Pour Les Enfants

                             Cabo or Vegas? A children’s museum party? Celebrity chefs at your home?

                             Tough choices, but they all are Pour Les Enfants. This 28^th annual benefit for Garth House, Mickey Mehaffy Children’s Advocacy Program, Inc., featured a catalogue of auction packages meant to entice big spending. Generous donors are needed to keep this important program going.

                             If you don’t have a luxury vacation home to offer up, how about your time? Marion Tanner, executive director, said more than 800 young clients were interviewed in 2018. The need has been rising for this program’s services to support children who have been abused. Volunteers are needed to help these children, Tanner said.

                             Their mission: To prevent child abuse and neglect and to lessen the trauma to child victims of sexual and severe physical abuse during the investigative, prosecutorial and healing process.

                             Love and dollars are needed. This benefit included a silent and live auction with a pirate theme, dinner under a stylishly festooned tent featuring Robert Louis Stevenson Grilled Veggies and Buried Treasure Shrimp Paella and the live auction. This was a seriously good time for a serious cause. 

 Versi

                             Perfect Pumpkin Update

                             Naomi Nachman grew up in Australia and started a personal kosher chef business. Flipping through her book, I could have stopped at the crazy easy avocado and chickpea salad, but I’m glad I didn’t. Not only can she help limited-space dorm students whip up fish with honey mustard and crunchy chip topping, she brings us our seasonal Pumpkin Update.

                             Pumpkin has been everywhere these past few years. Have you baked up a Pumpkin Challah topped with mini marshmallows? It’s beautiful. Her cooks’ tip: After applying egg wash to her classic challah, that’s when you can add various toppings, including sesame seeds, poppy seeds, minced onion, za’atar, pumpkin seeds and streusel crumbs.

                             The book is “Perfect Flavors: Creative, easy-to-prepare recipes inspired by my family and friends,” from Artscroll/Shaar Press. I love the way she writes about how she created dishes such as Quizza, so her daughter could enjoy pizza and quiche at once.

                             Radish Dill Tomato salad is easy, and the chickpea and avocado

                  Delight involves 2 avocados, 2 cans of the peas, scallions, garlic, kosher salt, olive oil, lime juice and za’atar seasoning. Can you manage that? Count me in.

                             Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie who loves to travel the world via a cookbook. Contact her via darraghcastillo@icloud.com