Breakfast with Benefits - DONE!

On november 5th, I held a NBCF Breakfast with Benefits event at my place, for 20 people.

I had so much fabulous produce donated, and I got plenty of change from $100, which was awesome to feed 20 people, 5 courses, plus coffee, tea and juices.

Amazing donations from Bannister Downs, The Organic Collective, The Naked Butcher and Mondos

The weather wasnt really being cooperative, and so I had to call in gazebo covers from friends and bought a tarp - which saved the day big style! It rained quite a bit toward the end of the day and considering it was all outside, that wasnt ideal - but the guests were all in good spirits and I could hear alot of laughter coming from both tables!

The first course was a baked spiced ricotta, with walnuts, organic raw honey and cointreau soaked fried fruits, served with Organic Loafers super soughdough. This course got alot of oooh and a aahs when I bought it out which was great!  Steve came into the kitchen asking how it was meant to be eaten lol for those unsure, its spread onto toast! Its a healthy protein filled breakfast - and very easy to make! Heres the post for the recipe!

The second course to come out was the big fry up! Homemade beans, Mondos pork sausages and Mondos nitrate free bacon. This was a hefty serving and everyone was very appreciative of having a nice big fat plate of hangover special! People were really impressed with all 3 elements of this dish - I had requests for the recipe for the beans, which you can find here, comments on how fabulous the bacon was and people asking "Where is Mondos? I want those sausages!". I got great service from Mondos too, the girl who served me asked me what I was doing with the meat, and when I told her she gave me a high 5 and told me her story about going to events similar, dressing up and having a great time there :)

Course number 3 were the buttermilk and dark choc hotcakes with fresh apple and an orange caramel sauce. Im not going to lie, these were a pain in the arse to make - they took a long time to cook! If I could do the event over I would choose a much lighter batter to use. When I finally bought them out though they went down a treat. My cousins bf exclamation of YES! When I bought more out was confirmation they were passable! S also loved them and has requested I make them again - funny as I thought they were the weakest menu item! People were pretty keen on that orange caramel sauce - adding the DELICIOUS Bannister Downs cream and sugar together, you cant go wrong really! The organic oranges from the Organic Collective certainly helped! The recipe for these beauties can be found here.

The 4th course was wilted spinach, scrambled Eggs by Ellah, and balsamic roast mushrooms. By this time about 5 people have had to go home, due to other commitments that day - so it was up the the rest to get stuck into this dish! The mushrooms went down well, but I knew they would, as I had gotten the recipe from Jason who is the owner/operator of the Urban Bakehouse in Clarkson - who makes an amazing funghi pizza! There were comments about the beautiful yellow colour of the eggs, and how creamy they were (thanks to Bannister Downs cream!).

The final course was a fruit platter including organic strawberries from the Organic Collective. This was a welcome platter to graze on for the rest of the afternoon, and would  have been much nicer should it have been a bit warmer! By this time the weather had started to take a turn for the worse, and we ended up moving inside to share fruit and bubbles!

I raffled off all my fabulous prizes, with everyone who was left at the end leaving with either Eggs by Ellah, or Bannister Downs cream or milk.  

The winners of the bigger prizes were:

Macaron class by Cook Learn Love: Julia Speight

El Asador hamper: Jenni Edwards

Moet et Chandon champagne: Jenni Edwards

The Naked Butcher bacon: Jemma Edwards

The Naked Butcher pork sausages: Carol Anne Rushe

The Naked Butcher $50 voucher: Micha Rauscher

2 x $25 Crust Gourmet Pizza Mt Lawley vouchers: Nicki aka Strawberrythief and Vanessa Bower

$30 Spencers Brook Farm voucher: Gemma Watts

Organic Loafers bread: Carol Anne Rushe and Healy

Pilates Fitness Institute of WA - Micha Rauscher

Carol Annes bounty!

All in all, we all raised $1200 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, which is such a fantastic result!! My target was $500 and I reached that before the day of the event which was fantastic! The total raised for this event Australia wide has been almost $28 000! When I put my money in, I will be sitting THIRD in the highest amount of funds raised!

I have to send massive thanks to the fabulous producers and local businesses who generously donated their products and vouchers for such a great cause. I can very confidently say that the people who attended were impressed with the quality of the produce! Ive sent guests home with extra strawberries, Naked Butcher bacon and sausages, milk and eggs - So all my friends and their friends can try for themselves the wicked produce and producers we have right here in and around Perth.

Mondos Butchers

The Naked Butcher

Eggs by Ellah

Organic Loafers

Bannister Downs Milk

The Organic Collective

Spencers Brook Farms

Cook Learn Love Private Culinary Tuition

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar Mt Lawley

El Asador Gourmet Products

Pilates Fitness Institute of WA

Even bigger thanks go to my darling bf Steve who cleaned everything up and did ALL the dishes while I sat on the couch with wine once everyone had left, and my sister Jenni who helped doing incidental things throughout the day, and enduring me snapping at her telling her to ask me these questions from the other side of the kitchen bench aka get outta the kitchen! It turned out ok for her though, as from her $30 worth of raffle tickets she bought she won a bottle of Moet and the El Asador hamper!

I certainly learned alot about catering for people and after the event thought I could have done alot of things differently and had things turn out better. However with a bit of time, I look at the size of my kitchen, think about the fact that I cooked 5 courses for 20 people, approx 100 covers, in that tiny kitchen and I did it on my own pretty much... and the worst that happened was that sometimes things took longer than I expected, I think I did well. I learned alot, and I learned I was a bit overconfident and unrealistic in my abilities to churn out that amount of food in that amount of time. However everything was delicious, and I probably got everything out within about 30mins between courses. So, a bit slower than I planned, but everyone ate so fast! One friend announced that this was his first degustation ever! I never labelled it such but quite flattering that someone else saw fit to!

Finally thanks to Carol Anne who took the photos of the food for me, as I had no time to! They turned out beautifully and you should all take the time to check out her wonderful blog, Carol Annes Kitchen!

I would definately do this again - Ive learned alot, next time will be even better!! The guests got to have some fab local produce, we raised a bunch of money and everyone took something home! Great day, lets hope the weather plays ball next time!