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A huge thank you to our family, friends, farmers, neighbors - and the terrific folks at Brasa - for making Simple, Good, and Tasty's January 2010 local food dinner one of the best yet. From the time we sat down to the time we left 3 hours later, the nearly 100-strong crowd was fed a menu of - well, nearly everything on the menu. Here's what was served:

• Warm potato rolls and cornbread
• Smoked beef, sausage, and cheddar
• Roasted red beets with vinegar
• Potato salad with mustard and egg
• Mike Phillips' (from the Craftsman) sauerkraut and ham
• Pork shoulder
• Delicata squash
• Slow roasted goat
• Marinated and fried chicken
• Black beans with potato and thyme
• Collard greens with mushrooms
• Corn grits with cheddar
• Cabbage and apple cole slaw
• Brownies and cookies

The food was delicious, the service was terrific, and the night was made all the more special by the fact that we ate with several of the folks who produced our food - Larry Jacoby from Shepherd Song Farm, Greg and Mary Reynolds from Riverbend Farm, and Mike and Pete from Kadejan chicken. Brasa chef and owner Alex Roberts got up and spoke about what he does at Brasa (and also at Restaurant Alma), why it matters to him, and why it should matter to us. We kicked off the night with a toast to showing respect - for our food, our farmers, our earth, the animals we eat, and the friends we eat with. Respect is an important concept at Brasa, and it shows.

After all the guests had left, Alex summed up the night perfectly. "We went through a lot of food," he said. "When people eat this much, you don't have to ask them if it was good."

It was.