The Adventures of Shoogie...All Natural products

O ne of the main reasons I wanted to do Flan for the dessert course was because it is always a hit around my house when we make Spanish food when our families come into town.   Titi Martha makes Ropa Vieja and Black Beans, Abuela makes Arroz con Gondules, and I make Flan.  That's just how it is.  We all gather around the table with stupidly happy, giddy faces and grins a mile wide as we eat until we practically explode...then we eat dessert and drink Cuban coffee and commence to loud talking, telling stories, and laughing or crying...depends on the day and who is there.   A slightly blurry picture of us gathered around our dinner table swapping stories and polishing off dessert after some Ropa Vieja, Black Beans and Rice and Maduros. I really wanted people to experience this family style of eating...even if just for one day.   We pushed complete strangers together to eat at the same long table...and strangely enough, after a half hour or so, it started to feel like a family.

In the months leading up to our Farm to Table feast that was held at Trilogy, my friend Laura and I and her business partner, Audrey spent hours upon hours that soon added up to days concocting a menu, venue, and the feel that we wanted our first farm to table dinner to have.  We never expected it to be as big of a deal as it was and were pleasantly surprised when we sold out of all of our tickets before the event.  Someone from our hometown magazine publication showed up and photographed and interviewed us, and the local newspaper and social media outlets were abuzz with tales of our joint endeavors.   W hen Laura approached me in the months prior to the event with her idea, I was enthusiastic and knew we had to get started planning right away as an event of this magnitude was going to take careful consideration and good planning to pull it off.  I was excited at the prospect of getting people from our local area to taste what food tastes like that is local to the area and practic