Cafe Johansen

In continuation of the last post - we decided to show our thanks - to our family! We decided to treat them to an 8 course meal! The idea kind of came from our visit to LA when my friend Chelsea's in laws took us out to eat at this fancy restaurant and we had an 8 course meal and it is just something people don't get to do that often, it was fun savoring the food, being served, and taking a couple hours to just sit and talk while eating. It was soo fun! Last Saturday I woke up with this idea - I couldn't get it out of my head, and wanted to do the event right away,  but we needed some time to prepare, so we ended up having our special night on Sunday. I tried to keep everything to secrecy, the whole fam bam was wondering what the heck Brittany was up to this time. I forbade them from looking at my groceries in the fridge and I handed out cutie invites with some french words to throw them off even more. Daniel was AWESOME to go along with his crazy wife's ideas - sometimes I am a little one track minded and when I think of something, I have to have it now! I guess. Daniel and I hosted a night of wonderful cuisine coupled with an amazing atmosphere and the rest of the details I will explain :)
So the evening was a semi-formal attire and we led the family to the transformed downstairs cafe with christmas lights, candles, music, flames dancing in the fireplace, and dim lamps. The menu was pre-set. We would come down with each course on the plates and serve each person, then after refilling their waters would check when they were done and come back down and clear their plates, then after about 10 minutes come back and serve the next course and so on... The delectable menu was as follows:

Succulent Strawberry Bisque
*We came down with just the fancily cut strawberries (one on each plate) topped with mint leaves and plates decorated in syrup, so it looked deceiving, but then we came back down and served the bisque around the strawberries - and yep we confused them - some already started to eat the strawberries and thought, this is it??!! haha. We got this idea from our Carnival Cruise and the recipe is theirs too - I totally recommend it - delicious!


Covetous Cranberry Salad
*Yep, I am naming my courses - the trick with this one was that the cranberries were infused with blueberry juice, tricky, eh? This was just a spinach salad, shredded swiss, mushrooms, tomatoes, almonds, cranberries (infused with blueberry juice), and my favorite poppy seed dressing (Brianna's brand)

Lime Sorbet
*Palate Cleanser - you need anything citrusy or gingery

Rosemary Thyme Sourdough Bread (Courtesy of Days) and Carraba's famous Olive Oil Dip
*I got the dip recipe online - and famous for a reason, this was most people's favorite course, sooooo good. Let the dip sit overnight to let the flavors mix!

Ginger Sorbet
*Palate Cleanser - the bread was a strong flavor, so we needed a strong palate cleanser. I got this recipe online and it was surprisingly good. It is a flavor you don't get the opportunity to taste much, but everyone loved it! In fact we still have some in our freezer I just remembered at this moment that I shall have on the morrow (I feel the urge to be proper all of a sudden). It was just minced ginger, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice - uber tasty!

Pic: Us being snooty and proper (look how awesome Daniel and I are serving, you can't really see, but we are holding multiple plates of the main dish)

Steaks, Sauteed Mushrooms, and Potatoes
*Disclaimer: I have never been able to cook beef very well, but this turned out to be tender and moist enough, I should have seared it longer and then broiled it less. But lessons learned. I sauteed the mushrooms with the extra dip (there wasn't any extra bread - if there was, I'm sure the dip would be gone as well) and Daniel did an impeccable job on the potatoes as usual. Another disclaimer - I am using the word I, but insert we - Daniel did the same if not more work than I did - we slaved away upstairs while they dined peacefully downstairs....

Raspberry Sorbet
*Palate Cleanser - hahaha we just bought rainbow sherbet, called it sorbet, and served single flavors at a time to make it look fancier. I have small glass cups that we put in the freezer to make them look frosty as we served them - it worked! (but I really did make the ginger sorbet from scratch)

Warming Chocolate Melting Cake a la Mode
*Also a favorite, also a recipe from Carnvial cruise (as made up by my momma) as simple as mixing cake mix, putting it in a glass container (my little cups worked perfect again - if not mugs work) and microwaving for 20-30 seconds depending on the depth. Serve hot and don't cook it all the way so it is still melting and pudding esque - serve with vanilla ice cream! Best and easiest dessert!


It was a lot of work, but so much fun! It was our shout out thank you to having us over for dinner every Sunday for the past year and a half - our turn to make a meal. My mother in law said she loved it but that she loved it even more since she didn't have to cook any of it. Afterwards they came upstairs and it looked like a tornado had torn through, dishes everywhere - that is what you get for serving 5 people an 8 course meal and taking away their plates every course. Actually 5 courses with 3 palate cleansers, but they say I can call it an 8 course meal. You should try it, definitely worth it. And I am willing to do it for friends if you want, just pitch in a little for the grocery bill ;)

This is us playing on the frozen Utah lake - story short - Cumi (the dog) fell in and was rescued by Nate, and we had fun throwing rocks across the ice listening to the crazy sounds it made until it plopped into the open water (I cannot even begin to describe the sounds - echos and water droplets and boingy and indescribable but totally cool)!