Greg's Dish

Wine Country – Part Deux

2011-09-25T11:13:00.001-05:00

Heirloom tomatoes from Cakebread

Saturday was our unplanned day. While at the Sunshine Foods market yesterday, we got some provisions for light breakfasts at the double-wide, so we enjoyed Greek yogurt, Costeaux granola, fresh figs and heirloom tomatoes. The tomatoes get a shout-out here… At Cakebread Cellars, they have a kitchen from which they cater special events and offer cooking classes. To supply their kitchen, they grow vegetables and herbs in their organic garden. Whatever produce they do not use in the kitchen is offered for sale to winery guests in their “honor shed” – a tiny wooden structure with a couple of shelves of veggies and a money basket. You bag your selections and leave cash in the basket. For $2.50 we got a basket of 7 perfect heirloom tomatoes. (Note that only 5 are pictured; 2 were consumed before I could arrange the plate and snap the photo.)

For our free day, Julie and Chris had lunch with some local friends, and Tom and I made a lunch date with the CIA – the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Greystone is a huge structure in St. Helena that once housed Christian Brothers Winery. The CIA bought the facility, converted it into their western campus and opened a “teaching” restaurant. The kitchen and wait staff are all CIA students, except for a couple of seasoned pros who I guess would be considered faculty. The restaurant’s patio was shady, breezy and cool, but we opted for a table in the dining room next to the open kitchen so we could watch “the kids” at work. The restaurant is not-for-profit, so we enjoyed the most generous portions at the most favorable prices of any meal on the trip. We had a very nice bottle of their namesake chardonnay for $30, which is unheard-of in this part of the world. After lunch, it was back to the double-wide to link up with the Richeys for some bocce and zinfandel.

Chris and Tom taste and pose

Mazzocco Winery (home of the double-wide) is owned by the Wilson family (think sporting goods), so we received an invitation to a hoe-down (I don’t make this stuff up.) at their namesake winery for the introduction of their 2011 releases. Wilson Winery is a couple of miles down the highway.

Tom, Chris and Julie with the pony

In addition to the requisite wine sampling, festivities included games, line dance lessons, hors d’eouvres (which were awfully gourmet for a hoe-down) and a pitiful little petting pony trapped in a pen that was too small for him to even turn around in. They also served a full dinner, with a pig on the spit, all the trimmings and a huge dessert buffet, all paired with Wilson’s just-released reserve wines. I would guess there were 100-150 guests, and everything was complimentary. So I’ll have to amend my previous comment about prices at The Greystone. But wait! There’s more!

One of the games was a bean-bag toss, only modified appropriately to be a cork toss. You toss a cork in one of the various size holes to win a prize commensurate with the size of the hole. Three of the four of us each won a bottle of Wilson’s 2009 zinfandel. (Sorry, Chris. I know the pressure was on.) More trivia: Remember the soccer ball from “Castaway” with Tom Hanks? It was displayed behind the bar in their tasting room.

Picnic lunch at deLormier Winery

Sunday was our escorted tour of several other Wilson family wineries, covering Sonoma and Mendocino counties and highlighted by a picnic lunch at DeLormier Winery. The four of us were joined by Julie’s friend from Santa Rosa, a fellow mosaicist, and her husband. The tour lasted about 7 hours, and was capped with a full tasting at Mazzocco. For dinner, we drove into Healdsburg and had a very low-key meal at a local hamburger hang-out.

The final tasting at Mazzocco Winery

Monday was going-home day, but our festivities were not over, yet. We were invited to the Richmond home and studio of friend and artist, John Wehrle (www.troutinhand.com). So on our return trip to SFO, we detoured through Richmond for art, conversation and Thai food. Final trivia: There are very few gas stations along the 101 anywhere close to SFO. We had to back-track to gas up the Jeep before surrendering it there.

Back in the reality of Dallas, I now anticipate the next big event – the South Cobb High School class of ’81 thirty-year reunion. Yikes. Stay tuned...

Wine Country - Part 1

2011-09-14T18:05:00.000-05:00

Our Deck View from the Double-Wide

What couldbe prettier than tasting America’s finest wines in their native region withfriends? Doing so a week before theharvest (or “the crush” as some call it), when the vines are loaded with thesweet red berries that will become some of the world’s premier wines over thenext few months. I got to do just thatthis past weekend at a variety of spots in Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino countiesin northern California.

Our tripbegan early Thursday morning. We arrivedat SFO just in time for lunch, and as we headed north toward winedom, westopped at Fish in Sausolito for a bite. Fish is an organic seafood (DUH!) restaurant focusing on sustainablefishing practices. The setting is picnictable casual, but with the patio overlooking the bay, who cares?!

From there,it was north to Caymus Winery for our first formal tasting. It was more entertaining than educational,and the wines did not compel any in our group of four to make a purchase. Of course, there was plenty of profit forthem in the $30 (each!) tasting fee. From there, we headed to Healdsburg and Mazzocco Winery, not for thetasting, yet, but because their guest house was our accommodation for theextended long weekend.

“GuestHouse” is their euphemism for what we in the south would call adouble-wide. No kidding. Granted, the setting was beautiful, with thewinery on one side, and vineyards & a runway on the other. Thankfully, the runway was the Healdsburg regionallanding strip about 200 yards away and only had to handle about four smallplane take-offs and landings each day. The deck affixed to the double-wide was great – long and wide, with apanoramic view of the Mazzocco grape fields and said runway. They did a nice job with floral plantingsaround the double-wide, and on one end we had a bocce court and a horseshoepit. But it’s still a double-wide. To their credit, the nightly rate for four ofus in the very large double-wide (with kitchen, 3 bedrooms and 2 baths) was afraction of what a pair of hotel rooms in the region would have been. And the scenery (looking away from thedouble-wide) was great. Addedbonus: We had two bottles of Mazzocco’sreserve wines awaiting us when we arrived.

Thursday’sdinner was at The Farmhouse, a small restaurant attached to an ultra-lux inn inForestville. The food and service werepredictably excellent and predictably expensive. Then it was back the dark winding road to thedouble-wide.

Per arecommendation from one of our hosts at Mazzocco, Friday breakfast was atCosteaux Bakery in downtown Healdsburg. The omelets and coffee were great. Thankfully, it was pretty early in the morning, so the bakery casestocked with sweet pastries and tartlets was easier to resist.

Stacks of Barrels at Cakebread

Our firststop after breakfast was a tour and tasting at Cakebread Cellars in Rutheford. This was an hour walk-and-talk through theirvineyards and winery, followed by a half-hour tasting of several of theirproducts that are not widely distributed (if at all). Our guide, Summer, was interesting andentertaining, and she had the product in the tasting room to back up thetypically over-descriptive wine-speak. “Heavy on the nose.” “Fruit-forward.” “Hits the middleof the palate.” Shut up already! Do I like it or not? Interesting bit of trivia: Cakebread is a family name, and the founderused to run a garage in Oakland.

FromCakebread, it was off to Yountville (“YONT-ville”) and lunch at Bouchon. Bouchon is the little sister of the famedFrench Laundry, so we decided to call it “The Laundrette”. They serve French fare at French prices withFrench service (respectively, excellent, high, and slow by American standards).

Quixote Winery by Hundertwasser

Ourafternoon tour-n-taste was at Quixote Winery. Quixote is a boutique winemaker with very limited distribution. They are as famous for their Hundertwasser-designedstructure as they are for their superb screw-cap wines. Even the wine barrels are fun here, withcolorfully striped steel bands binding the oak planks into place.

Colorful Barrels at Quixote

On our driveback to the double-wide, we stopped at Sunshine Foods in St. Helena and pickedup stuff for a simple, quiet dinner at “home”. Sunshine is proud of their products (expensive!), but the quality oftheir organic locally-sourced foods is indisputable. Paired with some excellent Mazzocco reds, ourdouble-wide dinner was delightful.

Tomorrow isSaturday, our planned no-plans day…

I AM-sterdam!

2011-05-21T13:20:00.000-05:00

Day 8

We've mastered the trains! We cabbed it back to the Bruges train station, got on the correct train to Brussels, and linked up perfectly with our Thalys train, enjoyed lunch and drinks, and arrived in Amsterdam at 186 MPH right on time. Well, we *did* slow down to about 30 a few of minutes before arrival at Amsterdam Centraal.

Yes, they spell it with two A's. Speaking of spelling, they have more English-invalid letter combinations in Amsterdam than I have ever seen. Pick any permutation of J, K, L, and T, toss in a vowel or two, repeat at least once, and that's a perfectly good name for a street.

We cabbed it to Hotel Amistad, and began our Amsterdammer adventure. This is gonna be fun! We walked around the area, as we always do when arriving in a new city.

It's Friday, and tonight is "disco night" at the Van Gogh Museum. Our host at Amistad, Jost, suggested that we buy tickets ahead of time so we don't have to wait in the ticket queue; excellent advice. We got to bypass the 15-minute queue for tickets. The museum is open until 10:00 on Friday nights, so we arrived around 7:00 PM. DJ, bar, energy, and art. What a great combination! I noticed that their audio tour headsets only have one earpiece.

We ended up at dinner across the street from the hotel at a Portuguese spot, which was great. It's a family-owned and -operated spot that serves great fish dishes.

Day 9

Today is "tour day". We follow Rick Steves' walking tour and learn lots about the city.

Another aside here... European floors are numbered from zero. So the ground floor (what we'd call the first floor in the U.S.) is floor zero. That means the basement is negative one, and if you're on the third floor (as is our room at Amistad sans lift), that's the 4th floor in the U.S. We will have very shapely legs by the time we get back to Dallas.

Because of Amsterdam's renaissance tax history, buildings are skinny and tall. They used to have to pay taxes based on the size of their plot and the height of the entry stairs; servants used a ground-level entrance, and elites ascended several steps to the front door. Our hotel building was only as wide as our compact queen-bedded room. Our room was street-facing, 3 flights of stairs up. Thankfully, Jost was better fit than we, and hauled our 2 carry-ons up for us.

We learned the lay of the land (which used to be marshland) and scoped out some potential eateries. Amsterdam is much like the U.S. -- there really is no "native" food, as, say, Italy or Spain. (Sorry, France. Y'all know how to dramatize food, but there didn't seem to be anything really "native". We love you, though!) There is a lot of every cuisine here. And since Holland used to own Indonesia, there is a lot of that here.

Dinner was at De Kas, a large organic spot southeast of the city center that grows much of its own veggies and herbs. It was good, but I think its hype is bigger than its bites. Its prices certainly are. But my dinner was free! My fish was WAY over-cooked (mushy, not flaky), so I reported that to our head waitress. I was comfortably full on the house-grown organic veggies, which were grilled to perfection, so I didn't need the fillet anyway. Tom and I shared the cheese plate for dessert. The bill arrived one "menu" (my 4-course meal) short, and the waitress explained [in perfect English as they all speak] that the chef appreciated my comments and complimented my meal.

Day 10

Mothers' Day at the Rijksmuseum, the national museum of The Netherlands. Rick Steves was right again -- Dutch art is "meat and potatoes" compared to the rest of Europe's stuff, and way more up my alley. We did the "approximately one-hour" audio tour, and 2-1/2 hours later were glad we did. The main museum is closed for renovation until 2013, so all the stuff we saw was in The Phillips Wing, which was added recently in 1890 (yes, eighteen-ninety). The "meat and potatoes" exhibits are like a U.S. fireworks show -- start with some bravado -- a 1/12 scale dutch war ship model --slow it down with a bunch of still life paintings, then have the grand finale -- Rembrandt's "The Night Watch".

After the museum, we had a late lunch at a chic Indonesian restaurant, sharing "The Indonesia Plate for Two". It was a selection nice of small dishes, each of which was great.

After lunch, we toured the red light district, which, as you might imagine, is not terribly active on a Sunday afternoon. Still interesting, though. And it's really a pretty small area. From there it was back south toward the hotel and happy hour.

We didn't know about Sunday happy hour; we just came upon it. We found a "friendly" [as if not all bars in Amsterdam aren't "friendly"] neighborhood spot near the hotel called Taboo. There were lots of vacant sidewalk tables, so we parked at one and had a glass of wine. Within the hour, the place filled to capacity and spilled into the street. It was orchestrated almost like a flash mob. (See pictures.)

Day 11

Today's plan was to take the bus out to Keukenhof Gardens, a renouned botanical garden open only two months each year in the spring to show off their spectactular tulips. A colleague had told me about it. (Thanks, Julie!) RAIN. So instead we made this our "lazy day", which every vacation needs anyway. Shop, sip, and savor.

Day 12

It's our last full day on the trip. We figured we'd do Keukenhof today since we had rain yesterday. Well, today, more rain. We don't really want to tour the tulips in the rain.

So instead, we did a canal tour on a boat and a walking tour of Jordaan ("yor-DON"), a great quiet neighborhood (except for canal maintenance -- see the pics) where the Franks hid during WWII. We had an hour before our boat set sail, so we found a sidewalk cafe (imagine that) and enjoyed a salad and some wine. I'm sure Grand Island, Nebraska, is close, but I'm pretty sure I should have been born into cafe society.

The boat tour was fun, if not predictable. It lasted an hour and took us on a large loop around the city. We learned several tidbits about Amsterdam. For example, this is the only city that built a multi-deck parking garage for bikes. (See pictures.) And they've already outgrown it!

Sushi seems to have taken Amsterdam by storm, so we decided on a sushi spot for the last supper. I hope that the restaurant we chose is not representative of Amsterdammer sushi. It was adequate at best.

We returned to the hotel and asked them to book us a taxi to Schipol (they call it "skipple", but everyone else calls it "shipple". Since they own it, we should probably go with their pronunciation.) at 5:00 AM for our 7:20 AM flight.

In Bruges

2011-05-19T18:56:00.002-05:00

Day 6

Today is travel day to Bruges, and what a day it will turn out to be...

The day started with breakfast at our morning standard, Cafe Parvis. From there, we checked out of the hotel and headed on the Metro toward Gare de Nord. On our map, red and orange look very similar... After a few stops, we realized that we were not headed to the gare, so we hopped off and grabbed a cab. But for other reasons (my incorrectly set watch) we missed our train to Brussels and had to buy another ticket. No worries... 164€ down the tube. Arghhh...

But it gets better (worse, actually)... We got to Brussels, finally, a couple of hours later. We LOVE the Thalys high-speed (186 MPH) trains. Smooth, quiet, food and drink service.

OH! I think I forgot to mention that with the EU, there are no passport checks or customs when traveling country-to-country. And while on the subject... When we arrived in Paris after Miami, there was no immigration paperwork to complete and only a quick passport check at CDG. I bet it won't be so smooth next week when we return to Dallas via Heathrow. But we'll burn that bridge when we get there.

Back in Brussels... We're just here to change trains to get to Bruges. On the Belgian trains (state-run) there is no first class (the difference in first and second classes on European trains is not as it is on airlines), no reserved seats, and no reserved schedule. You buy a 24€ ticket and it's good on any train (to a specified destination) for 30 days.

We found the track, ascended the escalator, and hopped on the train. [Insert high-pitched conductor whistle here. Really.] After about 20 minutes up-rail, the conductor passed to check everyone's tickets. Tom presented his, and the conductor replied (in perfect English) "This is not the right ticket." I presented my ticket, which was the same, pointing out the we both at tickets to Bruges. "The tickets are okay, but this train does not go to Bruges." Red faces reigned. The conductor was the perfect gentleman and explained to us that we need to get off at the next stop, swap tracks, go back to Brussels...

In Bruges! (If you haven't seen that movie, rent it. Colin Farrell and Ralph Feines.) We cabbed it from the train to the hotel, where Tom has booked the "honeymoon suite" on the canal. That is an exaggerated description, but it was an adequate hotel. (See our canal-view pictures.) Rick Steves hit the nail on the head with his description of the hotel -- big and basic.

We walked up to Market Square, Bruges' main one. Bikes, taxis, city buses, and horse-drawn carriages whiz by. High energy old world.

Dinner was at a "tapas bar" called Rockfort. I had foie gras (imagine that) and Tom had eel. The place was as modern and chic as any Dallas restaurant, but architecturally set 300 years ago. The food and service were fantastic (the latter of which we would learn is unusual in Bruges).

Day 7

We did Rick Steves' walking tour of Bruges, hitting all the highlights, including Michelangelo's "Mary and Jesus" sculpture, "the only Michelangelo sculpture exported from Italy while he was alive". What a specific claim to fame.

The rest of the day included lunch at a sidewalk cafe (Still lovin' the cafe life!) and turning in early. We're leaving tomorrow morning and don't want a repeat or the previous day's train fiascos.

Europe Days 3-5, Still in Paris

2011-05-08T14:08:00.000-05:00

Day 3

Sunday was a restful day, sort of. It's Labor Day here, but as our concierge told us, that's a "light holiday" in France - no special festivities or cook-outs. We started late with brunch at one of our favorite hang-outs, Cafe Vito. I had orange raisin bread, baguette, butter, and jam. Tom had a soft-boiled egg. Nothing about which to get excited, but it served its purpose.

We spent the afternoon at Pere Lachaise cemetery, home to Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Chopin, Collett, and thousands more. In addition to Montmarte, this has to be one of the hilliest parts of Paris. We ended our tour in the section with many monuments to the many thousands of French Jews who were Nazi victims. We study this stuff in world history in high school, but seeing these monuments and memorials really hits it home. Don't miss the pics on my "The pictures" section.

Day 4

Today's agenda: A day at the opera. Or at least a visit to the famed Opera Garnier. You may have heard of the phantom. (Never mind that its author is an Englishman.) We suspected that one of the escapees from Pere Lachaise cemetery was probably the phantom. The opera house itself is pretty, but most of the lobby was closed. We got to peek into the theatre from one of the balconies, but we were pretty disappointed with the visit. At least the queue was short.

We decided on an impromptu dinner in the Marais -- we'd just amble about until we saw a place that looked good. Bad idea. 9:30 PM and everything that looked good was packed. Finally, on the far-east side of the Marais, almost to Bastille, we came across a cool-looking spot with a couple of open tables. We're in! I had not had my foie gras fix for the day, and the only thing on the limited carte (menu) with foie gras was a salad. No kidding. Foie gras salad. It was interesting, and really pretty good. It reminded me (in concept, not flavor) of when I was in Australia and had fettucini with chicken livers and cream. I never would have put those two together, either, but each worked pretty well.

Apparently, the salad threw me for a loop and I lost my sense of direction. We headed on foot back to the hotel, or so we thought. As we got into sections of town we had never seen, I figured I'd better pull out the 'Pad to see where we were. It oriented us, and we headed in the other direction. Or so we thought. After five more minutes, so no recognizable sights. I fired up the 'Pad again, and we were even further away. Yikes. TAXI! We were back at the hotel shortly.
,
Oh... 16,212 steps today. These dogs were tired!

Day 5

After so much walking yesterday, we slept in. Our Fodor's guide suggested a Taiwanese dim sum spot for lunch. So after showers, we headed out for Zen Zoo. How did we navigate before our devices and GPS? Zen Zoo was hardly dim sum -- more bento box than bite-size Taiwanese -- but delightful nonetheless.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the laundromat. Actually, the laundromat was in the Marais, so after depositing the dirty clothes in the washer, we ambled some more. Since we've had automatic dryers my entire adult life, we were not good estimators of how long things took to dry. Thirty minutes? YIKES, that industrial dryer must be powerful. I bet 10 minutes would have done the trick.

For dinner, as is our tradition when we travel, we returned to our favorite spot of the trip -- Le Hangar. And it was on this night that I reached gastronomic orgasm -- foie gras soup. It was a creamy mushroom-based puree from heaven topped with 3 or 4 bites of the best goose liver this side of France. Oh wait... We ARE in France. My main course of seared scallops was sumptuous as well, but I don't think that soup will ever be toppled from my gastronomic pyramid.

European Adventure, Part 1

2011-05-02T06:47:00.000-05:00

This is the second time I'm writing this because the one I was working on for 2 hours yesterday was eaten by the crappy app I bought to publish (Blogsmith, FWIW). Now I'm using the iPad's Notes app to write this. I know it is stable.

I apologize in advance to my Francophile friends because I don't have a French keyboard to type the accented and cedille letters.

I also apologize for not having pictures herein. But you can see those in my Picasa album. Just go to gregtaylor.com and click "The Pictures".

Day 1

Our flights from DFW to MIA to CDG were [thankfully] uneventful. We arrived around 9:30 AM Central European Time (CET) and cabbed it to the hotel. We rested a bit, fresshened up, and set out for our traditional first-day walk-about. Having had an adequate breakfast on the plane just before landing, we decided to skip lunch in order to build our hunger for tonight's feast. (More shortly...)

In 6,218 steps (count courtesy of my new HP-provided pedometer, err probably pedometre here), we walked from out hotel in the Marais near Centre Pompidou down to Hotel de Ville (City Hall), across the Seine to Ile de Cite and past Notre Dame, across the other brance of the Seine to Rive Gauche, back across the Seine to the Marais, then back to the hotel. Time to get ready for dinner...

No one in the world (IMHO) can prepare and present a five-course dinner like the French. As on our last trip to Paris in 2007, we opted to have our first dinner at Le Train Bleu in Gare (train station) de Lyon. Think back to "Hello Dolly", and Dolly's fabulous entrance into Harmonia Garden. Remember the energy of the waiters singing dancing and dancing around with reckless abandon? Le Train Bleu is the Harmonia Garden of Paris. The waiters don't sing or dance, but zest with which they scurry around the restaurant is invigorating to watch. Even if the energy weren't there, the restaurant itself is a wonderful example of French Baroque (or maybe Baroque Revival) splendor. And the place is HUGE. The place is laid out like a French garden (formal and symmertical), with a wide central corridore flanked by perpendicular rows and rows of tables. Unlike the cramped sidewalk cafes (more shortly...), the tables are close, but you have plenty of elbow room and privacy. And the food?

Tom and I opted for the menu. Here, the "menu" is what in the States we would call "chef's menu" or "tasting menu". The menu was a five-course parade of food, including:
- asparagus mousse with a dollop of smoked salmon mousse (a courtesy of the chef, not one of the five courses)
- a trio of Vichyssoise, salmon tartare on a small biscuit, and mozarella atop diced tomato with basil puree
- fois gras with raisin and apricot toast
- fillet of turbot with sweated spinach
- raspberry sorbet in Champagne (the palate cleanser, not one of the courses)
- potato-crusted veal chop with asparagus risotto
- a dessert trio of chocolate mousse, berry sorbet with strawberries, raspberries, topped with a meringue; and a rum mousse served with a rum injector (think disposable miniature turkey baster with a sharp tip filled with a shot of rum)

Everything was delectable, and after three hours, our gastromonic parade was over. We Metro'd it back to Hotel de Ville and walked the 4 blocks back to the hotel. After a LONG day of flying, walking, and eating, it was time for bed. We were eager to shake the jetlag...

Day 2

We awoke at 7:30 with our bodies comfortable adjusted for CET. On our last visit, we discovered a small sidewalk cafe (Imagine that in Paris!) where we'd spend our mornings sipping cafe creme (what they call "cafe au lait" in New Orleans), grazing on croissant, and planning the day ahead. We continued that tradition this morning, ingesting copious quantities of butter, puff pastry, caffeine, and cream.

We charted our course for the day: Musee Rodin, lunch on Rue Cler, Musee d'Orsay, and dinner TBD.

The Rodin Museum is great: manageable size, pretty house and gardens, and smaller crowds than "the big boys" of Parisian museums. The museums of Paris offer what is called "The Museum Pass", which has two huge advantages over doing museum tickets "a la carte": first, you get admission to MOST museums in Paris for the price of the pass (50 euro for 4 days in our case), and immediate admission -- you don't have to wait in line with the other tourists who are queued to purchase tickets, apparently not knowing of the great deal the Museum Pass offers. You can see pictures of our visit to Rodin's place in my "The Pictures" section at gregtaylor.com.

After Rodin, we hooved over to Rue Cler, which has to be one of the world's best market and cafe streets. We popped in at one of our favorite sidewalk cafes, Cafe du Marche. Another gastro delight, Tom enjoyed seared duck and I carnivorized (a new word!) steak tartare. Apparently, most foreigners don't realize that tartare (whether beef or fish) is raw -- it's just seasoned with a few additives, like chopped olives and onions. So the waiters always confirm that I know it's raw meat when I order it. It's good stuff.

We Metro'd it back to the hotel to plan dinner. We had a few places in mind from our previous trip, but wanted to try something new.

We asked the hotel concierge (also the desk clerk, as the hotel is small. The recommendation was Le Hangar, a small (friends in Dallas, think the late York Street) cafe at the end of a hooked dead-end alley that nobody would ever find unless you were looking for it. We asked the concierge to book us a reservation for 9:00 PM, having come off such a meaty lunch. The earliest they could get is in was 10:00, and so it was. As you may know, Europeans eat late by our stateside standard, so we were fine with that. We arrived at 9:50 and were seated around 10:10. What was to follow was simple and sublime.

Tom had sardines with toast (These were not the canned salty kinds.) as an entree (The entree here is what we would call an appetizer.) and I had salmon tartare. Both were sinful. For his main course, Tom had "beef stroganoff", simmered beef and mushrooms surrounded by small bites of fried mashed potato balls. No noodles here. I had [drumroll here...] seared fois gras and potatoes. The potatoes were very nicely creamed and seasoned, and spread in a thin layer across the bottom of the small plate. The three slices of fois gras were beautifully sauteed, laid to rest (RIP!) across the thin layer of potatoes, then drizzled with olive and truffle oils. Need I say more?

Back to the hotel, and another day of walking, Metro-ing, and grazing complete. Oh, 14,274 steps.

Eggstravaganza Imminent

2011-04-21T23:21:00.001-05:00

This is kind of a test of the softare I'm going to use going forward. (Of course, it would be difficult to use something going backward.). And this is the Halloween costume I want. Can you help? It is the Swiss Guard at Casa di Papa.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Curried Apple Hunter's Pie Dinner

2011-01-21T15:21:00.000-06:00

Tom was flipping through the lifestyle section of yesterday's Dallas's-only-daily and came across a recipe for shepherd's pie. In case you don't know, shepherd's pie is very much like a pot pie, but insteading having a crust on top, it has mashed potatoes on top. (Those crafty English folks...) Tom made ours with a twist, though -- venison instead of beef. A friend of ours is an avid hobby hunter (hang out with the boys, drink beer, shoot some stuff, repeat) and for the past few years has given us some of his victims. Last year he gave us a bunch of ground venison, so we used that for last night's pie. Tom christened it "The Hunter's Pie".

The list of ingredients and instructions look intimidating, but there is really nothing complicated. And with all these flavors going together in one big dish, the result is nothing short of sublime -- a one-dish wonder dinner.

Coincidentally, the day before, I received a Facebook tag from a friend (thanks, Julie Richey!) with a recipe for a soup she had just made and loved -- curried apple. That sounded so intriguing and exotic I HAD to make it. I thought it would be a good starter for the hunter's pie -- the bold flavors of curry followed by the heartiness of the pie -- an Apple Pie Dinner!

So the pie would not have to sit alone on the dinner plates, I shredded and sauteed some Brussels sprouts, seasoned simply with salt, pepper, and garlic. The is a preparation I learned from our neighbor, Paul. It's a satisfying quick-fix side that works with just about any main course.

Curried Apple Soup (pictured above)

Serves 8-10

6-quart soup pot or Dutch oven
immersion blender or regular upright blender

6 tart green apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
4 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne (less if you're scared)
1-1/2 quarts vegetable stock
juice of 1 lemon
sea salt to taste
creme fraiche (In a pinch, you could substitute sour cream. The creme fraiche is a lot smoother in taste, though.)

Melt the butter in the soup pot and saute the onions until soft. Stir in spices. Add apples and stock. Simmer until the apples are soft, about 15 minutes. (Since the apple quarters float, I covered the pot for more even cooking and stirred several times.) Remove from heat.
Puree the soup with your blender. If you have the immersion blender, it's a no-brainer. If you have to use your regular blender, do it in 2 or 3 batches so it doesn't explode in your face. That would hurt.
Ladle into bowls and top each with a dollop (that's such an ugly word) of creme. The recipe Julie shared says you can garnish it with chopped celery and chopped green apples. I liked it with just the creme, and you can use a toothpick to make decorative swirl patterns with the creme.

Hunter's Pie

(The paper says this recipe feeds 6. We had 5 for dinner and had about half of it left over. And it's great left over! Mother, this might be a good option for freezing and taking to Cades Cove.)

large saute pan
3-quart sauce pan
9 x 13 glass baking dish

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds ground venison
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 pound onion, peeled and very finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
6 tablespoons butter, divided divided 2.5/3.5
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste (You know, you can get this stuff in a reclosable tube now.)
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup dry red wine
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 cups beef broth
Kosher salt to taste
1-1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes (We like them with the peeling on.)
2/3 cup whole milk, heated
2 egg yolks
freshly ground white pepper to taste

In the large saute pan, heat iol until hot. Add the venison and season with pepper. Brown well. Remove meat from pan with a slotted spoon and put in a metal colander to allow excess fat to drain. (Venison is pretty lean, so there won't be a lot.)
Add the onion, carrot, thyme, rosemary, garlic, and 2-1/2 tablespoons of butter to the pan. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook until browned.
Add the meat and tomato paste. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the wine and Worcestershire, and cook until the liquid has reduced by half.
Add the broth, bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. It should be thick and glossy.
Remove from heat, cool slightly, taste, and adjust seasonings.
Finally, fire up the over to 400F.

For the mashed potato topping:
Boil the potatoes for about 15 minutes until they're ready for mashing. Drain. Return potatoes to the pan.
Melt the remaining butter.
Mash the potatoes with the butter, adding enough hot milk to make the potatoes creamy.
Add the egg yolks, blending immediately so they don't scramble, and season with Kosher salt and white pepper.

Now, the assembly:
Lightly grease or butter the 9 x 13 baking dish.
Spread the meat mixture evenly in the dish, and top with the mashed potatoes. Use a fork to make decorative swirls in the potatoes.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until it's bubbly around the edges and the potatoes are slightly browned.
Let it sit for a few minutes before digging in. It will make your house smell delicious!

Shredded Brussels Sprouts

serves 8

food processor with sharp blade
large skillet

1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Coarsely shred the sprouts in the food processor. They should be about the same chop as cabbage that you'd put into coleslaw.
Heat butter and oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining ingredients except the lemon juice and saute until the sprouts are almost tender, about 3 minutes.
Toss in the lemon juice and serve immediately.

Big Orange - Part 2

2010-10-06T15:04:00.000-05:00

[If you haven't read Part 1, yet, please scroll down to the next posting and read it first.]

Sushi in Knoxville? Well, it *is* on the Tennessee River, after all, but our server, Trey, assured us it's flown in daily from the coasts.

We had read reviews of Nama on the Internet prior to our trip, and like most consumer-posted reviews, they were all polarized -- loved it or hated it. But there was more love than hate, so we thought we'd give it a go. It's located just north of Market Square on Gay Street, and when we arrived, the place was hoppin'. After a short wait, we were seated in prime seats at the corner of the sushi bar. (I have no clout or creds here; this was purely coincidental.) Like most restaurants, they have menus, but our server explained that what most people like to do is get what is essentially the "chef's choice". You tell them how much you want to spend, what you like and don't like, and any special requests, and the sushi chef builds a platter based on that. It's a great way to taste things that you otherwise wouldn't have ordered a la carte. We ordered $40 of sashimi, no mackerel, no octopus, love salmon and tuna. We were rewarded with two platters full of fish, veggies, and tofu that were as pleasing to the eye as they were to the palate.

As we neared the end of our fish binge, two ladies were seated at the bar beside us. They ordered some sort of roll that was so pretty I had to ask what it was. The lady next to me politely replied, and then asked if this was our first time at Nama. The conversation continued, and when she learned that we live in Dallas, she said she is dating a man from Dallas. After more conversation and wine, we discovered that the guy she's dating used to live next door to us. No kidding. What are the odds? We broke into a round of "It's a Small World" (not really, but now that song is going to be stuck in your head for a while!) and then shared stories of our mutual friend. The stories are the "RICH" part, but I won't go into detail here. Call me if you want more.

Saturday was game day. Mother and Daddy met us at the hotel, and we walked the half mile or so to Neyland Stadium for all the game-day activities. The day was overcast, but the sea of orange that filled Phillip Fulmer Way was blinding. Mother picked the perfect corner for us, as she knew the Pride of the Southland's band routine. After a while, the band marched down the hill (not "The Hill", which is another site on campus), did a short street performance, and then marched on into the stadium.

The game was unnecessarily exciting as the UAB Blazers gave the Vols a run for their money, and the UT emotions were as those of a menopausal woman. It ended up in two overtimes, but the Vols finally prevailed, and "Rocky Top" was tattooed into our heads. (Ask Tom about that.)

Sunday was a soppy day; the clouds that had threatened all day Saturday cut loose on Sunday. We had a late flight out of TYS, so we spent another day with my parents in Cades Cove. The place is stunningly beautiful, and during a break in the rain, we did the 9-mile scenic loop drive. With all the foggy mist hugging the hills, we were reminded why it's called "The Great Smoky Mountains".

Big Orange - Part 1

2010-09-28T17:03:00.003-05:00

Those of you who know me probably know of my Tennessee heritage already, but for those of you who don't, my parents are both native Tennesseans and alums of the university thereof. Daddy earned an electrical engineering degree there, and Mother worked at the school to support them. Memorial Day week was my family's annual reunion at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. While there earlier this year, Tom and I decided that we wanted to attend a UT (the original UT) football game in the fall, and we asked my parents to "chaperone" us and share the traditions of UT football.

We arrived on Thursday, checked into the hotel, and headed out on foot to get lunch and do some sight-seeing in historic downtown Knoxville. From our Internet research, we knew that Market Square was the place to go, and we were not disappointed. The four-block area bustles with restaurants and bars of all flavors and shops of all wares. And it is all housed in original structures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The hub of the square is a wide pedestrian plaza with gardens, sculptures, fountains, and a make-shift movie screen (the only new structure in sight) where they show free "walk-in" movies weekly. The only blight on the landscape is the unfortunately large yellow "Subway" sign above what I believe is the square's only chain restaurant.

We ambled into Cafe Trio for a late lunch. It's a burger and sandwich spot with a simple, but effective, menu. My blue cheese burger was good, although they refused to serve it rare, and the medium-rare on which I compromised came out a bit beyond medium. The fries were excellent.

We headed over to the "back side" of Market Square on Gay Street and found Mast General Store. Imagine all this under one roof: outdoor clothing, fashion clothing, over-alls, shoes, camping supplies, specialty foods, old-fashion bulk candy, old-fashion toys, cast-iron cookware, Fiesta dinnerware, cutlery, linens, books, and most importantly, orange Moon Pies and orange Nehi soda! (This is Big Orange Country, after all.) This place is more fun than an amusement park, and admission is free!

Dinner was at Cafe 4, so named because its address is 4 Market Square. It's an upscale blue plate kind of place; I had fried chicken and waffles, and Tom had lobster mac and cheese. Both were comfortable, simple, reasonably priced, and delicious.

Friday, we headed south to spend the day with my parents, who were camping at Cades Cove inside the park. We stopped for breakfast at the Waffle House in Alcoa (town named for its largest employer), close to the Knoxville airport. While there, Tom wondered, "Is the mascot of Alcoa High School the Fighting Foil?" I LOVE the WH, and seek them out whenever we're on the road looking for breakfast. This location was especially clean and as entertaining as any we have visited. (WH staff is always entertaining, even if they don't mean to be.) Breakfast was predictably filling, and the experience was priceless.

We headed on to Cades Cove and had a great time reminiscing with my parents. We returned to Knoxville in the evening and walked to Nama Sushi for dinner. This would prove to be a RICH evening. (Stay tuned...)

Keys Vacation, Day by Day

2010-05-13T21:48:00.002-05:00

Day 1

Miami's airport has a bad reputation. A recent Travel+Leisure magazine article listed it as one of the 4 worst in the country. On the first day of our Florida Keys vacation, we learned why. It's cramped, crowded, and horribly signed; we had to ask a TSA agent how to get to ground transportation because while there was copious signage pointing to departure gates, toilets, and baggage claim, there was none pointing to ground transportation. We eventually made it to our Mustang convertible and were off to Islamorada, the Village of Islands. (Thanks be to Debbi for enabling this fantastic trip!)

According to Google Maps, the trip from MIA (the airport) to Debbi's condo in Islamorada is "about 1 hour 25 minutes". That's a bunch of hooey. With Miami's chronic traffic congestion and road construction, that is physically impossible. Once we finally made it to the upper Keys, we had been in the car almost 2 hours. We stopped in Key Largo for a nice, slow lunch, and then were back on the "1" (Highway 1, that is) to count the mile markers.

If you've ever driven the Keys, then you know that everything is based on the "MM" (mile marker) system. Locations to any venue on any key are given by MM. The MMs are something akin to The Big Chicken in Marietta, Georgia. All locations in Marietta are given in distance and direction from The Big Chicken.

Debbi's condo is at MM 88, so we had about 20 miles to go. We arrived, got settled, relaxed, and then headed to the Winn Dixie for provisions.

We were fortunate to have arrived on the weekend following a full moon. Pierre's and Morada Bay Beach Club (sister restaurants that share a beach at MM 81) host the Full Moon Party from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM every full moon Saturday/Sunday. We had made dinner reservations at Pierre's before leaving Dallas, so that was our first dinner of the trip. We dined on the upstairs veranda (a porch, for those of you not fortunate enough to have grown up in the South) on seafood and fois gras. (See pictures at www.gregtaylor.com.) The restaurant is plantation beautiful and the mood is Florida Keys relaxed -- no hurry, no worry. The beach party followed dinner. It's sort of Medieval festival meets Florida Bay. We lasted until close to midnight, and then headed back to the condo.

Day 2

Sunday brunch took us to Island Grill, an indoor/outdoor spot that hugs an inland waterway and the mangrove trees growing along the shore. We ambled out to the waterfront patio and right into the local bikers club election meeting. The patio was filled with bikers running for various offices. (That explains the parking lot full of Hogs that greeted us upon arrival.) I wanted to run for sergeant-at-arms, but Tom wouldn't let me. I can't imagine why a biker club in the Keys needs a sergeant-at-arms, but it sounds impressive. The brunch buffet was impeccably stocked with lobster bits, crab legs, eggs of all varieties, meats, and fruits. Once the club meeting adjourned, a hula dancer entertained us on the patio. (Again, see pics at www.gregtaylor.com.) Unlike much of the crowd, hula lady had all of her teeth. What an eclectic afternoon!

We had dinner at Green Turtle Inn. Yet more stellar seafood awaited us there. As you will read in days to come, we had no disappointing meal the entire trip (except the beef fajita salad served by American on the flight home, but that's much later). We opted to eat at the bar, because that gave me a full-on view of the swarming activity in the open kitchen. I love watching a well-run kitchen at work. The bartender befriended us, but I really think she just liked my iPad. Either way, we got a good dinner recommendation for Monday night. Stay tuned for that...

21-Day Purification: The Final Countdown

2010-03-14T22:35:00.000-05:00

We're through Day 16 of The Process and feeling great! We have reintroduced lean meat and fish into the diet, and this evening we had some neighbors over for dinner. The menu included grilled salmon, portabellas, tomatoes, and beans. (Obviously, the beans were not grilled.) It was also the 2010 debut for The Big Green Egg. She had been hibernating in her Big Green blanket since November, and she seems to have weathered the record-breaking snowy winter without a shiver. Friday marks the conclusion of The Process, and we'll be crowning our achievement by resuming our neighborhood happy hour tradition here at the house.

Back to tonight's dinner event, it was a fairly straightforward affair. I marinated/glazed the salmon with a modified vinaigrette dressing. It was very heavy on the garlic, and I let it marinate for about 30 minutes in the glaze before grilling. By grilling the salmon skin-side-down on foil, the skin sticks to the foil after grilling and the fish lifts right off of the skin. The portabellas were brushed with olive oil on both sides just before grilling, and then I drizzled some balsamic vinegar into the underside of the caps. The tomatoes were straight out of an English breakfast, but "broiled" up-side-down on the grill to render a beautiful carmelization and grill marks. (As the proverb goes, you eat with your eyes first.) As they were approaching doneness, I turned the tomatoes over such that they were cut-side-up, drizzled them with some balsamic, and dusted them with our new favorite organic seasoning, Spike Vegit.

Here's the menu:

Grilled Portobella Caps

4 portabella mushrooms
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
seasoning to taste

Preheat oven to 200F.
Brush both sides of the mushrooms with olive oil. Drizzle the vinegar into the caps, about 1 teaspoon each. Sprinkle with seasoning. Let rest face-up for 2-3 minutes so the mushrooms can absorb the vinegar.
Place on the hot grill underside-down. When the mushroom starts to shrivel (4-5 minutes), flip them and grill an additional 3-4 minutes.
Remove from grill, cover with foil, and keep warm in the oven.

Grill-"Broiled" Tomatoes

4 small hot-house tomatoes, top quarter removed
olive oil
seasoning to taste
balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 200F.
Drizzle the exposed flesh of the tomato with a little olive oil.
Place flesh-side-down on the hot grill. When the tomatoes start to soften (3-4 minutes), turn them over and drizzle the exposed flesh with some of the vinegar. Continue grilling flesh-side-up until the tomatoes are tender, about 3 minutes more. (Hey! The tomatoes take about as long as the mushrooms!)
Remove from grill, cover loosely with foil, and keep warm in the oven.

Grilled Salmon

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup minced garlic (This sounds like a lot, and it is, but remember that 1/4 cup = 4 tablespoons.)
2 tablespoons dill weed
fresh-ground pepper to taste
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 salmon fillet, skin-on, about 1-1/2 pounds
6-8 thin lemon slices

Make the marinade by combing the first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Whisk briskly to blend.
Place the salmon skin-side-down on a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil slightly larger than the fillet. Turn up the edges of the foil to prevent the marinade from dripping over the edge. Brush 2/3 of the marinade over the flesh of the salmon. Let marinate out of the refrigerator 20-30 minutes.
Transfer the foil and fish to the hot grill. Close the grill lid and maintain a temperature of 350F. After 10 minutes, pour the remaining marinade over the fish and continue grilling with the lid closed until done. My fish was about an inch at the thickest, and I grilled it for 18 minutes.
DO NOT TRY TO TURN THE FISH!
Remove the fish and foil from the grill and use a spatula to divide the fish into 4 equal pieces. Serve each with one of the cooked lemon slices. For a more dramatic presentation (remember, eyes first), grill 4 new lemon slices on one side for about a minute and place atop the fish (grill marks up) before serving.

As you can tell, balsamic vinegar is one of our favorite ingredients. In addition to being a marvelous marinade for meat and fish, it also makes a great semi-sweet reduction. Drizzle the reduction over fresh berries and vanilla ice cream for a deliciously decadent dessert. And if that's not enough, Tom mixes a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar with 8 ounces (a high-ball's worth) of soda water for a refreshingly dry tonic.

To quote Einstein, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." This dinner was simply sensational.

21-Day Purification: Half Way There!

2010-03-08T22:30:00.001-06:00

Today was Day 10, and we're still going strong. I have increased energy during the day, sleep much better at night, and have shed a few pounds along the way. I also now find that when my alarm clock sounds at 6:00 AM for me to get up for my 7:00 AM conference call, it is much easier to get out of bed right away without hitting the snooze button countless times. This purification thing is not all bad!

Tonight, we prepared one of our best dinners, yet, since embarking on this three-week adventure. We had some odds and ends left in the refrigerator that needed to be cooked or composted. These included:

a zucchini
some white onions
some mushrooms
baby spinach

I concocted a stuffed zucchini main course (remember, we ain't eatin' meat). Tom sweated the spinach with some fantastic smoked garlic cloves he had gotten a few days ago at Whole Foods. We needed a third item on the plate, so we cooked some frozen Lima beans; it had been years since I had Lima beans, and I had forgotten how buttery, starchy, and delicious they are. We finished our three-veggie medley with a sliced avocado (from Mexico!) sprinkled with Spike Vegit seasoning - our new all-natural organic favorite. (Thanks to the Richeys for that recommendation!)

The Process allows us to start having fish and lean meat tomorrow, but we will continue preparing and enjoying these hearty vegetable dishes for the remainder of the 21-day process and long after that!

Stuffed Zucchini for Two

1 zucchini
2 small white or yellow onions, chopped
6 medium mushrooms, chopped
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350F.
Slice the zucchini in half length-wise. Use a spoon to dredge out the seeds down the center of each half, about 1/2 inch deep. Discard the seeds. Sprinkle the flesh of the zucchini generously with sea salt. Let stand 10 minutes. Use a paper towel to wipe off excess salt and rendered water from the surface of the flesh.
Brush the flesh side of zucchini lightly with olive oil. Place flesh-side-up on a baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the zucchini is slightly softened.
Meanwhile, saute the onions in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 4-5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and seasoning, and saute for 3-4 minutes longer. The mixture should be dry. Remove from heat.
Spoon the onion and mushroom mixture into the troughs of the zucchini slices, pressing down with the inverted spoon to pack it in. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.
Return to oven and bake 15-20 minutes more until the stuffing is heated through and the edges of the zucchini start to brown.

NOTE: This would be great with some Parmesan cheese mixed into the partially cooled onion and mushroom mixture before stuffing. It would also be great topped with a dusting of Parmesan. I omitted the Parmesan in ours because The Process doesn't allow dairy during the 21 days.

Another NOTE: There are two reasons for generously salting the exposed zucchini flesh: (1) It seasons the "base" of this dish. You can salt it heavier than you normally would because you're going to wipe most of it off. (2) Rendering some of the moisture from the zucchini prevents it from getting soggy as it bakes.

Some day I will remember to photograph this stuff before we devour it. Until then, though, you'll just have to imagine how pretty the plated food was or, even better, prepare it for yourself!

21-Day Purification: Days 2-4

2010-03-03T16:36:00.002-06:00

The Process is going well. After the Day 1 smoothie snafu, we now have that process down to a science. And along the way, we have learned lots of different ways to season and serve fruits, vegetables, and condiments. It turns out that with a good mix of fruit and veggies at each meal, the cravings for meats and sweets are WAY diminished.

Our day 2 dinner is a case in point. Tom went to the local Half Price Books bookstore and found a large hard-bound vegetarian cookbook marked down to $9.98. In it, he found a recipe for Sesame Eggplant. The problem with that recipe, though, is that seeds are forbidden on The Process. No problem, though; there are enough other flavors in this that omitting them was a no-brainer.

The broccoli is simple and delicious. You can spice it up as much or as little as you want (with allowable spices, of course). When roasting it, just be sure to check it regularly to make sure it's not over-cooked. Nobody like soggy droopy broccoli spears.

The salad dressing is rich in flavor and versatile, with the Tamari giving it a nice Asian tint.

Sesame Eggplant Sans Sesame

large skillet
flat-bottom dish or zipper bag for marinating

1 standard eggplant or 4 Japanese ones
2 tablespoons Tamari (soy sauce made without wheat)
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Garlic-Chili Roasted Broccoli

large mixing bowl
sheet pan

1/4 cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon Spike seasoning
1 large head broccoli, cut into thing long spears

Prehead oven to 425F.
Place the oil, garlic, chili powder, and Spike in the mixing bowl. Add the broccoli and coat evenly. Place broccoli on the sheet pan.
Roast until the ends are crisp and brown and the stalks are just tender, abut 15 minutes.

Cut the eggplant into 1/2-inch thick slices. Marinate in Tamari for 1 hour.
Heat the oil in the skillet. Add the ginger and brown the eggplant, turning it several time adding water (not more oil) as needed to keep it moist until tender.
Sprinkle with lemon juice and parsley.

Ginger Dressing

blender

1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon Tamari

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until the oil is emulsified and the mixture looks creamy, 1-2 minutes.

We've had this dressing with cucumber and tomato salad (pictured), spinach and mushroom salad, and as a dip for crudites. Store left over dressing in the fridge for 2 or 3 days. Note that after a few hours it will go "flat" and separate; you can reconstitute it (make it thick again) in the blender, or if you don't mind it being a little runny, just shake or whisk it to mix.

The only thing I really miss now is sashimi. But we can have that starting next week (with wheat-free soy sauce, of course), so we'll see you then, Fai and Rex!

21-Day Purification: Day 1 – The Explosive Smoothie

2010-02-28T15:04:00.001-06:00

Starting yesterday (27-February), Tom and I embarked on a 21-day cleansing/purification process. The process (called “Standard Process”) involves lots of low-glycemic fruits and vegetables, plus twice-a-day fortified fruit smoothies. The first ten days are strictly vegetarian (although butter is encouraged in veggie prep), and starting on day 11, we can add moderate portions of lean meat and fish.

As is the case whenever you start something new, there is a learning curve at the front-end of the process. Our education involved the blender…

Since we are both doing the process, we doubled the recipe for the first smoothie, using 3 cups of frozen berries, about a cup of powdered stuff (protein and fiber) and some fish oil. The blender was fuller than I normally like for it to be, but when we fired it up, things worked fine – no splashes or eruptions. Tom got a wooden spoon and started pushing stuff down from the top to encourage the circulation that is desired in a blender.

Suddenly, there was a cacophony over by Tom and the blender, and as soon as I could turn around, the entire kitchen was dripping in raspberry-and-blueberry purple ooze. The official story is that the blender “sucked the spoon right out of [someone’s] hand”. I’m not sure the blender is THAT powerful, but nonetheless, the normally pale green and off-white kitchen now had berry accents all around.

The process also encourages increased levels of physical activity, and we both got a good workout wiping down all of the kitchen’s surfaces. The ceiling was the most challenging. Lessons learned: (1) Make one smoothie at a time, and (2) make sure the blender is OFF before inserting a wooden spoon.

Not-the-Blue-Willow Peanut Butter Pie

2010-01-29T16:31:00.000-06:00

I love peanut butter. There is something about its savory stick-to-your-ribs-ness that I can't resist. On a recent visit to Atlanta, my parents treated us to lunch at the Blue Willow Inn, an institution in Social Circle, Georgia, about 50 miles east of Atlanta. Set in a large Victorian house, it's a HUGE buffet of all things Southern, including a dessert island loaded with everything imaginable. One of the sweet treats was peanut butter pie, which I felt obliged to try. Dense, creamy and crunchy, and covered with a thin layer of something sweet, it was the best PB pie I had ever tasted.

As luck would have it, my mother has the Blue Willow Cookbook. As soon as we returned home, we made a beeline for the cookbook and found the recipe for the pie. We copied it (for archival purposes, of course) and brought it back to Dallas.

Tom got the ingredients from our local Whole Foods Markup store, but instead of a graham cracker crust for which the recipe called, he got a chocolate cookie crust. (Think Oreos.) As it turns out, the label on the crust had its own recipe for a peanut butter pie. What a quandary! Do we make the tried-and-true Blue Willow pie, or gamble on "Wholly Wholesome's" suggestion? Difficulty of preparation was not an issue because each recipe has six ingredients or fewer, and neither requires baking. Tom went with the Wholly Wholesome pie.

With all due respect to the Blue Willow's impressive spread of Southern decadence, Wholly Wholesome's pie kicks it's [peanut] butt[er]! It's lighter, a bit sweeter (although neither is overly sweet), and the chocolate crust takes it over the top. I see a new Grand Champion in the making for the Annual MontiDelConcho Block Party dessert competition. (All you neighbors may as well not bother entering. It's THAT good!)

Tom's Wholly Wholesome Peanut Butter Pie

2 medium bowls
electric hand mixer or whisk

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (we used Skippy)
8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
2 tbsp. whole milk
1 cup powdered (confectioner) sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
9" chocolate cookie pie crust (we used Wholly Wholesome, of course)

In one bowl, thoroughly mix the first 4 ingredients.
In the other bowl, whip the cream.
Fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture.
Spread mixture into the crust. (Tom made little decorative peaks on top of the pie for added flair.)
Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. The recipe says it can be stored for up to 3 days, but it's unlikely there will be any left after the first meal.

Southern Comfort Revisited

2009-12-26T11:41:00.003-06:00

This is a rare photoless posting. But the comfort and satisfaction of this recipe are worth sharing even without photos. And besides, chicken and dumplings is a pretty bland photo subject.

I almost followed this Southern Living recipe to the proverbial letter, but it was just too bland. (Thanks here to my parents for renewing my SL subscription each year.) So I added 1 tablespoon of white pepper, and it set this recipe on fire. (Not spicy fire; it just made it freakin' good!)

Here's what to do...

Greg's Adaptation of Southern Living's Easy Chicken and Dumplings

6-quart pot w/ lid
large wooden spoon for stirring
ladle for serving

4 cups broth (for this recipe, Greg recommends his own low-sodium low-fat turkey broth made from the carcasses of the neighbors' Thanksgiving birds)
1 can cream of anything soup (SL magazine says chicken soup, but I think a cream of veggie would be great)
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning (hello, salt!)
1 tablespoon white pepper (black pepper will work, but you'll have speckles in your finished product)
1 store-bought rotisserie chicken, meat pulled into bite-size pieces (white and dark), about 4 cups
1 small can pop-em-open biscuits
1/4 cup flower for dusting the canned biscuits
4 carrots
4 ribs celery

Yep, that's one TABLESPOON of pepper. The Southern Living version of this was just too bland. This pepper really flavors it up without being too spicy.

Put the first 4 ingredients into your 6-quart pot. Cook on low while you decimate your chicken, pulling each bit of meat and flavor from the bones. Save that carcass for more broth.
Add the pulled chicken to the pot. Simmer while you...
Dice your carrots and celery. (Greg recommends his new Kramer chef's knife. :-)
Pop open the biscuits. Dust them in the flour and then press them into 1/4-inch disks with your hands. (If you really want to mess up more implements, you can get out your rolling pin.) Cut them into 1/2-inch strips, and cut the strips to 1 inch each.
Drop the biscuit bits into the simmering chicken mixture one-by-one, stirring after each few additions to ensure that the used-to-be-biscuits don't stick. If you don't stir, they will and you'll wind up with chicken and dumpling.
After all the used-to-be-biscuits are added, continue to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.
Remove from heat. Let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Serve with salad or something else seemingly healthy if you need to remove any guilt.

Cutting it Close

2009-11-29T18:13:00.003-06:00

Happy birthday to me! I just returned from Williams-Sonoma with my birthday present to myself -- a Kramer chef's knife. I can't wait to slice stuff!

Coleslaw - Variations on an Ancient Theme

2009-11-09T22:21:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago I was watching Tyler Florence on Food Network and he made a butternut squash coleslaw with honey goat cheese dressing. It looked like a delightful variation on this ancient salad theme (Wiki "coleslaw" to get the whole story.), so I decided to give it a go. Over the weekend, Tom made and incredible venison meatloaf. For tonight's supper, I decided to make warm meatloaf sandwiches with the left-overs, the butternut coleslaw, and corn on the cob. (It was on sale at Newflower, and I couldn't resist!)

The sandwiches were simple -- warmed wheat telera rolls (sort of like soft 6-inch baguettes; Wiki it, too), left-over meatloaf topped with pepper jack, jalapeno onion mustard, horseradish, and mayo. The four ears of corn were even simpler -- shucked, individually wrapped in plastic wrap, and microwaved for 8 minutes.

The fun dish of the evening, though, was the coleslaw. Here is Tyler's recipe (thanks to www.foodnetwork.com) with my embellishments in Italics:

Butternut Squash Coleslaw with Honey Goat Cheese Dressing

large bowl
whisk
vegetable peeler
big-honkin' knife to cut the squash
mandoline
large pot or Dutch oven with 5-6 cups heavily salted water
strainer
tongs

4 ounces creamy goat cheese at room temperature
1-1/2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste (LOTS of pepper!)
1 medium butternut squash
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted walnuts
2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves

In the large bowl, combine the cheese and next 5 ingredients.
Whisk until completely combined and creamy.
Fire up the pot of water to boil. You'll use this to blanch the squash shortly.
Cut the stem from the top of the squash. Peel the top half of the squash (the cylinder) with your vegetable peeler using the bottom part (the bulb) as a handle. Cut the top half (the cylinder) off of the bottom half (the bulb). Save the bulb for another purpose. Cut the cylinder in half making two shorter cylinders and then again length-wise making four half-cylinders. Use your mandoline to make long, skinny matchsticks (julienne).
When the water is at a rolling boil, blanch the julienned squash for 2 to 3 minutes until al dente. (Thanks to neighbor Susan for this idea. The original recipe calls for raw squash sticks, and we think that would have been too bitter and grainy.) Immediately drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking and cool the squash.
Toss together all of the ingredients with your tongs, ensuring that the dressing is evenly distributed. Serve immediately.

Tyler's recipe says it makes 4 servings. IMHO, it could easily have served 6 or 8 -- especially with the heavy meatloaf sandwiches and corn. This would pair really well with ham, bratwurst, or any other salty meat. The combined sweetness of the squash, cheese, and honey makes a really nice offset to the saltiness of the meat.

Come on! We're fixin' to eat!

The Big Buses

2009-10-04T17:09:00.006-05:00

Anybody who has been to Dulles airport in the DC nether regions is no doubt familiar with the big buses, or "transit lounges", as they call them. They are soon to be things of the past.

My family lived in Fairfax, Virginia, in 1968-69, and when Uncle Jim, Aunt Margie, and Chuck visited, the boys drove all the way out to Dulles to check it out. COOL! At that time, there were no remote terminals at Dulles, and Fairfax was the distant suburb. The big buses went directly from the swoop-roofed terminal to the planes. Now, Dulles has been encased by the 'burbs, and people commute to the district from Leesburg. YIKES! I desparately wanted to fly somewhere in 1968, but that was not in the cards.

Recently, though, I was dealt that hand! I got to fly into Dulles and take the big bus from Terminal B to the main terminal. Flying now is not as glamorous as I imagined it was in 1968, but it was still cool on the big bus. Flying may not have been glamorous back then either, but my vision of flying at age 4 was a United jet on "Hawaii Five-O" (still one of my favorite shows) arriving in Honolulu and each passenger being leid after descending the stairs from the plane. (I flew American Airlines to Hawaii in 2003, and that didn't happen.)

They are now almost finished with an underground train system to replace the big buses. Airport security has already gone underground, and the trains appear to be about ready for business, too. Is it the end of Dulles as I know it?

I wonder if they are going to sell the big buses. I wonder if they are street-legal in Texas, where everything (except the political brain) is bigger. I would imagine that they are, since the original Hummer H1 is. Does anyone want to pitch in and share one? That could be a fun drive from Dulles to Dallas! (Hey! Just change the vowels!)

A Sordid Weekend

2009-09-21T10:54:00.006-05:00

Saturday, Tom and I went to see Del Shores' "A Sordid Affair". It was absolutely hillarious, except for the two bizarre homoerotic dance numbers that were interjected immediately before and after intermission. I'm not sure why they were there, because the talking material was perfectly suited for the mostly homo crowd that was in attendance. Leslie Jordan, a fellow southerner, brought down the house with his non-tiring monologue about his life experiences. It was a great show, and I highly recommend it. Leave the kids or easily-offended folks at home; it's all no-holds-barred comedy.

We took the train to the show. Dallas is about 40 years behind the rest of the country in rapid transit, but about 50 years ahead of the rest of Texas on this. The red and blue lines both come through Mockingbird Station, so we parked Elizabeth Taylor (my car) there and had lunch. We were headed for a taco restaurant, but Tom saw a sushi spot, so we diverted there. It was adequate and expensive. I had a glass of Chardonnay for $9 (I can get a BOTTLE of the same stuff at the Kroger, just yards away, for half that price) and Tom had a small bottle of sake for $19. YIKES!

We took the red line (never mind that all DART trains are yellow; but that's much nicer than Houston's "fright rail" trains that are worthy of Darth Vader) downtown, which is just 2 stops away from M-bird Station.

We arrived at the Majestic Theater, Dallas' only remaining early-twentieth-century grand theater, about half an hour before the show. The lobby was filled with "family" members, and we ran into our friends, Clark and J.W. (not Marriott). The theater doors opened shortly, and we enjoyed the show. What a freakin' hoot!

Yesterday was Sunday, and that means brunch day for me! I revisited my old stand-by, frittata, and it was once again a hit. This one included eggs (DUH!), spaghetti (pasta makes these things great!), cream, carmelized onions, asparagus, bacon, and Parmesan cheese. For sides, I made Parmesan biscuits and steamed broccoli. It was the perfect way to start the day! Bring on the week...

Another One-Dish Wonder

2009-08-26T14:35:00.005-05:00

I love left-overs. The problem is that we usually just have odds and ends left over, not complete meals. A few weeks ago I grilled some lamb chops on my Big Green Egg. We had 7 or 8 left over, so I sucked-n-saved 'em and put them in the freezer.

I was watching Food Network over the weekend and Emeril made a beef pot pie. I thought that would be an excellent re-purposing of my left-over lamb; never mind that pot pies are hearty winter dishes and it's a 100-degree summer day here in Dallas. I went online to find a recipe and came across a very simple one at AllRecipes.com. I adapted it to what I had in the refrigerator and pantry, and the result was fantastic.

I didn't have enough lamb in the freezer for the recipe, so I augmented it with some cubed steak.

My mother taught me the simplicity of making my own pie crusts several years ago when Tom and I were visiting my parents in Atlanta. We made Aunt Pearl's fried apple pies on that visit. (That will have to be a future blog posting.) This pot pie recipe works great with a home-made crust, but also works fine with the store-bought variety. It just depends on how much time you have.

Here's the scoop...

Red Meat Pot Pie

large mixing bowl
2 medium saucepans
9-inch pie pan

1 pound cooked cubed red meat (I used beef and lamb)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup water
1 can beef broth (14 ounces)
3 large carrots, diced
3 medium potatoes, cubed
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup water
2 pie crusts

In one of the saucepans, saute the already-cooked meat in the olive oil to warm through and give a nice carmelization, about 3 minutes.
Add 1 cup of water to cover and simmer the dickens out of it until the meat is VERY tender, 2-3 hours. Drain the meat into the mixing bowl and discard the liquid.
Preheat oven to 350.
In the other saucepan, cook the potatoes and carrots in the beef broth until almost tender, about 20 minutes. Don't over-cook them our the finished product will be mushy. Remove the vegetables from the pan into the bowl with the meat, preserving the broth. Add the thawed peas and stir to combine the mixture.
Dissolve the cornstarch in the 1/3 cup of water, then stir into the broth in the saucepan. Cook over medium heat until thickened, about 3 minutes.
Place one of the pie crusts in the pie pan. Fill with the meat and veggie mixture. Pour the thickened broth (now a gravy) over the filling. Top with the other pie crust and fold over the edges and seal.
Poke 12 or so slits in the top crust so it can vent.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, until the top crust is golden brown.
Let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Serve it with a large serving spoon; don't try to cut it into wedges like a dessert pie.

When in Rome ...

2009-08-07T11:20:00.008-05:00

Signage? What Signage?

We loaded the toaster and left the villa on Saturday morning, headed back to Rome for the final leg of our Italian adventure. We made an encore visit to Orvieto for lunch and then headed to Fiumicino (the town where Rome's airport is located) to turn in the toaster and begin our big city fun.

Like most major cities, the route to the airport was clearly marked. Unlike most major cities, however, there was ZERO signage to guide us to the rental car return. We circled once, twice, and finally surrendered to the Hilton hotel to inquire. "Go back into the airport entrance; follow the signs to 'covered parking' [Yes, this morsel of signage was in English. Go figure.]; pass entrance A and entrance B, and enter at entrance C; Hertz is on level 4 inside the covered parking." Do most tourists who rent cars in Rome just know this stuff?

Once the toaster was returned, it was a short haul to the Leonardo Express (the train from the airport to the city) platforms for the 35-minute ride to Rome. The hotel is just two blocks south of Termini, Rome's main train depot, so that leg of the journey was going to be easy. Or was it? ...

Street signage in Rome is almost nonexistent. We walked the two blocks south of Termini, hoped that we were on the right street, and finally happened upon Hotel Contilia, our home for the next four nights, a few blocks to the west. We were initially skeptical of the neighborhood -- at the conjunction of Chinatown, the Middle East quarter, and Termini -- but we soon learned to appreciate the vibrance of the area. The mixture of hotels, apartments, sidewalk cafes, and ethnic markets give the area a great energy.

When in Rome, Eat With the Americans

Something we have learned in our travel experiences is to do a walk around the area surrounding the hotel -- sort of a "self-orientation" to learn where the nearby markets, restaurants, and other services are located. On this trip, we found a nice-looking pizzeria where we would return for dinner.

We arrived for dinner around 9:00 PM, Italy's defacto dinner hour, and were seated on the patio with a commanding view of the patio and dining room. As other patrons arrived and were seated nearby, we quickly realized that everyone within earshot was North American. Apparently the look of this place has an uncanny attraction for us.

We would come to find out that it was not just that pizzeria that was chock full of North Americans; the whole city of Rome was full of us. Very full. The typical tourist attractions were packed.

La Dulce Vita

2009-07-25T14:02:00.017-05:00

At Home in Colle Ciupi

While the villa is officially in Monteriggioni, it is just a kilometer from a family hamlet called Colle Ciupi. "Colle" is Italian for hill, and Ciupi is apparently a family name, as we saw several mailboxes labeled "Ciupi". We made the quick commute from the villa and found a tiny collection of homes built around an even tinier church. This place obviously doesn't get much tourist traffic; we were greeted by a pair of locals with machetes attached to their belts. They were surprisingly not unfriendly in their buongiornos, and were not aggressive or offensive at all. The machetes never left the belts.

We walked around the village, admired their church and gardens, snapped some photos, and then headed to the Coop in town (Monteriggioni) for dinner provisions. We're firin' up the grill again tonight!

A bit about the Coop... Coop is a chain of markets (note the lack of "super" prefix) scattered throughout Tuscany (and maybe elsewhere; we've only been in Tuscany). They are small, but are packed with a plethora of produce, meats, cheeses, exotic [for us Americans] soft drinks, liquor, wine, and fantastic Tuscan treats -- fresh olives and marinated artichokes. There are only four aisles, but every square centimeter of space is used for maximum marketing. One of the final items from which to choose is a grocery bag. If you didn't bring your own sacks, you can select however many you need before you get to the cash register -- .10 Euro. No pity for the unfortunate tourist who doesn't pack canvas bags. (Julie did!) I *love* this kind of market -- easy in, easy out, easy going, easy on the planet.

Dinner included pork sausage (casings still connecting the links), seasoned turkey breast filets, grilled zucchini slices (these zuccs were spherical, about the size of oranges), green beans, and a few other sides.

La Dulce Vita

Today is our last full day at the villa. We decided to do a scenic drive through Chianti and visit Chianti Sculpture Park near Pievasciata. (Google it.) I programmed Eliza for the town, and we were off. At one point however, when she, in her programmed English accent, told us to turn left, we jumped the gun by about 20 meters and ended up at a former monastery which is now part of the University of Siena. What a fortunate fumble! The formerly sacred site was surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, and the place was the definition of bucolic. (I have never written that word, so you know it must be a special place.) Inside the former monastic walls, the grounds were impeccably planted and pruned, with infinite floral and vegetable gardens. There was some sort of US [not "of America"] faculty conference convened, and they were apparently taking a smoke break. I trust that those cigarettes were sacred. (Isn't it interesting that to get from sacred to scared, you just swap 2 letters?) We consulted with Eliza, made the quick trip to the sculpture park, and began the art tour.

If you are ever in Chianti, don't miss this place. It is far enough off the beaten path so that tour buses don't bother. It is secluded, serene, and sensational. As you arrive at the private park, you are greeted by the first sculpture -- a queue of plaster people waiting to buy tickets at a box office. Our collective initial reaction was "Whoa! Where did they come from?", which was followed by laughter and a sigh of relief when we realized what the artist had done to us. We completed the loop of sculptures, many of which were interactive, and left the park with two carloads with smiles.

We had passed through the tiny town of Pievasciata on our way to the park and noticed the "My Way" wine bar and art gallery, so we returned there for a delightful light lunch of cheeses, melon, cured pig meats, beef carpaccio, olives, bread, and wine. *This* is la dulce vita.

After returning to the villa, we sat on the patio discussing our travels. Several questions arose about various aspects of our adventures, and nobody could come up with good answers for many of them. Finally, Sonny summed things up: "This is Italy; there's no time for practicality."

Tomorrow, we're headed to Rome...

2009-07-21T07:44:00.008-05:00

Successfully Seeing Siena

Our first day in Siena had been not completely successful; remember "Black Sunday"? We returned on this morning to a much calmer and better-stocked city. We found fairly easy public parking at Il Stadio (the city's football [soccer for us Americans] stadium), which is conveniently located near all of the city sites.

We started our revisit with a quick tour of the Cathedral of San Domenico and Santa Catarina (St. Catherine). The outside is a kind of drab beige brick, and the inside is not up to the French or Italian Gothic standard, but it's bland material structure is way more than made up for in the story of St. Catherine. I can't recount it all here, but in a nutshell, she's the one who convinced the Pope to move the Catholic Church from France back to Italy. Rick Steves' book has a great down-to-earth recounting of her story.

From there, it was time for lunch. (Imagine that. More food.) We settled into a small trattoria where we enjoyed more Tuscan fare. After lunch, we split into two missionary camps: the shoppers and the Internetters. (Guess into which camp I fell.) We reconvened at the drain of Il Campo (a work of art in itself), had some gelato, and decided to return to the villa for what was to be one of our best and most memorable meals.

On the return to the villa, we needed to get some fuel for the fleet. We drove into the Siena Esso station to find it closed. It turns out that they were out of petrol. Hmmm...

For dinner we decided on bistecca alla Fiorentina (steak Florentine). We visited the local Coop Market and had the butcher hack us off three T-bone slabs. We got some accompanying veggies, and then headed back to the villa to fire up the grill and get things cookin'. After a feast of steak, chicken, zucchini, and more, we relaxed on the patio before heading to bed. Tomorrow was to be a big, big day in Florence...

STRIKE!

The plan was to get up early and leave the villa by 8:00 for the scenic drive to Florence, about 50km away. We were on our way to the autostrada by 8:15, but had to stop for petrol (see above) on the way. We pulled into the Total station in Montereggiano to find the "chiuso" (closed) signs posted. Julie inquired and learned that there was a strike of some sort, so fuel was not being transported for two days. Luckily, we had planned tomorrow as a do-nothing day at the villa, but how were we to get to Florence today?

Enter TrenItalia. Instead of driving the trek to Florence, we decided to go to Siena and take the train. (The drive from the villa to Siena and back is just 1/8 tank of gas.) We got to the station, easily parked in their lot, and were off to Florence via rail. While many European trains travel industrial routes (which is why the industry is there in the first place), there is not much industry in Tuscany so the rail routes are surprisingly scenic. We past vinyards, villas, vegetable gardens, and a variety of other pretty places. And because Florence's Santa Maria Novella (SMN) station is in the heart of the historic city, we didn't have to futz with finding refuge for the unfueled Fiat (and Lancia).

Florence in a Flourish: Chasing Julie

We arrived at SMN at 12:30 PM, about 3 hours later than planned because of the strike, just in time for lunch. Julie has spent much time in Florence, so she knew of a great little (REALLY little) restaurant close to the station. It was so small, in fact, that four of us had to sit outside and four sat in.

After a great lunch, we were off to the races; we had a lot of ground to cover in our condensed schedule. Piazza della Signoria. Ponte Vecchio. Santa Croce. Accedemia. (We had a reservation to see Michelangelo's David at 16:00 thanks to Julie's planning.) Bar. Whew. Finally a rest. We had beer, water, water, and water, and rested for a good 45 minutes. Some of us shopped at a nearby stationery store while others of us continued our rest and cool-down.

We headed to the outdoor market and strolled the endless stalls of stuff. Our sole purchase was a prized possession for a dear friend. It was now around 18:00 and we were ready to head home to the villa. We headed back to SMN and made the 19:10 direct train to Siena.

We had yet another great Tuscan dinner in Siena, played a game of "What's your most embarrassing momemt?", and made the short drive back to the villa. Another full day in Tuscany accomplished.

Italian Encore, Parte Una

2009-07-12T11:32:00.011-05:00

My first trip to Europe was in 1991 when Tom and I visited Italy. He was skeptical of coming to Italy, having already visited Amsterdam, London, and more. But I wanted to come to Italy. He conceded. And he's never regretted it. We threw 3 coins in the proverbial Trevi Fountain, and eighteen years later, we're on our way back!

This trip is different, though. First, we are older now and have different travel priorities and objectives. Second, we have many new friends now and have shared travel stories and experiences with them over the years. And third, and probably most changed, we no longer want to cram as much into a trip as we used to; our preference now is to travel at a pleasurable pace, enjoy the journey, and learn more about the locality and the locals.

And so begins our return to Europe: The Italian Encore...

God love a GPS

A few months before our departure, I found someone on eBay who was selling a memory card with maps of western Europe for my now aging Garmin GPS. We and several friends rented a villa near Siena. The directions provided by the owners in advance of our trip seemed logical enough: left on via della blah blah, right on via di yada yada... So much for logical directions; the GPS paid for itself pronto.

We arrived at the villa after a couple of missed turns (even today's technology has trouble with these medieval routes), settled into our room, and thanks to the Richeys, had a lovely dinner of insalata , fennel w/ olive oil, prepared meats, crackers w/ pate, olives, and pasta. It was a great start to a great stay.

Siena Savvy

Siena is the closest city of size to the villa. Like most Italian medieval towns, it was built on a hill and was surrounded by walls with just a few gates that allowed access. That helped the locals ward off the evil intruders. (Remember, Italy was not unified as a single nation until the mid-1800's. Prior to that, all these "city states" operated somewhat independently. I'm an American tourist, not an Italian scolar, so I'm WAY simplifying this.)

And like many of these old cities, the city center is closed to most traffic. (In fact, Siena was the first city in modern Europe to do so.) So you park outside the ancient walls and walk a long way to the heart of it all.

It was Sunday afternoon, so most of the shops were closed. Nonetheless, we walked the streets, working our way from the remote parking to il Campo, the heart of the city center. It was around 2:00 PM, so we settled in to a restaurant for lunch. Our waitress was not having a good day; she called it "Black Sunday". The wine and beer had not been delivered; the produce and meat had not been restocked; and the women's toilet was clogged. Two hours later, stomachs full on whatever foodstuffs the kitchen had available, we continued our tour of the town.

For Sunday evening, Julie had arranged for a catered dinner at the villa. We returned from Siena and the caterers were hard at work. They prepared a wonderful four-course dinner of risotto, veal in cream, pasta, roasted chicken, salad, and chocolate-and-strawberry parfaits. Two courses into it, you say "I cannot possibly eat any more", and you repeat that phrase after each of the remaining courses. We all slept well this night.

Clutch Day

I mentioned that many of these Italian towns are built on hills. Today was going to be "hill day" -- tours of San Gimignano and Volterra, two very dramatic hill towns. San Gimignano is known as the city of towers because the rich folks that used to live there built tall towers adjacent to their houses to hide their riches from the invaders. (Remember, these towns fought with each other until unification.) After Florence overtook San Gimignano and the gates and walls were no longer necessary, the residents used their towers to hide their riches from each other. (Had this been in the U.S., these folks would have had this stuff proudly displayed for all to see and envy.)

As mentioned earlier, most Italian towns have wisely closed their historic centers to traffic, making for fantastic Fiat-free footing. Because of that, parking was impossible; the town was crammed with cars like sardines. (I can say that because I'm closer to Sandinia than you right now!) We decided to abandon San Gimignano and return either later this day or another day.

Thus began "clutch day". Since there were eight of us, we were in two cars -- Julie driving the Lancia they rented and Sonny driving the Fiat they rented. (We'll get to the Hyundai we rented later...) Both had manual transimssions. In our efforts to get out of the traffic-tangled town, we wound up somehow in the restricted traffic area of the historic city center. Oops. Let the clutching begin. The GPS was not much help here, because she (Claire named my GPS "Eliza".) was not well versed in which streets were now pedestrian-only and which were open to vehicular traffic. We ran into several dead-ends, up one steep hill, down another. The clutches were burning. (Literally, we could smell them.) Finally, we encountered a local policeman who pointed us in the direction out of town.

On to Volterra, about 15 curvy kilometers away...

As we headed down San Gimignano hill, we breathed a collective sigh of relief. Julie's and Sonny's clutch legs were getting a well-deserved rest, and the others of us were enjoying Tuscany's expanse of color and texture. In the distance around several bends in the road appeared Volterra, high atop another hill a few kilometers away. Most of us reacted favorably to the natural and medieval awe; Julie's reaction was, "Oh, [expletive]! Don't tell me that's Volterra on *that* hill!" It was clutch time again. Clutch reingaged, we ascended to Volterra and quickly found public parking at the base of the city walls.

We entered the town through one of the gates and found a pleasant, breezy, uncluttered village of cobblestone streets and brick storefronts. The place was not uncrowded, but it also was not pedestrian packed as we figured San Gimignano must have been.

As it was now approaching mid-afternoon and our appetites had been aroused by the adventure up and down San Gimignano hill and up Volterra hill. We stopped at a sidwealk restaurante for lunch, as it was now approaching mid-afternoon. Touristy, yes; but tasty, too. We continued our walkabout the town. The vistas from Volterra are beyond words, so I'll just throw in a few pictures...

We returned to the villa and prepared the ideal meal -- a variety of cold and warmed-up items from meals gone by. (We had a bounty of fabulous food left after Sunday's catered feast.)

Tomorow, we are off to see Siena in earnest (hoping that Black Sunday is over).

Tennessee Traditions

2009-06-24T19:54:00.006-05:00

Tradition is that my mother prepares one or two lasagnas, freezes them, and then reheats them in her RV's oven early in the trip for all to enjoy. This year was no exception. Tom and I arrived at Cades Cove on Monday afternoon, and Mother already had the lasagna in the oven. That evening, we ate and yakked and ate and yakked and on and on for most of the evening. The little girls (my great-nieces) ran and screamed and the big girls did the dishes. (I rinsed and dried.)

Tom and I headed back down the mountain to civilization (Townsend) for our first night at Dock's Motel. Dock's is a funky little find and a bargain. The accommodations are campy, cozy, and clean.

Tuesday was next, and that was my, Tom's, and Lynda's [sister] turn for dinner. Let's back up a bit. Our oldest sister, Lori, is the planner and the enforcer. That is a good thing. Lori assigns nights for each of us to cook -- we share the dinner responsibilities among all of us throughout the week. I guess this is one of the responsibilities of being the big sister. Again, a good thing.

I had planned the menu for the evening a few weeks ago (Lori is great about doling out the responsibilities weeks in advance) and tonight was kabob night -- Salt Lick dry rub seasoned chicken and veggies on bamboo skewers. Tom and Lynda were great chopping the ingredients while I prepped the mini Weber grill. I fired up the charcoal in the chimney I brought from Dallas, and soon we were off and cooking. As you know, I'm a bigot for my Big Green Egg, but I must give the little black Weber accolades for being "johnny-on-the-spot" (not to mention that it is about 300 pounds lighter).

The kids hated the kabobs -- I learned that mature tastes don't always work well with youthful expectations. Granny [my mother] came to the rescue with PB&J sandwiches. Thanks, Mother! In the ultimate vendication, though, my great-niece, Stephanie, approached me after dinner and asked when she would be grown up enough to like food like my kabobs. She's well on her way!

Tomorrow, the next traditions kick in...

Tennessee Roots, Here We Come!

2009-06-10T20:33:00.006-05:00

Every summer, my family (parents, sisters, and their offspring) trek to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a family reunion. Everybody camps -- the family at Cades Cove inside the park, and I and Tom at a nearby cabin. (Cold water and no electricity are not for us. We have to drive 20 minutes each way to link up with the rest of the family at Cades Cove, but hot water, Wi-Fi, electricity, and air conditioning make it worth the drive.)

We're now in the outbound stage of this year's trip. This year, we drove from Dallas, making the trek to Townsend, Tennessee, over four days. Granted, we could have done it in two (or even one in a pinch), but we like to travel at a leisurely pace and see the sites along the way.

We departed Dallas on Friday afternoon and arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas, early in the evening for our overnight stay at the Capital Hotel.

The Capital recently underwent a US$25 million renovation, and the result is a stunningly beautiful hotel property. (I'm guessing it was pretty before, but now it's incredible.) Our hotel package included a 3-course dinner at their award-winning restaurant, Ashley's. The meal was excellent, and the conversation with Chef Cassidy was equally informative and entertaining. If you ever have a chance to try their seared fois gras on crisp watermelon, don't miss it! Cassidy, thanks for a great meal!

Saturday morning, we visited the Clinton Presidential Center (we highly recommend it), and then made the quick jaunt to Memphis.

We couldn't pass through Memphis without spending a night with the ducks. We dined at the Rendezvous and returned to the Peabody for a nightcap and a good night's rest.

The Rednezvous is a great understated (until you see the crowd waiting outside) spot in a basement on an alley a half block north of the Peabody Hotel. The dry ribs are fantastic, and the ambience is that much better.

Sunday took us to Byrdstown, Tennessee, and the home of my paternal grandparents (now deceased), where my Uncle Gib Taylor now lives. We had dinner at one of Byrdstown's finest, The Bobcat Den. (Too bad their high school's mascot is not the cougar!) One of the menu specials was Roast Beef Manhattan, something with which I was not familiar. When I inquired, the waitress kindly explained that it is a roast beef sandwich. Cool! That's what I'll have. Tom had the roast beef dinner special, and Uncle Gib splurged on the fried oyster dinner. (All of these indulgences were to be offset by carrot juice the following morning.) The food was delivered, and come to find out, a Roast Beef Manhattan is said sandwich with a BEEF GRAVY FROSTING! It was decadent, if not sodium- and fat-loaded. Uncle Gib made us delicious pecan waffles and bacon for breakfast on Monday, with coffee said carrot juice on the side. I am certain that the cholesterol and fat from the Bobcat melted away. Thanks, Uncle Gib!

We left Byrdstown Monday morning, headed for Townsend and Cades Cove. The trip was scenic and uneventful, except for an unexpected 30-minute construction delay on the Tellico Lake dam in Lenoir City. We checked in at Dock's Motel, and then headed to link up with the family in Cades Cove. Let the fun begin...

Brunch is Served...

2009-04-05T18:37:00.003-05:00

As most people know by now, brunch is my favorite meal to prepare. It's so versatile; you can serve sweet, savory, meat, seafood, vegetarian, or any combination thereof.

Our friend, Jacque, had a dinner party Saturday night and served pasta primavera with a gardenful of fresh vegetables. She had lots of unused veggies after dinner was done. I had some grilled chicken left from my dinner on Friday, and that plus Jacque's veggies gave me an idea...

Fritatta (an open-face "Italian omelet") is one of the most simple yet sublime recipes in my repertoire, and it's so versatile that you can throw just about anything into it. Jacque's vegetables and a few left-over and fresh items in my fridge proved to be a marvelous medley for our mid-day meal. Here's the line-up:

Garden-Fresh Fritatta

large non-stick oven-proof skillet*
meduim bowl

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 cup orange bell pepper, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cups zucchini, chopped into quarter-rounds
1 cup cooked spinach, chopped (I used left-over Parmesan-spinach dip)
2 cups blanched asparagus, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cups grilled chicken, diced
12 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 cups cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

*My skillet is oven-resistant, but its rubber-insulated handle is only oven-proof up to 300F. I learned this tip on Food Network: Wrap the handle with foil, shiny side out to deflect the heat. This will keep the handle safe for the few minutes it will spend under the broiler.

Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, and zucchini. Saute until almost tender, 3 or 4 minutes.
Lower the heat to low and add the spinach, asparagus, and chicken to heat. (Remember, they are already cooked, so we just need to warm them.)
Break the eggs into the bowl, add the cream, and beat with a whisk or electric mixer until frothy.
Increase the heat under the skillet to medium, then add the eggs. Stir them around as if you are scrambling them, and as they start to set, stir in the tomatoes, then stop stirring to allow the mixture to set.
Turn on your oven's broiler.
As the edges of the fritatta begin to dry (they lose their shine) and the center is still shiny and jiggly, turn off the heat. Cover the top of the fritatta with the shredded Parmesan.
Place the skillet under the broiler to set the center of the fritatta, and to and melt and brown the Parmesan, 3 or 4 minutes. Remove from broiler and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
Using your rubber spatula, loosen the sides of the fritatta from the skillet (because it's non-stick, this should be easy to do), then slide the spatula underneath the fritatta to loosen the bottom. Slide it out of the skillet and onto a cutting board.
Cut into 8 wedges and serve hot.

Bacon and biscuits make a great accompaniment, but the fritatta also stands proudly on its own. Break out the bubbly and blend the bloody Marys... Brunch is served!

Bagna Cauda

2009-03-23T22:03:00.004-05:00

Last year, my friends in Argentina introduced me to bagna cauda (BAHNya COWda, as we'd say in the U.S.), an Italian fondue loaded with garlic and anchovies. I didn't experience it while I was there, but I experienced it vicariously through them. It's a party food, not unlike fondue in the U.S. in the 1970's (although I only experienced that in Garrett Middle School home economics class in 1976; remember that, Robert and Mark?).

We and some friends are going to Italy this summer and renting a Tuscan villa for a week. In advance of that trip, each of us going is hosting a dinner party at which we plan various aspects of the imminent holiday. Tonight was my and Tom's night, and based on what I learned from my friends in Argentina, I chose to prepare bagna cauda.

Bagna cauda, like fondue, is a stand-up-and-eat-it food. Remove all the chairs from your dining room and remind your guests to wear comfortable shoes.

After a little research and many questions to my friends below the Equator (thanks, Karina!), I planned our evening. Bagna cauda serves as the dipping sauce for crudites (bite-sized raw veggies), bread, and meats, such as meatballs and chicken. On the Internet I found a recipe for Creamy Bagna Cauda. There were several other recipes for oil-based bagna cauda, but being a product of the southern U.S., why would I NOT choose the creamy version? There are several steps to the recipe (see below), but each step is simple, and the finished product is everything I expected, and much, much more.

For the dippers, I chose a variety of raw, par-boiled, and cooked stuff. They are listed below the recipe. Thanks to whatscookingamerica.net for the base recipe. (I served 6 adults and 3 hungry kids with this recipe, and had about 1/3 of everything left over, so adjust the volumes to your needs.) Here's the scoop...

Greg's Creamy Bagna Cauda

large saucepan

medium saucepan

2 wood spoons

large sieve or strainer

small sieve or strainer

fondue pot or small crock pot

lots of bowls for serving all the dippers

2 bamboo skewers per guest (one per guest should do the trick, but lots of folks inadvertently throw theirs away and have to get another)

4 cups (1 quart) heavy cream

16 cloves garlic, peeled and whacked

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

10 finely chopped anchovy filets packed in oil, drained

1/2 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

[The stuff below is what you use for dipping, so this is variable according to your taste.]

4 stalks celery sliced into narrow 3-inch sticks

1 pint small mushrooms, sauteed in olive oil until tender

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes and sauteed in oil until cooked

24 bite-size meatballs, cooked (I used "Italian style" frozen ones from the grocery)

16 bite-size new potatoes, boiled until softened, about 8 minutes

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and par-boiled

1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-size florettes

1 French baquette, sliced

And to prepare the bagna cauda...

In the large saucepan over medium-high heat, add cream and garlic; bring just to a boil, lower heat to medium, and cook, stirring constantly, approximately 15 minutes or until the cream has thickened and reduced by half. Take off the heat and let cool.

In the other saucepan, melt the butter. Add the anchovies to the butter, along with parsley and pepper flakes. Cook until the anchovies dissolve, about 5 minutes. If the cream has not cooled, yet, remove butter/anchovy mixture from heat.

When cream has cooled, mash the garlic with a fork. Force the cream and garlic through a sieve into the butter/anchovy mixture. Heat the sauce, stirring constantly until totally blended, but do not let it boil. This is your bagna cauda.

Transfer the hot bagna cauda to the fondue pot or crock pot to keep it warm. Place the pot in the middle of your serving table and surround it with the dishes of dippers.

To kick off your event, demonstrate how it works... Take a plate, a napkin, and a skewer. (Karina says that small forks work well, too.) Place a round or two of baquette on your plate. Stab a dipper, dredge it through the bagna cauda, let the excess bagna cauda drip onto your bread, and savor the flavor.

And here is the aftermath. God love a dishwasher and a partner who makes the ideal clean-up crew!

2009-03-16T21:59:00.003-05:00

It's been a long time. But I'm back. This is another one of those recipes that Sandra Lee ("Semi-Homemade Cooking" on FoodTV) would just love, although there is no whipped topping involved.

A friend of ours, Sharon, is married to a man who like to hunt. The past couple of years we have been the beneficiaries of his desire to kill. He has given us venison burgers, backstrap, steaks, and sausage. A few weeks ago we thawed some of the ground meat and had a BYOT (build your own taco) dinner party. After dinner, there was a lot of taco-seasoned ground veal left over, so I decided to semi-homemake [wink to Sandra] some empanadas, savory stuffed pastry that I learned to love at Alcorta in Córdoba, Argentina. (Marcelo, thanks for suggesting that we order those!) If you're interested, there is a good history of the empanada on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empanada.

In the interest of keeping it semi-homemade [wink], I used roll-out store-bought pie crust dough. My mother taught me how to make fully-homemade pie crust dough, but in the interest of keeping my semi-homemade [wink] theme, I went with the store-bought. I made some with Pillsbury brand and some with Kroger brand, and the only difference I could tell was the dollar in the price. Here's the low-down:

Easy Empanadas
(makes 16 pastries)

large non-stick skillet
2 parchment-lined half-sheet pans
small bowl
pastry brush
6-inch round pastry cutter (I used the lid of one of my metal canisters)
rolling pin
fork

2 boxes (2 crusts each) roll-out pie dough at room temperature
1 pound ground meat
taco seasonings (I used an envelope or store-bought stuff)
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 egg
2 tablespoons water or milk
1 cup sour cream
1 cup salsa or pico de gallo

Heat oven to 350F.
Brown and season the ground meat in the skillet. Drain if necessary and set aside to cool.
Toss the cooled meat mixture and the cheese together.
Beat together the egg and water or milk in the small bowl.
Unroll a pie crust onto a flour-dusted surface.
Fold it in half, then roll it out lengthwise. You should be able to cut 3 six-inch rounds. Wad the leftover dough into a ball and roll it into another 6-inch round.
Using your index finger, moisten the edge of each round with the egg wash. This makes it easier to seal.
Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the meat-cheese mixture onto the center of each round of dough being careful to stay within the egg-washed egdes.
Fold the dough rounds in half and press the edges together with your fingers. Use the fork tynes to seal the edges.
Place the pastries on the half-sheet pan.
Repeat with the remaining 3 pie crusts.
Use the pastry brush to lightly "paint" the top side of the pastries with the egg wash.
Bake at 350F until golden brown, about 30 minutes, turning pans around after 20 minutes.
Serve hot with sour cream and salsa or pico de gallo.

Add fried or poached eggs on the side for an excellent breakfast. The runny egg yolks are a great "dip" for the flaky empanadas.

Progresso Pronto

2008-12-28T15:02:00.011-06:00

With the holidays just around the corner, we had to act fast to organize the neighborhood progressive dinner before Thanksgiving. The e-vites went out on Sunday for dinner the following Saturday. We decided to make it a 4- or 5-course meal, depending on how many neighbors were able to participate on such short notice. Response was incredible, and by

Wednesday we had 14 confirmed participants.

We settled on these courses: appetizer, salad, soup, main, and dessert. My next-door neighbor, Susan, and I volunteered to team up for the main course. Other neighbors quickly volunteered for the other four courses.

Most people, self included, do not have a dinner table that seats 14 comfortably, so we had to improvise. We removed the side chairs and coffee table from the living room, set up two 3-by-6-foot folding tables, and combined our dining chairs with Susan's to make it look presentable. In fact, with the table cloths, colorful place settings, and Tom's impromptu holly centerpieces, it looked pretty darn elegant!

The evening started at 6:30 with cocktails and appetizers across the street at Dave and Erin's. They served a nice variety of finger foods that were perfect to get the palate and conversations started. We all sipped and snacked in the kitchen and adjoining breakfast area until it was time to move on. Their island kitchen layout is ideal for this kind of entertaining -- everyone has something to lean on and a place to set their drinks while perusing the platters.

The next stop was at John and Debbie's for salad. Debbie prepared a picture-perfect pile of fresh greens with just enough accessories to make it interesting. Salad is more conducive to sitting, so our hosts set places at the formal dining table, the breakfast table, and the bar that separates the kitchen and breakfast area.

Next up was soup at Paul's house. Paul is known as The Master of Soups on the block, so he was a shoe-in to host this course. He served creamy mushroom soup in brown espresso cups -- a clever, yet functional, presentation and another good stand-up course for our small homes.

Then it was time to move back down the block to our house for the main course, beef Burgundy with garlic mashed potatoes and oven-roasted haricot verts. Beef Burgundy is a decadent stew of beef (of course) and 3 different wines. I adapted the recipe (see below) from The Artist in the Kitchen, the cookbook of the St. Louis Art Museum. Our friend, Jacque, made the potatoes, and the oven-roasted green beans is one of my favorite quick-and-easy go-to side dishes. All you do is blanch the beans, spread them in a single layer on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with chopped garlic, and bake at 400 for 5-10 minutes until they start to brown.

The evening ended down the block with dessert at Erin's house. (Appetizer Erin and dessert Erin are different people.) Erin served a delicious flan. It may not have plated perfectly, but the flavor was fantastic.

Everyone agreed that the event was great, and the next one is already planned to coincide with Mardi Gras. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Beef Burgundy

This takes a while and involves a lot of steps, but each step is pretty simple and the finished product is MUCH more than the sum of its parts.

6- or 8-quart Dutch over or other oven-proof pan with lid

large holding bowl

medium holding bowl

small saucepan

cigarette lighter or match

8 tablespoons butter

2 1/2 pounds beef chuck or sirloin cubed into 1-inch pieces

1/4 cup brandy

12-15 small white onions, peeled (see note below)

1 pound mushrooms halved

4-6 tablespoons flour

2 beef bouillon cubes

2 teaspoons water

2 tablespoons tomato paste (see note below)

1 1/2 cups Burgundy

1/2 cup dry sherry

3/4 cup port

1 1/4 cups beef broth

salt and pepper to taste

1 bay leaf

NOTES: To peel the little onions, score the bottom of each with a knife, making a small X. Pour boiling water over the onions and let stand for 1 minute. Immediately remove onions from the water so they do not get soggy or start to cook. Once they are cool enough to touch, the outer skin will peel off easily.

You can buy tomato paste in a tube instead of the little can. Then, you just squirt out however much you need and store the tube in the refrigerator until you need it again.

Heat oven to 350F.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the Dutch oven and brown the beef in batches, adding more butter as needed between batches. Put the browned batches into the large holding bowl. Return all browned beef to the Dutch oven.

(This step is the most fun.) In the small saucepan, heat the brandy. Ignite it and pour it over the beef while it is still flaming. When the flames die, remove the beef and its juices to the large holding bowl.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the Dutch oven. Add the onions and mushrooms, cover, and cook over low heat until onions are light brown. Remove the onions and mushrooms to the medium holding bowl.

Mash the bouillon cubes into the 2 teaspoons of water, making a paste. In the Dutch oven, add the bouillon paste, tomato paste, and flour, stirring until well blended. Stir in the Burgundy, sherry, port, and beef broth. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Add the beef, pepper, and bay leaf. Mix well. Cover and bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Add the onions and mushrooms, stir, and bake for 30 minutes more.

Prelude to a Progressive Dinner

2008-12-11T21:07:00.002-06:00

Growing up in the suburbs of Atlanta, my friends and I would always traipse across the neighborhoods as if they were all our own yards. Most of the modest houses in our 'hood had kids, so no one minded other kids "cutting through" the to get where they needed to go. Most back yards didn't have fences and privacy didn't seem too important. Our parents parked in front garages or carports, and everyone said "hey" (it's the South, after all) when coming or going.

After graduating from Georgia Tech and doing a brief stint in Detroit, I settled in Dallas, specifically "far north Dallas". While I had the Dallas address (barely), I worked (still do, knock on wood) for a high-tech company in one of Dallas' technoburbs. Everything was brand new, shiny, and SECRET. Homes in new "neighborhoods" were built with rear garages accessed through a service alley. Everyone had a 6- or 7-foot privacy fence surrounding a modest back yard. The front yards were each newly planted with two 5- or 6-foot [tr]ash trees. The only reason to go out the front door was to get the newspaper and mail. (Why didn't they put those in the back, too?) You were more likely to know your neighbors behind you than those across the street. This isolation is not necessarily a bad thing; it's just a bit confining for someone who grew up in the east having free reign of the 'hood.

A year after arriving in Dallas, I met my significant other. He had (and now we have) a home in an old east Dallas neighborhood with small houses that were built in the 1920's and 30's, an eclectic mix of Tudor, craftsman, and cottage styles. Like our suburban neighbors to the north, we all have our private back-yard retreats. But unlike them, we have front driveways, so we get to see everyone coming and going, and we get to say "hey" to each other all the time. Everyone likes something a little different, but for me, I'll take "Hey!" over "Who?" every time.

To strengthen our close neighborhood ties, one of our neighbors suggested a progressive dinner party on our block. Alas, food enters the picture. [Stay tuned ...]

Food Fare at the State Fair

2008-11-09T15:42:00.009-06:00

Our State Fair is a great state fair. Don't miss it...

Chicken-fried started at breakfast.

If you have ever been to The State Fair of Texas (NEVER call it the Texas state fair) then you know that every year there is exciting new fried fare at The Fair. SFoT 2008 is no exception. We arrived at 10:00 AM and started the day off right with chicken-fried bacon. Yep, bacon. Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the CF bacon before we devoured it, so let's see if I can paint the picture in words. The slices of bacon seemed to have been sliced into thirds, fried stovetop in the traditional manner, then dipped into the batter and deep-fried. The finished product was crunchy, salty, peppery, and different. It was served with a sour cream-based zesty dipping sauce. I doubt that we will repeat it next year.

After the bacon, we were off to the animal barns to see whatever livestock was in stock. On this day it was mostly cows and goats. The pigs had already come and gone. (Chicken-fried bacon anyone?)

All of those animals made us hungry again. It was time for the time-honored tradition of a mustard-drizzled Fletcher's corny dog. Those of you living in lesser parts of the world (outside of north Texas) might think these stick-ridden concoctions are called "corn dogs". Think again. For those of you who don't know what a corny dog is, here's the deal... Take a hot dog and impale it lengthwise on a skewer. (Fletcher's uses heavy-duty wood skewers.) Bathe it liberally in a cornbread batter bath. Lower it slowly into a vat of hot oil and fry it until it's golden brown. Drizzle it with mustard (see photo) and enjoy! For testing purposes, we enjoyed it with a cold Shiner bock.

There are several Fletcher's outlets throughout Fair Park, but our favorite is on Cotton Bowl Plaza, in the shadow of the main entrance to the Cotton Bowl. The plaza is lined with food vendors and picnic tables, and and intersects the midway and its rides, games, and other attractions. It provides a good jumping-on or jumping-off spot for the Texas Skyway, which glides silently above the midway and provides a restful respite from the carnies pimping their games below.

Our next food stop was another state fair staple, Ruth's Tamale House. Tom and Robert like her namesake item, pulled pork tamales served with a bath of spicy hot chili. My favorite, though, is the garlic sausage on a bun with the requisite drizzle of mustard -- garlic and spice and everything nice.

We couldn't call it a day without having a fried PB&J. We first had this delicacy in 2005 when my parents were in town from Atlanta for The Fair. That year we were surprised, dare I say stunned, at how good these things are. Truth be told, it is really a PBB&J -- peanut butter, banana, and jelly -- sandwich. They take the all-American classic sandwich, lightly batter it and deep-fry it. To serve, they cut it into four triangles and dust it with powdered sugar. It has to be savored to be fully appreciated -- just ask my parents.

The State Fair of Texas runs the first three weeks of October each year. Check it out at www.bigtex.com and ignite your senses!

Not Just Another Brunch

2008-10-19T16:36:00.008-05:00

Today, I had a few friends over for brunch. We did my fritatta, Jacque's broiled asparagus, and Paul's tomato salad. What a great way to finish a weekend!

Jacque's asparagus is in a previous posting, but it's so simple, I'll repeat it here.

Here's what we did:

Greg's Frittata

12 eggs, grain-fed, free-range

1/4 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large onions

6 cloves garlic

12 strips bacon, cooked

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup shredded Mozzarela cheese

12-inch non-stick skillet

In a 12-inch non-stick skillet with a heat-resistant handle, sauté the onions in the oil over medium-high heat until almost caramelized, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 5 minutes more.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, briskly whip the eggs and cream until frothy (3 to 4 minutes) with an electric whisk.

Stir in the cheeses.

Chop the bacon into small pieces.

Add the bacon to the onions and garlic in the skillet.

Stir in the egg mixture.

Turn on the broiler.

Initially, stir the mixture like you’re making scrambled eggs, but stop after about a minute and let things start to “gel”. Continue using a rubber (heat-resistant!) spatula to loosen the eggs from the sides and bottom of the pan. Once it’s firm on the bottom and sides but still liquid in the middle, put the pan under the broiler until the top starts to turn golden brown, about 2 minutes.

Remove from broiler and let stand for 2 or 3 minutes.

Slide the frittata out of the pan and slice into 8 pieces. Garnish with whatever edible greenery you have handy.

Jacque's Asparagus

one bunch asparagus, trimmed

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

quarter-sheet baking pan

Spread the asparagus on a baking sheet. Dust with the Parmesan cheese. Broil for 10-15 minutes, until al dente.

Paul's Tomato Salad

3 tomatoes, sliced

1/2 cup fresh basil, coarsely chopped

salt to taste

olive oil to drizzle

If you need instructions for this, you probably should not be preparing it. See the picture.

Serve all this with mimosas, and everyone will leave happy!

TexaCali Treats

2008-10-09T19:41:00.003-05:00

Last weekend's weather in Dallas was too pretty NOT to be outside, so we decided to do a cook-out. We invited friends and neighbors to come over for burgers, brats, and brew. Our friend and neighbor, Susan (whom you may recall from a previous posting turned 38 recently), suggested that we do grilled chicken sandwiches instead, and since she had a package of chicken breasts in her freezer that she offered, we would have been foolish not to run with that suggestion.

Susan further suggested that we make them "California" chicken sandwiches. I think the "California" part just means that there are avocados or sprouts involved somehow. Given that she is the donor here, who was I to argue?

I asked one of our other guests to bring something crisp and green, and we settled on a pre-made broccoli slaw from a local grocery store. (Sandra Lee would be proud of the semi-homemade-ness of this meal.)

Our favorite barbeque spot in the world is The Salt Lick in Driftwood, Texas, just outside of Austin. A few years ago, they started distributing their sauces and seasonings to grocers around Texas and as luck would have it, we can now buy them locally in Dallas (Whole Foods Market and Central Market). I used the Salt Lick dry rub to season the chicken, ensuring that there would be Texas ties to these California creations. Susan made an avocado spread for the sandwiches, thus ensuring the California connection.

To prepare the meat, I used my meat mallet to flatten the breast halves to a consistent thickness to ensure that each would be large enough to cover a bun. We all learned the importance of bun coverage from the late Clara Peller back in the 1980's. Cover the meat with plastic wrap before whacking it to avoid splatters of raw chicken juice all over the kitchen. I seasoned each generously with the Salt Lick dry rub, then fired up The Egg.

We set up a garnish bar with Susan's avocado spread, sliced onions, sliced tomatoes, and leafy lettuce. Everyone assembled their sandwiches to their tastes, and the finished product was fantastic.

TexaCali Grilled Chicken

(serves 8)

meat mallet (or other device to flatten the chicken)

warmed serving platter

8 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

8 whole-wheat buns (onion rolls would be good, too)

Salt Lick dry rub

8 slices Monterrey jack cheese

Susan's avocado spread (see below)

1 large red onion, thinly sliced

2 tomatoes, thinly sliced

lettuce

Use the meat mallet to flatten the chicken pieces to a consistent thickness.

Dust each piece generously with the dry rub.

Grill over charcoal until cooked through, about 10 minutes total, turning once. Top with cheese slices and grill a few seconds longer until the cheese starts to melt. Remove to the warm serving platter.

Toast the buns on the grill for about 20-30 seconds to give the sandwiches a little extra punch.

Assemble the sandwiches and eat immediately.

Susan's Avocado Spread

2 ripe avocados

juice of 1/2 lemon

cayenne pepper and salt to taste

Mash all ingredients together and serve.

Bonus!

Use the remaining lemon half to clean your wood cutting board. I learned this from Martha. Sprinkle your board lightly with coarse salt. Use the flesh (exposed fruit) side of the lemon as a scrub brush, making circular motions over the salt to loosen food particles and freshen foul odors. It's a good thing.

Southern Comfort

2008-09-21T18:20:00.005-05:00

Southern Living magazine has been a staple in my home for as long as I can remember. Growing up near Atlanta, where I think state law requires a subscription to maintain your southern credentials, it was always on the lamp table in the living room or next to the stove in

the kitchen. And when I moved away from home after college, my parents gave me a gift subscription that has been renewed every year since.

A picture of an egg dish in the current issue caught my eye, and after reading the recipe, I had to try it out on a few friends. The recipe is essentially gussied-up hash browns topped with eggs. It's easy to prepare, requiring just one pan, and the finished product is as pretty as it is delicious. Add some maple-glazed bacon on the side (okay, there is a second dirty pan), and you'll rake in more mmm's and ahhhh's than Miss America on the runway.

If you, like me, only have one oven, cook the bacon first and keep it warm on the stovetop while you prepare the egg dish.

A friend of mine loaned me an old Julia Child recipe book to make a tart recently (future blog posting) and I noticed that in each of her recipes, Julia listed the cooking implements as ingredients. I liked that, so I am following her lead from now on and doing the same.

Eggs in the Nest (Southern Living calls it "Sunny Skillet Breakfast")

10-inch cast iron skillet

4 or 5 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

3 medium baking potatoes

1 medium onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

6 eggs

Grate the potatoes and soak them in cold water for 10-15 minutes rinsing once and changing the water halfway through. This gets a bunch of the starch out of the potatoes, which helps them brown nicely and not turn to mush. Drain thoroughly. If you're really ambitious, you can spread them out on a dish towel and pat them dry.

Heat the oven to 350F.

Heat the oil and butter in the skillet. Saute the onion and bell pepper about 5 minutes until soft. Stir in the grated potatoes and saute for 10-15 minutes until browned.

Remove skillet from the heat and make 6 indentations with a spoon. Crack an egg into each indentation. Bake at 350F for 12-14 minutes.

Maple-Glazed Bacon

half-sheet baking pan with rack

1 pound thick-cut peppered bacon

1/4 cup maple syrup

Heat oven to 425F.

Spread the bacon out on the rack on the pan.

Cover loosely with foil with several holes poked in it so steam can vent. This will help it crisp and prevent grease splatters in the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and drizzle a little syrup on each piece of bacon.

Cover again loosely and bake for 20 minutes more.

In Vino Veritas (and Susan is older)

2008-08-27T21:35:00.004-05:00

In vino veritas. In wine there is truth. Historically, they say that means that a little wine makes you talk a lot. Well, even in the 21st century, that seems to hold true.

There is a new wine tasting room in Dallas called Veritas, and recently a good friend of ours celebrated her birthday there. (As a courtesy to Susan, I will not mention that it was her 38th.)

The "tasting room", a long, narrow spot with ample comfortable seating, a large bar, and a jumbo communal eating table, proved to be a great venue for such a monumental occasion. And Susan's birthday party. Our neighbor and Susan's fellow Junior Leaguer, Robin, coordinated the soiree, and everything worked out seamlessly.

As guests arrived, we were invited to order by the glass or the bottle at the bar. Veritas has a gigantic global selection of varied varietals, so there is something for everyone. If you order a bottle, the happy helpers will store your stash behind the bar at the perfect temperature, and when you're ready for a recharge, you just approach the bar; if they don't remember your name (but they do more often than not) they will forgivingly ask. Buy in advance, and enjoy the night -- what a great idea!

Veritas offers plates of local cheeses, and they promise that the menu of local lusciousness will grow as the bar continues to mature. And don't be surprised to see them mature quickly -- the crowd was great as the night grew late.

In vino veritas, indeed. By the end of our evening, we all were speaking their truth, too.

An Unlikely Venue

2008-08-21T00:16:00.003-05:00

One of my best friends and I went out this evening for a movie at the Studio Movie Grill, a fairly new chain of theaters taking over dallas that offers cocktails and bar food while you enjoy your favorite first-run flick. (Think Engligh pub with a movie.) We saw "Mamma Mia", but that's not the point here.

The venue is FUN, the food is better than adequate, service is prompt, and the price is good. And service is as simple as pushing the call button to which you are assigned upon check-in -- much like the stewardess call button on a commercial flight. The two of us got out for under $50, which is great (at least in Dallas) for theater admission for 2, plus adult beverages and food for each.

Check 'em out!

(I am neither employed nor paid by them in any way. I just like goin'!)

Swimming Up a Different Stream

2008-08-06T17:50:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday, I decided it was time to Egg some fish. (If you are not yet familiar with The Big Green Egg, see my "Greg's Egg" posting from July, 2008.) I've seared salmon and coaled catfish on the Egg before, but this time I wanted to swim up a different stream and try something new. As luck would have it, our local deluxe (and you know it's nice when deluxe has the E on the end) market had rainbow trout on special. But wait! As an added bonus, if you buy today and spend more than $15 on fish, you'll get a reusable deluxe (there's that E again) insulated tote bag in which to transport your daily catch home! How could I refuse?

I returned home, trout in hand (That's for you, John W.! www.troutinhand.com), and planned the rest of the dinner. Everyone loves asparagus, and it pairs nicely with fish, so I asked our friend, Jacque, to bring and prepare that. (We frequently do communal dinners.) Our friend, Helen Mar, had brought us some small bell peppers from her farm in east Texas, so I wanted to incorporate those somehow. I wanted to stuff them, but since the predictable meat-and-rice filling would not be appropriate with this meal, I decided to use quinoa (KEEN-wah). Quinoa is a seed, but it looks and acts a lot like couscous. It doesn't do much by itself, but when you add stuff to it or vice versa, it makes a nice hearty side dish.

Here's the line-up for our summer southern supper:

Egged Rainbow Trout

1 1/2 pounds rainbow trout fillets
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon dried dill

Arrange fillets skin side down on a sheet of heavy-duty foil. Sprinkle evenly with seasonings. Egg at 350F for about 10 minutes. The skin will stick to the foil. That's a good thing. Use a spatula to loosen the meat from the skin, and serve.

Peel the skin from the foil for the dog.

Quinoa-Stuffed Capsicum

4 small-to-medium bell peppers
1 cup quinoa
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Remove the tops from the peppers. Remove seeds and ribs. Boil for 4-6 minutes, until they start to turn soft. If you think they are done, then they are too done; take the out of the water before that. Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

Heat oven to 350F. Toast the quinoa in an iron skillet for 6-8 minutes. The seeds will start popping like mini-popcorn kernels. Use a splatter screen if necessary. At the same time, bring the chicken broth to a simmer. Add the toasted quinoa. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the seeds have absorbed the broth. Let cool for 15 minutes.

Toss the quinoa with the Parmesan and any extra seasonings you like. I added some Italian seasoning. Use a teaspoon to fill each pepper with the Parmesan quinoa, packing it in lightly. Top with some extra Parmesan.

Bake for 15 minutes, then broil to brown the Parmesan on top.

Roasted Parmesan Asparagus

1 pound asparagus
1/2 cup Parmesan (see a trend here?)

This is so simple and delicious, you'll wonder why you haven't done this before. Thanks, Jacque!

Trim the ends off the asparagus. Arrange on parchment paper on a half-sheet pan. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Place under broiler for 2-3 minutes, just until the cheese starts to brown. Like the bell peppers above, if you think it's done, it's over-done.

This is good an any temperature, so it would travel well to a picnic.

Recipes always look more difficult in print to me. All three of these are simple, savory, and scrumptuous.

Quail Egg

2008-07-26T10:42:00.004-05:00

People who know me know that whenever I go out for sushi, I like to order a quail egg or two, those delicious little raw ova jewels. This is not about that; this is about fowl and my Big Green Egg.

Tom was at Sam's one day and strolled past a freezer with dressed frozen ready-to-cook quail. Being the marketer's dream that he is, the impulse purchase was made and a box of 4 quail landed in our freezer.

The package has directions for a variety of preparations, including the oven, the skillet, and the grill. Since I'm all about The Big Green Egg, it was a no-brainer for me. I defrosted the defeathered fowl and fired up The Egg. The package directions explicitly stated NOT to add seasoning; I am skeptical of pre-seasoned stuff, but since this was my virgin quail experience, I figured I'd better go by the book.

I oiled the grill and put the butterflied birds to roost on the heat. And then it hit me -- How appropriate that the birds' final resting roost was back in The Egg!

Per the package directions, I Egged them for 15 minutes, turning once. I had already halved and seeded two acorn squash, and boiled them almost to doneness, 10-15 minutes. After the flock fled the Egg, I placed the squash halves on the hot grill, flesh-side up at first to finish the cooking, and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper. I turned them after about 5 minutes to get some nice grill marks on the flesh.

I plated the birds and squash (see picture), added a simple salad, and dinner was served. The quail was nearly perfect -- crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and easily disassembled with the hands, uncouth though it may seem. The package warning not to add seasoning proved to be good advice; the added flavor was evident, but not prevalent. The squash was smoky and tender, done just enough so that the skin was edible with a pleasant crunch. The crispy cold salad was the ideal finishing touch to a successful summer supper.

Scrambled Gregs

2008-07-21T18:08:00.001-05:00

We invited some friends over for brunch yesterday and I decided to prepare one of my morning favorites -- Greg's Benedict. I made Eggs Benedict for the first time a few years ago, having enjoyed it a couple of times at a neighbor's house. I wanted to make it unique somehow, so after scouring the pantry for something unique, I came out with wasabi. The wasabi adds a great Asian punch to an already flavorful sauce. Here is the recipe up with which I came... (Read on past the recipe for the rest of the story.)

Greg’s Benedict

6 large eggs
3 English muffins or biscuits, sliced in half
ham, bacon, Prosciutto, or Canadian bacon

Wasabi Hollandaise sauce:
6 egg yolks
3-4 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice
1/2 cup melted butter
wasabi powder to taste (start with 1 teaspoon and kick it up from there according to taste)

Poach the eggs. Drain and set aside, preserving the hot water to reheat the eggs.

For the sauce, in the top of a double boiler combine the melted butter, citrus juice, and wasabi powder. Remove from heat until warm, and stir in the egg yolks one at a time, stirring constantly to prevent the yolks from becoming scrambled. Return to slow heat to thicken the sauce. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Briefly submerge the poached eggs in the preserved water to reheat. Quickly dry on paper towels.
Stack the bread, pork, and poached eggs.
Top with Hollandaise.

And herein lies the scramble... You have to let the hot butter-lime-wasabi mixture cool substantially before adding the egg yolks, and then reheat the mixture slowly to thicken.

Live. Learn. Enjoy.

Gypsy Picnic and How Not to Make Friends on the Grass

2008-07-18T18:26:00.005-05:00

There is something beautiful about picnics -- being at one with nature, not having to worry if the main course is still hot, and not having to clear the table when you're done. Yesterday evening, some friends and I went to the Dallas Arboretum for a picnic at the most ineptly named outdoor summer concert series around -- "Cool Thursday". Everyone knows that in Dallas in July, there ain't NOTHIN' cool. But this is not about the weather. It's about food, friends, and fun.

The Arboretum is situated on the shore on Dallas' beautiful White Rock Lake. The natural amphitheater there slopes steeply from a historic mansion with a commanding view of the lake down to the nearly-water-front stage, with trees lining the perimeter on 3 sides. We arrived early to stake out a shady spot along the perimeter and set up shop a stone's throw from stage right. In tow were coolers brimming with a variety of home/hand-made cold (intentionally) soup, finger sandwiches, and potato salad (thank you, Paul!), along with the requisite store-bought fare of cheeses, crackers, fruits, and wines.

As we gobbled goodies, waiting for the sun to set and the concert to commence, other attendees arrived and we were soon surrounded by other patrons in our partial shade. And that's where the "how not to make friends on the grass" part comes in. I will offer this advice (and accompanying photo): If you're gonna park it on the pasture in front of somebody, don't park it in a lawn chair.

The featured band on this blazingly "cool" evening was The Texas Gypsies. The music was Texas swing with a ballad or two thrown in for variety. By the close of the second set, the "buffer zone" between the lawn and the stage was filled with kids and adults swingin' the night away. Cool indeed.

Greg's Egg

2008-07-16T22:37:00.003-05:00

I love my Big Green Egg.

A couple of years ago, my sisters and I had a big party at a lake house in north Georgia to celebrate our parents' 50th wedding anniversary. The owners of the house had one of those ubiquitous Weber kettle grills, and my sisters entrusted me with 30+ hamburgers to cook on it. Up to that point, my only grilling experience had been several years on our in-line gas grill in the back yard. The burgers were so good and the grilling experience was so great, I decided that I needed one of those charcoal-fired burger burners of my own.

I visited our "outdoor lifestyle" store (otherwise known as Jackson's here in Dallas) to choose my new Weber, but standing proudly next to the Weber kettles was a thing of beauty -- The Big Green Egg. I have known about the Egg for several years because a friend in Atlanta used to live very close to the Big Green Egg store there. But I had never touched one. It was love at first sight and touch, and I knew immediately that she was coming home with me. Unfortunately, I drive a MINI (which is also dark green), so I had to avail the services of our neighbor, who has a pick-up truck. We got the Egg home, and she has done nothing but delight us ever since.

The Egg has grilled and smoked turkeys, chickens, cows, pigs, lambs, fish, and veggies all to perfection. My only major mishap was my attempt to "bake" biscuits in her. I quickly learned that other implements are much better suited to creating flaky golden biscuits; the Egged batch of biscuits came out gummy and charred -- perfect grub for the garbage.

Check back soon for my quail Egg story, with a much happier ending than my biscuit bust...

Danger Dinner!

2008-07-15T17:34:00.002-05:00

Last Friday, we were trying to find a creative use for some left-over rotisserie chicken. We had invited a couple of friends over for dinner and told them that it was going to be a very casual affair. (That's a euphemistic way of lowering expectations.) We decided to throw together some quesadillas. We asked one of our guests to bring some of her famous borracho beans and pico de gallo, and another was bringing dessert.

Tom and I stopped by our favorite Mexican grocery, the Fiesta (in Dallas, we always prefix the name of any store with "the", like the Kroger, the Walgreens, etc.), to pick up as many salmonella-enhanced fresh vegetables as possible -- tomotoes, cilantro, jalapeños, and onions. (As of this writing, we have failed in our quest.)

The quesadillas were a gastronomic AND social hit. We hand-pulled the left-over chicken from the bones and warmed it over very low heat with a can of chopped green chilis to give it a little punch. While the chicken and chilis warmed, I sliced some yellow onions and sauteed them almost to carmelization.

Then we formed an assembly line down the galley we call our kitchen, everyone contributing one ingredient to one side of the 8-inch flour tortillas, being careful not to over-fill them. (Otherwise, it makes a big mess on the griddle when half the stuff falls out.) My assignment in the process was the griddle, so when they reached the end of the assembly line, I folded the tortillas in half and let the heat do its magic.

As goes the cliché, a good time was had by all.

MontiConcho Chicken Quesadillas

1 1/2 - 2 cups rotisserie chicken pulled off the bones
1 small can chopped green chilis (do not drain)
8 eight-inch flour tortillas
1 large yellow onion, sliced into rings
1 jalapeño, finely chopped
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 1/2 cups quesadilla cheese, shredded
pico de gallo
Mexican cream (or substitute sour cream or plain yogurt)

Warm chicken and chopped chilis (with liquid) in a small sauce pan. It just needs to be warm, not hot.
Sauté onion until very soft and almost carmelized.
On one half of each tortilla, spread chicken, onion, cilantro, and cheese. Sprinkle with jalapeno pieces to desired level of spiciness. Fold tortillas over and place on a medium-hot griddle. The objective is to melt the cheese so that everything inside sticks together and to give the outside of the tortillas a nice brown color. Turn once, flipping "across the fold" so that all the good stuff doesn't fall out. Depending on your heat, it will take about 2 minutes on each side.

Slice each in half, and garnish wedges with cream, pico de gallo, and more cilantro.

Left-overs store well in the refrigerator and reheat nicely in the microwave or on the griddle the next day.

European Adventure - Days 1 and 2

2000-12-31T18:00:00.000-06:00

[I apologize in advance to any Francophiles reading this, as I have no French keyboard with which to make the accented and cedille letters.]

We're here! We had [thankfully] uneventful flights over (DFW - MIA - CDG), arriving Friday morning around 9:30 AM local time. Breakfast on the plane meant all we had to do was cab it to the Hotel Beaubourg in the Marais, freshen up, unwind, and hit the streets. We like to amble around the area whenever we arrive somewhere for vacation, so even though we had been here four years ago, we walked around Centre Pompidou, to Ile de Cite, Notre Dame, Rive Gauche, and back to the Marais (about 6,000 steps according to my pedometer, err I guess that would be pedometre here).

Back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at our new first-night tradition, Le Train Bleu. First, though, wine at a cafe on Rue de Temple in the Marais.
No place to which I've been in my forty-hmm-hmm years can prepare and present a five-course menu like the French. The "menu" here is what we would call the "chef's menu" or "tasting menu" in the States. It's prix fixe and you get what the chef wants you to have -- no choices to make.

This night's selections included asparagus mousse with a dollop of salmon mousse; fois gras with fig tapenade and raisin-and-apricot bread; a trio of Vichyssoise, smoked salmon, and mozzarella with basil puree; fillet of turbot with wilted spinach; raspberry sorbet swimming in Champagne; potato-crusted veal chop with asparagus risotto; and a dessert trio of chocolate mousse, raspberry sorbet topped with strawberrys and a meringue, and a creamy rum mousse that we so decadent our heads nearly spun off. By the time our feast was finished, it was 10:30 and time to go to bed and leave our jetlag behind. A quick Metro ride to Hotel de Ville and a brisk 3-block walk to the hotel, and we were out in no time.

Saturday morning we awoke with our bodies nicely adjusted to Central European Time and ready for the butter and cafe au lait they were about to receive. Last time we were here, we found a cute little cafe (imagine that!) nearby and adopted that as our morning hang-out to plan the day ahead. We continued that tradition this morning with croissant, said coffee, and the sparrows that flock around us to catch our crumbs as they fall from the pastry to the brick sidewalk. When the butter and caffeine were gone, the day had been planned -- morning at the Musee Rodin, lunch at Cafe du Marche on Rue Cler (one of the best market streets in the world, I suspect), and the afternoon at Musee d'Orsay.

We Metro'd it to Invalides and hooved it the rest of the way to Rodin's house. That's a nice, manageable museum with famous sculpture gardens and a great chateau. There, we bought a Paris Museum Pass, which for 50 euro gets you into most museums for four days. That's a bargain by itself, but you get the added bonus of being able to bypass the long lines of other tourists queued to buy tickets who see to not know about this pass, and walk right in. This would come in handy this afternoon.
Lunch on Rue Cler is as cliche as cafe society can be -- two-topper tables crammed so close together you literally touch elbows with your neighbors at the adjacent tables, casual (meaning slow, but that's perfect since we're on vacation) service, and dogs lounging behind or under their owners. (Dogs are allowed in Parisian restaurants.) Tom's seared duck was delicious, and my steak tartar was cooked (ha ha!) to perfection.

From there, we made the hike to Musee d'Orsay, one of the best building repurposings ever. Formerly a grand train station, it's now home to one of the best art collections anywhere. And while it's very large, it doesn't hold a candle to the Louvre in terms of shear girth. They currently have a special exhibit of Manet stuff, so we did that self-guided tour along with hoards of other tourist and one especially annoying one who was navigating the very crowded galleries with a jumbo baby stroller. Get a clue, hon! Time to Metro it back tot he hotel...

13.227 steps later, we're back at the hotel and planning tonight's feast.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rue du Renard,Paris,France