Full Speed Ahead on Two New Events

Please read below for the details on two new ways to enjoy Olaiya's fantastic cooking and support our fundraising efforts. If you would like to attend, please RSVP as soon as possible! We're hoping to renew the good energy around The Full Belly Seattle, and expect both events to fill up quickly. Feel free to invite a friend as well!

Saturday March 29th, 6pm at John's apartment:

The End of Winter, Last Chance for Soup Group

featuring

Creamy parsnip soup with almond/parsley pesto

Country butterbean soup with marjoram

(vegetarian or with smoked ham hocks)

Platter of assorted cheeses and rustic bread

Tarte tatin with creme fraiche

A deep and round Cabernet

redesigned at the last minute as an Italian feast... a great success!

And Sunday, April 20th, 11am at John's apartment:

April Flowers Spring Brunch

featuring

Blueberry pecan french toast

Fluffy scrambled eggs with chevre

Vegetarian sausage links

Seasonal fruit plates

Tangerine mimosas, coffee and tea

for just $25 per person

Transparency

This post serves to recap the financial transactions of The Full Belly Seattle thus far.
We set up our first dinner in June of 2007. Between then and last week's dinner in February of 2008, we’ve hosted six fundraising events. We took in $2,300 dollars at those events, and our costs for groceries were almost exactly $1,300. Therefore, the Full Belly Seattle has just raised its first $1,000! Thank you for all your support!

We’ve used those profits for two $350 Women For Women sponsorships; Beatrice in Nigeria and Sadia in Iraq. And today, we just made a $500 donation to Women for Women to go to their relief efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I’ve never had the privilege to give $500 to anything before. Many of you supporters, like us, have to think in terms of micro-change… giving a few dollars when you can. And maybe we’re still only talking about small changes, but I literally trembled as I clicked the confirmation button, waved goodbye to the five C notes in my mind and prayed that it might change a life or two when it lands on the other side of the world. Thank you for helping give us that opportunity.

The reason our total donations slightly exceed the $1,000 in total fundraising is that Olaiya and I have committed to making our own contributions to this fund outside of our Full Belly profits.

Thank you, and stay tuned for an upcoming invitation to new March and April events!

A Soft Landing

O and I opted to host a very small dinner party last weekend as a gentle start to Full Belly 2008. Since Olaiya is still a week away from finishing her one-month vegan experience, it made sense to try out a fully vegan menu:

Toasted Almonds and Mediterranean Olives
(warmed in an orange peel marinade… mmm…)
Roasted Cauliflower with a Truffle Oil Dressing
French Green Lentils with Fennel
Mangoes Flambe!
And a Dry and Subtle Oregon Chardonnay

Walaka commented it was his favorite Olaiya meal yet… and even begrudgingly enjoyed eating cauliflower for the first time in his life. Since we kept costs low (funny how that happens when you eliminate meat and cheese from the shopping list!) we came close to our $100 per event goal even though our guest list was unusually small.

We have been moved by the recent efforts of Women for Women to help the situation in The Congo. After talking about it, we've decided that instead of continuing with our usual $330 sponsorships, we’re going to start committing our fundraising dollars to W4W’s Congo Relief Fund.

We’re hoping this year to do even more for good causes. We’ve been exploring other event ideas that could possibly increase the amount of money we raise… larger venues, different kinds of events rather than just dinner parties. Olaiya also just catered a fundraising event for a leukemia benefit, giving them a fantastic discount and allowing them to raise thousands for their cause. Please let us know if you have any ideas you’d like to pitch to us!

We’re also looking at finding a school in rural India to partner with. We have a great connection through a recent friendship we’ve made with a former resident of India who has ties back to the rural education community there. As someone who lived there for a year as part of the Rotary Exchange Program, I know just how big an impact we could make with scholarship money and/or supplies for students.

Full Belly Seattle Hiatus

The Full Belly is retooling for 2008. Some significant shake ups have made the same old routine impossible, but Olaiya and I are both hoping to release a series of events to benefit Women for Women this year. We appreciate all your support in 2007 and look forward to being able to invite you to something great in '08.

Ambitious and Delicious

Last Saturday night marked the first Full Belly event when dinner was not the main attraction. Instead, the star of the show was a flight of Belgian beers (some of the best in the world!) accompanied by chocolate, tasty sammies, and finger foods. We also experimented in terms of how many folks we could accommodate in our apartment. We wound up hosting 17 folks, which was just about perfect. Only the Summer BBQ event was attended by more... and that was outside so seating wasn't an issue. I wasn't sure we could pull it off, but give people some high-octane beer and they become very easy to please!

We also expanded the guest list significantly... there were a number of first timers among us, including some friends from work (and their dates) and a long lost pal from high school who found out about us on "the Google". I got to give a spiel about each of the beers I had painstakingly researched (thanks Wikipedia!) and about Women for Women. It was nice to feel like we're expanding into new pools of caring, generous people.

We kicked things off with a serving of Duvel Golden Ale


Silvio, Meredith and Diane enjoying a Duvel toast


Calvin, Kyle and (headless) John enjoying the second round: Bornem Dubbel


Dinner intermission included cornichons, crisps and two kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches... some with roasted fennel and others with caramelized pears. I couldn't help but try dipping the crisps in the curried mayonnaise (which sounds like overkill until you actually try it!)


Surprise guests Jenny and Kyle. Jenny and I went to high school together but hadn't seen one another for a dozen years. She RSVP'd mysteriously so I didn't know who to expect until she rang the buzzer!


It was a beautiful crowd ... as evidenced here by Mat and Johna


Round three was a sweet and heavy (and strong... 10.5% alcohol!) brew called Gulden Draak


Brandon and Molly were their usual charming selves, with Brandon serving as an invaluable second server


Kyle, Neelz, Adam and Jenny took over the living room scene


The final sample was a dessert beer... a sweetened cherry lambic


Yojimbo finishes... says "more please."