For Reals Meals Hosted By Emilie Zanger & Jessica Herman
Good. Lord. Emilie and Jessica hosted the latest For Reals Meals and brought a heavy hitting crew – their guests included musician/writer Areif Sless-Kitain, Verdura’s Sara Gasbarra, The Third Teacher + design and learning strategist Melanie Kahl, Corrina Lesser of Chicago Humanities Festival, and Pitchfork Creative Director Mike Renaud. Just one of them would have been insane, but they had them all. And this FRM was especially cool…not only had I never met any of the guests (except Sara), I hadn’t met one of the hosts either (Emilie). It was like one awesome, big blind date!
I might not cook for FRM, but I always bring the flowers
Flowers in action
Jessica and Emilie created a pretty, summery menu: strawberry hibiscus-tea lemonade, guacamole with veggies, grilled asparagus with cilantro-pepita pesto, corn cakes with red chile salsa and herb salad, and strawberry crumble with whipped coconut cream. I get excited about every FRM menu, but corn cakes AND strawberry crumble? Two of my favorites that I for sure have not had since I changed my diet. And Emilie’s coconut cream was so great, it inspired the topping for my cherry brownie recipe.
Mike sipping on syrup
Jessica’s super-green guacamole
Jessica’s cilantro-pepita pesto asparagus
Everyone had seconds (and thirds) of the strawberry crumble
Ridiculously good strawberry crumble with coconut cream
Everyone loves a good gift bag/favor/thing-to-take-home-to-remember-what-a-good-time-was-had. And Emilie and Jessica really hooked it up with the help of Sara. We all took home personalized thyme plants (I love those West Elm markers), and master gardener Sara even told us how to care for them. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a plant last more than a couple of weeks, so it was awesome to hear her expert tips.
Personalized plants
Plant-goddess Sara
As blind dates go, this one was pretty awesome. I was so inspired by everyone at the table and hope to share more meals with them all soon. Thanks Emilie and Jessica for such a great day!
Later this week…Emilie’s recipe for corn cakes.
4 Comments
Aaron
November 14, 2013want to be plant based. Please help
Jessica
November 14, 2013I offer a buddy system program to get plant-based. Check out the “work with me” section! Any questions, just shoot me an email.
Melisa
April 14, 2014Hi! I came to your website after listening to your interview on the Lively Show podcast. It was super informative! I was wondering if you could post the recipe for this delicious-looking strawberry crumble with coconut cream?
Jessica
April 15, 2014Hey Melisa! Thanks for stopping by. I don’t have that recipe because it was made by one of the For Reals Meals hosts. BUT I do have something similar on OPP!
Here is a recipe for a great whipped coconut cream (just ditch the chocolate) http://onepartplant.com/easy-whipped-cream-recipe/. AND here’s a cobbler recipe I made for FOOD &_. I cannot even wait to make it soon! http://www.foodand.co.uk/fruit-cobbler/ Let me know what you think!