Pineapple Vodka

There it is.  Resting for two weeks in a cool dark (slightly out of focus) place.  It’s the pineapple vodka.  One pound of chopped, fresh pineapple.  3 cups vodka.  Cool dark place for 2 weeks.  That’s the part that scares me.  Cool dark place?  Not refrigerator?  After a week, it looks OK, huh?  I keep thinking I’ll walk into the pantry and the top will have blown off and there will be putrid pineapple splattered all over my Le Crueset!  Pray for us.

Green Goddess

Have you been seeing references to this stuff more and more recently?  I mean, I go from age 10 to age 45 without hearing one word about Green Goddess salad dressing.  Suddenly, within the past few months, I’ve started to hear it mentioned more and more.  Is it just me?

First Anaheim of the Season

So, what do you think?  Does it look good enough to eat?  I suspect I probably will.  It’s the first beauty from my only pepper plant this year.  When we first moved into this house I had a great little vegetable garden.  But, in the end, it kind of stressed me out.  Summers here in Dallas are horrible.  The weeding and watering and watching things be scorched to death just turned into a bummer. 

This year, a few years later, I decided to plant a few things and just see what happened.  I decided on container gardening.  Some are small enough to move.  But, one of my husband’s friends owns a nursery.  So, we have a few big pots that are about waist-high tall.  They are great for veggies because you don’t have to get down on your hands and knees to pull weeds and the dogs can’t reach that high.  (if you catch my drift)  This year I decided on a survival of the fittest rule.  If you can’t make it, then adios.

I have four tomato plants, a couple of zucchini, a bunch of onions and one pepper plant.  I had a broccoli.  Here’s what became of it…

Grody, huh?  Anyway, they ate the entire plant.  Don’t know where they came from or where they went.  Right now, the plant is just a big stalk that needs to be pulled up.  Not the fittest, I guess.

Back to the peppers…  I tried one and they’re really tasty.  Not too hot, either.  You should have seen the tiny slice I sampled.  I’ve put peppers in my mouth that gave me the hiccups for an hour.  So, I’m really hesitant to jump right in.  A good whiff.  No tears.  Then I’ll taste it.

Yum!  Now, what do I cook?

Experiment in Phyllo

I’ve only worked with phyllo once before.  So, I totally expected this to be a disaster.  Much to my surprise, it worked out nicely!

 

Maybe I could have let them cook a little longer just to get a more golden brown.  They tasted great.  I took about 3/4 cup of whole milk ricotta, about 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, 1/2 cup crumbled Feta, an egg yolk, fresh basil and other herbs and mixed it all together, forming a thick paste.  That was my filling.  Then you brush a sheet of phyllo with melted butter.  Mine kept sticking together.  Basically, I could only separate two pieces together from the rest of the bundle.  So, when I say a sheet, I really mean two stuck together.  Then I put another sheet on top of the first and brushed it with butter.  Then, cut the sheet into 5 strips the short way.  Put about 1 teaspoon of the filling about an inch from the top and start folding like a flag.  It basically seals itself up like that.  Put the triangles on a greased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or so. 

They were so crispy and delicate when they were served warm from the oven.  I let them sit at room temp for a couple of hours just to see how well they would hold up for a party snack.  Excellent!  Still great little crunchy layers and a tasty cheese filling.  The only issue with them for finger food is that they’re almost too big and very flakey.  Might be better if you could just pop the whole thing in your mouth at once.  And maybe a little chopped up prosciutto or other meat would be a nice addition to the filling. 

Fun!

Italian Dinner for 10

After we returned from Rome last October, I became obsessed with Italian food and decided I was going to have a dinner party with several courses.  The idea would be that I would serve a course, what was left over went to the buffet and then the next course would be served.  I wanted a lot of passing of plates and getting up for more of this or that.  Lots of wine and conversation.  One of our friends does not eat red meat.  I took this into consideration, making sure she had something to enjoy with every course.  So, I invited 9 people and went to work on the menu.  I figured I wouldn’t actually sit at the table because I’d be in the kitchen for a large part of the meal. 

Suddenly it occurred to me.  I don’t have ten dining table chairs.  I only have eight matching dinner plates.  I don’t have more than three wine glasses that match.  Oh, damn.  Now what?  Luckily, my friends were all anxious to chip in.  I borrowed chairs and antipasti plates from one friend.  From another I borrowed dinner plates, silverware, wine glasses and a whole 8 hours of her time.  My friend Lori ended up being my sous chef and spent that Friday cooking with me and prepping everything we could for Saturday’s dinner.  What a life saver!  My banner photo is a picture of the table set ready for the antipasti.  Here was the menu…

Antipasti
Seafood Salad of Squid, Scallops, Shrimp and Mussels
Tomato Salsa Crudo
Marinated Fresh Mozzarella in Olive Oil and Garlic
Olives Stuffed with Sundried Tomatoes
Rosemary Bread
Blue Cheese and Pancetta Dip
Pesto
Fresh Heirloom Tomatoes and 25 Year Aged Balsamic
Breadsticks

Primo
Lasagna with Bolognese Sauce

Secondi
Whole Chicken Stuffed with Ground Beef and Parmesan
Sicilian Fish Stew
Braciole
(Rolled Stuffed Beef Scallopini with Prosciutto and Provolone in Tomato Sauce)

Contorno & Insalata
Boiled Rice with Mozzarella and Basil
Mixed Greens with Creamy Parmesan Dressing

Dolce
Zuppa Inglese Gelato
Cheese Tray with Honey and Pinenuts
(Manchego, Gorgonzola, Pecorino Romano & Taleggio)

 

My guests brought most of the wine.  I put a tub of ice filled with bottled water on the bar.  We ate for four hours.  It was a fabulous time for me because, thanks to my friend Lori’s help, I barely had to do anything but just serve the courses.  Almost everything was done ahead of time, which just goes to show that if you spend two months planning a dinner party it just might work out.  Even if you don’t have enough chairs or dishes or glasses or silverware…

Above:  A little rest and gearing up for the Secondi…

What Not to Eat

A little possum with your cat food?

(My husband was surprised to find these visitors camping out in the cat food the other day.  I think they were surprised to see him, too!)

Memorial Day Weekend Burgers

Besides the remembering part, this holiday weekend seems to be largely devoted to grilling.  You can smell it all up and down the street and it’s only Saturday.  We started today with burgers.  Ribs are in our future. 

I season the 85/15 percent patties with a couple of tablespoons of dry rub along with a few dashes of Worcestershire and Louisiana Hot Sauce.  We make third pound burgers at our house.  Somewhere along the way I learned that if you poke the patties several times on each side with your finger they won’t turn into tiny footballs when you grill them.  I don’t know why, but it really does help them hold their original shape.

 

Then Hub throws them on the Big Green Egg.  What happens in the yard is a mystery to me.  I will say that Hubbard loves that grill.  So much so, that he bought a second one last year. 

We like our burgers fairly well done.  I don’t like mushy hamburgers.  Hub thought these were a little overdone.  For me, if it isn’t burned or dried out I like it.  Look how pretty…

Some plain old, Mrs. Baird’s buns.  Some cheddar cheese.  Sliced tomatoes, chopped onion and mayo.  I like whole grain mustard on mine.  That’s about it for the burger.  Traditionally, we have Ranch Style beans and Lay’s Original Potato Chips.  Today, it was queso dip with sausage and tortilla chips.  Nothing wrong with a plain and simple burger.  You gotta love ‘em.

Here’s to a happy Memorial Day Weekend for us all. 

And don’t forget to remember…

Save the Date

Restaurant Week 2008

August 11-17

So Many Things…

Don’t you find that it is a combination of so many things that goes into making a terrific meal?  It’s not just the food.  It is the atmosphere.  The service.  Your companion(s).  The price. 

One of the top ten meals in my life was during Restaurant Week at Bijoux.  If you aren’t familiar with Restaurant Week, it is something I look forward to more than Christmas.  It benefits the North Texas Food Bank.  3 courses for $45.  More, if you have the wine pairings.  Still, very reasonable.  The minute I found out Bijoux was on the list last year, I sent out an email to a few friends and said I was making reservations that day.  One of our friends jumped on it within a few minutes.  I gave it a few minutes more.  No response from anyone else.  So, I called and made reservations for the four of us.  Within a couple of days, I believe, Bijoux was booked for the week. 

That meal was extremely memorable.  After a nice martini at the bar, we were seated.  Bijoux is a small venue.  Not York Street small.  But, close.  The decor is elegant, yet comfortable.  A storm rolled in.  While we made our dining decisions, rain started to patter against the windows.  I can remember the swirling pattern that the force of the wind made against the water on the glass.

The sommelier was perfect.  We don’t know a lot about wine except that we love it.  There were no wine pairings offered, as at some other spots during Restaurant Week.  So, despite my intimidation I had to ask the sommelier to decide for us.  He was so gracious and unpretentious.  He asked what we liked, what we were eating and what kind of range we would like to stay in price-wise.  When we chose a lesser price range he seemed very excited to tell us about the wine available and, in the end, made a suggestion that everyone enjoyed.  He served the wine.  He came back later to talk about it with us.  I was stunned.  Most people in his position, with the kind of wine he had to offer, wouldn’t have paid that much attention to us.  But, Bijoux is different.  Everything about Bijoux is consistently perfect. 

You don’t just have one waiter at Bijoux.  Everyone joins in to serve the tables.  And they are all equally talented at what they do.  The food was perfect.  (If you try Bijoux you’ll find out that I couldn’t describe the food well enough to do it justice.)  Little surprise bites in between the dishes we ordered made it particularly special.  We talked, watched the rain outside, ate and sipped our wine for what seemed like hours.  It was the kind of evening that left you feeling sublimely relaxed and sated.  What else could you ask for?

So, it’s not just the food that makes a meal great.  It’s feeling like it couldn’t be any better.  Feeling like you have had the kind of evening that only the most elite could experience.  Wonderful food, wine and friends.  Fabulous service and enchanting surprises.  That’s my kind of Disneyland.  And we never had to leave Dallas.   

Capitol Pub

It’s funny how you forget to mention a place that you go to all the time.  Capitol Pub on Henderson has become a regular spot for us on Sunday afternoons.  Ciudad was always our go-to place for brunch.  How can you argue with $1 Margaritas and fabulous food?  Sadly, it closed.  Monica’s Aca y Alla has $1 Margaritas and Monica.  Sadly, it does not have Ciudad’s food.  I’m not saying Monica’s Aca y Alla is bad.  Their brunch just can’t touch what Ciudad used to produce.  Monica’s is better for dinner.  So, even though we have to pay for our drinks, we’ve been hitting Capitol Pub. 

First of all, it has a great beer menu.  $4 Mojitos & Bloody Marys, $12 bottomless Mimosas during brunch.  The drink menu is a lot of fun and huge.  The service is good and usually interesting to look at, due to the abundance of tattoos and beautiful people.  Pretty amazing this last Sunday.   It’s fun to just sit and pass the time over a couple of beers.  We arrived starving.  I ordered the Eggs Benedict and a side of bacon.  Hub and our friend, Welch, ordered the Steak and Eggs, a steal at $10.50.  Eggs, the way you want them, breakfast potatoes and an 8 ounce hanger steak.  Major breakfast.  Hub and Welch woofed it down.  My Eggs Benedict was presented with two perfectly poached eggs, great sauce, thinly sliced Candian bacon over fresh English muffins, breakfast potatoes and about 5 pieces of crunchy, crisp bacon.  I didn’t even ask how much the side of bacon cost.  I had to have it.

We’ve been for burgers, too.  Big and juicy with terrific fries.  I think I enjoy the burgers there more than Hub because he accidently got the Cotswold cheese once and didn’t like it.  It leans to the blue side of cheese in flavor.  You know how that stuff can be when it’s just the tad bit over-ripe?  I think he had that kind  of experience.  I have not, though, and always liked the Cotswold.  They’ve also got a nice turkey sandwich with brie.  I’m a little thrown off by the color of the cranberry mayo.  But, the flavor is good and I got a killer cup of tomato soup.  I always hesitate to order soup in a bar because there’s nothing worse than bad, canned soup.  If that soup came out of a can I’d be stunned.  I wish my homemade tomato soup was that good.  Just a bit spicy and real vegetables.  I also consider it a bonus to have the choice of fries, soup or salad with a sandwich or burger.  Generally, in a pub, it’s hard to find any healthy choices.  I’m thinking there’s a real chef back there.  Not just some guy flipping burgers.  Too many good things went into this menu and everything I’ve eaten at Capitol Pub to call it simply “bar food”.

Capitol Pub has a pizza menu and other main courses, too.  I’m barely scraping the surface because it’s usually where I want to go for breakfast or a burger.  You should go.  I will warn that I’ve heard it’s smoky inside at night during the chillier months.  We have only gone recently and the doors have always been open, keeping it well venilated.  Plus, most people want to sit outside on the patio when it’s nice.  If it gets a little cool they light a fire in the wood-buring fireplace at the end of the patio. 

I like it.