As a small business owner myself, I always want to support local when I can. During "regular" times, I had to make the best decisions for my family on how and when we could. But if there's a silver-lining to all the craziness in the world, it's that what little money I can spend outside our house, I want it to stay local. It's more important now than ever to support our locally-owned small businesses. Most recently, we supported Gourmet Table Catering or "GTC". You can check out Jamie's (owner) Instagram by clicking HERE. This was such a fun, clever experience, I couldn't just share it through a Facebook post. **I was in no way compensated for writing this post. I just wanted to share some local love. WHAT IS GTC? I was familiar with GTCs concept through mutual social media accounts and friends that had hosted or been to caterings. With the *cutest* mini grill setup, through sternos and mini frying pans, you can cook your meal at your kitchen table. Think hibachi grill (food cooked at your table) mixed with the fondue experience (you're doing the cooking). But it's beyond that, the possibilities are endless! Because of quarantine times... GTC began offering rentals of their grill kits. For $10 you could rent 1 kit which is good for 1-2 people, perfect size for our family of two and a half! The kit includes 1 grill, 2 sternos, 2 pans, and 2 tongs. For $10, what could go wrong?! I was eager to try this catering concept.
WHAT TO COOK? Jamie suggested slider burgers or mini tacos... both EXCELLENT suggestions. But I was feeling fancy (I mean, after all, we rented cookware), so I thought cheese fondue for dinner, chocolate fondue for dessert, and stuffed French toast for breakfast. This also gave me options that I know my toddler would be interested in. FIRST UP, DINNERCheese, cheese, and MORE cheese! I bought 2 types of cheese we like from Sam's Club (don't worry, I didn't make a special trip. I had a LONG list). One was a Hatch Green Chile Cheddar Cheese. It is SOO good. If you haven't tried it, you need to! Anyway, when dinner time came, I had all the prepped dipping items on plates and cubed cheeses ready to melt. For dipping we had sliced rotisserie chicken breast, roasted asparagus and mushrooms, raw broccoli (my boys like the crunch), chunks of gala apples, and a sliced baguette. Side note, that baguette never stood a chance! We setup the mini grill, lit our sternos and proceeded to make our fondue. We didn't want to scratch the mini pans, so we used the tongs to hold onto a cube of cheese and swirl it around. Mason liked when we would pick up the cheese chunks and the bottom would string out all melty and gooey! "Ooh, cheeeeese!" he would exclaim. This kid loves his mommy, but he LOVES cheese! LOL. While we were melting the cheeses (which admittedly took a little longer than I thought it would) Mason munched on some dipping items, which kept him full and happy. Once the cheeses were ready, we put out the sternos so it didn't burn. I scooped out some melted cheese to put on Mason's plate, and Hubby and I used the tongs (from the kit) to dip our items. Whenever we would run low on cheese, or it began to harden, we'd simply re-light the sternos and get to melting. We were so full and happy that we debated not having dessert. No really, I can't believe I'm writing that, but it's true, we thought it... decided against it, of course, but it still crossed our minds. A quick cool down of the pans, wash and rinse, and they were ready for Round 2: Chocolate!! De-licious De-ssert!Now, making fondue in this setup is not for the faint of heart. The direct heat can really make or break your -due. That being said, we did it, we ate it, it was good (it's chocolate, duh!), but there aren't many pictures. It was definitely a 2-person job and I'm glad Mason was done at the table when we embarked on this. I chose a s'mores fondue, based on one of the menu options from Melting Pot (a fondue restaurant in El Paso, TX and around the country if you're interested). Pretty much, melted marshmallows, chocolate, and butter. See, how could we *really* go wrong? Our dipping items were fresh raspberries, mini graham crackers (which may have been in the shape of Paw Patrol characters), more mini marshmallows, pretzels, and cheesecake bites. *Side note, now that I think of it, Mason did return during the chocolate round. He left before we got to the melted chocolate part because as Hubby and I were orchestrating the melting of the chocolate and focused fully on the 2 flames on our kitchen table (as one should be), this kid polished off practically the ENTIRE package of raspberries that were on our plate of dipping foods. Like, seriously, I had rinsed a full clamshell of raspberries and put them on the dipping plate, I looked over and he was placing the last 5 raspberries on his plate! LOL. Belly full of raspberries, he decided he was done and scooted into the living room to finish PJ Masks. LOL. **Some dishes, TV, and sleep time later...... we were hungry for... BREAKFAST!!Three words: Stuffed. French. Toast. SOOOO good! A little raspberry jam, cream cheese icing, and some good ol' sliced bread later, and you have some good stuffed "French toast". They're really more like grilled breakfast sandwiches because I was worried about being too drippy with an egg batter, but, oh well. We'd rent these suckers again just for this breakfast alone!! After letting everything cool down, and washing the pans and tongs, we got everything all boxed up and back on our doorstep before 10am. And just like that, our little GTC experience was over. Review Wrap UpIf you live in the Las Cruces/El Paso area, you have to try this! At a time when most of us are cooking all three meals at home, all day, every day, this was a fun little experience to break up the monotony. $10 to rent the kit really doesn't break the bank. We ALL were able to try something new and we were able to support a small local business in the process. I will say, we will DEFINITELY be renting this kit again as I have a few more recipes I want to try out. I'm also really looking forward to the day when we can enjoy an authentic GTC event, perhaps in their new store-front! **SAFETY NOTE: When using the grill at the table, we were careful that they were far out of reach of our two year old. Mason was buckled in his seat prior to us lighting the sternos. One adult was always with the hot sternos, especially while Mason was around. Mason did not directly interact with the mini grill. Please use safety and common sense when renting this product. If you're looking for recipes, please comment below. I knew my review experience was going to be long and didn't want to make it even longer if no one was interested in recipes. If you don't want to comment below, feel free to use the "Contact" tab at the top of this blog page, or reach out to me on Facebook here, or Instagram @shopmylittlemonster. Contact Gourmet Table CateringIf you're excited to try your own GTC experience at home you can reach Jamie (owner) at www.gourmettablecatering.com OR gourmettablecateringinfo@gmail.com.
Happy cooking! ~Chelsea
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AuthorI am the mom to a 3 year old and a 10 month old, a wife, former middle school FACS teacher, small business owner, and attempting to be a mom-boss at that. Categories
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