboratively cook for the rest of the day. It gets super creative and delightfully adventurous.
There’s always an amazing playlist and a plethora of perspective. And really, really good food.
headliner song: Kyle (i found you…) by Fred Again
This Saturday started with a Tropical Storm rolling through Northern Virginia which made for some interesting, rainy views over Georgetown. We had some wagyu sausage (thanks, Ovoka farm), Maryland blue crab meat, a tub of Old Bay, some pizza dough, a pitcher of sangria, homemade milk punch, a bag of apples, and some stellar pickle chips – among other things.
The day started around 3pm with a glass of my Spiced Sangria and a quick snack – Hot Honey Chicken bites with pickles. Of course, we had some Back to Basics sourdough (essential) and my sister’s appropriately-timed bread dipping kit with really good olive oil. Someone made a beautiful caprese salad that made us all wish it were a little bit sunnier and then we set in on the pizza. As dough was diligently rolled out on the counter using a bottle of red wine (we just moved in okay, we don’t have all the kitchen supplies yet), we started to brainstorm toppings.
Have you ever had blue crab and Old Bay on a pizza? If not, then you’re really missing out. Most of the pizzas featured the wagyu sausage in some form or another. But nothing quite compared to McK concocting the ultimate dessert pizza. Nothing is quite as surprising as someone handing you a slice of pizza that is populated with apples, caramelized onions, parmesan cheese, milk chocolate, and honey.
That shit was superb. Or as McK herself would say, “rad.”
The cocktails began to flow after we polished off the sangria and killed three bottles of “lifestyle water” (because every successful event is made all the more successful by the inclusion of spa water). My good friend and cocktail aficionado crafted The Flannel Shirt for the occasion, the sommelier brought a truly exceptional Chateauneuf du Pape, and we even resurrected The Cherry Blossom because #springvibes for a minute.
As the evening began to devolve into competitive card games featuring kitchen cutlery and an intense tech sesh, people started to bake. While we conceptualized the next great American videogame and tried to figure out how to access the Chat-GPT and DALL-E APIs, our Kitchen Aid was christened with the pillowiest, gluten-free pumpkin snickerdoodles and the most photogenic dish of the night: The Apple Tort (#iykyk).
I am embarrassed to admit the night ended in charades. But it did. And if you’ve never seen a group of brilliant people attempt to act out “Large Language Models” then you’re missing even more than the crab and Old Bay pizza.
I’ve got to say, from Yellow 2023 to this Fall’s Saturday Supper series, we are finding our footing amidst beautiful ideas and some truly spectacular flavors. The most impactful part of these days and this season is the space we are giving ourselves to explore and to grow – to share and to wonder – to cook and to live vibrantly in the company of others. And man, have we got some Fall flavors for you guys. Stay tuned. Our next Saturday Supper is right around the corner.
“There is always light if we are brave enough to see it. If we are brave enough to be it.” – Amanda Gorman
Rabbit Cassoulet
Here we are with Protein #2 in our Protein Trio and it’s a bit of a non-standard one. We don’t often cook rabbit but… we totally should! It is more delicate than chicken with more flavor, but still not too gamey. Cassoulets are bean-based stews with a protein that can stew all day or come together quite quickly. They are hearty and Fall-ish, and I am thrilled to have this one on my table. You can make this with roasted chicken or a sausage if the rabbit is a stretch for you.
Broccoli Soup
This is a lighter but still very hearty take on broccoli cheddar soup, with a hint of extra cheese and crunch added in a floating cheesy crouton, like the sourdough hat on French Onion soup. If you’re skeptical that a bowl of broccoli soup can suffice for a full meal, give this one a try.
Viking Lentil Stew
If there is crisp in the air, you want this. You want two bowls of this. And you want it with parmesan cheese on top. It is the most flavor-rich, complex soup I have probably ever tasted. It leaves you full, warm, and longing to make another pot. The secret is in the quality of the sausage.