The place is pretty small but very well appointed.  I really liked the look of it.  Lots of natural light.  You order at the register and then they bring the food to the table.  You decide if you want a single, double, etc…  then the toppings come at an additional cost.  I think lettuce and tomato comes with it.  There’s a list of additional toppings.  You can get wine and beer.  Our order consisted of a cheeseburger with grilled onion and bacon, an order of the housemade potato chips with homemade carmelized onion dip and a grilled cheese with bacon and tomato.  We also got a beer and a glass of Savignon Blanc.  It was about $35.  Not horrible.  But, not cheap either.

Hub ordered his burger pink.  The choices were pink and well done.  He thought that maybe his burger was a bit more on the red side when it arrived.  But, he did think it tasted great, though it was messy.  I didn’t confirm, but the rolls look like those fabulous Empire Bakery buns.  He said he would order it next time with less stuff.  My bite was delicious.

The grilled cheese was good.  Could have been a little more melted.  But, the bacon and tomato really made it a meal.  Yummy.  The star of the show was the house made potato chips.  Really good.  I like blue cheese, but we really didn’t need it.  The dipping sauce, a basic French onion dip, was perfect.  I could go for some right now.  They should make a bigger deal of the chips.  The only reason I knew about them was that someone mentioned them on a blog.

I’m ready to check it out again.  Then, maybe go across the street to The Elbow Room for a drink at the bar.  Or have some knives sharpened at Viega!

I cracked open the squash.  Since I’d never cooked a butternut squash before, more less a six dollar organic butternut squash, I took a little nibble of it raw.  Nothing.  I tossed a piece to the floor to see if the dog would eat it.  No dice.  It tasted like nice, fresh, organic nothing.  Maybe the roasting would help.

I will say that it smelled considerably better after the roasting.  I had rubbed the cut side of each half with olive oil, salt & pepper and roasted it for 45 mintues at 400.  Still didn’t taste like a whole lot.

I medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped

Saute in a soup pot with olive oil and a little salt until tender.  Add 2 cloves of minced garlic and cook for a minute or two more.  Scoop the squash flesh into the pot.  Add four cups of chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover the pot and simmer for 30 minutes or so.

From here you take it off the heat.  Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, thinning it with up to 2 cups more chicken broth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Taste.  That’s kind of the problem here.  The most potent flavor in almost six cups of soup was 2 cloves of garlic.  That’s not a lot of flavor.

All of this is supposed to be pumped up by two teaspoons of chipotle chopped.  I used chipotle puree and put a lot more than two teaspoons.  It didn’t taste like much.  I added a Mexican spice blend that’s heavy on the cumin.  A little more garlic.  Salt.

It was OK.   The addition of the blob of sour cream with chipotle mixed in was nice.  It was still and exercise in blandness.  If you like bland or if you feel that you can jazz this up sufficiently to make it really good, then do make this soup.  It’s got to be pretty good for you, right?  It’s basically nothing but vegetables.  But, frankly, V8 has more flavor.

To this…?

Thankgiving.  We brined and smoked our turkey.  And last night it was delicious on a turkey pizza.  Started with an olive oil and garlic base with a little crushed red pepper.  Topped it with hunks of smoked turkey, little blobs of stuffing, spoonfuls of truffled mashed potatoes and some green been casserole scattered around.  (Yes, with the crunchy fried onions from a can!)  When it came out of the oven we drizzled it with giblet gravy and added a little bit of cranberry sauce here and there.

Thanksgiving by the slice.  Not too bad!

Now that I’ve stopped worrying about following the recipe I find that I make something that is really what gumbo is all about.  A huge pot of too much soup grown out of everything you have on hand.  It’s a great way to use up those ingredients that you are worried about going south because you can just throw them all in the same pot and simmer the hell out of them.

Today’s gumbo has about 3 cups of a beef broth that I made last weekend.  You know, the gelatinous kind of stuff when it gets cold?  It’ll give the overall broth more body and silkiness.   I’m adding a chicken and clam broth mixture to the beef broth to make enough liquid for the soup.  (Is it soup or stew?)

A while back I bought a bag of flounder filets from Whole Foods.  They were all individually packaged inside the bag.  For some reason I never got inspired and they’ve been in the freezer a while.  They’re going into the gumbo.  I’m adding them in big pieces, in hopes that they’ll hold together for a minute or two.  Ultimately, they’ll flake up into the soup.  Nothing wrong with that.  It’s gumbo.

Same thing with a few smoked linguesa sausages.  Been in the freezer a while.  They’ll be good in the gumbo, too.  Oh, and the leftover pork sausages we had for dinner the day before yesterday.  Going in.  Portabella mushrooms.  I don’t even remember why I bought them.  Diced green onions with wilted tops removed.  All of that is in the pot.

What did I buy?  Red and green bell peppers and some shrimp.  I bought some skinless, bonesless chicken thighs that I thought I would use, as well. But, I’m not so sure it’s needed.  I might hold on to those for dinner tomorrow.  Wonder what I could do with those…

Damn.  I forgot about that hunk of salmon I have thawed in the fridge.  What do you think?  Broil it and serve it as a pure flavor along side the gumbo?  Somehow… that doesn’t sound too bad to me.  With light salad?

Plus everythiing but the onions in a food processor until crumbly. Toss mixture with the onions in a bowl and set aside.

Beans and Sauce:
2 pounds green beans, ends trimmed and halved
3 Tablespoons butter
1 pound white button mushrooms, cleaned and broken into 1/2 inch pieces
3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed (about 1 Tablespoon)
black pepper
3 Tablespooons flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Preheat oven to 435. Cook beans in salted water (2 T salt) until bright green and crisp tender, about 6 minutes. Drain beans and put them into a bowl of ice and water to stop the cooking. Drain beans and spread them on paper towels to dry off a little.

Put butter in the empty bean pot over med-high heat. Add mushrooms, garlic 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Cook mushrooms until they release their moisture and the liquid evaporates, about 6 mins. Stir in flour and cook for a minute stirring constantly. Add broth and bring to a simmer, still stirring. Stir in cream and reduce heat to medium. Simmer about 6 minutes until sauce has thickened and reduced to about 3 1/2 cups Season with salt and pepper.

Add grean beans to sauce and stir to coat evenly. Put in a 3 quart casserole or 9 by 13 inch baking dish. Top with onion bread mixture. Bake until bubbly around the edges, about 15 minutes.

This is spicy Parmesan Italian sausage from Hirsch’s Meats.  Very tasty.  Spoon it out of the pan and saute onions, carrot and celery.

Start the sauce… includes ground beef, tomato sauce, wine, pureed tomatoes and salt & pepper.

Cook for about an hour and then add the sausage back into the sauce along with chopped parsley.

Mix ziti with the meat sauce.

Butter a large casserole and add half the pasta mixture.

Add half the bechamel sauce that I forgot to mention you’ve already made.

Add the rest of the pasta mixture.  Top with mozzarella and Parmesan.  Bake.

Scoop out the goodness and eat.

Later, wash all the dishes!

Yes, I’m bragging on my husband.  And the fun of having a good stand-by meal that you can feed your friends.  Strangers love chicken fried steak, too.  We make ours with a Paul Prudhomme gravy.  In his book, “Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Seasoned America”, Chef does his take on traditional American food.  You know, Cuban Stew and Oklahoma Honey Wings?  That kind of American food.  We fell in love with the spicy gravy from that book’s Chicken Fried Steak recipe.

Think about it.  When was the last you time you had a homemade chicken fried steak?  With charro beans and mashed potatoes and gravy?  Homemade bread on the side.  Butter.  Tell me that’s not good.

I have always been this huge fan of Restaurant Week.  And I mean it.  Like “fan” as in “fanatic”.  I believe in the good that it does for the North Texas Food Bank and I think it’s a great way to go all out.  Discover new food.  New styles.  New wines and dining rooms.  I’ve always felt liberated by Restaurant Week.  $35 for three courses in some of the best restaurants in town?  What’s wrong with that?

This year, I was unenthusiastic.  I always like to try new places during this time.  I’ve been to most of them on the list now.  Go back to one of last year’s winners maybe?  Then I thought, why not go to one of the places I already love?  I know The Grape is my kind of place.  When I saw their RW menu I decided I couldn’t miss it.  The chef, Brian Luscher, came out to say hi before the meal.  The food was fantastic.  Everyone around us seemed to be having a great time.

Chef explained that he liked Restaurant Week.  It showed.  The menu was loaded with intriguing choices.  The wines were fantastic.  And everyone in the room seemed to be genuinely glad to be there, including the people who were working.  Sound like a typical RW story?  Hell, no.  People bitch like crazy about RW.  Yet, there they are.  Making the reservations and hoping they’ll have a great evening. 

The Grape felt just like it has every time I’ve ever been there.  Because it’s a great place.  Intimate.  Wonderful food.  Amazing happy hour.  Good people.  If you just relax and say yes, you’ll always come back.

Future sauce…