Blog Tartare

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2010-08-06T11:45:00.001-04:00

Blog Tartare can now be found over on Tumblr. Please join us there!

Another blog recommendation

2010-04-17T12:45:00.003-04:00

Speaking of the Dining Popitos, I have to mention that my soon-to-be second cousin-in-law (I think) Angie also has a food blog, Glutîre. Like Amanda, Angie focuses on vegan cooking, but don't let that turn you off. I doubt you'd kick her
Pistachio-Ginger-Crusted Sweet Potato with Green Curry Sauce out of bed!

Dragon King's Daughter

2010-04-17T10:50:00.007-04:00

Neil has a lot of family members, and the other day I started working on a family tree for both our families so I could try to get a handle on some of his extended relations. If you take a look right here you can see the tree starting with Albert Andriot, Neil's great-grandfather, also known as Pop.

When Neil's great-aunt Betty passed away a few months ago, the funeral turned out to be a bit of a family reunion, and it was decided that everybody should start trying to get together for dinner once a month. In honor of Pop, the Andriot family patriarch, the group named itself the Dining Popitos (which people keep accidentally calling the Flying Popitos, which is awesome).

The Dining Popitos met this week at Dragon King's Daughter. This place is owned by the same folks as my beloved Maido, but it's very different, with a lot of fusiony stuff; there's sushi, but also sushi-inspired pizzas and tacos, as well as a variety of other Asian-flavored small plates. (Although I haven't had it, I love the fact that there's a tako taco.)

Neil and I had been to Dragon King's Daughter twice before, and the last time the service was pretty bad. Not so bad that I refused to return, as I did with Third Avenue Cafe for almost two years, but bad enough to put me off of the place a little bit. Still, I was excited when it was announced that this was the Dining Popitos' selection for April, and I looked forward to trying it again.

I want to love Dragon King's Daughter the way I love Maido, but the fact is, it's just pretty good. The food is tasty, but it doesn't totally blow my mind, and the service is friendly but remains inattentive.

We started with some edamame, which is more or less the same wherever you get it, and that was fine. Next we had tuna tataki (which we didn't photograph until we'd already dug into it):

Slightly seared ahi tuna slices on a bed of fresh organic spring mix, served with Hawaiian pink salt, avocado-wasabi and fried garlic chips.

Neil didn't care for the fried garlic chips, assessing them as "just little bits of burned garlic," but I did. I actually thought this whole thing was pretty divine; the tuna was fresh and perfectly seared, and the avocado-wasabi mixture was a nice complement, although it could have used some more wasabi. I was a little sad we had to share this with the rest of the table.

Next up was a sushi roll, Sushi and the Banshees. Neil didn't email me a photo of this, so I'll have to check with him later and see if he has one. Cream cheese, garlic, avocado inside... salmon and basil outside. This was just okay. I thought the basil was an interesting flavor to encounter in a sushi roll, but there was a little too much cream cheese and it overwhelmed the roll's other components.

Then we had the unagi pizza:

Unagi, avocado, scrambled eggs and cheese—topped with unagi sauce.

In the last, oh, six months or so, I have realized that I am totally batshit in love with unagi. I remember trying it and not liking it at some point, and I didn't eat it for years. But then I tried it again and it totally rocked my world. I admit that I was a little unsure about the scrambled eggs and cheese on this pizza, but the idea of an unagi pizza was too compelling for me not to try it. So we did. Neil really liked it, but for me the flavors just didn't work together very well. The baked avocado was especially off-putting; I would have preferred for that to be added after the fact.

We ended the meal with a tempura fried Snickers bar with red bean ice cream. Yes, really.

What can you even say about a tempura fried Snickers bar? It's a fun novelty of a dessert, not orgasmically delicious, but worth trying at least once.

We also had tastes of a few things that other people were eating, and I especially liked the wasabi salsa: Fresh wasabi, diced tomato , avocado, mango, jalapeños, red onions, garlic, cilantro and lime juice mixed together and served with fried wonton chips. The wonton chips were outstanding, although for something with wasabi in the name, the salsa didn't have much of a kick to it.

Our server was friendly (and didn't make condescending comments about our beer choices the way our server did the last time we were there), but he disappeared for long stretches of time, and we had to wait quite a while before he came back to take our dessert orders.

Overall, I like Dragon King's Daughter, and I think to a big extent it just requires some tolerance for trial and error; I won't order the unagi pizza again, but I know from previous visits that I like the sashimi pizza. The tuna tataki was a big hit, and I could totally make meal out of that and some salsa and wontons. I'm also looking forward to trying their happy hour; that sounds like just the thing for the band of food- and booze-loving freelancers I hang out with. (The best thing about freelancing is - by far - drinking beer with my self-employed friends while the rest of you poor suckers are at work. Too bad I'm about to give all that up this fall so I can go back to school and become a social worker!)

Anyway, Dragon King's Daughter, final verdict: Try it. You might like it!

Blog Recommendation

2010-04-12T13:34:00.004-04:00

My friend Amanda started a blog called Happy Introvert a while back. While I was very excited when she announced this because she is an awesome person and a great writer, I forgot to add it to my Google Reader and then I forgot about it entirely. Oops! Fortunately, she just tweeted about her latest entry, and I re-remembered the blog (and immediately subscribed to the RSS). And man! Amanda has been busy! Although Happy Introvert isn't strictly a food blog, she does a lot of posts (with lots of photos!) about vegan cooking. And even though I'm not vegan, I'm all about reducing my intake of animal products, so I'm totally interested in these yummy-sounding recipes. You should check her out!

2010-04-11T10:00:00.004-04:00

I had been hearing really great buzz about the Comfy Cow for a few months, so a couple weeks ago I finally ventured out to Westport Village with my friend Eric to sample their handmade ice cream. I had a scoop of white chocolate coconut almond in a cone, and it was amazing. I came home and told Neil about it and asked him if he would accompany back to the Comfy Cow in near future for A Monkey's Delight, the Comfy Cow rendition of a banana split.

I am a banana split fiend. I have been ever since I was a kid and my grandpa would take me to the Ice Cream Factory (RIP) after movies at the Village 8. I'm pretty sure the Ice Cream Factory's banana split was called the Roller Coaster, and it was exactly as a traditional banana split should be; served in an oblong glass dish, scoops of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry nestled between two banana halves, each scoop covered in the appropriate topping. And for purists, there are definitely appropriate toppings: chocolate sauce on the chocolate scoop, strawberries on the strawberry scoop, and pineapple on the vanilla scoop. Three liberal dollops of whipped cream follow each topping, along with a sprinkling of nuts, and each mound of deliciousness is crowned with a cherry. That is the consummate banana split.

A Monkey's Delight bends the rules a little bit.

Our Signature “Strawberry” Fields Forever, Chocolate and Vanilla ice creams loaded with homemade strawberry, marshmallow and chocolate toppings, then covered with thick, rich whipped cream, chopped peanuts and maraschino cherries... All this nestled within a large, ripe banana.

And it doesn't come in the traditional banana split dish, simply because it won't fit:

I will admit that while the marshmallow topping was good, I still prefer pineapple. But that is a small quibble. This was a damned good banana split. I really appreciate the fact that they make all their toppings there; there was none of that weird fakey chemical taste you get with cut-rate banana splits from the likes of Dairy Queen. (And seriously, how can a place called Dairy Queen not even have ice cream? Or at least more than one flavor of soft serve? Ridiculous.) Now it is true that all this homemade deliciousness is going to cost you; with tax A Monkey's Delight came to $11 and change. But you get what you pay for, and A Monkey's Delight is definitely worth the splurge. I imagine most other things at the Comfy Cow are, too.

The only thing that marred our visit - and this is really not a criticism of the Comfy Cow, more just a feminist rant that marginally even belongs in this blog - was one obnoxious young male employee, who was loudly lecturing his young female coworkers about rape. "Seventy-five percent of women in the US have been raped," he said. Uh, no. "I encourage all women to take self-defense classes."

"I encourage all men to stop raping women," I replied to Neil. Seriously, kid! Go take a women's studies class and shut up so I can enjoy my ice cream!

Delicious Summer Sandwiches

2010-04-06T21:31:00.003-04:00

We're having quite a heatwave here in Louisville, and I feel like I've been kind of fast-forwarded into summer (which is fine with me!). The weather put me in the mood for these delicious grilled veggie sandwiches. We didn't feel like messing with the real grill, so we just slapped the veggies on the George Foreman. It's nothing fancy, but the lemon garlic mayonnaise with the feta is a great combination. I'm looking forward to making these throughout the summer, especially with veggies from the farmers market and/or my own garden!

Edible Louisville

2010-04-05T15:04:00.004-04:00

This morning I noticed a strange and interesting new magazine on the coffee table. Edible Louisville, read the title, Celebrating the Pleasure of Local Food and Beverage. I gave it a cursory flip-through, as I was getting ready to leave, and I liked what I saw.

"Hey," I said to Neil as we were having lunch at Lunch Today, "where did that Edible Louisville magazine come from?"

"Oh yeah! I got that at Heine Brothers. The cover says it's $5.95, but it was free."

It turns out that this is the latest publication from Edible Communities, which publishes similar magazines in cities across the country. And this isn't any bush league magazine, either; the design and photography look great, and it's edited by long-time Courier-Journal food editor Sarah Fritschner. This first issue contains a feature on Capriole goat cheese, gardening commentary from Jeneen Wiche, and a reprinted Wendell Berry essay. Good stuff! I'm assuming that Neil got this for free because it was the first issue, and that going forward the $5.95 cover price will be in effect, but I think I might be willing to cough up $32 for a six-issue subscription.

Tangentially related: The magazine has a little blurb about Butcher's Finest beef, which is available at ValuMarket. I had noticed that ValuMarket was carrying fresh (as opposed to frozen) local beef and had been looking forward to trying it, but this blurb, which had a definite promotional tone, turned me off. "All beef... is born and raised for its first few months on grass at participating farms throughout the state. The cattle are then shipped to the Midwest for fattening and finishing. After processing, the beef is shipped back to Kentucky." Is it just me, or does it seem totally ridiculous for anyone to call this local? My whole reason for eating local meat is to avoid the use of fossil fuels for transporting the animals/meat and to avoid the inhumane conditions and environmental problems associated with feedlots. As far as I can tell, the only way that Butcher's Finest differs from regular factory farming is that the cattle are born in Kentucky and then returned to Kentucky to be eaten. So what? I call bullshit on this whole thing.

California (and Oregon) Dreamin'

2010-02-02T20:28:00.002-05:00

So Neil and I are finally getting married this May. I'm very excited about the wedding, but I'm perhaps even more excited about the honeymoon. We're spending four days in San Francisco and then driving up the coast into Oregon, staying at little seaside motels and enjoying the gorgeous beaches and forests. In true Erin and Neil style the trip is shaping up to be quite food-centric, and I'm wondering if we might have to extend the San Francisco portion of the trip a bit to fit in all our eating. Here's what we have planned so far:

Foreign Cinema - A former classmate told me about this place at my 10-year high school reunion last summer, and I immediately wanted to go there. It sounds both fun and delicious!

The Rogue Ales Public House - We are both huge fans of Rogue beers (mmmm, Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout), and while the food sounds like average pub grub, it will be a blast to go somewhere with all those great beers on tap. And it's only a mile from our hotel. :)

Cowgirl Creamery - This creamery's Mt. Tam cheese is one of my very favorites, and it so happens that the first time I had it was the night that Neil proposed to me at L&N. In fact, it may be the cheese that my mouth was full of the moment he popped the question. I am super psyched about touring the creamery and sampling their other cheeses!

Chez Panisse - I'm a big fan of Alice Waters and have been quite excited about going to Chez Panisse, but looking over online review just now, a not-unsubstantial number of people seem to think that it's over-hyped, overpriced, and not very good. Perhaps we'll just do lunch there.

Those are our big plans so far. I am still researching our possibilities for amazing sushi, and I'm also looking forward to trying little hole-in-the-wall ethnic places. And we haven't yet made plans for winery visits, although those will definitely be part of the trip.

I feel very fortunate to be marrying someone who is an adventurous, passionate eater. Our honeymoon will definitely be a celebration of our love for each other and our mutual love of food. <3

An Interesting Wine Event

2009-11-01T22:47:00.002-05:00

A couple days ago I got a note from John Bojanowski at Clos du Gravillas. This native Louisvillian has been living in southern France for the last 11 years growing grapes and making organic wines alongside his French wife Nicole. This week John will return to Louisville, along with some wines that will be making their Louisville debut. It sounds like some good stuff is coming out of Clos du Gravillas and this might be worth checking out!

Clos du Gravillas Wine Pouring
Friday, November 6 5:00-7:00 pm
Liquor Barn Springhurst
4301 Towne Center Drive
Louisville, KY 40241

Ramsi's Sunday Brunch

2009-10-11T13:34:00.002-04:00

People! Did you know about this? I've actually known about for quite some time, since Michelle over at Consuming Louisville blogged about it. But the fact is, despite her glowing review, I was reluctant to try it. I used to eat at Ramsi's a lot, but a combination of weird/bad service, irritating menu changes, and mediocre food added up over time and we stopped going there. But Neil's mom and her partner wanted to take us out today to celebrate my birthday, and there are only a handful of restaurants they really like, including Ramsi's. So we decided to try the brunch.

OMG! This is vegetarian/vegan paradise (although there's plenty for meat-eaters, too). I can't begin to tell you everything that I had, let alone everything that's on the buffet. Here's a sampling:

- Scrambled eggs
- Tofu scramble
- Bacon and sausage
- Spinach alfredo eggs benedict
- Vegan huevos rancheros
- Vegan biscuits and gravy (!!!)
- Black bean cakes (which I topped with vegan queso)
- Blackened grouper
- Some kind of pot roast-looking meat
- Tortellini salad
- Croissants
- Beignets
- Fresh fruit
- Banana pudding, carrot cake, vegan chocolate mousse, and other desserts

And that's probably not even half of it. And there's an omelet bar! Everything was fresh and hot, unlike the food on a lot of brunch buffets. This is definitely our new favorite brunch destination. (I'm also happy to say that we received great service from Neil's sister Rachel.)

I really highly recommend this brunch to everyone, and especially vegetarians and vegans. Delish!

Zen Tea House

2009-10-10T18:58:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I lunched with a couple of my fellow freelancers at Zen Tea House. It was my first time there, and I was so impressed with it that I decided to take Neil there for my birthday lunch on Thursday. He loved it as much as I do. I could easily see this becoming one of my favorite restaurants.

Before we get to the food, let me say a bit about the experience. Because it does feel like an experience, rather than just a meal. The decor is soothing and sparse, tranquilly Asian. I understand that farther back in the restaurant there's pillow seating, which, in retrospect, we should have tried, since it was my birthday and that seems like a fun thing to do. But we opted to sit up front, next to the window, where we could watch the cool rainy day outside. It was quite cozy.

The other defining characteristic of the Zen Tea House experience is the service. It's definitely leisurely and not always quite as attentive as it maybe should be, but the folks who work there are extremely welcoming and knowledgeable. There's no need to be intimidated by the lengthy tea menu; they will be happy to help you choose, as well as enthusiastically answer any food questions. It's a pleasure to be served by these people.

So, the food! On both visits we started with the mushroom pate, "A delicate combination of fresh mushrooms, mixed nuts, spices, cream cheese and olive oil blended together and served with toasted bread." Oh. My. God. This stuff could almost pass for real pate. It reminds me a bit of liverwurst, and I mean that in the best way possible. Delish.

On my first visit I had the Roasted Portabella & Caramelized Onion Panini, "A creamy spread made from Boursin cheese, sun-dried tomato and garlic layered on our herb focaccia bread, topped with roasted portabella mushroom, caramelized onions, fresh Mozzarella cheese, mesclun greens and sliced tomatoes then pressed and grilled to perfection." That was really good, but good panini are pretty easy to come by. One of my dining companions that day had the Steamed Banana Leaf with Lotus Seeds & Vegetable Rice, "Vegetable rice cooked with tofu, veggie meats, and lotus seeds is wrapped in a banana leaf, steamed, and then topped with a drizzle of olive oil infused with roasted garlic and scallions." To be honest, on the menu I thought it sounded a little boring. And watching my friend eat it I thought it looked a bit bland. But she insisted that it was fantastic, so on my second trip I tried it for myself. And it was just as good as she had promised. I know a lot of people aren't huge fans of fake meat, but the way it was mixed in with the rice and other stuff made it very subtle and rather believably meat-like, which is something that this reluctant vegetarian appreciated very much. The garlic-and-scallion-infused olive oil added a real depth of flavor to the whole thing. When it arrived in front me I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to finish it, but I had no trouble with it.

Neil had a cup of the soup of the day, a compilation of veggies in a light ginger broth. It was a very simple, clean-tasting soup, and he slurped it right down. For his entree, he chose the Curry Tofu & Carrot Salad Sandwich, "Tofu and carrot salad seasoned with mayonnaise and curry spread on a toasted baguette and topped with green leaf lettuce, tomato, pickled carrot & daikon and fresh basil leaves." This was sort of a cross between a carrot salad and curried egg salad, both of which I love. I will have a hard time choosing between that and the banana leaf the next time we go. Both our entrees and the pate were served with crisp pickled vegetables, which were a nice complement to the meal.

To drink, I had the Keemun Imperial, a strong black tea that felt just right for a gross rainy day, while Neil chose the GenMai-Cha, a brown rice tea with a wonderful smoky flavor.

With appetizer, two entrees, two cups of tea, and one (amazing) vegan chocolate cupcake, the bill came to a little over $40 with tip. A bit on the pricey side for lunch, maybe, but worth every penny. I can't wait to go back.

Sweet Potato Gratin... and more!

2009-10-07T20:13:00.006-04:00

This entry will cover a lot of territory, so here's a quick overview:
1. Sweet potato gratin.
2. Tomato soup.
3. Vegetable bouillon and vegetarian gravy.

Ready, go!

Earlier today I Tweeted/Facebooked about the awesome sweet potato gratin I made last night. A ton of people requested the recipe, and I'm more than happy to share it. Alas, I can't take credit for this one; it's another tremendously successful selection from Vegetarian Suppers From Deborah Madison's Kitchen.

I don't know about you all, but the changing weather has had me craving warm, hearty comfort food. I went cruising through Ms. Madison's cookbook yesterday and landed on the following recipe. We served it as an entree with a side of kale, but it would be fantastic as a side dish, especially if you're getting sick of the ubiquitous sweet potato casserole that always shows up at Thanksgiving.

Sweet Potato Gratin with Onions and Sage

2 teaspoons oil, plus a little for the dish
1 large onion, chopped into 1/2-inch dice
2 tablespoons chopped sage or 2 teaspoons dried
3 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), thinly sliced
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
a large handful of parsley leaves, chopped with 1 plump garlic clove
3/4 cup grated Gruyere or smoked mozzarella cheese (Kroger actually had smoked Gruyere, so I used that!)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup cream or half-and-half, warmed (I never told you this was healthy!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly oil a 2-quart gratin dish and put a moderately large pot of water on to boil.
2. Put 2 teaspoons oil in a skillet over medium heat and add the onion and sage. Cook, giving them an occasional stir, until soft and golden, about 12 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, peel the sweet potatoes, then slice them as thinly as you can manage. Salt the water, then drop them in. Allow the water to return to a boil, which may take a few minutes. Boil for a minute or until the potatoes are partly tender when pierced with a knife, then drain. Toss them with the onions, chopped parsley, and garlic.
4. Scoop a third of the potatoes into the prepared dish and even them out. Season with salt and pepper, add half the Gruyere, and grate over a little Parmesan. Repeat, making two more layers and covering the last with a dusting of the Parmesan. Pour the warm cream over all, cover with foil, and bake in the center of the oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the potatoes are utterly soft and the gratin has browned, another 25 minutes or so. Let the gratin stand a few minutes before serving.

A few things I will do differently next time:
1. Add walnuts. Neil and I agree they would be great in this.
2. Drain the potatoes better and/or let it cook a little longer. It was a little watery on the bottom.
3. Add more cheese (maybe). It's perfectly good as it is, but if you want to make it really obnoxiously fattening and delicious, more cheese would be the way to go.

So today, after a heaping bowl of leftover gratin for lunch, I got to thinking about what I wanted to make for dinner. I couldn't stop thinking about that delicious smoked Gruyere. I started thinking grilled cheese and tomato soup. I spent some time looking for a tomato soup recipe that did not require a food processor or immersion blender, neither of which I own (yet - hello, wedding registry!). I found this recipe for Hot and Healing Tomato Soup. I was a little concerned that it would be weird in a New Agey, earnestly healthy kind of way, what with its six cloves of garlic and handful of celery leaves. But it was actually really good, quite chunky and thick. Neil suggested that it would be good over pasta as well. To go with it, I sliced some of the Moroccan olive bread that Kroger makes (which is way better than it has any right to be), sprinkled shredded Gruyere on top, and stuck them in a hot oven until the cheese was melty and golden. I've taken to calling this deconstructed grilled cheese, because I occasionally enjoy being a pretentious asshole. (You're welcome to call it cheese bread.)

If you looked at the soup recipe, you may have noticed that it involves a roux, to which vegetable broth is added. Let me first say that today, instead of buying a package of vegetable broth, using half a cup, and putting the rest in the fridge to sit until it went bad, I wised up and bought some bouillon cubes. Specifically, Edward & Sons Garden Veggie. I mixed up half of one with some hot water to make broth for the soup and it smelled really good, better than vegetable broth usually does. Once I mixed it into the roux it smelled fantastic, so I gave it a taste. Sacrebleu! It was like a delicious gravy! I cannot wait to make some mashed potatoes to put this on!

Erin's Vegetarian Gravy
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup to 1 cup vegetable broth, depending on how thick you like it

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Slowly add flour, stirring constantly. Continue to stir until mixture turns golden. Slowly stir in vegetable broth until gravy reaches the desired consistency. (Note: I can't vouch for the tastiness of this if you don't use Edward & Sons bouillon. Like I said, it's better than any vegetable broth I've ever used. I found it at Kroger in the organic/natural section, with the soups.)

So, that's been my two days of culinary excitement. Now that I sit down and think about it, there are multiple things that I meant to write about on Blog Tartare, like my visits to Dragon King's Daughter, Zen Tea House, and a much-improved Zeppelin Cafe (whose website is so abjectly bad and lacking in content that I won't even bother to link to it). Expect restaurant reviews soon!

I'm sensing a pattern...

2009-09-30T16:23:00.003-04:00

What I've had to eat today:

Breakfast: Cottage cheese and apple sauce
Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of apple cider (mmmm, fall)
Snack: A Babybel and an apple

This is totally unintentional, I swear! At least tonight's dinner of chili will introduce a little bit of variety. :)

Crepes for a good cause!

2009-09-23T20:18:00.002-04:00

My fellow foodie and writer Dana McMahan has landed a two-week writing residency at Kitchen-at-Camont. I had never heard of Kitchen-at-Camont, but after reading about it I think it's one of the coolest things ever. I'm so happy for (and envious of) Dana!

In order finance her trip to France, she's throwing a crepe brunch fundraiser for herself. Is that not the best idea ever? Come eat crepes, donate what you can, and send a fellow foodie off to two weeks in paradise. Here's the invitation.

I've never actually met Dana, but I'm a fan of her blog and her joie de vivre. I'm looking forward to eating crepes for her benefit!

Toward more compassionate eating, one bite at a time

2009-09-03T15:44:00.003-04:00

Wherever you fall on the animal products-eating continuum, I think we can all agree that animal agriculture in this country is Fucked (with a capital F). I mean, just take a look at the video of male chicks being ground up alive that's been making its way around the Internet. No, really, go take a look. If you eat eggs, you should see where they come from.

Late last year I got into a tremendously ugly online dispute with a vegan acquaintance. I called her out for saying that by going vegan she "became civilized," suggesting that her arrogance was probably doing her cause more harm than good. She, not surprisingly, did not take kindly to that comment, replying in part "The ridicule that I face for exercising compassion, care and responsibility in a very real, tangible way, is a small price to pay for having the opportunity to make the truth more visible. I realize that it turns you off. But I'm not here to turn people like you on."

You can imagine where it went from there.

I have wrestled with this issue a lot. Unlike a lot of people, I don't think that veganism is ridiculous or extreme; I think it's a perfectly reasonable way to excuse oneself from participating in an unnecessarily cruel and harmful (in a variety of ways) system of food production. I am totally sympathetic toward veganism. The problem, of course, is that my sympathy is misplaced; it belongs with the animals who are the victims of this whole fucked-up system. And I sure do continue to eat animal products.

Because I really do try to understand other people's points of view, I tried to think about the fight for animal rights as I think about feminism. Would I say it would be enough if women achieved mostly equal rights? No, of course not. Would I say that feminists can live their lives however they want but that they should shut up about sexism and not point out oppression and privilege to other people? Hell no. Then why should I expect any different from animal rights activists?

In fall 2007, I taught Women's & Gender Studies 201, Women in American Culture. Now, you will never, ever hear me say anything along the lines of "I'm a feminist, but I'm not one of those feminists." I most certainly am one of "those" feminists, plenty pissed and plenty radical. It probably goes without saying that I want to get the feminist word out to as many folks as possible. However, I knew that in a classroom full of young college students, most of whom knew nothing of feminism but stereotypes, my righteous indignation was not going to do anything but turn people off. I made it clear from the start that we were going to be discussing controversial issues and that they were going be introduced to ideas that were totally new them, and that, by virtue of the fact that I was in the process of getting a master's degree in Women's & Gender Studies, I had certain opinions on these matters. But I had no interest in converting my students into feminists; setting out with that goal would have either turned the entire semester into a futile ideological battle or resulted in a class full of students parroting my own opinions back to me. Rather, I wanted them to take each new idea and think about it. Argue with each other about it. Critique it. Assess how it applied - or didn't apply - to their own lives.

At the end of the semester, did I have a class full of feminists? Of course not. But did I have a class with more feminist tendencies and better critical thinking skills who were more likely to look favorably on women's rights issues? Absolutely.

This approach is sorely lacking when it comes to vegetarianism and veganism. It's almost always presented as an all-or-nothing proposition; you either eschew all animal products or you are a barbaric asshole. Yes, if everyone became vegan, that would eliminate food-related animal cruelty and environmental problems, and that would be great. But that's not going to happen. What realistically could happen is that people could reduce their intake of animal products, which would not eliminate food-related animal cruelty and environmental problems, but could reduce them drastically. Do animal rights advocates want to be righteously indignant and dismissed as ridiculous extremists, or do they want to moderate their views - or at least their rhetoric - and spur people to move in the right direction?

Here are my suggestions for people who are bothered by the way food animals are treated and the environmental ramifications of animal-eating but who aren't ready to take the vegetarian/vegan plunge:

1. Educate yourself. Will you think twice about eating eggs after watching that video? Maybe, maybe not, but you ought to at least know the truth about where your food comes from. There's a ton of information out there about all aspects of animal agriculture.
2. Choose meat alternatives when possible. If you're craving a steak, no portobello mushroom cap is going to satisfy that craving. But if you're craving chili, could you use a meat substitute or more beans and veggies instead? When mixed with other stuff, Quorn Crumbles are almost indistinguishable from ground beef.
3. Similarly, choose dairy alternatives when possible. I can't image life without cheese, but I find that Silk creamer in my coffee instead of half-and-half is just fine. Any little change you can make like this is a step in the right direction.
4. If you are going to buy animal products, try to buy them locally. Animal products from small local farms are generally more humanely produced, better for the environment, and good for the local economy. Depending on where you live, your farmers markets and/or grocery stores may carry locally-produced meat, eggs, and dairy products. In Louisville, ValuMarket is a good source for this stuff.
5. When dining out, try a meatless option. Do you find yourself dismissing meatless entrees because you're afraid they won't be filling, or just because you're in the habit of ordering meat? Why not give one a try? Vegetarian/vegan entrees are very often high in creativity and flavor, and filling too.
6. When choosing seafood, do it responsibly. Check the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch or the Blue Ocean Institute's FishPhone to make sure the seafood you choose is sustainable. (I mean, seriously, FishPhone. Don't you want to use it based on its name alone?)
7. Beware of organics. The organic label has been co-opted by industrial agriculture and means almost nothing. Do your research before you pluck an organic animal product off the shelf and assume you've made a good choice. The Cornucopia Institute's Organic Dairy Report will give you the low-down on your favorite organic dairy products. It turns out that Horizon, which is always on prominent display in the Kroger natural foods cooler, is one of the most ethically deficient dairy brands on the market.
8. Experiment with vegetarian/vegan foods. Be adventurous. Try some seitan or tempeh or tofu. Find a tasty-sounding recipe and give it a try. You may hate it, but then again, you may be very pleasantly surprised.
9. Commit to several vegetarian/vegan meals a week. Can you make a meatless meal a couple times a week? Maybe even a meal with no animal products at all? Try it; I bet it will be easier than you think.

Changing your eating habits is hard. Food is primal and necessary. Most of us grow up eating animal products and not questioning it, and I would be a liar if I said I didn't miss meat. I miss my mama's pot roast, meat loaf, and chicken and dumplings. I miss hamburgers and pulled pork sandwiches and the turkey-artichoke panini from Panera. And I am far from perfect; I have meat slip-ups from time to time. Most often at parties (because food is social) and when I'm sick (because food is comforting). I also have a lot of work to do on my dairy consumption; I happen to like soy ice cream quite a lot, but it doesn't replace frozen custard. Still, I'm trying. I'm trying to eat with more compassion toward animals and the environment. Do you want to, too?

Eggplant Boursin Panini

2009-08-12T12:32:00.002-04:00

We stopped frequenting Ramsi's some time ago, after a few too many experiences of mediocre food and bad service. But that doesn't mean I don't still love their Eggplant Boursin Panini:

Lightly breaded eggplant, tomato sauce, and a trio of cheeses, served on homemade Cuban bread.

When we brought home some eggplants from the farmers market last week, Neil suggested eggplant Parmesan, but that felt like too much work and too much time with the oven on. So I decided to try my hand at recreating my beloved panini instead. The results were pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. Anyone looking for ways to use up their eggplant harvest should give this one a try!

1 eggplant (depending on size, of course, but one average eggplant provided enough for four sandwiches and a few snack slices for us)
Italian breadcrumbs
2 eggs, beaten
1 package Boursin (it won't require nearly the whole package, but use however much you want)
1 ball mozzarella, sliced thickly (ours yielded four slices and a chunk for snacking)
Shredded Parmesan to taste
Some sort of chunky tomato sauce business (we used Kroger brand bruschetta topping and it was pretty good)
Whatever bread/bun/roll you fancy (no Cuban bread to be found at Kroger, so we went with their sub rolls, which worked surprisingly well)

Skin and slice eggplant, then dip slices into egg and dredge in breadcrumbs. Fry in oil (or bake, if you want to be healthier about it) until golden. Spread a layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the roll, and follow with mozzarella slices, eggplant, and a sprinkling of Parmesan. Spread a layer of Boursin on the top of the roll (the inside of the top of the roll, that is). Stick the whole thing in your panini press press or George Foreman (what we used), or, if you don't have any such thing, just pop it in the oven until the cheese is melty and the bread is toasty.

I wish I had a photo of this for you, but unfortunately, the ones we took did not really do the deliciousness justice. Just trust me when I promise you that it is fantastic.

Notes:
1. Depending on what kind of bread you use, the quantities might vary a little bit. Since we used oblong sub rolls, each sandwich used four slices of eggplant stacked two high, and a slice of mozzarella on each eggplant stack. But that's just how it worked out for us. This is bound to turn out delicious no matter how you do it, so don't worry too much about the details.
2. I think I've more or less given up on sweating eggplant. The only difference I can tell is that when I do it, even though I rinse it off afterward, the eggplant ends up way too salty. It's also a pain in the ass. The hell with it, I say!
3. Boursin is freaking expensive, around $6 for 5.2 oz at Kroger. Although it's kind of central to the Eggplant Boursin Panini, feel free to skip it or mess around with other cheeses if you don't want to spend that much. (Or, if you happen to be going up to Jungle Jim's, get it there. It's always much cheaper even at regular price, and we once found it on sale there for $1.99.)

Enjoy!

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Sesame Street

2009-08-03T15:17:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I told Neil that I'd like to learn to make cheese. And I would. In fact, I think becoming an artisanal cheesemaker would be a pretty swell career move. Unfortunately, neither of us know much of anything about making cheese, and we realized that what we do know is what we gleaned years and years ago from this video:

Oh man, I used to love that video. (Though not as much as I loved the one about how crayons are made.) But does anyone else find it a little troubling that those dudes have such large and unrestrained beards and hair styles and are bending over the cheese like that? You can't tell me they didn't get hair in that cheese. Ick.

But I digress. Cheesemaking. I'm going to try it! Though I'm not sure how or when. I'll keep you posted!

Local goodies

2009-08-02T23:07:00.004-04:00

I have been frustrated the last couple of weeks that Neil has had to teach on Saturday mornings, preventing us from going to the Bardstown Road Farmers Market. Yesterday I did some research and found that there's one on Sunday afternoons at Rainbow Blossom! (Just right for Lisa Lazybones. ;) It's open from 12:00 to 4:00 and they even take debit/credit. Hooray!

This market isn't as big as the one on Bardstown Road, but the selection is still ample. Pictured above is our booty. Why yes, this pescatarian will eat beef, if it's locally produced! Those patties were from Dutch Creek Farm, the same place we get our eggs from, which is not even an hour outside Louisville.

Dinner tonight was cheeseburgers made with that meat and topped (of course) with slices of tomato. We also had corn on the cob and a peach for dessert. And it was fantastic, all of it. Good god. Everything was so much more flavorful than it would have been if we had gotten from Kroger, and we got the added satisfaction of knowing that we supported local farmers and did something environmentally sound.

As a (suburban) child of the 1980s, even though I grew up knowing intellectually that produce comes from farms, in practice I didn't really think much about it coming from anywhere besides the grocery store. I also never had any concept of seasonality, since at the grocery store most things are available year-round, whether they should be or not. Produce was just one more static grocery item to buy, like cereal and soap and canned goods. Having spent most of my life feeling so utterly divorced from the origins of my food, every time I eat something local, it feels a little magical. This stuff was grown in the soil of the state I live in. It was not produced in some huge industrial operation across the country or across the world and shipped hundreds or thousands of miles to reach me, cosmetically perfect and perfectly flavorless. (I can't lie; the peach we ate tonight was ugly. I never would have bought it at the store. But it was also the best peach I've eaten in years.) No, this food is part of my geography, and, by virtue of the fact that it grows here, is meant for me to eat it. Not to get too precious or self-righteous or ridiculous, but it kind of makes my soul happy to eat this way.

So go! To the farmers markets, and to the restaurants that serve local food! Enjoy the bounty of these waning days of summer. Re-remember or discover for the first time what produce is supposed to taste like. You won't be sorry.

A Few From the Archives

2009-08-02T08:32:00.003-04:00

Just because I haven't been blogging at Blog Tartare, that doesn't mean I haven't been writing about food. Here are a few entries from elsewhere:

Gratin!
The Best Cheese Ever
Fake Meat Lessons Learned
Kalamity Katie's Border Benedict (sort of)

Hopefully those will tide you over until my next entry. :)

Here a blog, there a blog

2009-08-01T23:21:00.002-04:00

Over a delicious dinner at the Dragon King's Daughter tonight, Neil and I discussed how we had each become as sophisticated as we are (which admittedly is not all that sophisticated) about food and beverage. Since I grew up in Shelbyville (which has a real lack of good restaurants, a few exceptions notwithstanding) and was raised by people who aren't particularly adventurous eaters or enthusiastic drinkers, I didn't really start learning about this stuff until I was around 22. We talked about the friends who turned us on to different ethnic cuisines, to beer, to wine. In the midst of this conversation, Neil expressed his disappointment that I had more or less discontinued Blog Tartare. "You really had something with that," he said.

"I did?"

"Yeah. You love to write, and you love to eat and cook."

These things are true. I recently started blogging over at Squarespace and have been using a Blog Tartare category there for my food entries. And that's nice. But I do sort of miss Blog Tartare. I miss its cute background. And I think it has a lot of potential as a food blog, as opposed to mixing my food entries in with other stuff in a regular blog. And Neil and I have certain projects in mind (finding the best banana split in the Louisville area, eating our way up and down Bardstown Road, etc.) that really deserve to be done on Blog Tartare. Now that I'm a full-time freelance writer (whoa!) I have more time for blogging, which also helps.

So... here I am again. Hopefully for the foreseeable future. Welcome back!

Oops.

2009-04-29T23:58:00.003-04:00

I kind of forgot to update you on the end of our 30 Days of Not Dining Out, didn't I? We made it through most of the month, but things kind of fell apart during the last week or so. Still, two very important lessons were learned, and I feel that periodic restaurant bans will continue to serve us well in the future.

Lesson 1: Cooking is fun, especially when I do weekly grocery shopping and have food and recipes ready to go. I found it surprisingly relaxing to come home from work and cook dinner.

Lesson 2: I really prefer taking my lunch. A little bit of extra effort in the morning means I get to spend more of my lunch hour relaxing instead of fighting traffic on Bardstown Road. And it is of course cheaper and generally healthier. I even enjoy taking PB&J. How nice to open my desk drawer and have lunch ready for me whenever I'm ready for it!

In other news, I'm not sure what to do with Blog Tartare at this point. I love it (especially its background). But I don't keep up with updating it as well as I should, and I have too many other things going on elsewhere on the Interwebs. So I've started blogging about food - and everything else - over at volvita.com. You may wish to check me out there. One thing I might do is just cross-post the food-related entries over here. We shall see. But in the meantime you should come see me over there!

Days 6-13

2009-03-13T21:43:00.002-04:00

Tis true, I have not been updating regularly. But rest assured, I have been continuing to observe the challenge and have cooked several delicious dishes since the last entry.

First, I must admit to a restaurant meal. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I had no choice. On Wednesday I had to go to Lexington for work stuff. Traditionally, one of my colleagues in our Lexington office would have taken me out to lunch, which is also technically against the rules, but I would have let it slide for the sake of professional relations. However, this did not come to pass, and I was stranded in Lexington without my trusty lunch bag. So I went to a nearby Indian buffet and had a plate of food, a couple gulab jamun, and an iced tea. Is that so wrong?

Highlights from the last week or so of the challenge:

- We made this chili recipe on the recommendation of one of my coworkers. It was good. I enjoyed the vegetables.

- My mom tried to get me to meet her for lunch last Saturday, but I talked her into coming over for breakfast instead. I made this spinach quiche (an old standby) and these raspberry muffins. Delish.

- We had a picnic in Cherokee Park consisting of pimento cheese sandwiches, chips and salsa, and grapes. Not very exciting or exotic, but it was the first warm day of the year, and after lunch we both read for a while and fell asleep in the sun. Perfect.

- Neil and I have this joke about him hating lentils. He doesn't, really; it's more that he hates the idea of lentils because they sound like dirty hippie food to him. I was determined to show him how yummy lentils can be, so I made this red lentil curry recipe. It didn't have quite the complexity of flavor that it seemed like it should, but it was still really, really good.

- Thursday night we made this recipe for ginger scallops. Neil wanted to invite our friend Devon over for dinner, and I wasn't too enthusiastic about this, because the other times I've cooked scallops they've turned out quite mediocre. And Devon is a really good cook, so I didn't want to embarrass myself. But we ended up getting good scallop-cooking advice from Devon, and dinner was fantastic. The secret to searing scallops: use an oil with a high smoke point, or if you don't have any such oil (we didn't), use a combination of olive oil and butter. Turn it up high and cook the scallops one minute per side. We did that and then added the scallops to the ginger sauce. Mmmmm. I love scallops and now I know how to cook them properly. Hooray!

- Last night we made panang curry using this recipe, another favorite I've made before. I also used these instructions for dry frying the tofu. The tofu turned out great. The curry was both delicious and inedible. Life lesson learned: do not let Neil measure the curry paste. The recipe calls for 2-3 tablespoons. Every time I've made this recipe I've used 2, and it's been just right. But Neil is a heat junkie and added a third. We also used a different brand of curry paste than we usually do, so that may have accounted for some of the heat as well. At any rate, I can't eat any more of it. I only made it through dinner by drinking two big glasses of milk with it. And I never drink milk. I probably haven't had a glass of milk with dinner since I was 12. Anyway, I think I might make this again this week with much less curry paste, because it's soooooo good.

We're just about halfway through our 30 days. It's still fun. I somehow magically have energy to come home and cook dinner; I guess knowing that I have no choice is enough to get me started, and once I start doing it I realize I'm having a really good time. One thing I'm not sure we're doing though is saving a whole lot of money. I mean, surely we are. There is no way that $100 at restaurants could go as far as $100 at the grocery store. But last month we spent $406 on groceries, and this month we've already spent $412. So we are on track to spend over $800 this month on groceries. And we don't even eat meat! Since we've never really done regular grocery shopping, we're not in the habit of shopping with an eye toward value. We save coupons but never remember to take them to the store with us. And I really have no idea what foods are more expensive than others or how much things are supposed to cost. I guess as we continue to shop we'll get better at this.

I have photos of several of the meals we've made lately, but it's Saturday morning and the camera is in the other room and I'm lazy right now. I'll do a photo post soon!

Day 5

2009-03-05T21:46:00.004-05:00

You don't really care about breakfast and lunch, do you? Blah blah, yogurt and cereal, blah blah, sandwich and salad and grapes, etc. etc. You're here for dinner, aren't you?

Tonight's dinner goes on record as one of the better things I've ever cooked. This was serious, restaurant-quality tastiness. Which is doubly impressive considering that I'd never before cooked the two main ingredients, greens and polenta.

I give you...

Polenta squares with gorgonzola cream, braised greens, and cannellini beans

Not only had I never cooked greens, I wasn't even sure if I liked them. I don't recall my mom ever making them when I was a kid. I do remember her cooking kale for herself when I was a teenager and it stinking up the whole house. (I remember this so clearly: I walked in the back door with my friend Jamie and said "God, what's that smell?!" Years later Jamie I still talk about this.)

Anyway. The recipe said I could use whatever greens I fancied, so I chose mustard, totally at random. Basically how this all worked is that I cooked the greens down in a skillet with some onion and garlic, and then added a can of cannellini beans. The sauce consisted of half-and-half, gorgonzola, garlic, and rosemary; all it needed to do was come to a simmer and get properly melty. The polenta that I cooked last night was cut into triangles, dredged in flour, and fried. The whole thing was a little time-consuming, but fairly easy.

Neil observed that the gorgonzola sauce was a little overwhelming and might work better with a milder blue cheese. I did think that it drowned out the other flavors in the dish a bit, but it was still awfully good (I'm a sucker for overbearing cheese). It turns out that I do like greens, quite a bit, and the beans were a nice complement. The fried polenta was awesome. In fact, there's quite a bit leftover that hasn't been fried yet, and I think it's going to be a cornbread-esqe side dish when I make chili in a few days. I am now quite interested in polenta and excited to see what else I can do with it.

I would share the full recipe with you - from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen - but the recipe actually contains two other recipes from the book, Polenta Cooked in the Double Boiler and Braised Mixed Greens and Garlicky Beans, so it would be a huge pain to transcribe. If anyone is really interested let me know and I'll get Neil to scan it and then just send it to you.

Now we're approaching the worst part of the week for eating at home: the weekend. I've already turned down lunch with my mother, even though she offered to buy. The buying is not the point, at least not all of it. It's the thought and the effort that goes into preparing my own food, even if it's just making a sandwich or heating up some soup.

So far I am really, really enjoying this project. Toward the end of February we had two very good dinners - one at Osaka, and one at Cafe LouLou - that totaled $129. We spent less than that at the store last night and got enough food to last a week. Don't get me wrong; I think Cafe LouLou and Osaka both serve great food that is worth the price we paid. But from a budget standpoint, Neil and I need to learn that meals like that should not be an everyday occurrence. Or at least not until one of us has a substantial increase in income.

I feel like I'm really having a major shift in my perspective on food as a result of all of this, but I'm tired and I want to go read. I will save that to blather about in another entry.

Day 4

2009-03-05T08:23:00.004-05:00

Breakfast
Neil had his usual yogurt and cereal. I skipped it, as I often do.

Lunch
Soup and tuna sandwich for me, Caesar salad and tuna sandwich for Neil

Dinner
Taco salad:

I admit that it doesn't get a lot of points for presentation, but it's so quick and tasty. Brown up some ground whatever (in our case Quorn), add some taco seasoning (at which point the Quorn becomes virtually indistinguishable from ground beef), and put it in a bowl with some tortilla chips, refried black beans, shredded cheese, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa (or whatever you like - you know how this faux Mexican thing works). This satisfies my guilt-riddled love of the Taco Bell taco salad without being so disgusting and bad for me.

In other news, yesterday we finally went to the grocery store. Two grocery stores, actually, because Kroger was out of zuccinni (the produce clerk blamed Senior Citizen Day) and didn't have the corn meal I was looking for. So we went to ValuMarket as well. We spent a little over $100 and got enough food for three dinner recipes (that will each feed us at least twice), some sandwich fixings for lunch (PB&J and pimento cheese), and some snacky things like fruit, carrots, crackers, etc. It's kind of neat to know that if I get hungry, I can just go into the kitchen and get something to eat!

I'm excited about tonight's dinner, and I can't wait to blog about it. It's polenta squares with gorgonzola cream, braised greens, and cannellini beans. I have never cooked polenta, greens, or cannellini beans before. The polenta has to be cooked in a double boiler, allowed to cool in a rectangular pan, sliced up, and fried. In the interest of not eating at midnight tonight, I made the polenta last night. It was reeeeally good just by itself, and I can't wait to fry it up and slather it in gorgonzola cream sauce!

30 Days of Home Cookin'

2009-03-03T20:36:00.002-05:00

The past few months have seen me grow extraordinarily lazy. Part of it is just winter, and part of it is, I think, an economy-induced case of the blahs. Whatever the reason, I've been putting very little thought into my food lately. Oh, I've still been enjoying it, but only to the extent that I go somewhere else to eat it (or pick it up and bring it home). I've hardly been cooking at all.

Toward the end of February, I had an idea. I posted the following on LiveJournal (and Facebook):

Neil and I are trying an experiment in which we will not go out to eat during the entire month of March. Occasionally we add up the amount of money we spend dining out and it's always a totally ridiculous number. I know the local restaurant community is hurting right now, but we really want to try this and see how much money we save in a month.

If anyone else out there in LJ Land feels that they are also burning through way too much money going out to eat, feel free to join us!

Local friends, we need your help. Yes, we want to see you, but no, we cannot go out to eat with you. Expect to be invited over for dinner in the coming month. Or invite us over for dinner. Or, when the weather gets better, lets go on a picnic.

I'm actually really excited about this. I've been so lazy about cooking lately. It feels pleasantly challenging knowing that I have to plan meals, grocery shop, and cook. Of course not every meal is going to be some big production, especially not the nights I work late, and I imagine there will be a frozen pizza in the mix at least once. But I'm excited that this will force me to get back in the cooking habit. I know we're going to save a ton of money, and I wouldn't be surprised if we lost weight too.

This is going to be quite a challenge, because we go out to eat all the time. And I also have mixed feelings about a month of not supporting Louisville's wonderful local restaurants, since so many of them are hurting right now. But I think I can justify this to myself by thinking about how over the last several months, we've spent way more than our fair share dining out. It's only 30 days. And come April, we're going to go have a really nice dinner somewhere (and resume restaurant dining in general, though hopefully a bit scaled back).

Blog Tartare hasn't been getting much love from me lately, and I thought this would be a fun project to blog about. I'm sure I won't get to it every day, but hopefully I can keep a pretty good record of what we've been eating instead of eating out constantly. For a baseline, let me share this with you. Last month, according to the checking account (so there's a few days' margin of error), we ate at:

La Rosita
Sol Azteca
Cafe LouLou
Red Robin
Sitar
KenTex
New Albanian
Shapiro's
Hing Wang (I've never heard of this; must be something of Neil's)
Panera
Moe's
Double Dragon
Lunch Today
City Cafe
Cracker Barrel
Vietnam Kitchen
Lynn's Paradise Cafe
Big Boy
Papa John's
McDonald's
Pizza Hut
Dairy Queen
Qdoba
Osaka
Applebee's (I will own the other crappy chains on this list, but not this one; my coworkers forced me to go there.)

Wow. Having typed all that out, I'm rather embarrassed. When did we become incapable of buying raw food and preparing it ourselves?! Do you see now why we need this project??

Here's how it's gone so far:

March 1
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with cheese and bits of leftover fake peperoni, toast, grapefruit.
Lunch: We skipped it, but had some cottage cheese and apple sauce as a snack.
Dinner: Cooked for my parents and Neil's mom and step-dad. A somewhat bland blue cheese fettuccine, Caesar salad, bread with olive oil. (My mom brought a delicious cake for dessert.)

March 2
Breakfast: Cottage cheese and apple sauce for me, yogurt and granola for Neil.
Lunch: Oh crap! I forgot to bring lunch. I went to Kroger and got soup from their soup bar, which is perilously close to going out to eat. But I got the 16 oz cup so I'd have two days' worth. I think Neil had a fake turkey sandwich.
Dinner: Quorn Cranberry & Goat Cheese Chik'n Cutlet, half a baked potato each (we only had one potato in the house), salad, leftover cake.

March 3
Breakfast: Same as the day before.
Lunch: For me, leftover soup and salad I brought from home. I know Neil also took salad but I don't know what else he had.
Dinner: Plans to cook a real meal were foiled by the fact that I got a ticket Saturday night for driving around with tags that expired in October. After working an hour and a half late, I had to go to the county clerk and deal with that. Then Neil had band practice at 8:00. So we squeezed in some soup (Pacific Natural Foods Cashew Carrot Ginger) and grilled cheese.

And that brings us to right now, when I just had some more leftover cake and another cup of tea.

What's really making this whole thing interesting is that while I've made a grocery list, I haven't actually been shopping yet. And as I'm sure you can imagine from the above list of restaurants, we don't keep a lot of food in the house (when would we eat it?). I hate grocery shopping and I have decided to put it off until tomorrow night (unless Neil comes home from practice and somehow motivates me to go now, even though I'm already in my PJs), so I will have to come up with something for lunch tomorrow based on our limited supply of consumables. I'm thinking tuna sandwiches. I'm sure my co-workers will love me tomorrow.

Baby's First Espresso Maker

2009-01-18T20:35:00.004-05:00

I've been drinking coffee since I was a kid. It all started at my grandparents' table with a cup of half Folger's, half milk, and lots of sugar. As a teenager I drank it with reasonable amounts of half and half and sugar. In my early 20s I eschewed grocery store brands for Heine Brothers. When not ordering a basic cup of coffee, my brew of choice was a mocha.

At some point not so very long ago - within the last year, maybe - I stopped taking sugar in my coffee. I don't know why, but I do know that the idea of putting sugar in my coffee now makes my taste buds recoil. And I soon found that I loved unsweetened cappuccinos and lattes. In fact, I've been drinking quite a few lattes lately, and that's not a cheap habit to have. When I got a craving for one this morning, I quite impulsively said to Neil, "Let's get an espresso maker." So we did.

I know nothing about making coffee beyond filling my red KitchenAid automatic drip with water and freshly-ground beans. Unlike many of my friends, I've never worked as a barista or taken it upon myself to become particularly conversant with more than the very basics of coffee making. Given this fact, I was not about to drop several hundred dollars on an espresso maker more sophisticated than I am. I went to Target and bought this Mr. Coffee. And just now I served my very first two cappuccinos.

It was messy. I spilled coffee. I spilled milk. (I didn't cry.) The most baffling part of the whole experience was that there were no means of measuring anything. The water reservoir was marked with only minimum and maximum fill lines. The brew basket had two filters, one for one one-ounce shot and one for two one-ounce shots, but there was no indication as to how much coffee I needed to grind; I was just to fill the filter I wanted to use to the top. The most confusing thing was figuring out how to measure the espresso as it came out. The instruction manual informed me that cappuccinos are one part espresso, one part steamed milk, and one part foam. My machine has two spouts, which means I can place two cups under it, but how to know when each one contained a one-ounce shot? I'm terrible at eyeballing quantities, so I ended up just using a measuring cup, turning the machine off once it had spit out two ounces.

The milk quantity was similarly unclear. I was to fill a "small" pitcher halfway with milk. That part actually went pretty well for my first time steaming milk, although the manual cautioned me to be patient because doing it well takes practice.

I suppose all of this means that espresso making is more of an art than a science, so I imagine I will have to just keep messing around with it until I get good at it. My first two cappuccinos were pretty tasty, though. I'm sure it helped that I used Jackson's Organic.

Oh, and yeah, I realize it's been exactly two months since my last entry here. And there were so many things I've wanted to blog about since then. Our Thanksgiving potluck, making Christmas stollen with my mom, cooking Christmas breakfast for my parents and Neil's mom and stepdad, getting re-engaged at L&N (!!!), my first meal at August Moon, my second (much better) meal at Le Gallo Rosso, making persimmon pudding, going pescatarian again... It's been a busy several months food-wise. It's been a busy several months period, which explains my lack of blogging. But I have missed Blog Tartare, and I'm going to try to start updating again more frequently. Stay tuned!

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

2008-11-18T19:24:00.004-05:00

Several months ago my parents took a trip to Hershey, PA, and my mom brought me back a cute little tin full of Hershey recipes. My parents came over Sunday night for dinner (cheesesteaks from Danny Mac's), and I told Neil to select a recipe from the Hershey box and I would make it for dessert.

What Neil selected was Hot Fudge Pudding Cake.

Hershey's Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Hershey's Cocoa, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 cups hot water
Whipped topping (make it yourself, it's better!)

1. Heat oven to 350° F.
2. Stir together 3/4 cup granulated sugar, flour, 1/4 cup cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, butter and vanilla; beat until smooth. Pour batter into ungreased 9-inch square baking pan. Stir together remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle mixture evenly over batter. Pour hot water over top. Do not stir.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Let stand 15 minutes; spoon into dessert dishes, spooning sauce from bottom of pan over top. Garnish with whipped topping. Makes about 8 servings.

For the whipped topping I combined one cup heavy whipping cream, a tablespoon of sugar, and a half teaspoon of vanilla. I beat it on high until it was whipped cream. (There is no excuse for Cool Whip!)

Anyway, the cake. I don't know how, but we managed not to take any photos of it. But basically what happens is that the top turns into something cakey in texture, and the bottom turns into a thick gooey chocolate sauce. It's really neat! And also incredibly good. It's very rich without being overly sweet and disgusting.

What's really awesome (and kind of dangerous) about this is that it's made of stuff I always have in the house. And it's super quick and easy. I can make a gooey chocolate dessert (something I get a craving for not infrequently) whenever I want and with minimal effort! And now you can too!

Fun Article from the NYT

2008-11-17T09:00:00.002-05:00

This kid is totally awesome: 12-Year-Old's a Food Critic, and the Chef Loves It.

Reunited and It Feels So Good

2008-11-09T20:24:00.009-05:00

As you may or may not recall (or know the details of), Neil and I broke up back in May and I moved into my own place. It was good that we broke up, because there was no other way for us to resolve certain issues that had been plaguing our relationship. I felt strongly that I needed to be on my own for a bit to get my head on straight and figure out what I really needed out of a relationship.

In August we went on vacation together and came home with a tentative agreement that we wanted to try things again. We quickly fell back into the swing of our relationship and things were great. The only problem was that not only had I just signed a lease, I loved (and continue to love) my new apartment, in particular my kitchen. It has an obscene amount of counter space and cabinets, as well as a dishwasher. Neil's kitchen, in contrast, is a bit of a cook's nightmare; no dishwasher, few cabinets, and literally almost no counter space.

At first I thought I would just wait until my lease was up and move back in with Neil, since we were spending most nights together again and were quite in the habit of sharing a residence, having done so for two and half years. But I really, really didn't want to give up my new place. So then we talked about him selling his house and moving in with me, but in this market that didn't seem wise or even necessarily possible. We finally came up with a plan: Neil (and our cat and dog) would move in with me, and a friend of ours would rent Neil's house.

Why am I going into all of this in my food blog? Because today, although all of Neil's stuff is still at his house, we moved the pets over, and I imagine Neil will be sleeping here from now on. Today felt like the first day of really being reunited as a household. And one of the things that made it feel that way is that we cooked.

I decided to make a roast for dinner. I'd never done this before, so I started simply and used this recipe. I also decided to make mashed potatoes using this recipe. I've made mashed potatoes many times before, always improvising the ingredients, with various degrees of success. I decided to use a recipe this time so I'd have predictably delicious results. We rounded out our grocery shopping with some asparagus and frozen rolls, as well as some Granny Smith apples for an Alice Waters apple tart.

The roast was ridiculously easy. I used two cans of cream of mushroom with garlic soup, mixed it with the onion soup mix, slathered it all over the meat, and baked it for four hours. While that was in the oven (and in between putting coats of polyurethane on my dining room table) we had a light lunch:

Benedictine sandwiches with fresh cucumber and turkey bacon. Mmmmmm.

After that I made some pastry dough for the apple tart using Alice Waters's recipe. If you already own The Art of Simple Food (and really, you should), the dough recipe is on page 174, and the the apple tart recipe is on page 180. I'm not going to transcribe the recipes here because: 1) I feel a little squicky about the copyright implications of doing so and 2) I'm lazy. Suffice it to say that the dough involves flour, a ton of butter, and a little bit of water, and making the tart is a matter of rolling out the dough into a circle, arranging a bunch of sliced apples on it, folding over the edges, brushing (or drizzling) the whole thing with more butter, and sprinkling it with sugar. (And we added some cinnamon too, though it wasn't in the recipe.)

Dinner really practically made itself. The roast worked its magic in the oven, we cooked the potatoes and mixed them with their butter and milk, and we wrapped up the asparagus in foil with some olive oil and tossed it in the oven. When dinner came out of the oven the apple tart went in.

I must say, there was an awful lot of anticipation surrounding this roast, both because it was my first one and because it made my entire apartment smell amazing. We were really excited about trying it. We unfurled the foil packet to find..

Delicious steaming meat!

It was so tender that I had trouble getting it onto our plates; it kept falling apart. I know that using two cans of soup and a packet of soup mix does not equate to gourmet cooking and that Alice Waters herself would not approve of all these processed, packaged foods, but damn this roast was good! Tender, juicy, flavorful, and emerging from the oven in a package of its own gravy, which required absolutely no effort on my part. I approve!

A plate full of deliciousness!

Just as we finished dinner and relaxed with our wine (a 2006 Mirassou cab), the apple tart was ready.

Mmmmmm, rustic!

The beauty of Alice Waters's cooking lies in the beauty of food itself: simple recipes with real ingredients taste better and are better for us and the environment. This apple tart was amazing; the crust was flaky and tender, and I don't think I even have to describe what happens when you mix apples, butter, sugar, and cinnamon. I think next time I might try this in a turnover format, perhaps with apples and cream cheese.

Now Neil and I are sitting in the living room using our respective laptops, drinking our wine and watching as Franklin, our cat, slinks around his new home (he spent at least an hour hiding inside the sofa, but is now bravely investigating the rest of the room). I love these days of easy couple-ness - running errands together, doing odd jobs around the house, and ending the day with an amazing meal that we have planned and prepared together. I started to enjoy cooking around the same time I was falling in love with Neil, and I think those two things will be forever intertwined.

Here's to pot roast, and to us!

The Cheapest Dinner in Town

2008-11-05T21:11:00.003-05:00

Times are tough all over. A lot of us have watched our retirement savings shrivel away, some of us have lost our jobs, and one in five (soon to be one in four) homeowners owes more on their mortgage than their house is worth. The immediate economic future isn't looking too bright. But fear not! I am here with happy financial news:

Neil and I have discovered how we can have dinner for two for $3.19. $3.19. Value has spoken to us, and her name is Double Dragon.

Neil and I have known the cheapness of Double Dragon for a while; we often split an order of General Tso's chicken (half an order is still almost too much), paying about $8 for the entree and an extra eggroll in addition to the one it comes with. Our latest discovery, however, is that our very own Germantown Chinese take-out establishment will sell us two two-cup containers of soup - I favor egg drop, while Neil likes hot and sour - for $3.19. We found this out recently when we waited too late in the day for lunch and didn't want to ruin our appetites for dinner. I'd been craving egg drop, and we thought soup sounded like a good snack. Both soups ended up being hearty and plentiful enough to serve as meals on their own. We just had them again tonight and we continued to marvel over the fact that we got dinner for $3.19!

(And as if that weren't enough, Neil also got the following fortune in his cookie: "A man's best possession is a sympathetic wife." Free sexism to boot!)

Double Dragon
1255 Goss Ave Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 635-5656

Happy Election Day from Blog Tartare!

2008-11-03T22:52:00.002-05:00

Beer Bulletin

2008-10-20T20:39:00.002-04:00

I have several things I've been meaning to blog about here, but I want to say right now, while I'm waiting for my Lotsa Pasta pizza to finish baking, that Stone Brewing's Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout is damn fine beer. It is everything I like in a beer: dark, thick, pleasantly bitter, and high alcohol. It's their special 12th anniversary beer, and I'm going to have to stock up on it before it's gone. Wow. Try it!

Old Man at the Fringe Fest

2008-10-07T19:43:00.004-04:00

In better news, Neil's band, Old Man, will be playing at the New Albanian Brewing Company's Fringe Fest this Thursday, October 9, at 7:00. The Fringe Fest promises to be a pretty great event to begin with, what with its awesome beer and everything, and having Old Man there makes it even more exciting. And it's the day after my birthday, so you should definitely come out and buy me a beer!

Benefit for Adam

2008-10-07T19:02:00.005-04:00

People, something infuriating has happened. Adam Tatum, the owner of Oak Street Pizza, was shot during an armed robbery on Sunday. He was shot after he emptied the register and his pockets and apparently did not produce enough cash to satisfy the gunman. As a former resident of Old Louisville and a fan of Oak Street Pizza, I find this really upsetting. I mean, here is a dude just doing his thing, trying to make it in this shitty economy by selling delicious pizzas, and he gets shot! WTF?

The good news is, Derby City Espresso is hosting a fundraiser for Adam next Thursday, October 16. DCE will donate a dollar of every drink sold, and there's also going to be an awesome silent auction featuring, among many other things:

- A stay at the Gallery House Bed & Breakfast
- Gift certificates and shirts from the Charlestown Pizza Company
- A five-course Nuevo Latino tasting from Seviche
- A $50 gift card from Impellizzeri's
- Two hours of photography or photography lessons from Neil
- Tons of other great stuff that's in the process of being organized

Additionally, live jazz will be provided by the Outfit (which features my former student Jake on bass).

Come on out to DCE next Thursday for a good time and a good cause!

Wine please!

2008-09-30T22:33:00.002-04:00

So apparently Kentucky is considering grocery store wine sales again. I've always found it a little wacky that when I vacation on the Gulf Coast of Alabama - a state, by the way, that bans sex toys - I can pick up a few bottles of wine as I do my grocery shopping, but when I come home it's back to the liquor store.

I do feel for the local wine shops that could be affected by this. On the other hand, though, Kentucky is one of only 16 states that don't allow wine sales in grocery stores, and I feel certain that those other 34 states still have plenty of wine and spirit shops. When I'm looking for something special I'm going to go to Old Town, but when I want a cheap bottle of whatever to go with a week-night dinner, I would love to be able to pick it up at Kroger along with my dinner ingredients. The wine I would buy at the the grocery store would be in addition to the wine I get at my favorite wine shops, not instead of it.

But wait! Wine in grocery stores could "expose more children to alcohol products"! Which is why they don't sell beer at the grocery store. Or liquor at the drug store. Or... oh, yeah. Nice try, Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of Kentucky!

I really hope this passes. I know we all have much bigger political fish to fry right now, but this - unlike, say, the Wall Street bail-out - would have a direct and immediate positive impact on my life. If we're all going to be forced into the bread line, we ought to have some wine to go with it!

Danny Mac's Cheesesteaks

2008-09-21T12:49:00.005-04:00

My dad is from outside of Philadelphia, and one of my favorite things about going to visit that side of the family is getting an authentic cheesesteak. In particular, there's a grungy little basement place on South Street that I always try to make it into called La Pizzeria. Truth be told, I might go for the atmosphere as much as I do the cheesesteaks, especially around Christmas when the place is decorated with slightly sad, ancient-looking tinsel. The cheesesteaks are definitely good, though. As you can see from the photo, they're loaded with shredded beef, cheese, peppers, onions, and mushrooms, and served on a nicely toasted bun. Neil, pictured below at La Pizzeria, had never had a cheesesteak, authentic or otherwise, until I took him to Philly a few years ago. He was immediately hooked, and we often wondered whether a decent cheesesteak was to be found anywhere in our fair River City.

I had heard over at Louisville HotBytes that a place in Louisville called Danny Mac's was serving up authentic Philly cheesesteaks, but for some reason, we never got around to checking them out. Then a few weeks go we accidentally drove by the place and realized that it's about five minutes from my house. Friday night we decided it was high time we give Danny Mac and his cheesesteaks a try.

Danny Mac's doesn't have a website per se, but they do have a rather bombastic little blog trumpeting the superiority of their food. We called to confirm that they were in fact open after the Great Wind Storm and Subsequent Blackout of 2008 and headed over.

Neil and I both ordered cheesesteaks with everything (peppers, onions, and mushrooms) and were informed that they'd be ready in 15 minutes. Because I recently started watching Battlestar Galactica on DVD and have been having trouble dragging myself off Neil's sofa to do anything else, we decided to get the steaks to go, and also to run over to the liquor store while they were being made to get a 6-pack of the BBC's Dark Star Porter. We got our beer, went back to Danny Mac's, and waited. And waited. Fifteen minutes ended up being more like 25 or 30. But friends, these cheesesteaks were worth the wait.

We got home, settled in with our BSG and beer, and opened our styrofoam boxes. Inside were huge (and very hot) foiled-wrapped packages of heaven. We unwrapped our sandwiches to find big, perfectly toasted rolls overflowing with meat and toppings, served with cups of au jus. They were every bit as good as any cheesesteak I've ever had in Philly (and definitely better than some). Neil and I were giddy. As good as it was, I couldn't even finish mine. Neil was all too happy to help.

I'm eager to try Danny Mac's pizza and see if it lives up to all of its creator's hype. I'd typically be skeptical, but that cheesesteak has made me a believer.

Danny Mac's Pizza
1014 Clarks Ln (right off Poplar Level, not far from Eastern Pwky)
502 635-7994

Mojito Again

2008-09-17T17:38:00.002-04:00

If my admittedly amateurish recent review of Mojito did not convince you of its awesomeness, perhaps you should check out Robin Garr's review instead. After reading that it's all I can do not to abandon my sensible roasted chicken dinner plans and go stuff myself with tapas!

Corbett's: An American Place

2008-09-16T08:21:00.003-04:00

There comes a certain level of dining at which I am wholly unqualified to write a review. Corbett's is at that level. I simply don't know enough about food or fine dining to really do it justice. But, as the saying goes, I know what I like, and I can at least tell you that I liked Corbett's very much.

There's been an awful lot of buzz about this restaurant since it opened. It was quickly relegated to the "maybe someday" category as far as I was concerned; this place is in the top echelon of Louisville dining, and I just don't have that kind of scratch right now. But then I read that they were offering a prix fixe lunch menu for the incredibly reasonable prix of $20. So I decided to take Neil for his birthday. We rounded up our friend Devon, an experienced fine diner, and made a reservation a week in advance.

Devon picked us up Saturday afternoon and off we went to the east end. And I have to say, the setting in which Corbett's is located is utterly ridiculous. Imagine this, if you will. The restaurant is located in a beautifully restored 1850 farmhouse. There are huge, ancient trees out front. A wide porch wraps around the front. It's really quite lovely and idyllic. Now allow your mental camera to pull back a bit. You will realize that this farmhouse is situated immediately in front of a Costo. Practically in their parking lot, in fact. Pull back a little farther and you will see sprawl at its very worst; shopping center after shopping center, ugly cookie-cutter house after ugly cookie-cutter house. You realize that Corbett's might be the only building in the area that's more than five years old. Corbett's and its mature trees sit like a defiant island in the middle of all this, and the effect is honestly a little horrifying. (It's also worth noting, by the way, that this charming old house is located on a street called Norton Healthcare Boulevard. How quaint.)

No matter. Once you're inside it's easy enough to forget the nightmare of urban planning that surrounds you. I could describe the interior, but you could just go to their website for a look; the photo on the front page is exactly where we were sitting. (Aside: Look how white and affluent-looking everyone is! That's how you know it's really Fine Dining!) Anyway, we were right next to a window, and the dining room was light-filled and airy. We all immediately felt that we were somewhere special.

Our server was a very nice young man named TJ. (I feel like I'm 60 years old referring to anyone as a "young man," but he mentioned that he is in fact the same age as Chef Dean Corbett's other restaurant, Equus - 23. And TJ was awfully competent and knowledgeable for someone his age, so it's worth noting.)

Neil and I ordered iced tea, while Devon selected a bottle of wine. Since Devon was driving, we felt obligated to share with him. I don't know what he ordered - it was a Riesling of some sort - but it was delicious. I'll have to ask him what it was.

Anyway, we all decided to go for the prix fixe menu. To start, we had a choice of a Bibb lettuce salad or the soup of the day. I opted for the salad, which came lightly dressed and with strawberries, feta, and carmelized onions. Neil and Devon chose the soup, which I don't remember much about. It featured some kind of grain that I don't think I'd ever heard of - TJ compared it to barley - and vegetables and country ham. Neil and Devon approved, and I liked what I tasted of it, though I found it to be a bit salty.

For our main courses, I chose the tomato and goat cheese tart, while Neil and Devon opted for the cracker crusted chicken. My tart was eggy and filled with veins of creamy goat cheese, with halved grape tomatoes adding a nice tang. It came with a side of mixed greens with a balsamic vinaigrette. The chicken was served with a summer vegetable medley and a mountain of mashed potatoes. I tasted the chicken and potatoes and both were fine.

For dessert Neil and I chose the berries and cream, which came to the table in a feathery phyllo shell. It was beautiful and delicious. Devon had a chocolate cake with blueberry sauce, which he seemed to enjoy.

Overall, it was a wonderful meal in a beautiful setting with good service. Quibbles:

1. The music. It was clearly selected with a Baby Boomer audience in mind. It was like listening to my parents' copy of Reader's Digest's Most Beautiful Songs of the Century. Or possibly Lawrence Welk. And while it certainly wasn't anywhere near too loud to talk over, it was a little too loud to ignore. I would have been much happier with some jazz.

2. I used my knife for my salad and never got a new one for my entree. I actually have no idea if it's proper to use your knife for your salad, but there wasn't really any other way for me to get Bibb lettuce into my mouth without making a mess. And I've been to other restaurants (L&N comes to mind) where I've used my knife before the main course and had it replaced without my having to ask. Yes, this is minor, but at a certain caliber of restaurant, I think it's to be expected.

3. Related to #2, TJ never came to check on us during the meal, so I had no opportunity to ask for a knife. I hate it when servers won't leave you alone and let you eat, but I do like to be be checked on one during the entree. This lack of knife meant that I had to be extremely gauche and cut the crust of my tart with the side of my fork. Neil had to look away, lest he lose his appetite completely.

Those are really my only complaints. I'm looking forward to someday returning to Corbett's for dinner, although with dinner entrees averaging in the $30 range, it's going to be a while. I'd better start saving.

Goat's Milk

2008-09-13T10:55:00.002-04:00

I get pretty regular cravings for goat's milk. I never actually act on these cravings, because I'm not much of a milk drinker to begin with, and I can't imagine myself sitting down with a nice tall glass of goat's milk - at least not often enough to go through a whole carton of the stuff without it going bad.

The other day I had a rather random idea about how to serve goat's milk. A very small cup of it, heated, served with a couple of exceptionally good ginger snaps. I think the sweetness and slight bite of the cookies would be a nice compliment to the creamy funk of the milk.

I have a set of demitasses that I inherited from my grandmother (along with several gorgeous tea sets) and I think they'd be well-suited to this idea. Now I just have to find at least one other person who's willing to drink goat's milk with me! I love this idea as an after-dinner dessert, but I don't think many of my friends would go for it. Neil probably would, to humor me. Perhaps I'll try it on him and see what happens.

Mojito = Goat Cheese Heaven

2008-09-07T21:47:00.003-04:00

Tonight my parents took me and Neil to dinner at Mojito for Neil's birthday, which was Wednesday. (Neil and I, by the way, have gotten back together. That's good news for this blog, because I had kind of lost my joie de food blogging without him. But all of that is for another entry.) I had read on Louisville HotBytes about their new, more Spanish-influenced menu, and I was excited about trying it.

We got there at 5:45 (we planned to go early to beat the rush) and were seated immediately on the patio. The weather was perfect. It took a little longer than expected for anyone to offer us drinks, but eventually they did, and Neil, my dad and I all enjoyed mojitos. If someone makes a better mojito than Mojito does, I would like to try it. They are just fantastic.

Someday I will get used to being a food blogger and I will actually make notes about the names and contents of the dishes that I eat. But I'll try to describe it as best I can. Neil and I had two favorites from the old menu that had made the cut and two new items. We started with our beloved Ensalada Mediterranea (lettuce, Marcona almonds, pine nuts, shaved fig bread, feta cheese, olives, grapes, raisins, and cucumbers with a muscatel dressing). (I actually lifted that description from a previous Blog Tartare entry about Mojito and I'm not sure if it's still entirely accurate, but the salad was still entirely delicious!) Then came the Queso Fundido, a bowl of melted cheese mixed with chorizo and (I think) Serrano ham, served with bread. Next we had a dish whose name escapes me; it was a mushroom gratin with goat cheese and potatoes, also served with bread. And finally we had flat bread topped with duck confit, marmalade, greens, and goat cheese. We ended the meal with goat cheese flan and Cuban coffee.

Everything was fantastic. The service was a little off; drink refills were kind of hard to come by, and at least four times (possibly five) various servers tried to deliver food to our table that didn't belong to us. But the lovely weather and outstanding food made up for it.

I must say, between this dinner and having recently seen Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I'm dying to go back to Spain. I could do some awesome food blogging there. Someone should give me some grant money!

Back in the Saddle (or Apron)

2008-07-13T21:28:00.002-04:00

I must say, since Neil and I split up about a month and a half ago, my food life has really changed. I don't do a whole lot of cooking anymore because it's just me, and I can't afford to go out to eat nearly as often as I used to. While in theory I like the idea of cooking for myself so that I'll have several nights' worth of leftovers, the reality is that I get a lot more enjoyment out of cooking when I'm doing it for someone else. Food is a sensual thing and it's meant to be shared. I just don't get as much out of it when I don't have someone else's nose under which I can thrust a bunch of fresh-from-the-garden herbs, or another tongue onto which I can place a bit of divine Capriole goat cheese.

My parents have been extremely generous to me over the course of my setting up housekeeping, so tonight I had them over for dinner as a tiny token of my appreciation. Because I'm a bit out of practice cooking (and because I was honestly never that competent to begin with), I decided to do something simple and make a pizza. My mom declared this one of the best pizzas she's ever eaten, which I think might be a bit of hyperbole, but it was pretty darn tasty.

I started with some ingredients from Lotsa Pasta. They have wonderful frozen balls of pizza dough, so I picked up one of those, some Italian sausage, and a container of basil tomato sauce. The sausage came as links, so when I got home I busted two of them open, took the meat out of the casing, and crumbled it in a skillet. Then I sauteed some garlic, onions, and portobello mushrooms. I rolled out the dough, baked it for a few minutes as directed, and then topped it with the sauce, veggies, sausage, and some Kraft Italian Style Five Cheese (yes, I know I could have used better cheese, but I'm not made of money!). It baked for about 10 minutes and came out all covered in golden deliciousness. It really was incredibly good, and except for the dough, I have enough ingredients left over to do it again. And I plan to!

For dessert we had strawberry shortcake. This was sort of a last-minute dessert idea, so I didn't have time to make the shortcakes myself. I did, however, whip my own whipped cream, which was delightful. (Seriously, why does anyone use store-bought whipped cream? It takes 30 seconds to make and it's so much better.) The strawberries were surprisingly good for being from Kroger.

Overall it was a very easy and very good meal. Now that I finally have some dining room furniture and most of what I think I need for my kitchen (though I realized tonight that I lack a pizza cutter), I'm going to have to start doing some more entertaining. I have a really wonderful kitchen and I want to get a lot of use out of it!

It's alive!

2008-06-19T08:25:00.002-04:00

Blog Tartare, that is!

2008 has been more full of change and major events both happy and sad than I ever could have imagined. Most significantly, Neil and I decided that while we really love each other, we have certain incompatibilities that are, when we're really honest with ourselves and each other, deal-breakers when it comes to marriage. So we have gone our separate ways. I moved into my own place May 31. Fortunately we have remained friends, and I have remained in Germantown just a few blocks away, so we are still eating together a lot.

I had planned to blog about how wonderful my new kitchen is and about the challenges of trying to stock a kitchen from scratch (I left all the food with Neil), but I think instead I will take a moment to reflect on the wonderful food adventures that Neil and I had together.

Neil took me to Vietnam Kitchen on our second date; it was my first time there, and it blew my mind. Soon into our relationship we started cooking together, which was something of an ordeal because I had no idea what I was doing and was also, paradoxically, a total control freak. Over our three and a half years together we sampled poutine in Montreal, ridiculous quantities of seafood in Gulf Shores, cheesesteaks and the delicacies of Morimoto in Philadelphia, and street vendor hot dogs in New York. We introduced each other to our favorite local restaurants and tried new places together. We got excited over my mama's pot roast together. We took field trips to Jungle Jim's and spent hours marveling over the acres of food. And we cooked and cooked together. One of our favorite traditions was Sunday breakfast, and even though Neil's kitchen leaves a lot to be desired in terms of counter space and other amenities, I will forever remember how happy I was in that kitchen, listening to Sunday morning jazz on WFPK and cooking for and with him.

Bah, writing this is making me teary, so I should stop. But I would like to publicly thank Neil for three and a half years of love, friendship, and wonderful food.

Granola Love

2008-04-03T18:10:00.004-04:00

To say that I have never been much of a breakfast person isn't entirely accurate. In fact, I love breakfast. The thing is, I only love it some of the time. I love it if it's a leisurely weekend morning and Neil and I are drinking bloody maries and listening to Getz/Gilberto while we cook, and I love it if I'm at a great breakfast spot like Wild Eggs, Lynn's Paradise Cafe, or my mama's kitchen. But when I'm dragging my ass out of bed on a weekday morning and trying to get myself ready to be at work at the unholy hour of 8:00, breakfast is not much of a priority.

I've been this way since high school, when breakfast consisted of a cup of coffee and a Bugs Bunny vitamin. Since then I've dabbled in toast, bagels, crumpets, muffins, and other quick, delicious carb-fests that left me feeling hungry sooner than I would have if I'd eaten nothing at all. If you ever asked me to skip lunch or dinner I'd laugh in your face, but it's not at all unusual for me to have nothing but coffee for breakfast.

Since everyone is always harping on the importance of breakfast, however, I recently decided that I should make an effort to eat it. Not the kind of effort that requires cooking or anything, though. But I decided that I could handle pouring some stuff in a bowl and spooning it into my mouth. I don't really care for cold cereal, though. (Except for the occasional guilty pleasure bowl of Lucky Charms.) So, what to do?

Enter Ellie Krieger and her granola recipe.

I picked up Krieger's cookbook, The Food You Crave, several weeks ago. I'd never seen her Food Network show or even heard of her, but I was in the market for a healthy cookbook that did not rely on a bunch of processed, fortified, low-fat, bullshit "food." This book definitely fits that bill, so I bought it. And found her wonderful, easy, delicious, good-for-me granola recipe inside.

Granola has had some image problems over the years. First it was considered healthy but goofy hippie food. Then people started looking at the nutritional info for granola and saying "Hey, this isn't really that good for me!" Ellie Krieger's granola recipe saves the day by managing to be natural, moderate on the calories, and super yummy. I know this will sound ridiculous, but I actually wake up each morning feeling excited that I get to eat this granola!

Nutty Granola
Cooking Spray
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup chopped raw, unsalted walnuts
1/2 cup chopped unsalted almonds
1/2 cup chopped unsalted pecans
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins, optional

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl combine the oats, nuts, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon and the raisins, if using. Spread the mixture onto the baking sheet and bake until golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Transfer the sheet to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

This makes 9 half-cup servings. Neil and I eat it mixed with a half-cup of low-fat organic plain yogurt. It's more delicious than it has any right to be!

Customer Service, Good and Bad

2008-04-01T18:43:00.005-04:00

I am happy to say that I rarely experience truly bad service in restaurants. Of course, sometimes it takes a little longer than it should to get my food, sometimes a server is inattentive or even surly, and sometimes orders get messed up. It happens. But when I stopped the regular excursions to Denny's of my early 20s, I generally stopped experiencing really horrifically bad service.

Until Wednesday.

The culprit, I'm sad to say, was my beloved Third Avenue Cafe. Neil and I hadn't been out to eat in a while and I was really in the mood to do so. It wasn't just that I didn't feel like shopping for food or cooking; I was really in the mood for the experience of sitting in a restaurant and enjoying a meal. I was also really craving a cheeseburger. Off to Third Avenue we went.

We needed to be in St. Matthews at 7:45, but we got to the restaurant at 6:15 and figured that would give us plenty of time, especially because they weren't at all busy; the place was maybe 1/4 full. We were promptly seated and ordered drinks. They came quickly and Neil and I each ordered cheeseburgers, mine medium-well and his medium-rare. I also ordered tomato soup and Neil ordered coleslaw. Even though I love their fries, I made a conscious decision not to order them, because I'm trying to curtail my fried food intake.

We didn't note the time that we ordered, because, frankly, we weren't expecting it to matter. How long could it take to get two cheeseburgers in a 1/4-full restaurant on a Wednesday night? Suffice it to day, it was no later than 6:30 when we ordered.

So then we waited for our food. And waited and waited and waited. Our server was strangely absent. Eventually she appeared with a complimentary basket of fries "Because it's taking a while." Even though my brain didn't want fries, my belly did, and I was thus appreciative. I would have been more appreciative though if she had told us why it was taking so long or, more importantly, how much longer it would take. But she did not. And then she disappeared again.

We continued to wait. Meanwhile, people who had arrived after we did got their food, ate, and left. Two humble cheeseburgers! What could possible be the problem?!

7:15 came and went. It was becoming clear that we were not going to get our food in time to eat it. Since our server was steadfastly avoiding our table, Neil got up and approached her and told her that we were going to need our food to go, since we were not going to have time to eat. She stared at him blankly and eventually showed some sign of understanding.

And still we waited.

Finally, just as I was asking Neil if he wanted to leave, a man approached our table with our food. He said he was the manager, that they only had one cook that night, that he was very sorry, and that "this kind of thing doesn't happen here." (But guess what! It did!) He said he'd throw in two free desserts for our trouble. At that point we didn't care. We had 15 minutes to get from Old Louisville to St. Matthews. We just wanted our food and our receipt and to get the hell out of there.

We arrived at our appointment with a few minutes to spare and decided to dig into our food while we could. Here we experienced the final insult: our medium-well and medium-rare burgers were both well-done, I had coleslaw instead of soup, and we had no napkins or utensils.

Wow.

Did Third Avenue Cafe try to make this up to us by plying us with free fries and desserts? Indeed they did. But neither of us felt that this was an acceptable way to handle the situation. Instead they could have:

1. Told us up front that they were short-staffed and that the food would take a while.
2. Tell us that the cheeseburgers (for some reason I still cannot fathom) were going to take an especially long time and advise us to order something else (since everyone else in the restaurant seemed to be getting their food in a timely fashion).
3. Assuming that the delay was in fact unforeseen, apologize and give us some reasonable expectation of when our food might arrive.
4. Give us our food on the house.

#4 is what really galls me. I went to Third Avenue specifically because I wanted a nice dinner in a restaurant, and they totally screwed that up for me. I get angry all over again when I think about the fact that we spent $28 on this meal which, when we finally got to eat it, was not even prepared correctly.

Third Avenue Cafe, you break my heart. Every year around this time I get antsy to go sit at one of your sidewalk tables and enjoy a beer and some delicious food. But I don't know if I can forgive you for this. Neil has vowed that he will never return.

:(

On the other end of the spectrum, however, we have an unlikely hero: Starbucks. I have to state up front that I am a big local coffee fan and that Starbucks is not a place I frequent. I have no reason to when there are so many awesome local coffee joints in this city. However, yesterday Neil and I were headed back from a wonderful day at the new Cincinnati Ikea, and we decided to break up that long stretch of I-71 with coffee break. So we stopped at the Starbucks in Florence.

Neil had to go to the bathroom and didn't tell me what he wanted first, so I went ahead and ordered and received my drink. Then Neil came out and ordered his. We chatted for a few minutes while we waited, but it seemed to be taking a little longer than it should have. Neil approached the counter and asked about his drink. Oops! It had somehow fallen through the cracks. It would be right out, they said.

Indeed, the drink was ready just a few minutes later. But instead of just calling it out when it was done, an employee brought it over to our table, apologized again, and handed Neil a voucher for a free drink. They took this relatively minor lapse in service very seriously, and we were duly impressed. Good on Starbucks, but how terribly sad that this corporate giant was more concerned about a few-minute delay on a cup of coffee than a beloved local restaurant was that they ruined our entire dinner.

I never thought I'd say that anyone could take a lesson from Starbucks, but Third Avenue Cafe definitely could.

I'm back. No, really!

2008-03-15T09:47:00.003-04:00

A whole month since my last post? Sacrebleu! In my defense, I have had a pretty crazy month. I've been working on my final project for my master's degree, I started an awesome new job, and Neil and I got engaged. Things have been a bit whirlwind-ish of late! Hopefully these are valid excuses for my neglect of Blog Tartare.

So many things have happened food-wise in the last month that I have wanted to write about. My first (amazing) meal at Proof on Main. Sushi in the City. Our friend Lisa's wine and cheese party. The ever-increasing awesomeness of ValuMarket. My nascent herb garden. My first two wonderful meals at Cafe Lou Lou. All the various food events that I haven't been keeping up with. (I've even been neglecting the Louisville HotBytes forums, which are my Internet crack!)

The good news is that things seem to be settling down a bit around here. The other good news is my new job has put us in a position such that the city's top restaurants are no longer financially out of our reach. Which is not to say, of course, that we'll be eating at those places all the time. But I think we'll be able to manage a splurgey meal every month or two. There are a lot of places that have been on my list for a long time that I'm finally going to get to try. I can't wait!

You may have noticed that although this blog is supposed to be a joint venture between me and Neil, I've done all of the writing up to this point. Neil, however, dined at 610 Magnolia last night. If he's going to go to 610 Magnolia without me, I think the least he can do is provide Blog Tartare with a review. I'm going to do some arm-twisting when he gets home and see what I can do about that. Stay tuned!

Events!

2008-02-15T09:20:00.002-05:00

Okay, here are some happenings that are on the Blog Tartare radar. They are also now on the Blog Tartare Google Calendar. If you have any hot tips, let me know!

Organic Wine Tasting at Gemelli
Feb 19 & 21, 6:30 pm
This month the tasting series will explore organic wine, and winemaking. Two classes are available: Tuesday, February 19th, and Thursday February 21st. Each class is from 6:30-7:30pm. $15 per person. Class is limited to 16 people, reservations required.

Gemelli Wine & Spirits
3626 Brownsboro Rd
502 895.1400

Huber Winery Wine Tasting at RockWall Bistro
Feb 20, 6:30 pm
Ted Huber from Huber Winery will be at the Rockwall on Wednesday February 20th for a wine tasting. Chef Alex Bomba will create appetizers to accompany the wines. $25. Call for reservations.

RockWall Bistro
3426 Paoli Pike
New Albany IN
812 948-1705

Sushi in the City
March 4, 5:30 pm
This is the event that I'm super excited about, but I might be out of town for it! If I am, I think I will cry. My two favorite sushi places, Sakura Blue and Maido, are participating. From the release:

Louisville’s top sushi chefs are sharpening their knives for a "roll off," a fund-raising competition in which one chef will reign supreme, at Sushi in the City, set for Tuesday, March 4, from 5:30-9 p.m. at The Henry Clay, Third and Chestnut streets. Participants will taste and vote for their favorites to select the Best Sushi in the City for 2008. There'll also be desserts, a silent auction and entertainment. Admission is $60 a person, with a $10 discount for members of young professionals’ organizations. Proceeds will benefit Louisville’s Project Women, a nonprofit agency that provides housing and educational assistance to help homeless single mothers and their families break the cycle of poverty. For information, visit the Project Women website. For details on Sushi in the City, click here.

Belgian Beer Dinner at Corbett's "An American Place"
March 4, 7:00 pm

Corbett's "An American Place" invites you to an evening of Belgian Ales and lambics paired with Chef Chris Howerton’s cuisine. Hosted by Pete Larson of Wetten Imports. Call for reservations.

Corbett's "An American Place"
5050 Norton Healthcare Blvd
502 327-5058

Returning

2008-02-15T08:06:00.007-05:00

Oh, Blog Tartare. How I've neglected you. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but there are, indeed, only so many hours in a day. I started this blog during a lull in my employment, but now that I'm working again (temping, and starting a new and exciting Real Job in the next few weeks), I haven't made as much time for blogging as I would have liked. I especially dropped the ball on the Valentine's Day events. Oops.

Also - and I'm hesitant to say this because it seems anathema to a food blog - I went back to Weight Watchers about a week and a half ago. It's going really well and hasn't put much of a damper on my food life. But as I've said before, this is not going to turn into a diet blog. I feel quite confident that I can continue to write about food without letting on that I'm watching my girlish figure.

I really want to update the events calendar, so stay tuned for some posts about local food goings-on (including one event that I'm crazy excited about). In the meantime, in the spirit of busy-ness, I will share this super quick and easy recipe for black bean soup (which I recommend you eat with a grilled pepperjack sandwich). This soup is pretty much everything you could want in a food: it's fast, it's easy, it's cheap, and yes, it's low-fat and otherwise good for you. Most importantly, it's super tasty!

Black Bean Soup in a Hurry
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup chunky salsa
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 tablespoons sour cream (optional)
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion (optional)

1. Dump everything but the sour cream and green onion into the blender. Blend it.
2. Pour it into a sauce pan and heat it up.
3. Put it in some bowls. Garnish with sour cream and green onion if you feel like messing with it. Serves four.

Holy Crap

2008-02-03T23:19:00.000-05:00

We went to my parents' house for dinner tonight and my mom made bread pudding.

Out of croissants.

I just Googled this and it turns out to be not quite as radical as I had thought. Still, I had never heard of such a thing, and my mom said she just made the recipe up. It blew my mind and was by far the best bread pudding I've ever eaten. She said she'd write down the recipe for me, and when she does I'll post it. Yowza!

Lunch Today

2008-02-01T06:55:00.001-05:00

Up until August of last year I worked downtown, and Neil works in Clarksville. We'd frequently meet for lunch, usually with one of us driving to the other's place of employment and going to a restaurant from there. But then we found out about Lunch Today, and we only rarely went anywhere else for lunch after that. Not only was it located right in the middle between our two workplaces, it features all kinds of delicious sandwiches, salads, and soups. They have a nice patio and incredibly friendly counter service.

After I quit my downtown job we ate there less often. I'm in the process of finding a job that has something to do with my master's degree, and for now I'm temping. As fate would have it, this week I started a job in Jeffersonville that is within walking distance of Lunch Today (though I haven't actually been walking, because it's cold and gross outside). I've eaten there every day since Tuesday, and yesterday the women that work there said something about it. But what can I say? It's addictive! This week's special is one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten: a panini with ham, cheddar cheese, onions, mustard, and apple butter. I wasn't sure how well the mustard and apple butter were going to work together, but it turns out that it's a pretty amazing combination. The sandwich specials are frequently delicious and interesting, but the regular menu is wonderful too.

Sadly, Lunch Today is only open during the week, so if you don't work in the area you may never get to experience it. But if you work downtown you should definitely try it; it's just over the Second Street Bridge.

Lunch Today
590 Missouri Avenue Suite 100
Jeffersonville, IN 47130
812-282-1005

Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit Redux

2008-01-27T13:41:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid - and, frankly, well into my 20s - I loved the Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit from McDonald's. I don't eat at McDonald's anymore, and if you put said breakfast biscuit in front of me I'd be slightly grossed out. But I'd still be terribly tempted to eat it, partly out of nostalgia, and partly out of the fact that bacon, eggs, cheese, and biscuits are just a damned tasty combination.

Last week I made a beef stew that called for the beef to be browned in pork fat, so I bought some bacon. We're not at all in the habit of eating bacon, but I figured I'd fix bacon and eggs for breakfast today to try to use some of it up. But then I had an even better idea - bacon, egg, & cheese biscuits! Except with real food, instead of what McDonald's passes off as food! Wheee!

There's a recipe for cream biscuits in The Art of Simple Food, but it calls for heavy cream, which we didn't have, so I briefly considered my alternatives. One of these alternatives was a box of Bisquick in the cabinet. All that recipe wanted was Bisquick and milk, which we had. But then I looked at the ingredients in the Bisquick. Enriched bleached flour? Partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil?? Hell no! Off Neil went to the store to get me some heavy cream and a few other items.

The cream biscuit recipe called for all-purpose flour (Alice Waters likes unbleached and so do I), salt, baking powder, butter, and cream. "That was so easy," Neil said after the fact. "Why do people even use Bisquick?" Why, indeed.

The recipe was supposed to make eight small biscuits, but we ended up with four and a half big ones; they had to be big enough to make sandwiches with. I fried up a couple of pieces of Wellshire Farms peppered bacon and scrambled a couple of eggs. Neil invented a new fried potato recipe, which we have dubbed Scarborough Fair Potatoes; they're seasoned with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. This herbal cliché is actually a really good combination!

We assembled our bacon and eggs on our biscuits and added slices of Cabot's extra sharp white cheddar. This version of the McDonald's classic was barely even recognizable as the same meal. The biscuits were dense and buttery (as can be expected when you use six tablespoons of butter to make four and a half biscuits), the bacon was thick and crisp and peppery and just... bacony, and the cheese was tangy. (The eggs were, well, eggs.) The potatoes were perfectly seasoned. We've been drinking Jackson's Organic coffee all morning and putting heavy cream in it, reasoning that we don't have any other place to put heavy cream and it'll go bad before we can use it. Very decadent, indeed.

Just out of curiosity, I decided to compare our bacon, egg & cheese biscuit to McDonald's:

Our Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
552 calories, 38 grams of fat

McDonald's Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
480 calories, 31 grams of fat

Oops. However:

Our Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit
Biscuit - Unbleached all-purpose flour, heavy cream (heavy cream, skim milk, contains less than 1% of each of the following: mono- and diglycerides, polysorbate 80 and carrageenan), salt, baking powder (corn starch, bicarbonate of soda, sodium aluminum suflate, acid phosphate of calcium), butter (sweet cream, salt)

Egg - Just an egg, yo.

Bacon - Pork, sea salt, raw sugar, spices

Cheese - Pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes

McDonald's Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
Biscuit - Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), buttermilk (cultured fat free milk, guar gum, tapioca starch, salt, sodium citrate, carrageenan, locust bean gum, mono- and diglycerides, modified tapioca starch, food starch- modified), palm oil, water, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, sugar, leavening (sodium bicarbonate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate), partially hydrogenated soybean oil, soybean oil, soy lecithin, natural flavor (plant source). Prepared with Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservative), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).

Egg - Pasteurized whole eggs, food starch-modified, soybean oil, natural flavors (botanical source), sodium acid pyrophosphate, carrageenan gum, flavor enhancer [salt, maltodextrin, natural flavor (plant source), spices, herb, turmeric (color)], monosodium phosphate, citric acid, soy lecithin. Prepared with Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservative), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).

Bacon - Pork bellies cured with [water, salt, sugar, natural smoke flavor (plant source), sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite].

Cheese - American cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), water, milkfat, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, salt, sorbic acid (preservative), acetic acid, artificial color, soy lecithin and/or corn starch (added for slice separation).

Um, yeah. I'll stick with our version, thank you. I'll just use a less buttery biscuit recipe next time.

Weekend Round-up: Le Gallo Rosso and Maido

2008-01-21T09:50:00.000-05:00

Le Gallo Rosso
Friday night Neil and I met up with three other friends for dinner at Le Gallo Rosso. There has been quite a bit of buzz surrounding this restaurant but we hadn't tried it yet. What I'd heard and read most frequently about it was that the food is good and reasonably priced, the portions are huge, and diners are permitted to bring their own wine. Sounds good to me!

The restaurant is located in an alley off Bardstown Road, and they've created a lovely patio area that I can't wait to sit in when the weather warms up. There are separate dining rooms in front of and behind the kitchen; we were seated in the small room behind it. The atmosphere was cozy and festive, though the room was a bit chilly at times because of the frequent opening of the door. This seemed to be less of a problem as the evening wore on.

Small loaves of warm Italian bread were brought to the table in baskets and were accompanied by dishes of olive oil and sun-dried tomatoes for dipping. We gobbled this up, and our server brought us more bread several times. Next came the salads; Neil and I both had Caesar salads, which were very good. Two of our tablemates had the house salad, which comes as a bouquet of greens wrapped in a long slice of cucumber; they were very pretty, and I sort of wished that I'd ordered one for aesthetic reasons alone.

Our entrees arrived and were, as promised, huge. I packed up Neil's leftovers for lunch a little while ago and saw that of his two meatballs (which were stuffed with mozzarella), he'd only eaten about 2/3 of one of them. They were surely the biggest meatballs I've ever seen and, judging from the two small bites I managed to sneak from them at dinner, almost as delicious as they were big. Our companions enjoyed Betty's Deep Dish Lasagna and the Capellini Pompodoro.

Since I am on this little 30-day adventure in avoiding processed foods, I skipped the pasta and opted for the Chicken Artichoke & Sun Dried Tomato. It was described as "seared chicken breast topped with a white wine artichoke and sun dried tomato sauce." I thought that sounded delicious. But I ended up feeling as though I had gotten the evening's booby prize; while everyone around me was ooohing and aaahing over their meals, I was faced with two huge chicken breasts which, yes, came with artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes, but were not accompanied by any discernible sauce. They were incredibly bland. If this dish was, as Neil suggested, a nod to people who are on low-carb diets, it certainly succeeded in feeling like diet food (ridiculous portion-size notwithstanding). The small mound of risotto that accompanied the chicken was good, but perhaps only in comparison to the chicken.

The service, up to that point, had been slow, but we didn't mind. Our server was apologetic and seemed a bit frazzled, and we were well supplied with wine, so we were pretty forgiving. The only time I was really annoyed was when, after we'd finished our entrees, we were presented with the bill. He launched into an explanation of how he'd separated the checks on the ticket, only for one of us to have to interrupt him with "Are you offering dessert this evening?" Perhaps he was in a hurry to turn the table over, since by that point we'd been there for nearly three hours, but that was through no fault of ours.

Dessert was a vast improvement over my entree. Neil and I shared the berries and cream. Blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries were arranged on a pool of thick, sweet, vanilla-tinged (I think) cream. If I'd been in the privacy of my own home I would have licked the plate when the berries were gone. Another member of our group ordered tiramisu, only to find out that they were out it; he ordered cheesecake instead and was quite happy with it. And... I can't remember what the other members of our party had for dessert. (Lisa, feel free to comment and tell me!) Neil and I were both very impressed with the coffee and wondered where it was from; we've both noticed that restaurants with really good food often fall short when it comes to coffee (notable exception: Mayan Cafe, which serves Jackson's Organic). Le Gallo Rosso's coffee was quite good and I was excited to get a second cup of it.

Because I loved the atmosphere and, more importantly, because everyone else seemed to have great food, I am willing to overlook my boring chicken and give Le Gallo Rosso another chance. I'll even recommend it; just stay the hell away from that chicken (unless, you know, you like plain chicken breast for some reason).

(Aside: Ever since listening to Garlic and Sapphires, I can't get Ruth Reichl out of my head when dining at new restaurants. Neil feels the same way.)

Maido
I love, love Maido. I love the patio in the summer, and I love the dining room when the weather's bad. I love the small plates, the sushi, and I especially love the beer list. The service, if not always meticulous, is consistently friendly. It's one of my favorite restaurants.

Saturday night I experienced Maido in a whole new way; our friend Paul rented the karaoke room for his birthday party. Twelve of us squeezed into a back room that was set up with bench seating and tables (and a few extra chairs in our case) in a U-shape; at the front of the room was the karaoke machine. The moment I sat down and saw Paul and his wife Allison with their beers I knew that my 30-day beer fast was not going to last. I ordered - and loved - a Siberian Night. That was followed by two Left Hand Milk Stouts. Beer, I love you!

Anyway. I'm not going to review the food because I was moderately intoxicated and distracted by the karaoke; I will save that for another visit. Suffice it to say that it was, as always, extremely good. I will, however, review the karaoke. The catalog of songs was huge; I've never actually done karaoke in a bar before, so I can't compare it, but experienced karaoke-ers in our party thought it was quite comprehensive. (It did not, however, contain the one song I actually sing well, Ella Fitzgerald's "A Tisket, A Tasket.") The set-up they have is quite ingenious; there's a remote control sort of thing into which you enter the song number you want, and you can keep adding numbers to the queue while people are singing. We passed the remote around, adding songs, forgetting what order they were in, and then scrambling to grab a mic once our tunes started playing. We had SO. MUCH. FUN. By the end of the night we were all just singing along to all of the songs. (You should have heard our rousing rendition of "Sister Christian.") I like to think of myself as someone who can sort of sing, having done it all through school, but pretty much every single person in our party kicked my ass. Which was slightly demoralizing, but hopefully everyone was too drunk to remember how much I sucked.

I really, really want to do this again. The rates are not posted on Maido's website, but Neil thinks it's $50/hour. Which is kind of pricey, especially considering how quickly time flies when you have a big group of people. But if you can afford it - or if you can get everyone to go in with you on the cost of the room - it's definitely worth it.

Two events at Varanese

2008-01-17T11:35:00.000-05:00

90 Point Wine Dinner
Featuring the live jazz of Jeff Sherman
January 24th, 6 pm
$59 plus tax & gratuity

KUNDE ESTATE SAUVIGNON BLANC
Tempura Point Reyes Bleu Cheese and Dried Apricot

GEORGE DUBOEUF MORGON BEAUJOLAIS
Grilled Diver Scallop and Strawberry Gazpacho Napoleon Garnish with Baby
Arugula and Balsamic drizzle

CASTELLO DI MONASTERO TOSCANA
Duck Stuffed Ravioli atop Shaved Baby Fennel and Sweet Onions Accompanied by a Black Truffle Sauce Finished with Fois Gras

MONTECILLO GRAN RESERVA RIOJA
Smoked Braised Pork Belly Served Over Creamy Beans with Manchego Cheese, Roasted Pablano Pepper and Oven Dried Tomato

RENWOOD ZINFANDEL GRANDPERE
Moist Chocolate Cake Topped with a Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Icing served with a Sundried Cherry Jam

A Taste of Love
Featuring a menu of foods thought to have aphrodisiacal qualities
February 14, 5:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Oysters on the ½ Shell Topped with a Pineapple–Cilantro Salsa

Hearts of Romaine, Artichoke, and Palm Salad Dressed by Gorgonzola Cheese, Grape Tomatoes, and Raspberry-Honey Vinaigrette

Grilled Certified Angus Beef Tenderloin Finished with a Black Truffle Demi Glaze and Gnocchi Tossed with a Pesto Cream Sauce

Coriander Seared Ahi Tuna served over Crab Fried Rice and Hand Carved Baby Carrots Drizzled with a Passion Fruit-Ginger Hoisen

Moist Chocolate Cake Filled with a Sun-Dried Cherry Jam Topped with a Tahitian Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Icing

Varanese
2106 Frankfort Avenue
502 899-9904

Roses, Song and Chocolate

2008-01-17T10:46:00.000-05:00

The Event Design Group @ Event Design Library & Emporium is holding an event called Roses, Song and Chocolate: Celebrating Love & Friendship. The event is Friday, February 8, 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm. Says the press release:

At this fabulous February event, chocolate desserts featuring local Chocolate Artisans Fred Moore of Coco's Chocolate Cafe on Bardstown Road and Prospect, KY favorite, Lilliana Gross of Lilliana's Finest will be served; signature cocktails will be a highlight along with small plate appetizers by nios @917, while enjoying live music by guitarist Craig Wagner. There will also be Knit Lingerie modeled throughout the evening by featured local Event Design Emporium artisan Tonya Wagner.

Advanced ticket purchase encouraged with limited ticket availability at the door.
Please call T. Lynne @ 502.451.5377 for reservations, ticket purchase & event information.

Tickets: $15 single, $25 couple
Advance ticket purchase by Monday, February 4, 2008 encouraged.

A portion of ticket proceeds will benefit T. Lynne's charity of choice: Dress for Success!

Knit lingerie, eh? Veeeeeery interesting.

Event Design Group @ Event Design Library & Emporium
1325 Bardstown Rd
502 451-5377

Changing the Way I Eat

2008-01-17T09:55:00.000-05:00

I have decided that something needs to be done about my pudge. I blogged a week or so ago about the conflict between being a foodie and wanting to lose weight, and I think I'm ready now to take action.

There are several books influencing my strategy, and none of them are diet books. They are:

-In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
-What to Eat by Marion Nestle
-French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano
-The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

I first read French Women Don't Get Fat a couple years ago and recently picked it back up and re-read most of it. I bought What to Eat in August. I got The Art of Simple Food a couple months ago. I started reading In Defense of Food last night and can't put it down. All of these books are saying the same thing and in ways that make a lot of sense: Lay off the processed food. Cook and eat real, whole foods. Stop obsessing about calories, carbs, proteins, and fat. Just eat food.

That we have to be told to do this is, when you think about it, kind of crazy, but Michael Pollan does a great job of explaining how this came to be. You should definitely read In Defense of Food right away. I'm only 39 pages into and I can already recommend it unequivocally.

So, for the next 30 days, I am going to attempt to:

- Cut processed foods down to a bare minimum.
- Cook everything from scratch (this isn't really as time-consuming or intimidating as it might sound if you check out some Alice Waters recipes).
- When dining out, choose dishes that consist mostly of unprocessed food; choose restaurants where this isn't difficult.
- Cook four servings of dinner so that we have stuff for lunch that isn't peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
- Lay off the high Glycemic Index carbs. I tend to think that low-carb diets are BS, but I also understand the effect that carbs have on blood sugar, and that's something I've had issues with. I also know that if I eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast I will be hungry again more quickly than if I eat a bowl of yogurt. According to GlycemicIndex.com, high GI carbs can be avoided thusly:

*Use breakfast cereals based on oats, barley and bran
* Use breads with wholegrains, stone-ground flour, sour dough
* Reduce the amount of potatoes you eat
* Enjoy all other types of fruit and vegetables
* Use Basmati or Doongara rice
* Enjoy pasta, noodles, quinoa
* Eat plenty of salad vegetables with a vinaigrette dressing

Easy enough. We already do a lot of those things anyway.
- Practice portion control; Neil and I both tend to eat whatever it is until it's gone.
- Stop drinking beer. Yes, I know, I just wrote about how much I love beer. But I think it is a big (maybe the biggest) reason I keep gaining weight, and my attempts to drink it in moderation haven't been met with much success. I'm going to go without it for a month and see what happens. Then I will add it back in (hopefully judiciously). The occasional glass of wine is still permitted.

And... that's it. No food-tracking, no calorie-counting, no low-fat anything or artificial sweeteners. I will still cook with butter, oil, cheese, and, when necessary, sugar. I have a strong suspicion that if I use those things in moderation and eat mostly plants I will be just fine. I will let you know how it goes!

Beer: A Love Story

2008-01-15T11:47:00.000-05:00

I was going to write this entry last night, but I settled onto the sofa with my MacBook and a bottle of Ommegang Abbey Ale and things quickly went downhill. Neil started playing New Pornographers songs on the guitar and before long I was tipsy and pretending to be Neko Case and/or Kathryn Calder. (This has nothing to do with food or beer, but do yourself a favor and check out the New Pornographers if you haven't already. They are my most favorite band.)

So, beer. My childhood experience with it is probably similar to many people's; at some point I tasted some that my dad was drinking and didn't like it. I didn't like the way it tasted, and I didn't like the way it smelled. Yuck.

My first actual beer-drinking experiences were as follows:

Age 16 - Hanging out with a group of older people, trying to impress a guy. The Bud Light was flowing. I drank several. They were gross, but I was caught up in the fun of the evening and didn't care. Still, I couldn't imagine why so many people liked beer. It seemed like something to be tolerated rather than enjoyed.

Age 17 - Ex-boyfriend threw a party over spring break. I was sad about our break-up and drowned my sorrows in a couple wine coolers. A Bud Light followed. Still gross.

Age 18 - Boyfriend liked Heineken. I tried it. Didn't like it.

And so-on. (Are you noticing this theme of boyfriends and beer? Yeah, me too.) Around the age of 22 or so a friend (a female friend!) introduced me to lambic, which I loved. I didn't really count that as beer, though. It was just fruity and fizzy and delicious. Beer was bitter and full of other strange flavors that did not please my palate.

And then along came Neil. And with him came Blue Moon. I tried it... and I liked it! Not long after that I went out with a group of my grad school classmates and it was decided that we should order a pitcher of Blue Moon. What luck! They'd chosen the one beer I liked! Still, I found that an entire glass of the stuff was a little much.

I kept drinking Blue Moon and soon realized that a big glass of it and an order of chicken wings was one of the best things in the world. Then I started branching out. I liked Harp. I liked Bass, but not as much. I liked Rolling Rock. I liked Negra Modelo. At some point I tasted Neil's La Fin du Monde, which totally rocked my world.

In Montreal we drank Boreale (and were crestfallen when we realized it's not available in the US). In Philadelphia (and, as it turned out, in Gulf Shores) we drank Yuengling. I chose beer based on recommendations and based on the label and based on the name. I got unintentionally wasted on Aventinus at the Nachbar. I came home from a party wearing the little plastic rams that come with Celebrator Doppelbock. I squealed in delight at a grad student gathering when I saw that the chair of my department had stocked her fridge with BBC's Dark Star Porter. I got gently teased just a few weeks ago for walking around a party drinking Rogue's Shakespeare Stout out of its 22-ounce bottle. I fell in love with Left Hand's Milk Stout while dining at Maido. Beer is all around. If I'm at a party, dining in a restaurant, or eating dinner at home, I am more than likely drinking a beer. If I go into ValuMarket for something other than beer, I often leave with beer anyway. (Have you seen their beer selection? If not, go! Right now!)

There's been a spate of talk over at Louisville HotBytes lately about beer, including a heated discussion about why fine restaurants often put more care into their wine list than their beer list. This got me thinking about beer vs wine in general and how I ended up being so enthralled with the former, often to the neglect of the latter. I certainly love wine, and I loved it before I loved beer, but somehow I'm just not as into it. I daresay I find beer more exciting.

Tell me, Blog Tartare readers, what are your favorite beers? What should I try? I favor porters and stouts but I'll try anything once. (Except maybe IPAs. I seem to dislike them pretty consistently.)

BBC Reopening & Melillo's Valentine's Day Deal

2008-01-13T16:17:00.000-05:00

St. Matthews BBC Reopening - After a week-long closure for renovations, the St. Matthews location of the Bluegrass Brewing Co. is reopening tomorrow. Along with the cosmetic upgrades they'll be rolling out a new menu. BBC bartender Becca reports: "The new menu will include some old favorites----Brewhouse Nachos, Shepherds Pie and our much requested beer mustard. The menu will also have a Hot Bacon and Spinach Salad, a Portabello Burger, a Chicken Parmesan Sandwich and Fried Polenta." Yum!

BBC
3929 Shelbyville Rd
502 899-7070

Melillo's Valentine's Day Special - Melillo's is offering a three-course Valentine's Day dinner, including soup or salad, entree, dessert, and a bottle of wine for $90 per couple. Ladies will receive flowers and gentlemen will receive candy. Call Ashley for reservations.

Melillo's
829B East Market St
502 540-9975

Odds and Ends

2008-01-13T15:33:00.000-05:00

A little later I'm going to blog about beer, but first I want to mention a few other things that don't merit posts of their own. Call it a Blog Tartare Casserole if you like.

Osaka - Neil and I went there Friday night with a group of friends. I like Osaka well enough but it's not my favorite sushi place (that honor goes to Sakura Blue). It is, however, my friend Tabetha's favorite, so we eat there when she's doing the organizing. Osaka was slammed Friday night and it took a loooong time to get our food, but they gave us complimentary edamame and dessert (red bean ice cream, I believe), so we didn't mind a bit. And someone in our group subsequently decided to have her birthday party there next month. Good job, Osaka!

Sweet Surrender - We're Sweet Surrender fans in part because we're friends with the owner, but we'd love it even if we weren't. The friendly folks there didn't bat an eye when our party of 9 wandered in after dining at Osaka. We enjoyed uniformly delicious desserts and one of the employees made sure that we were all signed up to receive coupons for free cake on our birthdays. Several of the people who were with us hadn't been there before and were quite impressed with the food.

Wild Eggs - This is the hot new breakfast place in town, and I ate there yesterday for the second time. I had the Farmers Market Skillet, a dish full of various veggies topped with cheese and two fried eggs. It didn't blow my mind, but it was a perfectly good breakfast. It came with an Everything Muffin; these muffins are inspired by "everything" bagels and are really, really good. I really like Wild Eggs and thought that our 20-minute wait for a table was reasonable. If the wait were much longer (and I suspect that it was by the time we left), I'm not sure I'd find it worth it. (To be fair, I am extraordinarily impatient when it comes to restaurant waits.)

City Cafe - Ah, the Russian roulette that is the City Cafe specials. Sometimes they're great, and sometimes they're... not. Neil and I went last night and both had extremely mediocre meals. I had salmon with a dill cream sauce and Neil had teriyaki flank steak. My meal was mostly devoid of flavor aside from the unappealing fishiness of the salmon, and Neil describes his meat as "blah and frighteningly pink in some places." Blech. I remain loyal to City Cafe though because the stuff on their regular menu is so good and their specials are too, more often than not. Just not last night.

Books - I've been on a big food book kick lately and yesterday I picked up The United States of Arugula (which I'm reading now and quite enjoying), Heat, and In Defense of Food. I'm excited about all of them and will report back as I read them.

Bagels - Earlier today I said to Neil, "Remember those really good bagels we had in Montreal?" Just now I realized that there is such a thing as a Montreal-style bagel. Who knew?

Better Than Egg Salad

2008-01-11T12:54:00.000-05:00

Some months ago I found this recipe for "egg" salad that uses tofu instead of eggs in a Light & Tasty magazine. I'm honestly not sure why there is a need for such a recipe, unless you are allergic to eggs (but then you'd also have the matter of the mayonnaise to deal with). It turns out, however, that we have another use for it; Neil is really bothered by the texture of hard-boiled eggs. But not, for some reason, by the texture of tofu. So we tried this recipe and it was actually really good. I just made it again today and thought I'd post it. It would also be excellent with eggs instead of tofu.

Better Than Egg Salad

1/4 cup chopped celery
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup reduced-fat mayo
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 package (12.3 oz) silken firm tofu, cubed
8 slices whole wheat bread
4 lettuce leaves

In a small bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. Gently stir in tofu. Spread over four slices of bread; top with lettuce and remaining bread. (I love how these instructions assume that you’ve never assembled a sandwich before.)

Chubby McChubbersons

2008-01-11T09:18:00.001-05:00

I mentioned in my first post on this blog that I am trying to lose weight. There is a differences between trying to lose weight and wanting to lose weight, and I have definitely been doing more of the latter.

Fear not, kind reader, I have no intention of making this a blog about weight loss. It takes a special blogger (like Wendy McClure, for example) to make such a thing interesting. But I do want to discuss the tension I feel between being a foodie and trying to lose weight.

When I was in my early 20s I gained about 30 pounds, and in 2003 I lost it with the help of Weight Watchers. It was actually astoundingly easy. Since then, as I've watched the weight creep back on, I have tried WW several more times, and I wasn't able to stick with it. The reasons that WW worked so well the first time:

1. I was single and didn't really have much of a social life, so I didn't go out to eat that often.
2. I was living in Shelbyville, so for the most part it was at least a 30 minute drive to get to my favorite restaurants.
3. I didn't really know how to cook and was, for some reason, content to eat a LOT of Lean Cuisine.
4. I had not yet realized my profound love of beer.

In 2004 I started dating a man who introduced me to the sublime pleasures of meals made up of bread, cheese, and wine. Consumed in bed. We ate avocados by themselves and artichokes dipped in butter. It was decadent and wonderful. Wine-soaked evenings turned into hangovers that were treated with greasy Waffle House breakfasts the following morning. Not surprisingly, I started gaining weight again.

At the end of 2004 I met Neil, who is certainly my culinary soulmate (aside from his bizarre dislike of biscuits and gravy). Neil is the love of my life and there are many wonderful things about him and our relationship that are outside the realm of this blog, but one of the single most important effects he's had on my life is that he taught me to like beer. And I actually have a whole other post brewing (haha) about beer and my journey toward it and my love of it, but suffice it to say for now that we drink a LOT of it. We drink beer the way many people drink soda (or, for that matter, water). We actually discussed getting an engagement Kegerator instead of an engagement ring when the time comes. It's like that.

So now here I sit, wearing jeans that I bought in August that are already squishing my middle in uncomfortable ways. Something needs to happen here, I'm just not sure what. Except I actually know exactly what to do: eat better (not even necessarily less) and exercise more. Or, as Michael Pollan says, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." But my foodie nature (is that like Buddha nature?) wants to eat everything, including Alice Waters soufflés that contain 29.5 grams of fat per serving. Last night we went to Bourbon's Bistro where we split a "Lobster and Fresh Goat Cheese Tart with Roasted Leeks and Peppers, topped with Grilled Red Onion and a Garlic, Saffron and Tomato Cream Sauce" and then I had "Bacon Wrapped Diver Scallops served with a Lavender Asian Pear Coulis and drizzled with a Balsamic Reduction, served with Sweet Onion Grits and sauteed Patty Pan Squash." We also split a bottle of pinot gris and a piece of cheesecake. Such meals bring me tremendous pleasure. I don't want to have to feel guilty about eating them.

Of course, this flabulous belly of mine is not the result of eating such meals; we can rarely afford to do so. It's the result of too many meals at home (which are actually often restaurant carry-out) that are centered around convenience. I've got to start paying more attention to what I eat and planning my meals and going to the grocery store regularly. If we're eating lean meats and veggies for dinner most nights it won't matter if I want to make a fatty soufflé for Sunday breakfast once in a while.

Somehow I just have to get it through my head that foodie-ness and weight loss are not incompatible. I just need to base my eating on cooking wholesome foods rather than on eating everything that sounds good. We will see how this goes.

Julie & Julia

2008-01-08T13:02:00.000-05:00

The full title of this book is Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living. You might think that a book that needs both a subtitle and a sub-subtitle needs a lot of explanation, but it doesn't, not really. Julie Powell set out to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking within a year. And she blogged about it. And she got a little famous from it and got a book deal. This is the book.

I finished reading this book several days ago and I put off writing about it because I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it. It wasn't quite what I expected, but I'm not sure I can exactly put my finger on how.

Let's start with the obvious criticism. Before she started her blog, Julie Powell was not a writer. It shows. The writing isn't bad by any means, but it's sometimes hard to follow, and at times I got the sense that she was trying a little too hard to be clever. I was also vaguely put off by all the potshots she takes at Republicans; lord knows I'm a bleeding heart liberal, but I find that sort of thing irritating when it doesn't really have anything to do with the story.

Anyway. Julie started the project as she approached her 30th birthday and found herself living in New York City, being told by doctors that she'd better hurry up and get pregnant if she wanted any shot at having kids, and working temp jobs with no clear direction in her life. She started the Julie/Julia Project on a whim, but it quickly took over her existence. She found herself scouring the city for obscure ingredients, cutting up live lobsters, and dining on brains. The surreality of constantly cooking and eating such foods was compounded when the media started paying attention. She wrote about all of it for her fiercely loyal blog audience. The book recounts the whole thing; the cooking, the blogging, and the rise to (moderate) fame. It really is a fun, quick, and interesting read.

I think the thing that caught me off guard about this book is that Julie is bitter, misanthropic, and neurotic. I expected the story to be more beautiful, not laced with curse words and sexual innuendo. This didn't bother me, of course; I love curse words and sexual innuendo! It just wasn't what I expected. And I felt like the cover was misleading; it seems so gentle! Julie's story is anything but; she is not a happy person, and the recipes in MtAoFC are a source of torment at least as often as they are a pleasurable creative outlet.

Still, crankiness aside, it is impossible not to like Julie in the end. It might be stereotypically Generation X, but I can't say that late-20s ennui is something I haven't experienced. Julie attacks it head-on and in the least likely way. She's dark and funny but in the end, also deeply reverent. "I have no claim over the woman at all," Julie writes upon Julia's death, "unless it’s the claim those who have
nearly drowned have over the person who pulled them out of the ocean." That we get to read about this rescue is a pretty great thing.

Schlafly Beer Tasting at Keg Liquors

2008-01-07T22:33:00.000-05:00

Keg Liquors in Clarksville is holding a tasting of Schlafly beers on Jan 31, 5:00-8:00 pm. I've really liked what I've had from Schlafly, so I'm definitely going to try to make it to this.

Keg Liquors
617 East Lewis and Clark Parkway
Clarksville, IN
812-283-3988

Wine Market Wine & Cheese Tastings

2008-01-07T15:09:00.000-05:00

Neil informs me that the Wine Market holds wine and cheese tastings the second Wednesday of every month. This month, on Jan 9, the theme is "Fireplace Wines." 4:30-6:30 pm.

The Wine Market
1200 Bardstown Road
502 451-7446

White Castle

2008-01-06T18:24:00.000-05:00

"You have to blog about this," says Neil. It's a little after 5:00 and we are sitting in the parking lot of a White Castle on Dixie Highway, staring at the J&J Boat and Trailer Supply across the street and sharing a Sack of 10 and an order of onion rings. We are washing it all down with enough Big Red to fill a small hot tub.

"Oh no!" I say. What kind of self-respecting food blogger admits that she eats at White Castle? Ever?

"Not just about eating here," Neil says, "but a meditation on why those of us who really like food also like junk."

I think about this for a few minutes, watching the clouds roll across the sky behind J&J and munching my little cheeseburgers. I'm suddenly shocked at my initial reaction. I am, after all, no food snob. Being a foodie means being in love with food, food of all sorts. Sometimes it means high-end restaurants and Alice Waters cookbooks, but sometimes it means corn dogs at the state fair and bags of Oreos. And sometimes, apparently, White Castle. So what am I so ashamed of?

Part of the problem, I suppose, is that fast food really goes against a lot of what I think food should be. It's processed to death. It's full of nasty stuff. Most of it contains more fat and more calories than anyone has any business eating. I have problems with meat to begin with, and that used in fast food is the worst of the worst. I feel bad, sometimes physically always spiritually, ever time I eat it. So I usually don't.

Why, then, did I call out "Ooooh, White Castle!" as we drove up Dixie Highway? We had just hiked two miles at Tioga Falls. Otis had gone with us and was conked out in the back seat. We were muddy and relaxed in the way that comes after physical exertion, our bodies loose with the unseasonable warmth of the day. We were feeling...

Uh...

As I write this I am sitting at the kitchen table. I just looked up at Neil and said, "Why did we go to White Castle?"

"Because it was there? Because it seemed like a good idea at the time?"

"But why?"

"For those first two burgers. No, the first burger."

It's true. The first burger was delicious. Not because the ingredients were good, of course. I think it was more the familiarity of it. The same was true of that first sip of Big Red; I was immediately transported back to the Friday nights of my childhood, eating dinner at White Castle with my mom before our weekly trip to Kroger. (The onion rings were, objectively, pretty good.)

Between us we could have had two cheeseburgers, an order of onion rings, and a small Big Red and gotten everything we needed from this meal.

Perhaps this is why I felt ashamed to blog about White Castle. Because it speaks of gluttony, but a worse kind of gluttony than that expressed by, say, eating a whole loaf of French bread with olive oil. Because we didn't really enjoy it, not most of it, and we knew that we wouldn't the moment we turned into the drive-thru. Fast food is not about enjoying food, it's about stuffing yourself cheaply and quickly. If you stop to think about it, if you try to savor it, if you attempt to enjoy the play of strange beef and onions and American cheese across your tongue, well... it's just better if you don't.

These are just my tastes, of course, and I imagine that there are plenty of people who might disagree with me. People enjoy what they enjoy and that's fine. But I think we would all do well to stop and think about what we're eating and why. How does it make us feel? Guilty? Vaguely disgusted? Or ebullient and joyous? I prefer joyful food.

Wine Tasting at Gemelli

2008-01-06T13:23:00.000-05:00

Gemelli Wine and Spirits holds monthly wine tastings, each focusing on a specific kind of wine. I've been to a couple of these and had a great time. The folks at Gemelli are both knowledgeable and entirely unsnobby; I've heard them answer some truly basic wine questions without the least bit of attitude. For this I love them. These really are tastings for people who want to learn more about wine, not for people who want to stand around feeling self-congratulatory about how much they already know.

The next tasting, which focuses on Zinfandel, is Thursday, Jan 24, 6:30-7:30. The class is limited to 16 people and costs $15 per person. Reserve your spot by calling 895-1400.

Gemelli Wine and Spirits
3626 Brownsboro Road

Oooooh, Mojito

2008-01-05T15:18:00.003-05:00

My mother called this morning and asked if I wanted to meet her at the optometrist to help her pick out new frames. I would have done it anyway because I love my mommy, but the fact that she offered to buy me lunch didn't hurt. I scrambled out of my pajamas (and into some clothes) and headed out to Springhurst which, for you non-Louisvillians, is an explosion of shopping centers, tract housing, and traffic. (When I lived nearby in the 1980s it was nothing but farmland, and I now find the whole area somewhat distasteful. But I will spare you my urban planning rant.)

Mom picked out some stylish new frames and then it was time for lunch. A few nearby chain restaurants (Rafferty's, Cheddars) were mentioned, but in my never-ending proselytizing about local restaurants, I suggested Mojito. Mom had never been there and agreed to try it. So off we went to Holiday Manor.

Although Mojito has sandwiches and such, the tapas are what it's really all about, and we decided to split four of them. Our choices:

Ensalada Mediterranea: lettuce, Marcona almonds, pine nuts, shaved fig bread, feta cheese, olives, grapes, raisins, cucumbers with a muscatel dressing

Boniato Frito: sweet potato fries served with smoked honey

Picadillo Empanadas: Beef with spices and olives in a tender crust

Queso Fundido: Melted cheese mixed with chorizo and (I think) Serrano ham, served with bread

We ended the meal with the goat cheese flan and two Cuban coffees.

My mom is a pretty open-minded diner and Mojito is very good, so I wasn't surprised that she liked it. I was pleased and amused by her reaction, though. With her first taste of the sweet potato fries and smoked honey she declared that she was in heaven. She said that the flan was the best she'd ever eaten. At the end of the meal she said that Mojito was her new favorite restaurant. That's some pretty strong praise!

It is a sad fact that Mojito is located in a part of town that I rarely have reason to visit. I'm quite spoiled living near the Highlands and Frankfort Ave, the two major food districts in Louisville. But Mojito is definitely worth the trek out to the East End. I'm going to have to make a concerted effort to eat there more often, because it really is outstanding. The food was delicious and beautifully presented, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the friendly and attentive service. We hadn't quite planned on spending $50 for lunch, but it was worth every penny. I can't wait to go back.

An Alice Waters New Year

2008-01-02T13:57:00.000-05:00

You know how sometimes you make love to your partner and it's just unbelievably good, and then a few hours later you do it again and it's even better, and you feel giddy and kind of amazed at yourself and your partner? Yesterday was like that, but with food.

We woke up around 11:00 with the mildest of New Year's Day hangovers and set out to fix breakfast/brunch. I was going to make scrambled eggs, as I usually do on lazy mornings (usually Sundays) when we have nothing to do but eat and relax. I really love making scrambled eggs because they're easy and so good. I just throw in whatever's handy - garlic, onion, roasted red peppers, spinach, smoked salmon, etc - and top them with cheese. I almost went this route yesterday but then decided to get ambitious.

A few months ago I bought The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. I could - and should - write an entire entry about her and this book. The gist of it, as the title suggests, is that if you use high quality ingredients (especially seasonal, locally-grown produce) you don't have to do much at all to create delicious meals. For a person like me who is just starting to really learn to cook, it is a fantastic primer. Anyway, so far the only thing I had made from this book was focaccia, which turned out pretty well, though this is due more to the fact that I managed to pretty successfully replicate the discontinued anisa focaccia from Ramsi's than anything else. Anyway. I thought it would be fun to cook something from the book for breakfast (which was quickly turning into brunch). What would Alice Waters have me do with eggs? How about a soufflé? I had never made a soufflé before and the idea of cooking something that was supposed to get light and fluffy but may very well fail to do so was a little intimidating. But one of my informal New Year's resolutions was to cook more, so I decided to go for it. Neil and I also decided to use her recipe for fried potatoes, which was incredibly simple: cut them into chunks, boil them, fry them, season them with salt.

The soufflé recipe called for goat cheese, but we decided to use Boursin instead, having just bought a couple of packages of it because it was on sale. I started cooking. I created my first roux, then my first béchamel. I marveled at how the texture changed as I added the milk. In went the cheese, then the egg yolks. I beat the egg whites until stiff peaks formed and folded them in. Then I poured it all into a baking dish and popped it in the oven.

This whole undertaking was complicated by the fact that our oven has been running hotter than it's supposed to. We bought an oven thermometer and at first it seemed to be off by about 25°. We adjusted it accordingly but the temperature fluctuated wildly. This did not bode well for my delicate soufflé.

While that was baking Neil prepared the potatoes.

We take cooking very seriously.

We couldn't figure out why they weren't browning as they were supposed to until I realized that while we had halved the amount of potatoes (the original recipe made 4 servings), I had absently told Neil to use the full amount of oil. Oops. He poured off the excess and after spending some time on a paper towel-covered plate before serving, they were fine.

Finally, it was time for the soufflé. I pulled it from the oven and it immediately began to deflate. It didn't matter, though. It was still beautiful. I inelegantly got it onto our plates with a spatula, Neil added the potatoes, and we sliced a red grapefruit in half. We had planned to make mimosas with a bottle of Toad Hollow Amplexus, but in the end we decided that we didn't want to use such a decent bottle of wine for that purpose, so we drank it by itself.

The soufflé, though inglorious on the plate, was amazing. Neil and I looked at each other in disbelief as we ate, unsure of how something so good could have come out of our own kitchen. The creamy, herby flavor of the Boursin subtly permeated the silky texture of the eggs. The potatoes were just barely browned and tasted of olive oil; they were not as they had been intended, but were delicious anyway. The wine was dry and crisp. We were both truly giddy during and after this meal (the wine surely helped with that). We decided that such a wonderful brunch had to be followed with an equally impressive dinner. Back to The Art of Simple Food we turned.

The focaccia recipe that I had made once before could also be used for pizza crust, so we decided to have pizza and Caesar salad. Among the combinations of toppings that Alice Waters suggested was gorgonzola, figs, and rosemary, and we both thought that sounded great. I set to work making the dough for the crust, and while it was rising we went shopping. At Barnes & Noble I bought Julie & Julia, a book by a woman (Julie Powell) who cooked every single recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year's time. I'm about halfway through it and I'll surely blog about it when I'm done. Anyway, we returned home to find that my dough had risen impressively. I split it in two, put half in the freezer, and prepared the remainder to become pizza.

Meanwhile, Neil was busy with the salad. I have to tell you that we eat the bagged Dole Caesar salad kits all the time. That is, in fact, the only sort of Caesar salad that has been consumed in this house. Alice Waters, of course, was having none of that. First we cut up some country-style bread, tossed it in olive oil, and baked it to make croutons. Never mind the salad; I could have eaten them all fresh out of the oven. Neil washed our head of organic romaine and, as instructed, dried it in small batches with the salad spinner. When it was all washed and dried we rolled it in a clean towel and put in the fridge to await dinnertime. Then we made the dressing: crushed garlic, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, anchovies, egg yolk, black pepper, and Parmesan cheese. "This is not like any Caesar dressing I've ever seen," I said. But truly, what did I know of Caesar dressing besides that which came out of a plastic envelope? I remained hopeful.

When the dough had gone through its requisite periods of rising and resting, I flattened it, brushed on some olive oil, and sprinkled it with gorgonzola. Neil had soaked the dried figs in water and then cut them in half; they went on next. Then we pulled the leaves off a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary and added more cheese. We baked it for 10 minutes, keeping a careful eye on it because of our wonky oven. While it was baking we tossed the romaine with the salad dressing.

The pizza was incredible. The funk of the gorgonzola, the sweetness of the figs, and the pine-like flavor of the rosemary combined beautifully. The crust was perfect; thin but not flat, crispy on the outside but soft within. I declared the pizza so good that I almost didn't want to eat it; I didn't want it to be gone.

The salad, too, was wonderful, and not like the Caesar salad that I am used to. The garlic gave the dressing a surprising bite, but it was tempered by the cheese and the croutons. The romaine was fresh and crisp quite unlike our usual bagged salad.

With this meal we had a bottle of Bloom Gewutztraminer, which was just sweet enough and complimented the food quite well.

What a wonderful day. A food blog isn't necessarily the place to go into this, but for the past decade or so I have battled with myself over my writing. I used to think of myself as a writer and I did quite a lot of it. It was an important part of my identity, and it was That Thing that I did that made me lose track of time, made me feel like I was merely a vessel through which some greater force was doing the work. Writers - and people who have other sorts of passions - know what I mean. It's the thing that makes the rest of world drop away. Writing, for a variety of reasons, usually isn't like that for me anymore. But yesterday, despite my unfamiliarity with some of the mechanics of the process, cooking made me feel that way. And that was quite a revelation.

For lunch today we had leftover pizza and salad. Tonight we're fixing one more Alice Waters recipe, an onion panade, along with more salad. Tomorrow it's back to the real world of work and busy-ness and, for the most part, meals that don't require a couple of hours of preparation. But this has certainly been amazing two days of food, and I hope I bring at least a little bit of this feeling with me throughout the rest of the year.

Just in time for New Year's...

2007-12-31T10:29:00.000-05:00

101 Simple Appetizers in 20 Minutes or Less from the New York Times.

Have a wonderful New Year's, everyone!

Anniversary Food: Herbed Pork Chops with Wine

2007-12-30T09:40:00.000-05:00

There are three meals/restaurants that are important to my relationship with Neil:

1. On our first date we had sushi at Sakura Blue.
2. On our second date (which was New Year's Eve) we got carry-out from Vietnam Kitchen. It was my first time eating there and it rocked my world.
3. The first time we cooked together we made herbed pork chops with wine.

Our third anniversary was yesterday, and of course we had to commemorate it with food. We didn't really feel like sushi, but we couldn't decide between fixing the pork chops together and getting food from Vietnam Kitchen. So we decided to fix the pork chops on Friday and go to Vietnam Kitchen on Saturday; a two-day anniversary food extravaganza.

Herbed Pork Chops with Wine
1 tsp dried leaf sage, crumbled
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 1-inch pork chops
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup dry white wine

Combine sage, rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper. Press the mixture into the sides of the chops. Over medium heat in a large skillet, melt butter and oil. Brown cops on both sides, turning gently with tongs. Remove chops and pour off most of the drippings. And 1/2 cup wine and boil. Return chops to pan. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until chops are tender when pressed with tip of knife, 25-30 minutes. Remove chops, add remaining wine to skillet, and quickly boil down to syrupy glaze. Pour over chops.

Every time I make this I amazed at how simple and delicious it is. The simplicity amazes me because the first time we cooked it together it seemed like a huge, complicated production. I can't imagine what it was that we had so much trouble with. It's not even really a good meal to cook together because there's not much for more than one person to do. It's really quite quick and easy.

We traditionally serve this with baked sweet potatoes and some manner of crusty bread dipped in herby olive oil. Friday we picked up a garlic and tomato focaccia at Liquor Barn that was great with this. We cooked and served this dish with a bottle of Lindemans chardonnay that was leftover from a party.

The wonderful thing about this meal, and about food in general, really, is its ability to transport you another place and time. Every time I fix these pork chops I'm reminded of my little yellow kitchen on St. James Court where Neil and I were just starting to figure out cooking and each other. These pork chops remind me of falling in love.

As it turned out, yesterday, which was our actual anniversary, I was not really in the mood for Vietnam Kitchen (probably because we ate there with friends just last week). So instead we walked around the corner to Jockamo's for a delicious pignolata pizza and a couple of beers. Not the fanciest of anniversary dinners by any means, but it was really exactly what I wanted; great pizza and beer with my boyfriend in the heart of our beloved Germantown. It was a very nice anniversary dinner indeed.

Today we're picking up my mom and going on a food field trip. If you know me and Neil, or if you're a foodie living in the Louisville area, I bet you can guess where we're going. I'll be sure to blog about our adventure when we get home.

Grandpa's Christmas Stollen

2007-12-26T12:47:00.000-05:00

This is me and my grandpa, Herb. I'm not sure what year this photo was taken, only that it was a Christmas Eve in the early 80's and that we are sharing a cup of eggnog. I love this photo.

It's hard to explain how and why my grandpa was so awesome. For starters, he loved me. I was never a daddy's girl, but I was surely a grandpa's girl. He brought me jelly donuts (my favorite), called me sweethaht in his New York accent, and took the curvy, hilly "shortcut" home from the store with me even though it actually took longer to get home that way. We took his Dalmatian, Molly, to the park, and downtown he'd go through the revolving doors of office buildings with me, garnering odd looks from people in suits. The house he shared with my grandma was a gloomy, nicotine-stained wonderland of seashells, old National Geographics, bells, tea sets, books, slides, and other odds and ends that kept me occupied for hours at a time. For many years they lived right around the corner from me and my parents; our backyards were catty corner to one another, and I frequently fled to their back gate as a response to some real or imagined injustice perpetrated by my parents. To say that I loved my grandparents, and especially Grandpa, does not even begin to describe the relationship I had with them.

Grandpa died in 1995, when I was 14. With him died the long tradition of the Christmas stollen. Stollen is a German bread, similar to fruitcake but better, and Grandpa made it every year for Christmas Eve. He left the recipe behind, but it seemed that no one was up for the challenge of baking it. From 1995 forward, there was no Christmas stollen. This year, emboldened by my first bread-making experience a few months earlier, I decided to pick up the mantle.

A week or so before Christmas I called my mom to ask for the recipe. "Let me call you back with it," she said. On December 23 I called her again. "Let me call you back," she said again.

"That's what you said the last time I asked!"
"Okay, hold on."

She finally returned with the recipe and started reading. I scribbled furiously. I wrote. And wrote. And wrote. And started to wonder what on earth I was getting myself into.

I felt a little overwhelmed. But then I went to the store and got what I needed. There was no candied angelica to be found, nor candied citrus peel. Mom assured me that it didn't matter. "Just use extra candied fruit. It doesn't have to be exact." I returned home with the best approximation of the required ingredients I could find, and as directed, set all the candied fruit to soaking in rum. Christmas Eve morning, with Neil gone to work, I started baking.

Grandpa's Christmas Stollen
1 cup mixed candied fruit
1/4 cup candied angelica
1/2 cup dried (candied) citrus peel
1/2 cup seedless raisins
1/2 cup candied cherries
1/2 cup rum
2 packages live active yeast
1/4 cup warm water
pinch of sugar
2 tbsp flour
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
6 cups flour
3/4 cups butter, room temperature, cut into bits
1 cup blanched & slivered almonds
4 tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Combine fruit with rum, stir, and let soak at least one hour, preferably overnight.

Pour water into small bowl, sprinkle in yeast, add pinch of sugar and stir. Wait for yeast to bubble.

Strain fruit and reserve rum. Dry fruit with paper towels.

Put fruit in paper bag with 2 tbsp flour and shake to coat.

In medium saucepan, heat milk, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt until lukewarm, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves.

Off heat, stir in rum, almond extract, lemon zest, and yeast mixture.

In large bowl, combine 3 cups of flour and yeast mixture with wooden spoon. In a separate bowl, beat eggs until frothy. Stir into mixture. Add butter bits to mixture, beat 100 times. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until the dough forms a soft ball.

Turn out onto floured surface, sprinkle generously with flour, and knead, adding flour as necessary. Return dough to bowl and gently knead in fruit and nuts, taking care that fruit does not discolor dough. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in warm location until dough is doubled in size.

Turn dough out onto floured surface, punch, and knead again.

Divide dough and put half back into bowl. With a rolling pin, shape dough into rectangle 12" long by 8" wide and 1/2" thick. Melt 2 tbsp butter and mix with 2 tbsp sugar; brush surface of dough with mixture.

Fold long side of dough over to center, then repeat with other side, overlapping by 1". Press the outside edges of the dough gently. Taper the ends of the loaf slightly and push sides together to mound center. Loaf should be 13" long and 3-4" wide.

Repeat with other half of dough.

Place loaves on 11x17 baking sheet and brush with butter.

Cover with wax paper, propping the wax paper on two tumblers so that they do not touch the dough. Place in a warm location until doubled.

Preheat oven to 375°. Bake 50 minutes or until brown, turning halfway through.

Cool on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving.

I am pleased to report that the stollen turned out exactly as it was supposed to. We had the ceremonial cutting and first tasting of the stollen by the baker. We have many years' worth of photos of this event; now, after an 11-year hiatus, there will be more.

I cannot tell you how pleased I am to have revived this tradition. My mom was very proud of me. I know Grandpa would be too.

The Worst Salmon I've Ever Made

2007-12-23T13:50:00.000-05:00

Neil had his wisdom teeth out on Tuesday and has thus been on a soft food diet, which is getting kind of old for both of us. He's had his fill of pudding and mashed potatoes. So last night I decided to cook something soft but relatively normal. A quick check of the kitchen revealed that we had salmon and sweet potatoes. Sounds like dinner to me!

This recipe for Asian salmon is my go-to salmon recipe. It's easy, it's quick, we usually have the ingredients on hand, and it's really good. Last night, however, we were out of onion. I contemplated just leaving it out, but then decided to look around see if I could find a recipe that contained only things I already had in the house. I settled on this recipe for maple salmon.

I got the fish out of the freezer - Kroger brand wild-caught Alaskan sockeye - and put it in a bowl of water to thaw. I immediately noticed that it smelled super fishy. I know that fishy smell = unfreshness, but I'm also not sure how a salmon fillet that's been frozen all its life can be unfresh. Was it unfresh when it was frozen? Was it allowed to thaw at some point and was then refrozen? Who can say? But I was hungry and didn't feel like going to the store and it didn't smell that bad, so I forged ahead.

A couple of the comments on the recipe mentioned wrapping the salmon in foil with the marinade, which sounded like a good idea. I prepared the marinade (which smelled and tasted wonderful), spooned it over the fish, wrapped it all up, and popped it in the fridge for half an hour. What the comments didn't mention, however, was whether or not I should bake the salmon in the foil. I know that's a pretty common baking method, but I've never actually done anything that way. It seemed like a good idea at the time, though. Having the salmon all wrapped up would keep it moist and tender, right? Into the oven went the foil-wrapped salmon.

20 minutes later I retrieved the salmon packet, opened it, and found... fish. It looked like baked salmon. It smelled like delicious marinade, but underneath all the maple-soy yumminess, there was still a strong fishy odor. I was beginning to have my doubts. But I plated it and the sweet potatoes and we dug in.

Ew.

It tasted, as you would expect, fishy. But the texture was at least as bad as the taste. I never knew that salmon could be tough! I took two bites and declared that I didn't want it. But there wasn't really anything else in the house to eat, so I tried some more. It was edible, but barely. I ate most of it and gave the rest to Franklin and Otis. (They tell me it was the best dinner they've ever had.)

Where did I go wrong? Clearly the flavor came from the fish, but how did it get so tough? Was it the funky fish or the foil wrap? It's times like these that I wish I knew what the hell I was doing in the kitchen.

Restaurant.com

2007-12-21T09:43:00.000-05:00

You know what's awesome? Restaurant.com. You can search for restaurants in your area and then buy discount gift certificates. How much of a discount? Typically you can get a $10 certificate for $3 or a $25 certificate for $10 (or other denominations, depending on the restaurant). A pretty good deal, no? In Louisville the selection of restaurants isn't fantastic, but there are a few really good ones.

I signed up for the Restaurant.com email list a few days ago, and this morning I was greeted by an email titled "70% Off Sale - Get $25 Gift Certificates For $3." So that's exactly what I did. I just bought $100 worth of gift certificates - to two really good restaurants - for $12. Amazing!

Nana's Sugar Cookies

2007-12-20T19:28:00.000-05:00

Several years ago my mom gave me a great Christmas present: a recipe book with some of our most beloved family recipes. She included the recipe for my nana's sugar cookies. I have no idea where this recipe came from, if it was something passed down through the generations, if Nana made it up (doubtful - she's never struck me as much of a from-scratch baker), or if it came out of a 1950-something issue of Good Housekeeping. No matter. They are amazing sugar cookies. Somehow, though, I'd never gotten around to making them. There they were, the second card in my recipe book (after my mom's don't-call-it-Derby-Pie® recipe), but for some reason I never felt compelled to bake them.

Along came the holiday season, though, and sugar cookies sounded just right. So this evening I decided to get to baking. A mountain of delicious cookies was the result.

Nana's Sugar Cookies

1 cup softened butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup oil
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
5 cups unsifted flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream sugar and butter together. Add the eggs, vanilla, oil, and salt. Mix until well blended. Sift the flour with the baking soda and cream of tartar. Add to butter mixture with wooden spoon. Mix well. Roll dough into balls the size of walnuts. Place on cookie sheet and gently press with bottom of glass dipped in sugar. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cook on wire rack. Makes 4-5 dozen.

Garlic and Sapphires

2007-12-13T14:54:00.001-05:00

Neil and I drove up to Philadelphia for Thanksgiving and, as usual, picked up some audiobooks to make the 12-hour drive a bit more bearable. Among the meager offerings at the public library was Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl. Reichl, now the editor of Gourmet, recounts her experiences as the restaurant critic for The New York Times. In an effort to find out what dining was like for the average Jane, she donned an elaborate series of disguises for her restaurant visits. Unsurprisingly, the difference in the way that she is treated while in disguise is striking. But the book is more than just the story of her undercover dining adventures. We're also made privy to the politics of the mid-90s New York dining scene, and you can't help but smirk in satisfaction each time she awards two stars to over-hyped, unimpressive restaurants (much to the chagrin of many Times readers) or cheer each time she lavishes praise on outstanding, but overlooked, ethnic eateries. We also see Reichl grapple with the meaning of restaurant criticism and the implications of her various alter egos. The book is in turns poignant, mouthwatering, and uproariously funny. We had a fantastic time listening to it. It turns out that this is actually Reichl's third memoir; she also wrote Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table and Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures at the Table. I can't wait to read them both!

Mai's Thai Cooking Classes

2007-12-07T20:47:00.000-05:00

Neil and I had lunch at Mai's Thai in Jeffersonville today and we saw that Mai is holding cooking classes next month! Sounds like lots of fun! The classes are $35 and include a buffet lunch afterward.

January 19 & 20, 11:00 am

Mai's Thai
1411 E 10th St
Jeffersonville, IN
(812) 282-0198

We don't know much about food, but we know what we like.

2007-12-02T23:05:00.000-05:00

On our first date, Neil and I went to my favorite sushi place. On our second date, we went to his favorite Vietnamese place. Neither of us remembers our third date, but I suspect it might have involved tea and cookies (and making eyes at each other over my kitchen table). None of this is remarkable; people usually do eat on dates. But I never suspected that food would become such an important part of our relationship. Before long we were cooking together and eating out all over the place.

That was three years ago. Now, as cohabitors and life partners, we approach the world as an adventure in food. It's become more than what we eat several times a day to sustain ourselves. We talk about it. We analyze it. We go special places to buy it, and it plays a prominent role in our travel plans. It seems that we are turning into foodies. And how better to record this adventure than a blog?

8 Things that Inform the Way We Eat

1. We are pescatarians, or, more accurately, flexitarians. We decided to stop eating red meat and poultry in August of this year, for both environmental and animal welfare reasons. We do sometimes eat meat, though, usually because of travel (we can't visit Philly without cheesesteaks!), special occasions (we ate a ton of ham over Thanksgiving), or limited choices in social situations. We also just sometimes give in to cravings. For the most part I find it very easy not to eat meat. Neil misses beef.

2. We believe there is something seriously wrong with the food industry, and we try to eat our way around that. High fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils are the banes of our existence. We try to buy organic often, though an entirely organic diet is cost prohibitive to us right now. We believe in buying locally-grown foods and in sustainable agriculture.

3. I am trying to lose weight. About 25 lbs. Neil has lost quite a bit of weight in the last year or so and is trying to keep it off.

4. We support local restaurants. With such a vibrant and exciting restaurant scene in our city (Louisville), we rarely find a reason to dine somewhere that is not locally-owned.

5. We love beer. Like whoa.

6. We're living on the cheap right now. I'm finishing grad school, Neil has gone back for his second bachelor's, and we own a house that needs lots and lots of work. This means that we have not yet been able to dine at many of the better restaurants in our city. We're hoping that this will change soon.

7. We were not necessarily raised to be foodies. Both of us come from families with pretty conservative tastes in food. The only "ethnic" food I was exposed to as a child was Chinese. I was in my 20s before I had Indian, Thai, Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, or Japanese food. My mom is a great cook, but in a very down-home, not-necessarily-good-for-you way. Neil's mom doesn't really cook at all.

8. We are still learning how to cook. I had no interest in learning to cook until I was 23. What I've learned since then has been self-taught, and I think that's how Neil knows what he does about cooking as well. We have a long ways to go. We're good at making things from recipes, but we lack a lot in technique and creativity.

Join us here as we continue on our food odyssey. We plan to review restaurants, books, and products, share recipes, rant about the politics of food, and share news about special food events. We hope you enjoy it.