Here I am!!!

I bet you’ve been wondering where I’ve been. At least I hope you’ve been wondering - I would hate to think I hadn’t been missed…

To tell you the truth, I’ve been bad…I snuck off to St. Louis and attended the 50th annual Midwest Magic Jubilee. Tony lectured and I helped host the hospitality suite. So what is a party full of magicians like? Well, you really have to be into two things 1) drinking and 2) magic. There is going to be plenty of both. We went through about six cases of beer, a couple bottles of wine, too many fifths of liquor to accurately count and tons of pop. All these liquids only served to lubricate throats and fuel discussions, gossip and tall tales. Magic parties tend to be pretty tame. Of course there was that one time when the German biker gang showed up…



Here is Whit Haydn. Whit is an old fashioned southern gentleman – some would call him a scoundrel, others would call him amusing…I fall into the later category. If you get a chance to see his show at the Magic Castle in LA, do it! For those of you who can’t get to the West Coast, here are some video clips from his website to tide you over.



Here is my souvenir from the convention: a donut.



It was sneezed from the nose of this man – Oscar Munoz. . I laughed every time he made a donut come out of his nose. Does that call into question my maturity level? Oscar hails from Texas and most of his performances are motivational shows aimed at elementary age kids. If your kid goes to school in Texas, there is a good chance Oscar has been to your school



And here are some of the members of the inner circle – those in the “know” so to speak.
From l to r: Mike Powers (a retired physics lecturer who now does magic professionally), Eric Grossman (bassist for K’s Choice), Jason Dean (a full time professional magician who tours with rock bands and performs in their green rooms), some pain in the butt kid who kept sneaking in, and my hubby Tony.

So what did I eat while I was away? Usually, I try to get out and eat at someplace new every time we visit a different city, but this time we were too busy. We stopped by our favorite Mexican place – Las Palmas. The food was great as always, and the service impeccable. I cannot say the same for the hotel restaurant (Hilton St. Louis Airport). The food was mediocre at best and the service was some of the worst I have ever received. I can only hope the convention organizers decide to change hotels next year.

On the way back, we stopped at the Blue Springs Café. It is a family style restaurant that specializes in “foot high pies”. While we were waiting on our lunch, two guys stopped in on their way to Chicago to pick up four pies to take back to the office. That made me really excited. The pies must be really good to make a special stop just for them.


The lunch menu has some good choices. I ordered meatloaf. It was nice – plentiful and moist, but fairly bland. The green beans were straight from a can without much flavor and the mashed potatoes and gravy were tasty but nothing special. I ate through the main course with the quickness so I could get to dessert: coconut meringue pie! I love coconut pie. A lot. I had seen the pies cooling on the counter as we came in, and all I could think about was pie. The pie came to the table…it was tall…it had height…it was a lot of meringue…over a pretty boring filling. I was crushed. The filling was just vanilla cream with a little coconut tossed in for texture. It was a tad too sweet when pared with an already sweet topping. The crust was a frozen food service crust – acceptable but not superlative. The search for the perfect pie goes on…

Once we got home, I had to see to the garden. When I left, it was being ravaged by disease and critters. Tate, my garden partner, had purchased a humane trap to try and capture our annoying neighbor, the groundhog. It has not worked. I am still finding half eaten tomatoes all over the yard. Bad groundhog! I’ll get you yet! As far as the diseases, they took out the monster zucchini and it is now starting in on my cucumbers. I pulled up the dying plants and had them carted away as biohazards.



On a more positive note, the hot peppers have been immune to any and all problems - boy, have they paid off in a big way.



I spent this afternoon making Agent Orange hot sauce from the 60 + habaneras that I picked this morning. The recipe came from this site run by Michael Stines. It was good – real good. It was hot – real hot. It made my nose run. It made the hubby hiccup. Then we went back for more. Yum!

So that’s it…it is not that I don’t love you all…but sometimes a gal just has to party!

Happy Birthday Julia!

In 1962, a woman walked onto the set of a WGBH interview with an omelet pan, a whisk, an apron, eggs and a hotplate. So began Julia Child’s career as a TV personality and guiding culinary light.

Personally, I remember watching Julia’s show as a kid – mesmerized by the different foods and cooking equipment that I never saw in my own home. Her passion, her personality made a whole foreign cuisine accessible to millions of people who kept a date with her every week. It was start of something exciting – the globalization of home cooking.

True, James Beard was the first TV celebrity chef, having starred in I Love To Eat back in 1946, but Julia, with her crazy hair, wobbly voice and wonky charm is the person that most people credit with being their TV cooking muse. I’ve mentioned before that Julia was definitely a “not ready for prime time” personality. There were no Hollywood good looks or family connections to get her started on the small screen – just Julia and her love of cooking. I like to think that if she were still here, she would be blogging with us too…

It was really difficult deciding what to make for Julia’s Birthday – my hubby was lobbying for either a) recreating Julia’s show with the giant lobster or b) pate. (He lobbies for pate on a regular basis, but until I work up some confidence, he is gonna have to settle for store bought!) I poured over her books, looked at my fridge and pantry – what the hell could I do that would be a fitting birthday present for one of the most influential people in my culinary experience?

Chocolate? Nah – Glenna over at A Fridge Full of Food already did that…plus I didn’t need any influence to love chocolate.
Salad Niçoise? Nah – did salad compose in an earlier blog…
Hollandaise? no….that wasn’t right either…
Finally it hit me! Julia was all about fresh food cooked correctly. I happened to have some very fresh eggs, a good pan and a hubby willing to eat anything for breakfast. Problem solved.

Here is my tribute: a simple omelet made according to the proper method. It was great. Moist and perfect. Another successful dish thanks to Julia.



Happy birthday, Julia. Thank you so much.

(For those of you who wish to make a Julia omelet, her handling is in Mastering the Art of French Cooking and also in The Way to Cook. The Way to Cook has great photos showing how everything should look as you proceed with the recipe. Check it out!)

Hongshuai Soy Sauce is people!!

Ok...take a gander at this!

Nasty!

Damn heat!

I have always been fairly lame when it comes to being a warm weather cook. When our side of the planet tilts away from the sun, I am at my best. Stews, soups, casseroles – if it sticks to your ribs, I can cook it! Summertime - I tend to stick to certain dishes – mostly grilled meats and corn on the cob. While I could eat corn on the cob every night of the week, the repetition gets boring for the rest of the family.

So in an effort to eat more veggies (i.e. use up the produce from the garden and the farmers' market before it goes bad), I decided to make a tuna salad. Not the mayo based, pickle relish containing, white bread filling of our child hood, but a composed salad, something fresh with a vinaigrette. I would say it was kind of like a salad nicoise but without potatoes and hard boiled eggs. Boiling potatoes and eggs would have meant turning on the stove in an already sweltering kitchen. This girl was just not into that!!

Twenty minutes of sweating and chopping later, voila! Rosie’s Salade Composée. I served this with bread and lemonade. After a few bites, I was a cool and composed as my salad. Sweet! Another summer triumph!


Rosie’s Salade Composée

6 cups of washed mixed greens (I used romaine and some spicy greens)
3 cucumbers, peeled, large dice
12 green onions, chopped
4 baby zucchini, sliced
1 banana pepper, cleaned and slivered
8-10 oil cured black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
2 medium tomatoes, large dice
1 large can of good quality tuna, drained
salt and pepper to taste

Dressing:

1 t Dijon mustard
3 T white wine vinegar (you can use tarragon infused vinegar if you like.)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small clove of garlic, finely minced or squished through a press
Salt and pepper to taste


Wash, clean and chop according to your preferences. Arrange the ingredients on chilled plates, lettuce first, then however strikes your fancy with the tuna on top.

To make the dressing: Squish garlic into a bowl, add the vinegar and mustard to the garlic. Whisk in oil slowly until emulsified. Drizzle over salad. You could top with some fresh chopped herbs if you like – tarragon and parsley are nice.






A side note: God as my witness, once we buy our own place, I am going to set up an outdoor kitchen where I can cook and not heat up the entire house. We have no AC in this apartment, so it kills us to do any advanced cooking indoors. Summer kitchens go back a long way, but when we invented AC, people didn’t need to worry about the heat generated, so we no longer saw any need for having a separate kitchen to do our cooking during the summer. Plus, the amount of food processing the average household does has been reduced to a minimum. I mean, how many people actually can 50+ quarts of tomatoes every summer?

I started thinking about an outdoor kitchen when my brother looked into buying a house built in 1865. It still had the original outbuilding that was used as the summer kitchen. So not only are we getting back in touch with an ancient tradition, we would be conserving energy at the same time. Maybe summer kitchens are an idea that deserves to be resurrected?

Turn up the lights...it's dim sum

It’s Saturday Morning. The offspring is gone to Kings Island for the day. The parental units rejoice. It means coffee and a newspaper in bed. It means Tony running around the house in his undies. And it means I can make wolf whistles without hearing the word “gross!!” from the peanut gallery.

Best of all, it mean that we get to go out for lunch and eat what ever we want. I had a hankering for dim sum. Lil’ bites of Chinese goodness. Tony and I used to eat dim sum every weekend (pre-baby) at a little restaurant down on Campus, but it has been long closed. A couple other places here in town claim to serve it, but generally it is frozen dumplings that are thawed and held until ordered. They are nasty, sticky and wholly unappetizing.



I love the internet though. I did a little search and came upon a review for Lee Garden Restaurant. The review was about three years old, but it promised dim sum seven days a week, until 1:30 am in the morning. So I gave the restaurant a ringy-dingy and sure enough – dim sum every day, but only until midnight. I guess you can’t ask for everything.

Located near Sawmill and 161, the restaurant is hidden around the side of a large strip mall. I had been driving by it for years and never known it was there. The inside was quite and dim, with several two and four tops filled and a large table twelve sitting in the middle of the dining room. Everyone seemed to really be enjoying their selves. Another point: everyone there except us was Asian. I guess it’s kinda like the rule about truckers eating at the good diners…

We were asked which menus we wanted to look at. It seems there are two or three specialty menus, including the dim sum menu, a Korean noodle menu, plus something else I can’t remember (Yeah, yeah I forgot to take notes. Sue me!) While the noodle menu looked good, the dim sum was what we came for.

Lee Garden does not have little carts that get wheeled around like some of the dim sum houses in the larger cities. Here in the sticks, you get to mark your choices on a badly copied paper menu and your dishes come out straight from the kitchen.

The first items to catch our attention were the chicken feet. Yes, I said chicken feet. Black Bean Chicken Feet, to be precise. Our waitress was impressed that we wanted to order the chicken feet. I think we shocked her by asking for them first. She asked incredulously “You like chicken feet?” For those of you who have never eaten the foot of a chicken, it is damn tasty. (Too good for any bird to walk on!) That’s about all it is though. It is salty, garlicky and has a gelatinous quality that makes you mouth happy as you eat it. Here is Tony proudly displaying his chopstick skills for your viewing pleasure. See? Doesn’t that look good?


My next favorite was boa. What’s a boa? No, it’s not something that showgirls wear around their neck. It is yeast raised bread that is stuffed with Chinese bbq pork and steamed. It makes the bread soft and moist, with a sweet/savory filling. See? They look like ‘lil white clouds in their steamer. Savory pillows of lusciousness. Isn’t that sweet?

Tony also ordered some black bean spare ribs. They are prepared in the same manner as the chicken feet: smother in a garlic black bean sauce and steamed. However, they are cut into tiny one inch pieces so they cook quickly. They are still chewy though, so it makes you work for your dinner.



Then we moved onto the stuffed dumplings: crystal buns, shiu mai, pork and shrimp dumplings and shrimp and scallop dumplings. All of these dished have finely minced fillings that are then wrapped in dough and steamed. Most are based on a wheat dough like those used to wrap egg rolls. However, the crystal buns and the shrimp and scallop dumplings are wrapped in rice dough that goes translucent when steamed. They almost seem gemlike with the pink and white of the seafood showing though their skins. That doesn’t stop me from sending them down the hatch however.



Now you can’t go to a new restaurant and just order the safe food you always order every place else you go. You have to ask your wait staff what they recommend. Having passed the chicken foot test, she started recommending items for us. Her chief recommendation was the Golden Shrimp Ball. At $3.95, it was one of the most expensive items on the dim sum menu. We said, “Bring it on!!” They looked weird. They were big and golden brown and um…messing looking. But being brave souls, we dived it. It was great. The coated turned out to be rice noodles that had been wrapped around a minced shrimp mixture and then deep fried. And the price was totally reasonable for the three balls that we got. Tony made some jokes about emasculated jumbo shrimp while we ate them.



I also ordered taro dumplings. The online review had recommended them. So I jumped in. They were weird. And not in a pleasant way. The filled was minced pork that had been coated in a taro paste and then deep fried. The outside was kinda crunchy and oily and the inside was slimy from the taro paste. Blech! I should have taken heed when the waitress asked, “you want taro dumplings?” with an odd look on her face.

So that’s it! Our dim sum adventure. We are definitely going back. It might even become a weekend ritual: ditching the kid for an adult feast once a month. However, once she reads this and finds out we know where to get chicken feet, I think the jig will be up!

Lee Garden Restaurant
2685 Federated Blvd
Columbus, OH 43235(614) 764-1525

Oh ye of little faith...

These pictures are for my two coworkers who did not believe me when I said zucchini could get really big. First, a photo of the zucchini monster with my lovely daughter Annie for reference.



And this is the baseball bat that I stubbed my toe on while harvesting the embryos of said monster for ummm..further research. This one had hidden under a leaf and was left to its own devices. I put it in Tate's harvest basket, to his great amusement. He even took it to a barbarque to show to his friends. Of course it wasn't edible at this size, but we definitely got some mileage out of it!

Behold the great cook!

Everything I do turns out perfect. My family raves and shouts “Brava! Brava!” at every meal. My coworkers swoon over my cookies and my friends beg for my lasagna. I am magnificent – perfection itself – the acme of home cookery!

And I also have some beach front property for sale in Florida if you are interested and a good deal on the Brooklyn Bridge to boot.

Every so often, I loose the ability to cook tasty food. I don’t know what it is – something in my brain just doesn’t connect and dinner will be a disaster. It will look fine – nothing burned, nothing raw –but the taste will be absolutely awful. A couple of years ago, I had a four day streak of cooking that was so bad, the hubby took us out to dinner for the rest of the week. He said I must have strained something and I needed to give it a chance to rest.

This last week, I decided I wanted to do a stir fry with some of the garden veggies and some surimi. I got out all the usual ingredients. I tossed them together using a formula that had worked before. Everything should have been fine – but it wasn’t.

We sat down to eat and Annie, the perpetually hungry teen, started shoving the food in her face and said “murphe murphsy murfh.” I took that to mean everything was great. Tony sat down and took a bite. The strangest look came over his face. He took another bite. Then he kinda shoved it around the plate like a five year old who was hoping the dog would come by to eat all his veggies. A couple minutes later, Annie went to get more milk and Tony looked at me and said, “This sucks. I can’t eat it.” Ah, my wonderful tactful hubby!

Thing is, I had to agree. The food wasn’t right. It was too – something or not enough of something else. I cannot describe to you what was wrong with it, but it tasted so odd that it was unpleasant to eat. Annie, on the other hand, kept on eating after pouring a huge dollop of sriracha sauce on it. Tony and I didn’t let out a peep. If she could eat it – more power to her!

About 20 minutes later I discovered we were almost out of milk and Tony graciously offered to drive me to the store. White Castles never tasted so good…

The Spice is Right IV: A Chili Summer

So as I am battling the monster zucchini into submission, Tate comes up and says, “Do we have any hot peppers?” I look up and say, “Tate, we have eleven pepper plants – what do you think?”

Being chili heads, Tate and I have more pepper plants that anything else in our garden. When we were planning a garden, the train of thought was – ok…what other veggies will go with habanero peppers? I even planted thyme so that I was prepared for jerked pork, that famous Caribbean scorcher.

Well, the scotch bonnet peppers are not quite ready yet – but I do have tons of Thai Basil and lots of “Thai” peppers and jalapenos – so Tate suggested Holy Basil Chicken. I hemmed and hawed. And then I hawed and hemmed. I had never eaten Holy Basil Chicken, much less cooked it before. I told him I would think about it. Then I got home and started reading Barbara’s blog. And what was it talking about? Chilies. And what trinity of flavors did she extol the virtues of? Thai Basil, Chilies and Lime. Dammit. It was a sign. I had to kill Tate…no…no…I had to make the Holy Basil chicken. No other choice. Fate had won. I hate it when that happens.

Scouring the internet, I researched recipes. Some were from Thailand, some were from Martha and some were just flotsam on the internet. I ended up taking the Thai recipe and modifying it so that I ended up with a recipe that used pantry items that I already had on hand. As I cooked up some jasmine rice to go with dinner, I tried to pretend I was sweating in the sweltering heat of Thailand and not in my tiny Ohio kitchen.

The chicken wasn’t just tasty – it was freaking awesome. No kidding. I saw the hubby licking his bowl and asking for seconds. He was too late. Our daughter had already snuck into the kitchen and devoured what was left.

The family has already extracted the promise that we will have it again for dinner next week. I think I will try it with fresh ground pork instead of chicken. So maybe Fate was on my side for once…hmmmm…time to buy that lottery ticket I guess…

Rosie’s Ohio Valley Holy Basil Chicken

2-3 Tbs. peanut oil for stir-frying
10-12 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup diced onion
1 lb. boneless chicken thighs, coarsely chopped
6 Thai chilies and 6 jalapeño peppers, sliced into thin slivers
Juice of one small lime
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon. fish sauce
1 cup fresh Thai basil
Dash of ground pepper

Prepare the ingredients as instructed. Leave the fresh basil leaves whole.

Heat a wok until its surface is smoking hot. Swirl in the oil to coat the wok surface. Wait a few seconds for the oil to heat, and then stir in the garlic, followed a few seconds later with the onion. Stir another 15 to 20 seconds before adding the chicken. Stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes, or until most of the chicken has changed color on the outside and is no longer pink.

Toss in the chilies. Sprinkle soy sauce over the mixture and stir-fry for another 15 to 20 seconds. Season to taste with fish sauce, then stir in the fresh basil. Toss well. Stir-fry another 1/2 to 1 minute, or until the basil is wilted and the chicken cooked through. Sprinkle with pepper and lime juice to taste.

Arghhhhhhhh!!!! We're being invaded!

When you first plant your garden, all the plants that come up look so innocent and cute, their little leaves poking their way though the newly tilled soil. You water, you weed , you fertilize – and then you notice – what the hell is that?




Here is my zucchini. I had no idea it was going to get this big! Tate is scared that it will start crying “Feed me Seymour!” and come through the window for him one night. Now I know why my dad never grew the damn things. He was afraid they would eat the neighborhood pets.

I also have a new garden neighbor. I have not seen him, but here is his new home under the shed. Note that he has put out his garbage for collection. Tate claims it is a ground hog. I say it is a wayward zucchini bent on world conquest. Either way, I am keeping my eye peeled.


I have also been picking green beans. Lots and lots of green beans. Damn tasty. Tony is the official bean snapper. A good hubby knows his place. He also peels potatoes and apples. If you do not have your own well trained hubby, I could rent him out for a reasonable rate. However, you must not under any circumstances allow him to watch ESPN, feed him hot dogs or nachos, or let him drink caffeine after midnight. Bad, bad, bad.



And lastly: My favorite veggie dish this week!

French Potato Salad with Dijon and Herbs

There is no picture. It was eaten far too fast to pose for the paparazzi. I added some green beans that I cooked with the potatoes. I will be making this again. Definitely. Maybe next time I can fend off the wolves long enough for a picture.

More Eatin' on the Road

As far as I know, there are no Cuban restaurants in Columbus. (The last Cuban I saw in Columbus was Ricky Ricardo.) I may be wrong. I hope not. There are days I would gladly slit someone’s throat for a Cuban sandwich.

What does this have to do with Las Vegas - a location that is 2157 miles away from Cuba? A couple of years ago, I saw someone eating a Cuban sandwich on TV. I told my hubby I really, really wanted to try one..someday we would have to head down to Florida and hit the eateries down there. The next week we left for Vegas along with our daughter. Upon arrival, Annie came down with a bad stomach flu and I was confined to the hotel taking care of her… (Don’t get all cranky…Tony was filming an instructional video! It was a working vacation.) After a long day of filming, Tony came back with a white bag…I peeked inside..and it was a Cuban Sandwich! In Vegas!! It was great! I loved it!

This time when we got to Vegas, I forbid anyone getting ill. I was not going to miss out on eating at Cuba Café. Once again, the restaurant was located in a small strip mall, tastefully decorated in faux-adobe on the outside. Inside, however, was a small space brightly decorated with pictures and craft from Cuba.

We were meeting several friends there for lunch, and I don’t think the staff was quite prepared for a party of eight at one in the afternoon. It took some time to get our drinks and the lone waitress looked extremely stressed. The menu was fairly simple. I chose to get Ropa Veija. The meat was tender without being stringy, and the peppers and onions stood out in the dish without being overpowering. It was served with a dish called Moors and Christians which was black beans and white rice. I know that I need to learn to make this dish at home.


Tony and Annie had Camarones Enchilado. The dish came with four u-20 shrimp covered in a rich tomato sauce. It was supposed to be spicy, but even Annie said it was very mild. While it was good, they both questioned the $18.00 cost for the plate of food they received.


Jay, one of the magic guys from Vegas, was sitting next to me and ordered Arroz Con Mariscos. It looked great and he said he enjoyed it.



I finished up with a flan which was good but not the best I have eaten. We ordered a couple of Cuban sandwiches to go. They were still great, but I don’t think that I would go back for just the food. It was good, but not good enough to justify the prices. I know, I know, Vegas is a long way from the ocean and everything has to be shipped in, but I am essentially a skinflint when it comes to eating in restaurants. If I know that I could buy the ingredients for a fraction of the cost and make it at home, I have to ask myself is the cost of eating out really worth it. Of course this was on vacation, but I felt that my money would have been better spent elsewhere.

The last meal of the vacation was pizza. “OMG!” I heard you scream. “You are in Vegas and you are eating pizza!” This was not just any pizza, it was Metro Pizza. We stopped in at about 2 pm on a Thursday afternoon and the place was packed. We were hanging out with a few magicians who had stayed over from the convention and wanted something casual that would suite everyone’s tastes. So, pizza it was!

First we ordered the anti-pasta platter. I got up to go the restroom and it came while I was gone. This is all that was left when I got back. Ravenous wild beasts! I am gonna learn to hold it until I get my share next time. What was left was great and I stole a couple bites of the fresh mozzarella off of Tony’s plate.



When you look at the menu, Metro serves all kinds of pizza: stuffed Chicago style, New York style – plus they also serve a 30” pizza for parties! But the older I get the more I look for simplicity in my slice of pie so I order pizza margarita. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a very crisp dough, covered with a light smear of tomato sauce, and topped with fresh mozzarella and basil. The pie is usually fired in a wood burning oven. It is one of those dishes, when done right, is heaven. This pie was done right. I was in pizza heaven.



Tony and the gang order a large Gotham - a thick crust pizza with lots of meat and veggies. Generally, I dislike green peppers on pizza. They usually burn before the pie is done and they taste like crap. This pie was great as well – the veggies were cooked through but not burned, the crust was done to perfection.




I now have to learn how to make pizza margarita at home – time to pull out that pizza stone Tony bought me ten years ago and have another try…

Overall, we had a great time in Vegas. I can’t say all the food I ate there was great, but I survived without have to resort to pharmaceuticals. It’s the little things you appreciate as you get older I guess.

Gettin' My Kicks!

So, while all of you were innocently getting up in the morning, pouring caffeine into your tired overworked bodies and heading out the door to work…I snuck away to LAS VEGAS!!!

Tony and I were attending a convention full of professional magicians. Magicians love doing three things – eating, drinking and talking. Besides magic, that is. I saw some really great performances. (If you are a magician, drop me a line and I’ll hook you up with all the dirty details!)

The one thing I will say about Vegas is that I ate too much and slept too little. The time difference always kills me when we head out West, so when we finally landed, we were famished. We checked into our hotel, made our hellos and then headed out to eat at Sushi-mon.

Tony and I had read about Sushi-mon online when doing research on Vegas eats. All you can eat sushi? We were rather skeptical. What kind of quality would you get at an all you can eat place? Pre-made sushi like you would find at the grocery store? Our friend Max, who lives in Vegas, swore to us it was not only was it edible but damn excellent.

Braving Max’s driving skills, we headed off to sushi heaven. Well that is what we hoped for anyway…The store is located in one of the millions of mock adobe strip malls that adorn the desert landscape. When we pulled up, the joint was packed. We hung out and watched folks packing in the food, both at tables and the sushi bar. There were at least five sushi chefs working at the time.



After about 45 minutes, a table opened up and we were seated. Max immediately ordered some miso soup and seaweed salad (excellent, by the way) for all of us, while we looked over the extensive menu. The rules run like this: the fee is $25 per hour per person. You must eat everything you order, or you will be charged full menu price for the items left on your plates.

The menu was huge –not only did they have a full selection of nigri but dozens of specialty rolls as well. We just started ordering tons of different stuff. Max recommended the 911 roll. I think Max just wanted to see if we really liked spicy food as much as we said we did… Boy howdy – was it spicy! But damn good…



We also got a Chubby roll…there were some not so thinly veiled jokes made at the hubby’s expense.


The one item that really caught my attention though was the tempura squid. It was perfect. Light batter, the squid still tender…hmmmmm my mouth is watering now..dammit….


Just when we thought we couldn’t eat another bite, the waitress brought out tempura ice cream. Yes, it is a Japanese version of deep fried ice cream like you would get at Chi Chi’s when you were a kid…but so much better…

We then waddled back to the hotel and collapsed. So – I guess all you can eat sushi can be good…I figure it is not as good as what you would get in Tokyo, but it was a far sight better than what you can get in Columbus. Verdict: Sushi-mon will definitely be on my itinerary the next time we decide to motor West…

Stay tuned for more updates as they become available....

We the people...

Before you read this entry, you need to read this first.

I’ll wait.

Done?

What the hell? Why is the federal government deciding it has to play big brother when it comes to our eating habits?

Yes, yes…it’s all "in our best interests". The same as with other invasions of our privacy like the so-called “Patriot” Act. Tap our phones – regulate what foods we can buy and eat – it all infringes on our individual right to do what we please without other people butting into our business.

I stand by the notion that the government who governs best is the one who governs least. Am I not over eighteen? That makes me an adult who is supposed to be allowed to make decisions concerning my own business without interference from others.

The health police have gone too far already with city wide smoking bans. The individual owners of businesses should have the right to decide whether their establishments are smoking or not and patrons should have the right to choose whether to frequent establishments that allow smoking. If non-smokers choose not to frequent an establishment because of the owner’s policy, that’s natural selection. The success or failure of the business would be in the hands of the owner, not in the hand of the government.

Now, how long before the government decides that we, as adults, needs to have our hands held when it comes to our eating habits? Are they going to regulate what we eat? One city has already banned foie gras. The views of a few individuals are now making government policy for the many. That is wrong. That infringes on my right to pursuit of happiness. If you don’t like foie gras, if you don’t like how it is produced – simple solution: don’t eat it. That is your right as an individual – but don’t you dare tell me what I can and can’t do.

All I can say is: Commies! Actually, this is more socialistic behavior – but if we are a socialist country, we are piss poor at it. The government wants to tell us how to run our lives, yet we have excessively expensive private health insurance and retirement benefits.

So my message to the government: Stay out of my business! I am an adult and I will make the decisions here! If I choose to eat fatty foods and smoke like a stack, if I choose to disregard your “advise” – then so be it. There isn’t a damn thing you can do. You ain’t my mama.

I am now off my soap box.

Thank you for your support.

Book Cookin'

I went to the main library downtown last week. It is cookbook heaven. Aisles and aisles of nothing but food related volumes. It's amazing how all those authors feel that they have valuable input on the subject. True, food is one of the few common denominators we all have. Everyone has to eat, and everyone wants to eat well. Write a book about it - you have a built-in market. You are bound to get your share.

That being said - a lady recently sent me a cookbook to review. (Yeah I am willing to prostitute myself for my art - are you?) The book is "I Want My Dinner Now!" by Renee Pottle and is published by Hestia's Hearth Publishing and Design. The book is 144 pages long and is soft bound (aka paperback). It retails for $12.95 and can be purchased from their homepage or from Amazon.

While the cover touts this tome to be “Simple Meals for Busy Cooks”, it is really a beginner’s cookbook. It covers basic cooking tasks such as how to boil an egg or cook bacon. There are also pantry lists, discussions on basic spices and some unusual ingredients the average American may not be familiar with. The one thing that I thought was missing was a discussion of basic kitchen ware. If I am not familiar with cooking, how am I going to know what pots and pans to buy? Sure, you can buy a big set, but who needs a tiny skillet if you are feeding a family of six? (On the other hand, if you have a family of six, you are probably concentrating on something other than cooking.)

The recipes are fairly basic as well. While there are recipes such as Vegetable Curry and Paella, the recipes have been altered to fit American palates and pantries. For example, the Vegetable Curry calls for sour cream to be stirred in at the end. There is a heavy use of canned goods and dried herbs as befits a book that extols the virtues of a well stocked pantry. The one thing I found really disturbing is the use of dried garlic and onion in lot of the recipes. It only takes a couple minutes to peel and chop some onion and garlic, and those items are things that I was taught to always keep in my pantry. Plus, basic knife skills are always a good thing to practice. Just ask Jason Vorhees.

I do like how the recipes are formatted. Each one has measurements for 2 and 6 people. If you need to cook for 4 - just double the ingredients for 2 servings. Each recipe also spells out a grocery list, what items should be in your pantry and what you will have to buy at the store. It makes it easy to plan a week's worth of meals while leafing through the book.

So in all fairness, I should make something from the book to test it out. Problem is, most of the recipes held no real appeal for me. As an established cook, I have a repertoire of recipes and my dishes have been honed to meet my family's tastes and my cooking style. I just don't use canned mushrooms. Bleck. And I definitely don't put sour cream in my quick potato and chickpea curry. So I decided to let a member of my kitchen posse, Debbie, take a whack at producing some of these recipes.

Debbie chose to make Better Than a Burger Meatloaf. The description of the recipe says “The version of our favorite comfort food includes all the usual burger trimmings". I would amend that to say "everything but lettuce." I hear it doesn't do well in the oven.

When I was growing up – my mom would say to me, “Why don’t you like meatloaf? It’s just like a hamburger, but baked instead.” Well, my mom’s burgers were pretty dry and tasteless, and her meatloaf even worse. The title of the recipe did not really instill a whole bunch of confidence in me, but I trusted Debbie’s judgment.

There was my first mistake. Did I mention Debbie could cook? She does, and rather well at that. That is a problem though. An experienced cook can’t help but toss in a little of this and a little of that, improving and experimenting along the way. Debbie’s first attempt at the meatloaf was really good. But it wasn’t the recipe in the book.





Feeling a little guilty, Debbie made the recipe again the following week. This time she followed the recipe exactly. The recipe ended up rather bland and the texture was dry. Most meatloaf recipes call for some type of vegetation, such as onions, that will exude moisture into the mix as it cooks and help replace the fat lost during baking. I mean it wasn’t as bad as my mom’s meatloaf (nothing could be that bad), but it wasn’t all that great either.

If I were a student in college or a widower just learning how to cook, I would have been impressed with my first attempt at meatloaf following the recipe. But as an experienced cook, it left a lot to be desired. Of course, top anything with enough ketchup…

Over all, "I Want My Dinner Now!" is a good book for a novice cook. It contains basic recipes with easy to follow instructions, ingredient lists and variable serving sizes. Will it be coming off of my cookbook shelf any time soon? Nope, but that is because I am experienced cook, not because the cookbook is bad. However, when my daughter goes off to college in three years, this book will find its way into her household, because she is going to need all the help she can get.

P.S. I have attached a pdf of the recipe to this review so that you can see the formatting of the book as well as the recipe.

P.P.S. The side dish that Debbie made to go with the meatloaf was peas and artichokes from a Greek cookbook her sister in Chicago gave her. It was fantastic. I will have to wrestle the recipe from her soon...

Amuse this!

Ok - I tend to be a pretty down to earth gal. I tend to call ‘em like I see ‘em and sometimes – just occasionally- I get tired of all the hoity toity terms used in food circles.

Take my most recent pet peeve – amuse bouche. I was over at The Restaurant Widow’s joint. She talked about the wonderful radishes she got and how she paired them up with bread and butter to make an amuse bouche. Ya know – when I was growing up – that was called a pre-dinner snack. It’s the kind of thing my mom would give to the starving children so they wouldn’t waste away before dinner hit the table in twenty minutes.

If I were dining at the French Laundry – I might expect to get something called an amuse bouche. Hell, for $210 per person, it should be a freaking hysterical bouche. It better be a “front row seat at my favorite comedien” bouche or “The kid in 5th grade who always made me laugh so hard milk shot out my nose” bouche.

Next thing ya know - they will be offering amuse bouche at your local Mickey D’s. I mean they got oranges and fresh soy beans in their new salads – why not grab onto a new buzzword as well. “Hello, Welcome to McDonald’s. Would you like to try one of our new McBouches?”

So, to keep my taste buds amused, I am pleased to say that I have been snacking on fresh radishes from the garden – pretty damn tasty. Plus some fresh baby spinach…that I am going to use in a pasta dish tomorrow night – I might even post pictures if it tickles my fancy.

Tonight, however, I decided to warp a recipe from Bourdain’s book – Frisee aux Lardons. (It’s ok for me to use French words here – it’s a French dish.) Basically, it is what my mom would have called a wilted salad, which she adored. It takes frisee – more commonly know as curly endive - and tosses it with crispy fried bacon bit and shallots, and topped off with chicken liver vinaigrette that has been warmed in the same skillet that was used to fry the bacon. It is served with toasted baguette rounds smeared with a nice strong blue cheese. Excuse me – bleu cheese.

Not having chicken liver vinaigrette hanging around the kitchen, Mr. Bourdain will have to forgive me for substituting in a nice red wine vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette instead. I also added two poached eggs on top (having picked up some fresh eggs from the farmer’s market this morning) which mixed nicely with the bitter greens and vinaigrette. Pared with a crusty roll, it was an awesome dinner. And my mouth was laughing all the way.

Rosie’s Frisee aux Lardon (or Wilted Salad with Bacon and Eggs)

Two medium heads of curly endive or frisee
Half pound of bacon, cut into coarse dice
½ cup of thinly sliced sweet onion
¾ cup red wine vinaigrette (homemade using the basic ratio 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 oil)
4 eggs, poached

Clean the endive. Wash well and tear into bite size pieces. Dry and place into large bowl. Add the thinly sliced onions to the bowl.

Brown off the bacon until crisp. Put aside. Do not sample while making rest of recipe. Drain all but two tablespoons of bacon fat from the pan. Add the vinaigrette to the pan and bring to a boil. Take off heat and immediately pour hot dressing over salad. Toss to distribute evenly.

Divide the salad into serving bowls and top with bacon.

Poach eggs over simmering water. Remove from pan with slotted spoon and allow to drain before placing on salad. Top with salt and freshly grated pepper.

To Eat: Break eggs and mix with dressing before eating. Use crusty bread to wipe up last of dressing.

So - watcha doing?

Well, I have tons of half finished entries and a serious lack of time. After giving me my dream schedule for a whole two weeks, my manager asked me to switch to one that would work better for the other person in my department – effectively killing a new series of columns I was going to write. Damn damn damn.

Next, I have been working on my garden. A friend of a friend called me up last February and said, “Will you help me plant a garden this spring? My yard looks really empty. I think it’s a nesting instinct or something.” I will tell you, starting a garden from scratch is one of those things – that if you knew just how much work it was going to involve – you would just as soon tell the person who suggested the idea to go to hell. Being ignorant, I said, “Sure!”

How much work was it you ask? Well, let’s just say that when I had to get a hatchet to take out the 5” diameter tree roots, I knew I was in over my head.

Now that all the prep work has been done, it’s not too bad. I planted green beans, hot pepper plants, tomatoes, herbs, spinach and a few more misc. tasty treats. I just finished pulling up radishes. They are good – but I want tomatoes now dammit!! Salsa, fried egg and tomato sandwiches – hell, just fresh off the vine. Who do I have to kill for a ripe tomato!!??

Here is a picture of some of my plants – exciting isn’t it?! They are all...ummm….green and stuff…

So while I have been “working hard”, I do still find time to read other people’s blogs. My favorite post of late is on Cuban Bread from Raspil over at Bluecad. I am sorry that her archive of posts recently disappeared - as she had some great step by step instructions on things like veal stock and ummmm – how to make porn bread - and a lot of other interesting things.

Another bit of interesting news and then I will let you go back to wandering the net aimlessly - I recently auctioned off my chocolate cheesecake for the March of Dimes fundraiser at work. My cake has become legendary among the staff and a bidding war ensued. The final tally: Forty greenback to help ‘lil tiny babies. The gal who lost out at the last minute was kinda upset at being outbid, so I told her I would make her one too, provided she matched the winning bid. So forty more dollars for the lil babies!! Overall - our staff of 22 people raised just over $2,000.00. Sorry there isn’t a picture of the cheesecake, but they disappeared in less time than it took me to make them. Next year, I will hire guards to keep the pack of hungry scavengers at bay until I can get my camera out!

So cross your fingers for me - I want to make some tasty food for my buddies this weekend. I just invested in an electric griddle and the world has become a cornicopia of wonderful junk food I can make for my friends ...

Triple Threat - TSIR #2

I recently met a gentleman who was appalled that I had eaten very little from my ethnic food background when growing up. My mother was of Polish decent and my father’s family was German. However, most of the foods that I ate were very middle of the road “American”. Bean soup, meatloaf, pot roast, liver and onions…you know, all the stuff that most people eat every time they pull their chair up to the dinner table. (Well maybe not the liver – I hated the liver, but loved the gravy…but more on that another time…)

By and large, traditional American cooking uses ginger, cinnamon and anise as “sweet” spices. Cookies, cakes and breads – they reflect a certain Northern European sensibility that demands that every spice be kept in it proper place. My house was no different. My mom would have blanched at using cinnamon in a meat sauce or allspice in a barbeque rub… Those spices are for sweet stuff! Heresy!

I will never forget the first time I had cinnamon is a savory dish. When I was a kid, I accidentally grabbed a tin of cinnamon out of the cupboard and sprinkled it over my over easy eggs instead of black pepper. The rule in my house was - you make it, you eat it. With Mom standing over my shoulder, I had to follow the rule. It was freakin’ nasty. I do not recommend it.

Since I have moved out into the wide world, my palate has expanded quite a bit. Indian, Ethiopian, Moroccan – you name it, I like eating it. And being the culinary heretic that I am, the use of “sweet” spices in a savory dish doesn’t bother me in the least. Sorry Mom!

So that being said, my pick for TSIR #2: Sweet or Savory is Cinnamon Beef. I had this dish in Vegas a few years ago, and fell in love with the flavor combination. It is a variation on a “red-cooked” dish from China that combines cinnamon, ginger and anise (“sweet” spices from my childhood) with soy sauce, chilies, garlic and onion to make a melting rich meat sauce to be served over noodles topped with sautéed spinach. Every so often I get an immense craving for the dish. This time, Barbara woke up my taste buds when she posted this event. All I could think of was this dish – yummy! Thanks Barabara!

So here you have it: Cinnamon Beef. The best thing about this dish is that it tastes better every time you heat it up. It freezes well too – if you have any left!

Cinnamon Beef Noodles

6 Servings

1 teaspoon safflower or corn oil

Chile-Cinnamon Seasonings:

6 scallions, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2-inch sections, and smashed lightly with the flat side of a knife

6 cloves garlic, peeled, smashed lightly with the flat side of a cleaver, and thinly sliced

4 slices fresh ginger (about the size of a quarter), smashed lightly with the flat side of a knife

1 1/2 teaspoons hot chile paste

2 cinnamon sticks

1 small piece star anise

8 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 pounds chuck or beef stew meat, trimmed of fat and gristle, and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes

10-ounces spinach, trimmed, rinsed, and drained

1/2 pound flat Chinese wheat-flour noodles, udon, or other flat noodles, such as fettuccine, cooked until just tender, rinsed under warm water, and drained

3 tablespoons minced scallions

1. Heat a large pot or casserole over medium-high heat. Add the oil and heat until hot, about 30 seconds. Add the chile-cinnamon seasonings and stir-fry until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add the water and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Add the beef and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, or until the beef is very tender. Skim the surface to remove any impurities or fat. Remove the ginger slices, anise and cinnamon sticks and discard. Sauté spinach briefly in a small amount of oil with some garlic, until wilted.

2. Divide the noodles among six soup bowls. Ladle the meat and broth over the noodles and top with the sautéed spinach. Sprinkle with the scallions. Serve.

I've been canonized!

A lady customer told my boss that I was a saint. I think she mistook exhaustion for patience and understanding. I just stared and smiled the whole fourty five minutes I was dealing with her - as coma patients often will. The weekend cannot get here fast enough...

BTW I got roped into having a home decorating party - don't think I mentioned that before - if I did, sorry. The gals from work and I are going to drink sangria and look at craptastic crap made in China. It looks like the stuff my elderly aunt used to have in her house. I am going to ask the sales lady if they have any display cases for my Hellraiser figures. I think I will bring them for show and tell. There - take that, you blackmailing bitch! I think I am going to have a hangover this Sunday morning too.

Dinner last night? Long John Silver's. I've hit the bottom of the barrel. Did I eat it? Hell yes. There is some tasty stuff in the bottom of that barrel.

Bitch bitch bitch, moan moan moan. Yes I do feel better. Thank you.

Me? Busy? Nah...

So it is now Wednesday Morning - I have 27 hours racked up at work as of 8pm last night. While my paycheck will look great, it means I have been eating whatever can come out of the fridge and into my mouth with a minimum of effort. Yummmmmm leftover roast beef sandwiches...

IMBB - what's that? Oh yeah - another opportunity missed dammit.

With any luck, I will be footloose and fancy free this coming Friday so I can tempt you with my favorite foods...

And a big thanks to fluffygurl for saying I was one of her favorite food blogs.

See ya all later!

Slackin' as usual

Ok – instead of going to my favorite secret place to eat this past week, I went to La Porte, Indiana instead. What is in La Porte, Indiana? Every year a friend of ours has a house party with a live band and a couple of kegs. Everyone attending reverted to about 1/3 of their true age and has a great time. This year the cops even showed up asking us to keep it down. Woohoo! Old people rock!

Here is our friend Mike (in the middle) playing with his band. I do not have any incrimating photos of him the next morning. No really, Mike - I don't. Honest. Well maybe just one....


I also cooked breakfast the following day, since there is no place that will feed twenty hung over people on a Sunday morning in La Porte. Did I take pictures of this grand feast? Hell no – I was busy turning flapjacks, cooking bacon and making coffee. And we went through a lot of coffee.

So a word of advice – four pounds of bacon, five dozen eggs, thirty pancakes and two pounds of coffee is not enough for twenty people with hangovers. Buy more. Lots more.

One of the best things about traveling the same route every year is that we get to eat at tiny places that no one has ever heard about. I am not talking about a hot new chef or food that is stacked up in little pyramids – this is gas station food.

See, in big cities, gas stations really don’t have much in the way of tasty food. When you get out in the boonies, gas stations usually double as a restaurant for the masses. No Micky D’s in your town? Head on down to JP’s Carry Out and get yourself a pizza or some fine broasted chicken! Wait - need something for that man sized appetite? Try a pork fritter sandwich!


Basically, it is a piece of pork loin, pounded thin, breaded and deep fried. Serve it up on a bun with all the fixins and it is a damn fine lunch break for a weary traveler. The one I ate this time-the pork was the size of a small plate. Hmmmmmmmmmmm…too bad I only get it once a year.


In other junk food news, I picked up twenty 2-liters of Kosher Coke. For those of us in the know, it is the yearly chance to buy mass quantities of our favorite beverage made with REAL SUGAR. Yes, no high fructose corn syrup in this product. Does it make a difference - you bet your sweet bippy it does! The cola is less viscous and has a cleaner finish on the palate. IT is just like Coke used to be. Don’t believe me? Check out this recording from NPR.

I am thinking of making my own syrups - I love ginger beer and it is hard as heck to find a brand that I like. My grandfather and his brother-in-law used to run a soda bottling works out of an outbuilding at ye olde family abode. I still have one of the original bottles and a business card. So it runs in the blood. If you want it done right - do it yourself!


Well, maybe this week I will settle down and stop teasing you with my wonderful food finds - time to get back in the kitchen and start cooking!

You can't have none! Its mine!

There are things you can afford to share with people because there is a lot of it to go around. If you make a big batch of cookies, you are probably willing to share. On the other hand, your sister comes back from France and brings you some creations from La Maison du Chocolat - are you gonna share those with the gals from work? Hell no! You hubby will be lucky if he even gets to sniff the empty box. That what I mean when I talk about things you are willing to share and things you are not.

Take McDonald’s - no one really shares the Golden Arches. They do just fine on their own. And what about that restaurant that serves great waffles just around the corner? Sure, you might be willing to share that with your friends and relatives. (Do not share with that creepy guy at work - don't ever tell him anything! He probably keeps a file on you at home.)

But what if you know that by sharing, you would cut into the availability of the goodies? Personally, I will usually keep those places to myself. Am I being selfish? Damn tootin’. By and large, the owners aren’t hurting, but they only make a small amount of goods every day and if you spill the beans, you KNOW you won’t get your part.

So today, I am going to be generous and share something with you. That means even if a ton of people stampede over to the store and buy up everything the shop owner has, she will have plenty for me when I roll out of bed at a leisurely 10 am and wander over to the store. If this were not the case, you would have to insert bamboo under my nails to get me to talk - and even that might not work!

See this?

That is a picture of one of the best cinnamon rolls I have ever eaten. The texture of the pastry is moist with just a little bit of chew, the cinnamon is balanced: not so strong that it overwhelms you, but not so subtle that you forget what you are eating. The topping is crunchy and sweet without the cloying, overly sweet icing most rolls seem to feature these days. Cinnabons? Fuey! Get thee behind me, Crap!

My hubby took one bite from his roll and made me go back and buy more – all for him. I realized if I wanted more – I would have to fight him for it. (The doctor says that the stitches will come out next week!)

This sexy creature came from Amy Lozier of Omega Artisan Baking in the North Market. You remember her from the last post. Not only were her cinnamon rolls to die for, her bread rocked as well. So get off your duff, into your car and down to the North Market. Tell her Rosie sent ya!

Here is one more sexy closeup for the road.

Next time - no more Mrs. Nice Rosie. I will talk about the best place to eat that I won’t share with you.