Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Roast pork and pumpkins

Goodness me, Nancy made last night's dinner sound like a Lou Reed album. We weren't really so gloomy.

A couple of things...

The reason that the onions were caramelized is that I sliced them very thin and used them instead of a roasting rack. I seared the pork in a saute pan and then sauteed the onions, mushrooms and garlic in the same pan. Then I deglazed it with red wine put the pork on top and put it in the oven.

When roasting anything it is import to me that you get that nice brown crust on the outside by either searing it in a pan or in a very hot oven, the pan method is easier to control.

It's also important to remember that if you are drinking wine as you cook to wrap a towel around the handle of the saute pan if it has been in the over for thirty minutes. Seared flesh is so old school as a garnish for roast pork.

It is important to have any roast on a rack or elevated, particularly if it is a cut that renders a lot of fat. This is exactly where the phrase "to stew in your own juice" comes from. If you are roasting or dry cooking something it will boil and toughen if it is in it's own liquid.

I also glazed the pork with mustard, honey, apricot jam and oyster sauce. I mention this to add on to Martha's brown sugar Salmon glaze. The combination of sweet and hot makes a nice combination for a glaze for almost anything and it is very popular up here for salmon.

I put some of the mitzuna and some arugula in the salad. The mitzuna is beautiful.

If the apples in the box had been awful I would have made applesauce. I am not sure where the pork/applesauce connection comes from but it really is a great combo. If I had had red cabbage I might have cooked some of that with a little caraway. What with all this talk about Deuteronomy keep in mind my maternal grandmother's, alev shalom, maiden name was Eisenbach.

I also let the pork rest for about five minutes after it had come out of the oven. This is such an important step in roasting that I think it is worth mentioning, particularly if you are roasting a large slab of beef. It has to sit for 10-15 minutes at room temp before you slice it. Even those small racks of lamb should sit for about five minutes. If you cut meat too early you loose color and juice.

Why do we cook (and drink) like this every night? Well, the restaurant scene here is not exactly spectacular and since most of them are customers it is very rarely relaxing for me. Both of us love to cook so why shouldn't we do it? To me it's no stranger than asking Susan how she can do needle point after a day of work. And walking the doggie is not such a big chore.

At least both of us enjoy it. Once when I was home from Culinary I was cooking something and my mother, alev shalom, looked at me in genuine amazement and said "You really like this don't you?" She couldn't imagine anyone cooking for pleasure; to her it was complete drudgery

My question would be how do Alec and Sharon manage? Sheesh. The new parent thing is very difficult.

I also have to agree with Hunter Davis. I have seen his porch and putting a pumpkin on his porch makes about as much sense as handing Henry the keys to an Audi TT with a case of PBR Long Necks in the back seat.

Off to the gym to burn some of this off...

JD

susan

I am with Cuzin M - how do Nancy and John eat such wonderful meals every night, walk the dog, work seven days a week and still have time to read (and plant all those bulbs). My dinners are quite boring in comparison. Tonight though I will dig into the box and come up with a mizuna and fuyu salad. Thanks for the inspiration.

Cuzin M catching up

First,let me say I am impressed with the DeCherneys of Juneau...planning, cooking,writing and drinking everyday ...I have difficulty getting it together for any one of those activities on any given day...please share your secret!

So, to catch up...we had a fabulous dinner of Orange Beef,Kung Pao Chicken, and vegetarian Spring Rolls....all cooked by Sammy Woo... at his restaurant. If you go, you must go to the one in Irvine, somehow the food isn't as good as the other locations. Better yet, if you are in the area,let us know and we''ll take you!

So what is the difference between a Spring Roll and an Egg Roll?

Monday was leftover Orange Beef for me. Chuck worked late and grabbed something and ate at his desk.

Tuesday was a taste of the old neighborhood...Chicken Cacciatore with a side of pasta and a green salad. Adding a shot of vodka to the "gravy"(aka tomato sauce in South Philly-eze) ala Emeril really adds a delicious kick to the dish.

I might as well get tonight over with now...let me preface this by saying I am not at all embarrassed to be writing this: 1.Chuck has a dinner meeting. 2. It's Halloween. 3. There's candy in the house. 4. There are very few Trick or Treaters on this street. 5. ANY QUESTIONS???

Tuesday, Oct. 30

Roast pork on a bed of carmelized onions and wine, oven roasted potatoes, a tossed salad, and out-of-season asparagus. Do real people eat like this every day? Vitiano, Falesco (Cabernet, Merlot, Sangiovese, and darn good too), again with the Lang Lang on the stereo. Conversation a bit darker: I had laid in the provisions for today's marauders (got the Costco bags with the dark chocolate Milky Ways and the ones with the M&Ms) but this is the first year that I can remember that we have not had a pumpkin. What does this mean? What is the purpose of tradition? Why do we do these things? What does it mean in the fabric of life if we stop observing them? Does it matter?
John sent me to bed early with a hot bath and a PG Wodehouse.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

If I knew my mother was going to post that email with a snarky editorial comment, I would never have sent it to her.

Yes, I am now particularly fond of Lepetit camembert. And the musee des arts decoratifs.

Father, you'll be particularly pleased that I found a Nicholas Feuillatte store on the Rue du Faubourg St Honoré, conveniently located pres de chez moi. In the window were manniquins with champagne bottles for breasts. Kind of like Madonna.

Like we never had this stuff before at our house

Just in from the French correspondent:
PS- my host mother introduced me to Camembert and I'm never going
back.

(Editorial comment: !!!)

Also, on Saturday I went to the Musee des Arts Decoratifs
(furniture and other cool stuff like that ) and it was AWESOME and I'm
dragging all of your asses there when you get here in April. Get
excited. The best part was that no one was in the part where I was
1700s- Art Deco so I had all the exhibits to myself! Art Nouveau
furniture is absolutely beautiful. The other section of the Musee is
dedicated to jewels and fashion, so that's also amazing. It's closed
right now, so I'll let you know how great it is when I go soon.
XO
REN

October 29

..WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 PM ADT THIS AFTERNOON...

.TODAY...RAIN...HEAVY AT TIMES. WINDY. HIGHS AROUND 46. SOUTHEAST
WIND 30 MPH. WIND GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH.

Our friend Susan was born on this date in Juneau and spent many years here. She claims to like this weather.

Perhaps this is the reason that John insisted on nuts in the meal last night. I skidded into the kitchen minutes before he did and claimed cooking privileges. He had set his heart on stir-fried chicken with baby bok choy, bean sprouts, and roasted peanuts. He permitted me to make dinner ONLY if the aforementioned peanuts were included in the dish. So he built a fire in the woodstove while I sliced and diced the skinned and boned breast, marinated it briefly in a soy/sherry/cornstarch mixture, chopped the bok choy and an onion, sliced up a appropriately named Golden Delicious, mourned briefly for the red Bartlett pear that peaked the day before and today was compost material, steamed some white Basmati, and cracked open the Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc. The only thing wrong with this (delightfully crisp, grapefruity) wine is that it is so easy to drink. I used for guidance in the process (the cooking, not the wine-drinking) Ken Hom's Easy Family Recipes from a Chinese-American Childhood, which by the way has the best wonton soup recipe in it ever.
So we enjoyed a nice quiet dinner, with Lang Lang on the stereo,Veramonte in the glasses, and planned where we will travel when the kids are out of school. Then we watched The Philadelphia Story and all was right with the world.

We do note that our friend Susan now spends quite a lot of her time in California.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Traditional Sunday Dinner

Yesterday's weather was not quite as miserable as Saturday's, so a stalwart little group of volunteers gathered at the arts council's new building (www.jahc.org) to put in 675 Dutch Iris bulbs donated by the Rotary Club. This involved first digging the beds for these items. Suffice to say that Lou Edwards and his truck load of horse manure, which he dug on Saturday, note the comment about the weather THAT day, and his self-described "Lady Rototiller" gets my vote for MVP, and that the six other determined and dedicated folks who really tucked in are heroes of the first order, and we got it done in a little over two hours.

(Ren, you'll be pleased to know that the string ensembles are now practicing on Sundays in the new Gallery, it was so nice to be in at my desk listening to the kids sawing away and Xia singing as he does to help them get the song right.)

Leaving John to put on a pot roast, simmering in a wonderful wine sauce, with potatoes. Freshly steamed broccoli, a Caesar-y green salad, and voluptuous red Bartlett pears. Some candles lit, Chinese plucked instruments on the stereo, and one of my recent favorites, Hedges C.M.S., a wine made of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and syrah. Then a hot lavender bath for the aches and pains, and off to bed.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Fish/Clam Soup

Sunday is a night that Debi and I try to keep as simple as we can. No big multi-tasking meals, no huge ingredients list. This usually means soup. Or stew. Or chili.
Tonight was a really quick soup from Bittman's How To Cook Everything. Surprisingly, the recipe is called something like that, Really Fast Fish Soup. We put in some halibut, ground up some more of the geoduck, onions, tomatoes, garlic. Served with bread and butter and Bombay Sapphire martinis.
Hunter

Beef stew, taco salad, pasta bake.

This weekend was all American cuisine. I go in waves - I'll cook all Chinese for a week and then I won't. It just usually depends on whether or not I've been to the Chinese grocery store lately. Even when I don't cook all Chinese, I am heavily influenced by the food of my people. I'll throw garlic in just about anything. Any vegetable can be sauteed with some garlic and salt. And sometimes soy sauce instead of salt adds a little extra flavor!

Saturday night, my company had a big party. We were recently sold to HP for $1.65 billion and it was a "celebration" party thrown by three of our founders. My parents were coming over to babysit Natalie and I wanted to make them some dinner so my mom wouldn't have to cook while holding the baby. It had to be something fast and vegetarian. I had some really good, fresh mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Some penne pasta and some spinach. I tore the mozzarella into pieces, mixed it with an egg and parmesan cheese and added some bread crumbs to soak up any extra juices. I did this while cooking the pasta al dente. I mixed everything together, added the spinach and threw it into a Pyrex baking pan in the oven until it was warm and bubbly. It smelled great. My sister Vickie had a big forkful the second she saw it and declared it yummy!

Sunday lunch we made taco salads. We got four little avocados in our "bag". Alec made some guacamole. I browned some ground turk. We put it together with some chips, lettuce, sour cream and salsa and ate so fast. Natalie, never wanting to miss a minute with us on the weekends, only takes 30 minute naps. We are starting to learn how to cook and eat our meals within them. This should be just right for your radio cooking show Nancy!

Those avocados were so good - I ate one Brazilian style, just plain with sugar. My dad used to always eat his avocados like that when we were young. When we asked him why, he said that that's what they did when they lived in Brazil. I confirmed with our nanny, who is Brazilian, that that's how they eat it!

Beef stew: potatoes, carrots, zucchini and onions all from the bag. Some Niman Ranch beef. That'll be dinner Mon/Tues/Wed.

I should also mention that we often roast all the miscellaneous vegetables we get from the bag. Last week we roasted cauliflower, squash and fennel, separately of course. A little olive oil, salt and pepper. We get that going while cooking the big meal for the week. It works out great because it's fast, easy and we use up a ton of the veggies.

Ren - there is a Paris to Versailles race in the fall every year. You'll have to ask Alec how he liked running those 10 miles ;-)

Cuzzi"M" is cooking again

I've returned to the stove and I'm ready to rock and roll!
It's been a terrible week here in So Cal(southern California) and life is slowly returning to normal for some of us. For others, it will be taking a very long time for them to recover. The Orange County fire started last Sunday( by an arsonist...anyone interested in discussing my "NEED to SIZZLE" philosophy for this sub-human nutjob or nutjobs)10 miles from us. Fortunately for us and our neighbors it burned in the other direction and left massive destruction and tragedy. You could not leave the house without a mask or wet bandanna over your face until Saturday afternoon. You had to keep all doors and windows closed to keep out the smoke and the layers of ash that covered every surface, but we dare not complain compared to what others are having to endure....but I digress. It was too hot to cook with all the doors closed,
and no one dare use a BBQ grill.
By Friday night, PB&J and Tuna Nicoise was getting old,so I made dinner...
Fresh (wild) Atlantic salmon with a pecan and brown sugar glaze accompanied by fresh wax beans and a pretty good whole grains mixture from the Trader Joe's(heretofore known as The Traders). A dear friend of ours(alev shalom) originally gave me this recipe, but I can't find it ,so I make it from memory...and believe me that's risky.
However, no one ever complained of having too much brown sugar, pecans and/or butter. I broil the skinned salmon fillet on either side after drizzling lemon and fresh ground pepper. When the 2nd side, or top, is almost finished, I sprinkle brown sugar over it just until the broiler melts it. In the meantime, I have pecans,more brown sugar and melted butter in a saute pan hot and bubbly and pour it over the salmon as soon as I plate it. Chuck will only eat salmon this way.This evening we had a lovely Honey Moon Voigner. This wine has great balance and pairs so well with fish.I don't want to tell you where to buy it or how much it costs because that info could put Specialty Imports out of business....and that might mean "poor ole'John" would have to move in with" poor ole' Chuck"!Desserts are pretty limited when we don't have company but it is October and we haven't had any pumpkin pie....my recipe is pretty standard except to say that I use sweetened condensed milk and not evaporated.

On Saturday, I made a delicious flank steak...once I get caught up with this blogging-thing and get in the groove, I would like to discuss flank steak and London broil...I marinate the flank steak in whatever I have around but that always includes
olive oil,soy sauce and get ready for this coffee. I had this recipe years and years ago from the New York Times called Beauf ala Mode and that marinade included coffee...now I never marinate a piece of beef without it. My new trick for quickly marinating meat is to use the spray salad dressings on the meat. Yesterday, I used the red wine and vinegar and let that soak in before putting the flank steak in a baggie to marinate for 2 hours. We had a lovely blue cheese salad and the rest the grain mixture to go with it. A nice 2 buck chuck merlot finished it off. Say what you want, it's a decent merlot and who cares if we only drink part of the bottle and toss the rest.
Stay tuned there's bound to be a Chateau d'Yquem or Petrus meal coming up soon!

Food on Saturday

Our friend and fabulous DJ Andy Kline (KXLL Excellent Radio, live on the internet by linking to ktoo.org) and I are planning a radio cooking show that will have recipes that take 5 minutes (Speed Chef: Real Food for Real Life is our working title at this point. Suggestions welcome) to prepare and get a good meal on the table for a family. I am thinking Sharon's noodles are on the list. Yesterday's split pea soup is too: Chop up an onion, two stalks of celery, a carrot or two, sauté them in butter in a big pot, add the peas, a ham hock or other bacon-y ham like thing, a bay leaf, healthy teaspoon of black pepper and water to generously cover, and you are outta there. This cooks for 4 -5 hours, true enough, but nonetheless, you have lunch or supper or dinner for (yesterday it was 20 or so folks) your family with very little actual kitchen time, it is tasty, nutritious, and makes the whole house smell wonderful. In the intervening 4 hours you can have a board meeting, or pay bills or something. It really takes about the same amount of time to make soup for 5 as for 20, just a bigger pot, so make a lot, and freeze some.

Dinner was a special treat, with dear friends who are on the out right prolonged laughter list and bona fide good foodies. Every time we get to visit their home, which they built from scratch, there is a new wonderful addition: This time, a beautiful spiral staircase in gunmetal and light cherry wood, apparently reclaimed from black and ugly. Anyway, they had been slaving away in the kitchen all day, and the dinner was marvelous: salmon empanadas, goat cheese crustini, sushi, a marvelously lemony chard soup, a spinach and greens salad with pears, grapes, seasoned cashews and a delicate dressing, and luxuries of all, fresh halibut baked (did he say in Ranch Dressing?? Delicious!) with rice and home made bread, followed by an exquisite hazelnut and chocolate torte and home made lingonberry liqueur. Fabulous food, great conversations, much laughter, and there was a lot of wine, although since I had to be up at 4:45 am and was the DD, I limited myself to a bit of Villa Maria Chardonnay and Marietta Old Vine, two of my favorites. Life is good.

Let them eat cake, or, duck lollipops, as the case may be

This last weekend, Smith organized a trip to Versailles, which is only a 30 minute RER ride away. On the way there, we had a thoughtful discussion about why a person would shave off their eyebrows only to tatoo them back on. You know? Well, Versailles was pretty fantastic, for many reasons. One of the things that I like best about France is that everything has an impressive history. Not only that, but Versailles makes its way into almost every art history class. So it was humbling to be somewhere that played an important part in French history but also in artistic movements. The Chateau was a little overwhelming, but I very much enjoyed Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon and little farm. The farm was darling as well as her little getaway. Which wasn't really little, but actually could have housed at least two families and had very lush decoration. We also really enjoyed imitating the funny statues that were scattered everywhere.

While Versailles was fun, the best part of my week was the party I went to last night. Mami, the mother of my host father, turned 90 yesterday and there was a big partay. My host mother insisted that I come by so that I could witness a real french party. Also, Mami lives in a FANTASTIC apartment right near the Charles de Gualle étoile. Fantastic. Molding on the ceilings, stained glass window, magnificent marble fireplace, all the works. My host father was born in this house, as well as his three other siblings. Now, Mami has 12 great-granchildren and she still looks great. Also impressive was the entire Lebelle family which had assembled for the party. Nicole (my host mother, also known as Ninou by her grandchildren) insisted that I come to witness the whole family and also eat food. The party was catered and the food was pretty fantastic. I started off with a glass of champagne and was then offered a little duck lollipop. It kind of tasted like the inside of a wonton, but with duck. I couldn't really tell you what was in it, I can just tell you that it was fabulous. Then little scallops came out in tiny monkey dishes and then there was cheese/lobster ravioli. There was also a giant cake for Mami that involved exotic fruits and ganache. Then the children discovered the ice cubes and started to put them in people's shirts. But I think the kids liked me because one of them sat on my lap for awhile and I read her a story. Then a 7 year old corrected my French, another humbling experience.

So now we're off to the Gallery Opening for Guillome, the son of Nicole and François at the Bateau Lavoir. A good weekend, no?

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Prawns, pasta and hell in general

Sharon and Alec, I don't think that there is a difference between shrimp and prawns although I think that you are correct that the smaller ones are called, naturally, shrimp. I can't recall hearing the word prawns until I moved out here. Which brings me to...

The difference between dinner and supper. I don't recall that anyone that I knew growing up called the evening meal dinner or supper depending on what was served or what had been served previously or any such tradition. Keep in mind that Delaware is not exactly a cultural cross road. Good thing we had the Rizzos across the street to expand our horizons. I never had Duke's mayonnaise until last month and didn't taste grits until I was in my twenties. The supper/dinner debate seems to be a remnant of agrarian society and although Grandfather Sam, alev shalom, did have a horse he was hardly a farmer. Though I do have photographic evidence that my Uncle Lou, alev shalom, was a cowboy.

Last night for dinner Hunter apparently had pork with bacon cream sauce for dinner. What better way to celebrate the Sabbath? I can't tell if you are going to get hate mail from your Rabbi or your Cardiologist. When I commented to Nancy on the heavily porcine nature of the meal her comment was "Well, you've been to Germany. I'm surprised he didn't have a side of sausage." The Germans do love their pork don't they? I have to say that when we were over there on the last night we were promised a "special treat" by our hosts at the winery and we wound up at a pig knuckle restaurant. Fortunately, this was another in a series of meals that was saved by copious amounts of German lager. German beer is remarkably wonderful.

In all fairness thin slices of pork or veal schnitzel is a great meal.

And I guess it's nice to know that if I am going to hell on a Deuteronomy rap then at least Hunter Davis will be roasting along with me in the cafeteria line which reminds me of a joke that is totally filthy. Hopefully right now the light went on over my daughter's head and she thought to herself "Ooooooo...you're going to hate Friday". Miss you kiddo and try to stay out of the bars at least one night a week.

Pasta shapes. I grew up on Spaghetti. Spaghetti must be considered uncool or declasse now what with all of the other shapes available. I had a group of Rotarians over for dinner and served your basic Spaghetti and meat sauce. My buddy Eric was ecstatic because although his wife is a good cook and makes lots of pasta he craved the basic shape that all of us suburban white kids first encountered.

I think the first time I ever saw bow tie noodles was when Aunt Ruth, alev shalom, served kasha and varnishkas. Man, is that preparation a little slice of heaven. I can't remember the first time I ever saw Rigatoni but that has been my pasta of choice ever since. The allure of Angel Hair alludes me, it clumps real quick. When I make my baked noodle casserole Ren insists that I make it with Elbow Macaroni. Elbow Macaroni is also what I use for Minestrone Soup and I couldn't tell you why. I also couldn't tell you why so many "old fashioned" Italian restaurants (you know, red mesh plastic bread baskets with "Italian bread" as opposed to plates of Focaccia with olive oil for dipping. Do they really do that in Italy?) always serve Baked Ziti. All Ziti apparently has to be baked. Per que, Grasshopper?

Late supper

Got home from the (wonderful) Huun Huur Tu concert last night around 10:30. Luckily John claimed to not be hungry as he had had a cheesy wine tasting apparently, so I reheated the prawns and fettucine from last night in a little butter and white wine. Sozzled it down with more of the aforementioned white wine and a little Huntington Petite Sirah. After I finished, John decided he was in fact hungry, so made himself a sloppy Joe from the marinara he was thawing for some reason and hamburger bun he found somewhere. In the supper/dinner distinction, I think these qualify as midnight snacks.

Up and off to make split pea soup for lunch, or would that qualify as dinner if we add the salad and bread?
My friend Laura and I found ourselves mysteriously at the Cafe des Deux Moulins again, this time for some frites and happy hour. I love this cafe very much and am happy that I no longer think of Amelie when I go in, but rather of all the fun times I've had there, usually involving food. Yum. We got there and found that the cafe had been decorated for Halloween and will be giving free drinks to people wearing costumes on halloween. I've never liked Halloween, but I definitely like cocktails. Yesterday I had a gin fizz for the first time as my personal favorite, Gin and Tonics, were not on the menu. I must say, Gin Fizzes are quite excellent. I had two. It was fabulous.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Deutches Essen, sehr gut.

Rahmschnitzel for supper tonight. Pounded thin pork cuts, dredged in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs. Gently browned. Found a use for the chanterelles out of the box, made a cream sauce with mushrooms, bacon, capers. Piled/poured over the schnitzels. Served with steamed broccoli and another Tefft wine, this time a 2004 Signature Reserve Merlot.
We do miss Germany at times, a meal like this is a great reminder of what, exactly, we miss most.

...............
So who here thinks that Dinner is the last meal of the day, as opposed to Supper?

Hunter
(muttering something about Northerners)

Shellfish...trefe by an other name would still be trefe

I often joke to Hunter that I am going to Hell on a Deuteronomy rap. I love shellfish. Some more that others but by and large I crave the stuff.

Last night I got some spot prawns out of the freezer that I had bought fresh right off the boat in the harbor. They freeze pretty well. I sauteed them with garlic, sliced onions, sliced celery and sliced fennel and put it over fettuccine. I am going to save my discussion on why some people prefer certain shapes of pasta for another time.

Goeduck. Wow. I don't think I had ever seen a goeduck until Nancy and I moved to Seattle in the early 80's. You have to admit that they are a little daunting to look at. I honestly can't say if I have ever cooked one and I am not sure that I have ever intentionally eaten one, but I wouldn't turn it down.

Prawns

Another late dinner last night: I went to an interesting "networking" pub night for the under 40 year old professionals, I guess as an elder in the arts field, invited to talk about the arts and how to get involved, etc and as an aside, provide door prizes in the form of tickets to events.....
Anyway, home last and John had a prawn fettucini dish all ready, in the wine sauce, with salad, apples, and white wine. Heading into a long weekend with a Huun Huur Tu concert tonight, workshops and board retreat on Saturday, and thanks to the Rotary Club, planting 675 Dutch Iris bulbs in predicted rain and wind on Sunday. Who knows when we shall eat again?

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Whadd'ya do with three pounds of geoduck?

A friend who is a commercial diver gave us about three pounds of geoduck clam siphons. Not the tenderest of clams, but good for fritters, seviche, and, tonight, a spaghetti vongele.
Used a simple recipe...(not all of the) clams, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, parsley, and spaghetti noodles. Served with a green salad (added the sliced fried garlic from the sauce) and a Tefft Cellars Rattlesnake Ridge Viognier.
Now for a soak in the hot tub.

Hunter and Debi
Ketchikan

Eating again

Yesterday, I went for lunch to the restaurant formerly known as the Fiddlehead, with the original owner of the Fiddlehead. So odd. I don't usually like to go there, I break out in post-traumatic stress symptoms almost immediately, plus last spring I totally peeved the main waiter "Steve-o" by stepping in to coordinate dinner service for a fund-raiser we did there when it became evident the wait staff was inexperienced at that sort of banquet dinner service and the kitchen needed some clear communications from the floor,and so he dislikes me, but I have to say the lunch was just fine. Good iced tea, nice French Dip (not as good as the old Mike's Place with real left-over prime rib, but still nice), good bread, decent salad. I am getting to the age where I need to wear a pill box hat with flowers on it and John's grandmother's mink stole when I go to lunch because darn it waiters with chains and piercings are cute and all but a little unsettling as food handlers. The young piercee was in fact quite proficient and friendly, so I guess I just need to get with the times.

Once again, John made a stellar dinner, London broil, beautiful (greens, oranges, translucents) steamed veggies, oven-fried potatos (did you see the article in the NY Times about going organic? It recommends getting organic potatoes for sure. These were "from the box") a tossed salad, and organic Golden Delicious apples. We enjoyed a Blackstone Zinfandel, on the grape-y fruity side of red wine, and once again managed to finish an entire bottle with dinner. John says it is because we talk a lot. Perhaps so. Every day we are so fortunate: Today again, we heard of friends whose health is not good. We have our health and we eat well. What more is there?
Well, we could have our friends and family at the table too, that would complete the picture.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

First time on here, so I'll see if I can get it right.
We went to the Hanger for dinner. I had a burger and Lynn ordered chicken fettucini. Lynn's dinner was not good - the chicken wasn't cooked through (she sent it back), the noodles weren't done (not even aldente) and the sauce was runny. She's convinced she'll be barfing within the hour. Also, next to us was a party of about fifteen with a BUNCH of little kids. Yuppy parents, the type where anything the kid does IS JUST SO CUTE! Way too much screaming, crying, and running around - I wanted to drop-kick them into next week. Lynn couldn't stand it either, and chased down our waitress so we could get our check and get out of there. All in all, a lousy dinner. Although, my burger was decent....

Again with the salmon

Another perfect, perhaps even more perfect, grilled salmon dinner. RH Phillips Sauvignon blanc, Charlie Hadon and Hank Jones.

I am concerned about the folks in the burning CA zone: Should they migrate north? We have spare rooms, AND fresh winter king salmon. Alaska Airlines flies direct. Bring the dog, Coco loves company.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

King Salmon, Chinese Noodles, Leftovers and Cold Food

Winter King Salmon is one of those things, like Northern Lights, that make living here worthwhile.
The local spot prawns are right up there and so is King Crab when you can get it. As soon as I took the Salmon out of the package I could tell how good it was going to be. It was very firm and had lots of fat. With fish of that quality all you have to do is not screw it up. I marinated it in some lemon juice, garlic and herbs and then froze my ass off grilling it outside.

Last summer we had some visitors from the East Coast who commented that with all the fish we eat we must be getting a lot of whatever the hell it is that makes fish good for you. All I could think of was that nobody here eats fish because it is good for you, we eat it because it tastes good.

What I didn't notice was the price, really. I did see that it was $16.99 per pound and I momentarily forgot that my kids are not home so I ordered two fillets. Imagine my surprise when it was close to $50 when I got to the register. So Henry won't go college next year.

***

Sharon, whatever you call those noodles they sound great. I love udon. Now THAT stuff tastes like it's healthy. I bet I could eat a lot of that if I had the opportunity.

***

Leftovers. This is more complicated than it sounds. Some things, like Shepard's pie, and lasagna and stuff like that are just meant to be leftover. My experience is that the more complicated the preparation, the worse it is as a left over. If you just roast off a plain leg of lamb it's easy to convert that into something else. If you make stuffed leg of lamb with a pastry crust, well, that's what you are having the second time. And sometimes preparations like that do not reheat very well or will lose flavor, color and texture.


***

Cold food for Constance. Keith, my co-worker suggests "cigarettes and coca-cola" but I don't think that is what you had in mind. We usually have tortillas in our fridge and you could stuff them with cheese and cold cuts. Avocados might be nice, or guacamole. If you have peanut butter you could make spicy peanut sauce and eat it with raw veggies. Bread, cheese and wine is not a bad fall back position either. You can bulk that out with olives and nuts. If you get really desperate we will send you some smoked salmon.

Winter king salmon is sublime

John will give you the details, all I have to say is that if you have never had fresh winter king salmon, get on the plane now, we are having it again tonight. And if you have had it before, I know you are packing your bags. There is nothing more luscious, rich, wonderful. Particularly considering the weather that some poor fisher person was out in the day before yesterday in order to get this to the store, worth every penny....Grilled, with a tossed salad, some little green beans & mushrooms, and the ubiquitous crispy apples, Hogue Sauvignon Blanc. We are such fortunate people.
The conversation drifted into wondering about the state of the universe, and some old-fashioned self-righteousness, perfectly suited to being extraordinarily well-fed and feeling deserving of every bit of it. Quartetto Gelato playing Italian arias in the background. Ahhh.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Cooking interrupted.

We used to cook a lot. Honestly! Since Natalie came along, we typically only get to cook on the weekends. This past weekend, we made three notable things:

1. Nancy's kale soup! In our "box" or in our case, "bag" I noticed a big bunch of kale. Since Alec doesn't usually eat strange vegetables, such as kale, I thought we'd try the soup recipe. I didn't have arborio rice so I substituted jasmine rice. Instead of onions, we used the leeks from the "bag". Topped with some shaved parmesan cheese - it was delightful! Alec even liked it!

2. Chinese-style chicken and noodles. When my sisters and I write about Chinese things, we sound them out phonetically. So what I did with the chicken was a hong sao -- stewed with soy sauce, sugar, and a little wine. (sidebar - Natalie and I went to Whole Foods to find us some dinner for Sunday night. There was a huge palette of cleaned chicken thighs from Rosie's. It was such a steal at $12!) I was putting Natalie to sleep while Alec finished up the meal. As the chicken was cooking, he made some udon noodles. After the chicken had cooked through, he took them out and threw in the udon noodles and some green beans to finish cooking in the chicken juices. By the time I came down, dinner was ready! All of it together made for a super quick and yummy home cooked meal.

3. Shepherd's pie. Each Sunday, I attempt to cook something that will take us through to Wednesday night. So this week, it was Shepherd's pie. We had great potatoes in the "bag", pared with some petite pois, and a mix of "the ground turk" and some ground beef with some onions. Alec had it for dinner tonight and told me that it was more like deconstructed Shepherd's pie because nothing stuck together. I'm going to have to ask DeeDee how she used to make hers -- we have a hunch that her secret sauce is french onion soup!
Ren - I learned in my history class that the French eat people. Whats the best preparation youve had so far?

Le Deux Moulins

For my "history of feminism" class we have to read the Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, which is kind of like running uphill both ways in galeforce winds. To try and motivate ourselves, my friend Laura and I went to the Cafe des Deux Moulins (which you all know as the cafe where amelie worked in the movie) to eat good things and read. It's a fabulous little art deco explosion of a cafe and despite being a tourist destination, the prices are fairly spot-on. Happy hour starts at 7:00 and the drinks (even drinks whith champagne) €3.50! Unfortunately, no reading was accomplished, but we did make an important discovery: fondant au chocolat. It's like chocolate souffle and yummy. And then we had frites.

Tonight my host parents are going out so I'm eating a french microwave dinner. Which are actually really good. I'm going to have raviolis.

I think rabbit is in the near future, but there was pumpkin soup last night and that was yummy.

Sunday, Oct. 21

Ghastly weather again: Luckily the Lamb Stir fry was worth walking uphill through gale force winds both ways, if I do say so myself. Elliott, you missed out.
Sliced up the left over lamb and marinated it in rice wine (brought to us by a very nice Taiwanese Rotarian, it is in a big brown nifty jug) dark and light soy, sesame oil, with some cornstarch. Smashed up 6 cloves of garlic and a teaspoon of fresh ginger.
Sliced up some celery to add to the leftover Forbidden rice.
Sliced up some very crispy flavorful apples.
Sliced up the baby bok choy and a sweet onion into 1 inch squares.
Washed the lettuce. Cut one persimmon into small chunks and made a salad dressing with it in red wine vinegar, salt & pepper, and olive oil.
Sauteed the celery in a little butter, and added the rice, cover and let cook on low.
Sauteed the bok choy in a little peanut oil, while also, over high heat, cooking the onions in peanut oil in another pan. Add the garlic and ginger to the onions until they were fragrant, added the lamb and cooked until hot through, and the sauce had thickened. Not long. Add the bok choy to the lamb, toss the salad greens with the persimmons, light the candles and serve dinner.
There was a swell red wine from France, and John can tell you what it is. Ella fitzgerald's Cole Porter songbook in the background.
The we watched Red Green's movie Duct Tape, and we have now saved you 2 hours, you don't need to watch it. Sort of like Little Miss Sunshine but not particularly well done. In lamb that is a good thing. In movies, not so.

No Heat

Any suggestions for dinners sans gas or electric heating devices? The gas in my APT isn't being turned on till the end of the week...

Thanks!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Chef's salad, Pot Roast and Picky eaters

I love Chef salad. Any excuse to eat cold cuts, cheese and hard boiled eggs is alright with me. I suppose that my fondness for this goes back to the time when my father (alev shalom) used to take my brother and I to New York City for the weekend. He used to take us one at a time and we would go to shows, museums and to eat out. My recollection is that we had lunch in the basement of either the New York Hilton or the Waldorf and I ordered the Chef Salad. One of the cold cuts was something that I did not recognize but I seem to remember that I ate it anyway; odd being that I was a picky eater (see below). After I had finished it I asked the Old Man what it was and it was tongue. He also took me to a restaurant called the Hickory House which was the first place I remember eating London Broil. You can keep your filet mignon, give me a big pile of rare flank steak any day.

Besides being a picky eater I must have been an expensive eater as well. Years later my brother told me that when my dad was giving his version of one of those trips he was talking about some meal and the Old Man said "And Johnny had steak. Again."

***
Pot Roast and green beans are two controversial issues at our house. Nancy and I do them differently and each is convinced the other one does it wrong. My version has beer, stock, mustard, bay leaf, red wine, garlic, onions, stock, parsley, tobasco (or some hot sauce) and Worcestershire sauce. The first chef I worked for put tobasco and Worcestershire in almost all of his soups and stews so I do it too. This includes marinara and meat sauce for spaghetti. I didn't put carrots or celery in the pot roast that night because we had no carrots or celery in the house. I have started putting carrot juice in a lot of my sauces because it adds some sweetness and body but I don't like putting carrots in spaghetti sauce since they never cook completely and I don't like little hard bits of carrot with my pasta. This started when someone left us with a quart of carrot juice and I had to use it for something. I was making a big batch of meat sauce and thought "why not?".

Note to my children the other alternative of course would have been "Well then make CARROT SOUP!"

***
Picky eaters...

Nancy is being way too charitable about some of the folks that came to dinner last night.

I decided to cook lamb because it had been a long time since we have had it and I was pretty sure that one of the guests really liked it. Anything that can make Pete Bernstein happy is worth doing; he's aces with me. He was the one that said he didn't eat mushrooms but he did add "I can pick them out." and that's cool. They were chopped up so fine in the rice that you would have been hard pressed to pick them out but I think he ate it anyway.

Tom and Eva like their meat more well done than Nancy and I and that's cool also. What do they say in Paris, Ren? Chacun a son gout? I cut the lamb leg in three pieces so some could be more well done and the rest rare.

But when I put the lamb on the table one of the guests just looked up and said "I don't eat meat." It was not prefaced with "Gee I'm sorry..." or "I should have told you..." or anything else of that nature just "I don't eat meat." Well guess what? You are never invited back. I had had just enough Domaine du Mas Blanc Cosprons that I was too stunned to say anything but not so much that I went into a Chris Rock act.

Note to Alison, okay so the '01 was, according to Jerry, "a difficult vintage" but that wine is delicious.

Actually I did say something, I told him that the rice was made with chicken stock.

I got no beef (pun intended) about cooking for vegetarians, kosher folks or people with food allergies. Usually people who have dietary restrictions let you know in advance. Those that don't fall into might fall into three categories.

One, the stupid. When I was cooking at the Governor's house a woman came to lunch that was allergic to fish and didn't tell anyone. She told the staff and the ambulance crew "I thought if I just had a little it would be okay." This is the same kind of logic many noted Heroin users have employed.

Two, the incredibly polite and worldly. Two very good friends of ours are strict vegetarians and have been so for decades. When they come over or when we see them at others' houses there is no muss and no fuss. They eat what they can and realize that they have made a choice that not all cooks are accustomed to accommodating. They are both gracious and appreciative.

So I guess the third category is the unspeakably rude who don't really care that you have just been busting your ass for a couple of hours and that a small token of hospitality might be called for.

Let me know what you think and call ahead if you are allergic to carrot juice.

Some days you just do the best you can

Last night, following a fairly nice fall day over all, we'd invited an old friend, who'd called to say he and his mother were in town and would love to see us along with his young daughter, over for dinner, and included some other mutual friends and bona fide good dinner companions. John decided on lamb roast in a mushroom sauce, with, of all unseasonable but good for the global economy things, fresh asparagus, cheaper at A&P than at Costco, with a melange of tomato, eggplant, mushrooms, and garlic to dress it, and some Forbidden Rice pilaf made with chicken stock. The usual tossed green salad, and of course delicious fruit (Asian pears, apples, oranges). After work,I whipped together some dark chocolate M&M cookies (which came out crispy rather than soft. Dang). All was well, the candles were lit, the guest began to arrive. Uh oh, one person allergic to mushrooms. Uh oh, the guest of honor and mother both are vegetarians. Oh dear, perhaps the lamb was a little too perfectly medium rare for the well-done crowd.

So it was delicious if you eat that sort of stuff, and the toasted almonds with Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc as hors d'oeuvres, and the Marietta Old Vine, and the Bernard & Griffin Cabernet Sauvignon augmented the menu well.

The child played with Molly doll and her new Kit doll and ate cookies.

And we have a lot of perfectly done lamb left over for tonight, which works out well, since we're off to the symphony this afternoon. You should come by.

France Oct. 21

Still no internet chez moi, hoping it will be fixed tomorrow. I think
we're having rabbit tonight... I'll let you know how it goes. It's my
first time!

Saturday, October 20, 2007

October 19-extruded noodles

Good friends invited us over for dinner! They had received a case of Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon, and wanted to enjoy a bottle. They "whipped up" homemade pasta in their noodle extruder, found brand new at the thrift store, someone's idea of a swell wedding gift didn't quite make it, and two fabulous ragus, one with peppers and minced beef, and one with mushrooms and sausage, supposed to have steamed broccoli, which the husband who doesn't care for broccoli overlooked adding, tossed salad, and garlic bread. What a feast. Finished with dark chocolate for dessert. They have a swell view of out over the Channel, probably one of the best views in Juneau, it was a such a gorgeous day particularly in comparison to the day before. A frosty clear evening, well fed by good friends. Hope you are eating well too.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Pot roast

Yesterday the weather was classic October in Juneau: Buckets of torrential rain accompanied by high winds and general misery. Perfect pot roast weather. John made the pot roast, I think it was a wine-based one with potatoes, no carrots though and I didn't notice the celery, usually a point of contention in our individual approaches to pot roast (he is pro-celery, I am anti-celery). We invited Thad & Lynn over and had a swell time: Tossed green salad, those wonderful apples, and Kenwood Zinfandel rounded it out very nicely.

What did you have?

Thursday, October 18, 2007

10/17: Soup

John was in Ketchikan yesterday, so I was on my own in the kitchen with the two bunches of kale. I thought about this all day: There is a delicious and very easy escarole soup in one of the Marcella Hazan books. Really simple:
1) Wash the greens well, and cut out the stems. Then cut the leaves into ribbons.
2) Dice up some onion into smallish pieces, and sauté in a couple of tablespoons of butter on moderate heat. You want the onions to soften and get a hint of brownness, which adds a nice flavor.
3) thaw some chicken stock, if you are lucky to have a wonderful husband who stocks the freezer with stock regularly, or get a can of stock, or even you can use water and bouillon cubes. You need 5 -6 cups.
4) When the onions are golden, add the chopped greens and sauté them briefly (2 minutes) until they begin to wilt. Add 1/2 cup of the stock, cover and let cook on a gentle heat for about 15 -20 minutes.
In the meantime, wash up the breakfast dishes and cut up some fruit for dessert, in this case mango (from "The Box") flavored with orange zest and coarse black pepper.
5) Add 1/2 cup of rice, Arborio is good, the rest of the stock, cover and let simmer for another 20 minutes.
Set the table, put a load of wash in, clean and feed the fish. Grate some Parmesan cheese. Have a glass of J Lohr Arroyo Seco Chardonnay for an aperitif.
By now the rice is cooked and the greens tender. Ladle it into a bowl, top with cheese, and wish you were here! There's plenty left over, so come on by.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Chef Salad du jour

Last night, I had a late board meeting, so John made lovely individual chef's salads using up the remainder of the flank steak, with organic greens, carrots, cheese, eggs, and tossed in a basil dressing, with homemade "salad crunchies". We also had some really wonderful apples and oranges from "the box". Accompanied by Los Cardos Malbec, and for ambiance, the restful sound of the dog snoring. Wish you'd been here with us.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

today i had a red bull and tater tots for breakfast. it was delicious

Testing... one, two, three, crepe

Today I had a crepe with whipped cream in it (chantilly is the word in french, one of the most important words, I find) for a mere €2.50. How can you go wrong with that?
Lest anyone think that we agonize over recipes every night consider last night.

I decided to grill because while walking the dog it occurred to me that this might be the last night I might be able to grill outdoors for awhile. This ain't Redondo.

The reasons that we had flank steak were: There was no fresh salmon at the store. I like flank steak and it was on sale.

I could go on an on about marinades but I used mustard, red wine from a bottle that I had to take back from Costco because it had label damage and a bunch of stuff from little jars in the refridgerator. We have lots of condiments in little jars and any recipe where I can use up the last of something in a little jar makes room for something else. That is why the marinade had both black bean chili paste and damson plum jam. I poured all the stuff into a large zip lock bag, shook it and dropped the flank steak in.

The marinade procedure is similar to another famous DeCherney casserole recipe: empty refridgerator, mix with noodles, cover with cheese, bake.

We had butter nut squash because we had half of a giant one left and today we get our box of organic vegetables so it needed to be used. I also figured if I made squash it would postpone the inevitable day when I have to confront the kale and chard. Nancy's taste in vegetables is much more broad than mine and she likes the stuff. If it was up to me it would be either green beans, peas, carrots, asparagus and spinach day after day after day.

There was eggplant to use up and I sauteed it with capers because that eliminated another little jar and because it always reminds me of Steve Martin in "My Blue Heaven" when he is on the witness stand and talks about eggplant and capers.

Time to work...

JD

From the girl who doesn't cook

I was desperate and alone. I opened the cupboard and the black beans were staring at me, forcing my Catholic to guilt rise into my throat, they had been there awhile and I knew it. Out came the black beans. I opened them and drained them and suddenly we were one. MY beans poured into the skillet with a splash of oil. While I warmed them up I decided the salsa would make a lovely combination with the beans. After this process was completed I added some nice cheeses. The whole mess was then spooned into a soft taco shell. I truly blush when I admit that I opened a BAG of salad and added homemade dressing. Dinner for one was served. Jebby will have no part in my cooking and I don't blame him. Hunger allows me to be seduced into thinking I am creative, when I eat my own cooking I am snapped back into the reality that I need to search for other talents, like putting the car into forward and travelling to the nearest cheap restaurant.

I am Neesy D and cannot be near a kitchen.

Monday, October 15, 2007

France Oct. 12

I just went into the kitchen to see what was going on and she made this apple tart with these apples sliced sooooooo thin and layered on eachother with a puff pastry crust. Amazing!
And a roast turkey!

France Oct. 7

So I made an amazing discovery. CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE. Holy crap amazing. I can't wait to come home and make it. There's this great company here called Gü, you should look them up on the internet, they have a fun website. I got one of their mini chocolate souffles at MONOPRIX yesterday. They come in these adorable little glass pots and 35 seconds in the microwave later... AMAZING CHOCOLATE EXPERIENCE.

France Oct. 5


Bonjour tout le monde!
Today I walked 6.8 miles (roughly 11 km) from my house (58 boulevard des Batignolles) to Park Montsouris (1 Avenue Reille). You can google it if you want to. It was a good time. I walked past the Gare St. Lazare and went to the Galerie Lafayette grocery store which was not as awesome as the Bon Marche grocery store, but I found cool things nonetheless. Like Chimay blue for €1.60 a bottle, skippy peanut butter in darling containers, chocolate from everywhere you can imagine, a lot of cool teas, this great Nuttella snack that includes a beverage, nutella and dipping sticks all in one container (seperated of course). I'm thinking I need to buy some just because it's so funny. Then I wandered down the Avenue de l'Opera (the avenue that ends with that one famous opera. The one by that guy Garnier) The opera is being renovated and I found these caryatid (a caryatid is a column that happens to look like a beautiful women, usually scantilly dressed) lamps and it was funny because the women were tied to the lamp post, so I took a picture. Then I walked past the Palais Royale to figure out where the major shoot out happens in Charade. I think I found it, but I also found a nice garden. Then I walked through the Louvre courtyard and crossed the Seine. I'm attaching a picture of the Musee d'Orsay and in the background you can just barely see the top of the Eiffel tower. It was kind of foggy/smoggy today, so I thought it was an interesting picture. Then I walked down boulevard Raspail towards the park. I was interested in seeing the park because it was part of this great french movie that I like, called "Cléo de 5 à 7" (Cleo from 5 to 7). I found a lot of the places from the movie, which also happen to be very beautiful. I'll attach a picture or two. Then I sat down on a bench to watch the duckies (there was also a heron I think) and read some of "The Second Sex" which I have to read for a class. So I read for a little while, unfortunately this guy sat down next to me and after asking me what time it was (which I guess is a pick up line now? I swear, the men in this country *eye roll*) wouldn't stop badgering me so I left, which was fine because I was a little tired and wanted a crepe. So then I rode the bus all the way back and got a crepe with nutella. Very satisfying.

Tonight I'm going with two of my friends to the cafe of Amelie (the Cafe des Deux Moulins) which is deliciously art deco and pretty cheap, especially during "happy hour." The french have this wonderful thing called "happy hour" which of course they pronounce "appy our" and it means that drinks are cheaper. So we're going for drinks (I'm going to try a gin fizz) and dinner. Yum yum.

I hope that "tout va bien" in Juneau, I'm enjoying a moment of quiet because the granchild "darrius" is not here. This morning he was being very naughty and my host mother kept saying that he "faisait les bêtises" which means he was making like a beast (translated literally, but you get the idea). So he went running around shouting NO! a lot and wearing a handbag on his head and insisting that it was a hat.

À bientôt!
REN

France Sept. 30

the hotel did have little packets of nutella the next morning. Lots of driving in a big bus in small towns and small roads. We went to a winery that makes it's wine in these caves. I got a brochure for dad. It's called Vouvray. Then we had a tasting and we were all hungry so we were all drunk. They had us taste two sparkling wines, one made the traditional way and one made in a modern way. The modern one was very sticky and sweet. The traditional one was much crisper and actually tasted good. It was interesting. Overall I found their wines way to sweet. I also took lots of pictures for dad. I also got to see the bedroom and office of Catherine de Medici. She's kind of a big deal, right? I kid, I kid. They were in my favorite of the chateaux that we visited, the Chateau Chenonceau. I'll attach a photo.

Also, there was this cool ice cream cart with lids for the ice cream like in Charade when Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant walk along the seine. It was cool. The kitchen at one of the chateau was really cool, everything was made out of copper. I'll attach a photo. I'm also attaching a precious photo of yours truly imitating a gargoyle. We also went to this garden with all these modern mobiles/sculptures. There was one that made bubbles, which was very entertaining. And a giant hedge shaped like a bunny.

Monday, 10/15/07

Long day, came home to John grilling flank steak, with a tossed green salad full of basil and mixed greens, a baked buttered acorn squash, sauteed eggplant and Los Cardos Malbec. Ahhhh.

Tri tip

I don't know if I have ever cooked a tri tip. Even without looking on the web I knew that there is only one per cow and that it is a relatively new phenomenon in the stores. Everything that I read said that it can dry out very quickly unless you marinate it. I don't know why they don't say to braise it.

The mozzarella was very weird.

Last week there was a boat in town that had one of my favorite kinds of trefe; shrimp. Nine bucks a pound for fresh out of the water head off shrimp. I bought six pounds, we had it two days in a row over pasta and I froze the rest. My favorite recipe is to saute them in the skin in a cast iron skillet with olive oil. You season them with lemon and garlic and serve with some dipping sauce and finger bowls. Very mess but very tasty.

JD

I recognize the faces, but the name is....

Our Sunday dinner was a tad unfortunate...I tried a tri tip roast ( I'm not even remotely interested where on the cow this cut comes from) . It was somewhat tasty, but mostly dry. Chuck called it "brown meat". We had white asparagus and a Ceasar salad to go with it. A lovely "eau de tap" from Newport Beach finished off the meal!
Have you ever tried this cut of meat???

LY,MI

Dinner. Sunday, 10/14/07


John made excellent Eggplant Parmesean, although the mozarella (was it LOW FAT?) did not melt and get all oozy. Steamed broccoli, a tossed green salad, and really great apples. The wine: Huntington red of some sort, very rich and delicious.
What did you have?