Food For Thought

Pauline Pellini (right) is a busy lady with busy fingers. An avid quilter, she has twice sewn and donated quilts to be raffled off to benefit Food For Thought’s Project Africa. Her most recent African-themed quilt raised nearly $1,000 to help feed children in Namibia who have been orphaned or left vulnerable because of AIDS.

To the left, Peaches Henning (chair of the Project Africa committee) and Gene Bonino pose in front of the quilt at our recent “Take A Walk on the Wild Side” benefit for Project Africa. The night, which featured a dinner-dance and silent auction, was held at Safari West wild animal preserve in Santa Rosa. It was a resounding success, raising nearly $20,000 to help support programs in Africa. You can read more about Project Africa here.

Here’s the recipe for the wonderful chicken hor d’oeuvres John made for the FFT Antiques opening reception. Everyone was raving about it and he agreed to share his secret. It turns out the recipe is from the Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook, and it’s definitely not lean, but meant to be served in bite-sized chunks.

Silver Palate Thai Chicken Skewers

2 whole chicken breasts (4 pcs) skinned/boned
2 cups of half and half
1 1/2 cups of mayo
3 tbls mango chutney
2 tbls dry sherry
1 tbls sherry vinegar
2 tbls + 1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp tumeric
2 cups salted roasted peanuts, finely chopped
- chopped fresh cilantro (for garnish)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Place chicken breasts in shallow baking dish, just big enough to hold them. Pour the half and half over them and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool and cut them in to 1 inch pieces.
3. Process mayo, chutney, sherry, vinegar, curry powder and tumeric in blender or food processor with steel blade.
4. Dip the chicken pieces in the curry mayo and then roll them in the chopped peanuts. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Serve each piece on a small skewer. Garnish with cilantro and accompany with a small bowl of giant raisins.

Makes about 40 hor d’oeuvres

(John says we can call him when they’re ready!)

We recently had a celebration at Food For Thought’s antique store.. With bright new road signs and new building signs in place, the store, formerly known as Collective Spaces, officially became FFT Antiques & Collectibles. It was also the occasion to remember and commemorate the late J. Randall Thompson, whose estate gift of his store set us on this fund-raising adventure.

Friends and supporters of Food For Thought toured the store, gathered in the tents outside for some wonderful food prepared by John Shoaf (a former board president), and took a look at the estate art collection (a gift from the estate of Robert Lemieux) that was part of the special weekend sale.

Even Jac, the store dog who loves a good party, joined in, barking as Board President Katherine Kendall welcomed the collected guests. The newly installed plaque by the front entrance reminds all of us of J. Randall Thompson’s gift and of the ongoing power of such planning and generosity. We plan to bring the vision and warmth of the food bank to this venture and make FFT Antiques a successful ongoing funding source for the food bank. Our purpose will be our advantage.

Friends of long-time food bank volunteer Daniel Bunch have established a Yahoo! group in his memory where you can share pictures and memories of Daniel. (You can see the group site here.) There’s a special online photo album there just for his Food For Thought friends. If you’d like to contribute thoughts or pictures to the site, you’ll have to join. If, for some reason, you have trouble signing up on line and want to participate, contact Daniel’s friend Jef for more information: jefbrun@yahoo.com.

Garden Manager Rachel Gardner reports that sweetpeas are in full bloom. The garden volunteers have just planted tomatoes and cucumbers. Everyone has been busy harvesting chamomile for our FFTea project.

There are lots of peaches and cherries on the trees. And, our new asparagus-strawberry- raspberry-blueberry beds are going strong. If you haven’t stopped by the garden lately, come take a look.

We want to offer special thanks to the folks at Diageo for pitching in and turning over some new garden beds (among other things!). Looking for work-group bonding in the form of a community volunteer day, employees of this wine, beer, and spirits conglomerate visited Food For Thought to lend their helping hands. We were all impressed with their enthusiasm on what turned out to be the hottest day of the spring. They came courtesy of Hands On Bay Area, an organization that connects service-minded companies with community NPOs.

Keep checking this space. We’ve got a new blog coming with news and information about the food bank and all of our projects — the garden, special events, fundraising, FFT Antiques, Project Africa and more! So much more than a calendar of events, the blog will have photos, thoughts, and interesting information.