In Anaheim

Conference time, this year in Anaheim. Much to post, but I've lollygagged too much already this morning. I need to shower, shave, iron, get dressed, get coffee, and get over to the conference center for another jampacked day. So consider this a quick hello for maybe even a few days. Rest assured, we're diligently undertaking conference activities!

cookies = pain in the...

The things I do for love. Or, in other words, the things I do for Conrad. He loves these cookies, as does his family. Since we'll be up in the UP for the 4th of July weekend, I made some themed cut-out cookies and decorated them up yesterday. We've got a bunch in the freezer now.

He thinks they're fun and tasty, but he's not the one in the kitchen for hours. But I love him, and he DID help with dishes, so...

Note, please, the maple leaves. The 4th of July isn't the most important day of next week, after all! The green cookies were using a lot of blue food colouring. Ah well. Green they are this time! I also tried a neat trick of filling holes in the cookies before they went in the oven with pieces of crushed hard fruit candies. A neat stained glass effect. I'll have to practice with that for Christmas.

My decorating hand is not as steady as Jeph's, but they are edible, so that counts for something!

Frontera Foundation dinner, 2008

Wow. And oh my goodness.

So then, 11:13 on a Sunday night, and I'm rather glad I'm taking tomorrow as a (very legitimate - I have two article drafts and a grant proposal) research leave day. We've had quite a dinner, and I need some water before bed.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that Yoshi's has a special place in my heart - it's truly my favourite Chicago restaurant. But there is a big world of non-Yoshi's dining out there, and the Rick Bayless empire has a pretty supreme position in that.

Tonight we dined in Topolobampo. The 6th annual Frontera Foundation dinner, and I have to say, it was superb from beginning to end.

Conrad and I joined RAD and some others to make up a table of 7. All were exceptionally good and enjoyable company (Dianne, Jim, RAD, Linda, and Tim).

Better still, most of us won silent auction items or raffle items, or both in one case! Fun! We got ourselves gussied up


and made our way down there in time o beat one of the rain/hail storms passing through.

But you're here for the food, so let's press onward with that.

After the Margarita of the Midway (flavoured with rhubarb and prickly pear), it was on to an opening bite: Pizza #1. Handmade artisanal grassfed Jack and cheddar on flaky filo crust with Sungold tomato jellies and Green City Market basil.
Light, flaky, a simple bite that had the delightful fragrance of the basil. Fun!

The first real course: Smoked Rushing Waters trout with cattail shaved ice and shoots salad. People, that was cattail shaved ice. Seriously, who thinks of these things? Gold star. Wow. A great taste combination, a little bit of zing to it. Carlos, the managing partner, brought out a raw cattail to explain to us the use of it as an ingredient, which only added to the experience. Above all, though? The crispy trout skin. Lovely. Jill paired this with the 2007 Viña Esmeralda, Torres Family Winery. I don't think I can rave enough about how lovely the wine pairings were tonight. I'll try.

Next up, my favourite. Conrad and I discussed this in the cab home, and I still have to say this was the course I most liked. Which is high praise, you should understand - the food was delightful tonight. But this, ahhhhh. Homemade chorizo soup with 45-minute slow-poached egg and puffed hand-harvested Minnesota wild rice.
The photos show the egg and sausage before and after the broth was poured into the bowl. The wine was the 2005 Nerola from Torres.

Fish again - not a complaint. Wild Alaskan troll-caught king salmon with green chile "pesto", hickory nut pipián, and fresh corn tamal filled with goat cheese. The wine really surprised us - a Spanish Pinot Noir. We're not experts, but we'd never encountered a Spanish Pinot. the 2006 Mas Borràs Pinot Noir was a revelation. I was down visiting the other end of the table during this course, but I could see how delighted Conrad was with this pouring.

On to the meat with a course of Grill-roasted pork loin with spicy red curry, grilled garlic scapes, coconut-mango rice, and smoky asparagus.
Wait, we're at Frontera? Curry? It worked, marvelously. The wine was a 2006 Atrium Merlot - I should note that I more than happily had additional pours of each red after dinner.

Finally it came time for dessert: Pizza #2. Cute idea. Homemade puff pastry with Wisconsin hickory nut cream, strawberries and rhubarb, jellied crema and applemint. Maybe I'm in a mint mood these days, but I think that particular flavour made the dessert. For wine we enjoyed the non-vintage Aqua d'Or, from the Torres Family Vineyard (like all the wines tonight).

We finished the evening with tequila. No, I lie. I tasted a bit of each of the three tequilas and then opted for cafe de olla plus more red wine.

Tonight was all for a good cause, more than just my tummy. But goodness, if only every good cause could be so much fun, so satisfying. We won a silent auction item, we brought home grab-bag goodies, and we utterly enjoyed the company at the table. Soon time for bed, but I think I need to come down a little from such an evening. Enjoy the photos!

saying goodbye to Lou

OK, this is a little odd: I'm listening to country music. I can't explain it. Ah well.

I digress. This is about Medgar, a fellow Smelt. For a few days more. Medgar - Lou, as I call him - is moving with Mike to Seattle at the end of the month. Which means, of course, that I have to move there about a year from now.

I joke. Medgar and I knew each other in Montreal, so for almost ten years now. I met him at my second practice with À Contre-Courant, and we became friends thanks to sharing a lane and living not too far from each other. When he finished his degree (no, he's not also a librarian), he got a job in Chicago. Serendipity brought me here as well, and for most of my first week in this city, I stayed with him until my furniture arrived.

Friday night was one party for him, a Smelts party. Conrad and I begged off another one last night - I was so worn down that I was in bed and asleep before 8:30. Not hard living, just encroaching old age. In any case, some photos from the party (and that first photo, I should add, was from dinner at Nohana on my 31st birthday, waaaay back in 2001), and a goodbye to Lou. Conrad and I very much hope that we'll have opportunities to see him and Mike when we're back west in Vancouver, whether they come up or we head down.

more catching up (dinners from last week or so)

Almost time to get stuff ready for tomorrow morning and an early swim. Then I'll pull Conrad away from his laptop and get him to relax with a glass of wine and a smidgen of cheese. Sunset is glowing on the high rise across the street, and all feels well enough for one night.

More photos that escaped recent blogging. First up are three photos from Yoshi's last Sunday. We're there tomorrow night for Halsted Tastes Better, so we decided not to go tonight as well. The dish is a cod with a smoked red wine sauce and a whole prawn.



The other photos are of a light midweek dinner, a salad of arugula, poached chicken breast, tomato, asparagus, and a mustard dressing. Conrad, meanwhile, was researching things we want to do and see when we head back to New Zealand next March and April.

TRU

Sometimes we just want to have a dinner out and NOT take photographs. Sit, sip wine, enjoy food, try not to draw attention from surrounding tables. And mostly tonight, dining at TRU, that approach worked. Mostly.

And then the 5th course came out.

Roasted California squab, butternut squash puree, nasturtium, cherry sauce.That's what the menu said. I don't know where the cherry was, the blossom was a pansy, not a nasturtium, and there was no mention of the tasty square of farro on the menu. No matter. It was so good, and we couldn't resist the photo given that the squash was shaped deliberately to remind us of a process cheese slice. Food done wittily, and very well. We had to pull out the camera for that course, and for that course alone.

Date night with Conrad at TRU, one of the best restaurants in the city. At first I thought service was lagging, but I quickly realized that I was in too much of a hurry. I relaxed and feel into the restaurant's pace and before I knew it, we'd been there for three enjoyably leisurely hours. We had the six course Grand Collection (plus cheeses - we're totally suckers for a cheese cart!). Our delight in the food increased with each course, a true progression. We're keen to go back.

Highlights included the Canterbury Pinot Noir (New Zealand), a revelation from the first sip. I also thought highly of the

• liquid parmesan gnocchi, chanterelle, ramp, crispy serrano
• the bits of roe tucked into the asparagus spaetzle on the sturgeon course
• the dessert amuse bouche of rhubarb consomme and lemon ginger tapioca
• the mignardises and lollipop (mine was lingonberry), and especially the chocolate filled with pear and hazelnut

Above all, though, was the sixth course, the dessert. Think mint is just for toothpaste or lamb? Think again. Our plate of Greek yogurt (a panna cotta) with mint, honey, grape, raisin, and a frozen mint julep (a lovely green sorbet) was frankly astonishing. Deliciously so. We were both floored by it.

Perhaps best of all - and something TRU has no control over - we get to sleep in tomorrow morning. What a lovely evening of dining, and what a lovely morning to come!

That, by the way, is a terrific tie, I think...

;-)

dinner, wherein we laugh in the face of "low-fat"

It's a sort of zen question, isn't it? Or something like that. What kind of a vegetarian dinner is it if you make vegetarian food but the vegetarian calls to cancel?

In our case, the correct response is, "deep-fried goodness, highly caloric, screw the notion of low fat".

I mean, come on, look at Brad and Tina. Fellow teammates, a lovely couple. Disgustingly in shape (Brad competes internationally in triathlons). Both of them can withstand an onslaught of rich fried, cheesy, creamy foods. And so they did.

As noted, Tim couldn't come for dinner because of tornado warnings for the area between Chicago and Indianapolis, where he lives. Brad and Tina had only a half mile stroll through the neighbourhood, so they showed up, and we fed them. A good evening, and they were troopers for putting up with lots of photos at the end of the night.

The food:

Empanadas filled with summer squash, sweet peppers, and feta.I set a platter of these out on the balcony table along with a bowl of tomato salsa. We sipped an Argentinean white wine, and enjoyed the warm evening.

A simple romaine salad with a toasted pumpkinseed dressing.

Chile relleno, refried black beans, sweet corn and tomatillo salsa.I haven't made these in ages, and with good reason. Frying is messy, and good as these are (make no mistake, chiles rellenos are perfect food in my opinion), you'd get mighty unhealthy eating them regularly. A real treat. Conrad captures the plating process in stages.



Lemon-glazed pistachio genoise with toasted pistachio ice cream and quince poached in a spiced syrup.I love working with quinces. So fragrant, and people never guess what they are. Tina thought it was apple, a good guess, but quince is so much more fragrant. Wonderful fruit, though not for eating raw, of course. As for the cakes, well, this was attempt #2. I had made on large cake round and intended to do something with a chocolate ganache. I made a mistake, however, in the batter for the cake and misread 6 Tbsp of butter as 6 oz. Big difference. The result was tasty but oozing butteriness. I chucked it out in the end and started over, this time making individual cakes in ramekins. This also gave me time to think about my concept. The ice cream was made, and I was still thinking chocolate, but seeing the quinces at Whole Foods sent me in a different direction entirely.

We finished the fat-laden dinner with a wedge of a brie-style goat cheese that had a ripple of blue down the center. Mmmmm.

Brad and Tina left late, and once Conrad gets up out of bed again (we were already swimming this morning), we'll finish the silverware and last few dishes. And then I may need a nap to prepare myself for another big dinner night tonight, this one at a fine restaurant instead.

Tim, we missed you

Dinner tonight was meant to be with three friends. Alas, summer storms and related tornado warnings kept Tim in Indiana. We missed him, and we were sorry he wasn't here to share in our meal.

I'm tired and overheated and let's not even discuss tonight's remarkable caloric intake. It happens. It was tasty. I'll blog more over the weekend, but for now, a shot of a pair of empanadas we started out with.

NBF and NBFBF's anniversary

A simple note: happy anniversary to a favourite couple. Jeph, Brett, may you know many more years of love together. 8 years now? 9? Whichever it is, I wish you both so many more. This despite my constant (half-joking) macking on you, Brett.

;-)

happy with my cooking for a change

The subject line and this entry are NOT a play for compliments on my part. The truth is that I'm a harsh critic of my own cooking (and, as I've noted before, I'm very lazy about what I make for myself when I'm alone at home), so I seldom fully enjoy what I've prepared for dinner parties. It takes a lot for me to be pleased with my food.

Last night, I was happy with what I cooked. A rare occurrence. Here's how dinner went.

Martinwas in town for the weekend from Denver, staying with us a couple of nights. An audition for Jeopardy brought him to town - doesn't he look nice all dressed up to impress the television people?He thinks he did well, and we certainly wish him success.

He's gotten to know CGthrough the years, so we invited her to join us for dinner. We'd hope to dine outside, but great winds and intermittent rain kept us inside most of the evening. No matter. It's just another opportunity for us to set up the table nicely.

CG had gifted us with some unique wine several months back, produced in Florida by Florida A&M University.We decided tonight would be the night to try them. Back ups were on standby, and a good thing, too. We poured the Carlos first and toasted. The colour in the glass was of apple juice, and that's not too far off the oddly boozy sweet flavour. After a sip each, Carlos went down the drain. Noble was worse. Waaaay worse. Grape Kool-Aid with the kick of cough syrup. Sickly sweet and a little funky. Nice try Florida. We're sure there are better wines produced in that state, but it may be a while before we try them.

On to dinner. Salads were up first. I had charred some tomatoes and chopped them, mixing that into a compote along with red onions and fresh mint. I topped the compote with arugula, put a small slice of feta alongside, and that pretty much was it. Simple. A good start. Nice portion and flavours. So far a success.


Some kitchen shots. The camera lens needs cleaning, I know.


Fiddleheads sauteed in brown butter.

I could have plated dinner a bit better. I started going a bit haywire with a squirt bottle and some arrangements. Live and learn. Still, I had given some thought to this dish, and I was pleased that it worked well. Here's the rundown:

Cous cous crusted halibut with a red lentil puree, the fiddleheads, and a fresh sweet corn and shallot sauce.
I thought the fish cooked up nicely, the crust stayed on it, the sauce was tasty, the lentils (borrowed from the lentils cake recipe I tried a few days back) were excellent, and the fiddleheads were both pretty and fresh-tasting.

The happy diners.


Dessert wasn't quite as successful, though I covered well. It started out fine: some lovely yellow peaches with the skins slipped off.I turned them into a crisp, and the streusel topping was delicious before I baked it all. But it was also very buttery. I double-checked the recipe when the crisp came out of the oven, but I had the recipe right. The streusel was a little too wet for my liking in the end. I wanted something a bit drier, thicker, and more crumbly. Hmmmm. The other issue (full disclosure on this blog - at times) was that I hadn't sufficiently chilled the bowl of the ice cream maker, or I hadn't sufficiently chilled the custard, or both. As a result, I was forced to chill the custard in a container, stirring occasionally. It turned out fine enough to top the crisp,
but I can't quite bring myself to call it ice cream. I was delighted, though, by the scent and flavour infused into it by the use of a couple of real cinnamon sticks. Heavenly.

We ended the night with a small bit of cheese and some other treats.
By this point we'd moved on to a Spanish Tempranillo and, for Conrad and Martin, a lovely Pedro Ximinez. Sitting outside, lightning flickering far off over the lake, enjoying the winding down of an early summer evening - I was contented, and glad to have made something I truly liked for a change.

Frontera with Howard

The latest post to reach back - yes a few more still to come from Missouri. This time, though, while I'm feeling too lazy to do a big entry and feeling in a food mood from watching episodes of Top Chef, it's a handful of shots from dinner right before Memorial Day weekend. Howard was in town for IML, so he and I (Conrad was out of town) met up for dinner at Frontera Grill.

Ahhh, Frontera. I really love the place - I think I've mentioned that before on the blog. Howard and I met outside the restaurant at 4:30, which left us first in line for the dinner opening.

We were at a table (along with two of Howard's friends, also in town for IML) by 5:30 and soon enjoying dinner. I wish the photos had all turned out - especially the shot of Jill, the sommelier. Conrad and I sing her praises, and once again she ensured that our dinner was a wonderful experience. The food, mind you, helps!

Chiles rellenos. Not on the menu, you have to know to ask for it. And get there early. We shared these an appetizer.

My meal: serrano-marinated mahi mahi, cooked over the coals, in a creamy sauce of wild hedgehog mushrooms and roasted poblano chile. Rustic mashed potatoes and grilled green beans. People will be surprised to know, but the hedgehog mushrooms caught my eye, and it was a winning choice.

On the side: grilled green onions. I shared, no worries.

Jill sent out some dessert wine and a couple of desserts. The fruit soup did not photograph well (sorry, I should say that I did not photograph it well), but the ice cream sandwich did. I'm not doing it justice with that label.

So it was, another fine night at a favourite restaurant. We waddled out contentedly, and I was soon into a cab home.

gratuitous shot

A propos of nothing, I simply wanted to post this shot. Jeph will understand....

lentil cakes

There's not much to say about this one. Not a bad idea, some issues with the execution, a recipe I would want to tinker with a bunch. Next time I might leave the lentils as a very tasty puree rather than turn that into cakes. Ah well. We didn't go hungry tonight.



Red lentil cakes on a sauce flavoured with chorizo, salad on the side. Plus a cheesy photo of me.

lamb jello

Ever given much thought to gelatin desserts? What animal part was boiled down to get that jiggly goodness?

Last night it was lamb. Tasty tasty lamb.




That's stock. I roasted two shanks in foil, picked the meat off the bones, then tossed the bones and scraps into a small saucepan of water. Let it simmer away. A chilling period in the fridge later (and the removal of the fat) and we've got stock. Delicious, gelatinized stock. Mmm-mmm.

Of course, I didn't serve it that way. Instead I cooked it down more with red wine and some pomegranate balsamic vinegar, tossed the lamb meat in that glaze, and served it atop lentils and alongside salad and asparagus.

I think Conrad enjoyed it.

As a postscript to a grey, dreary, wet day, fog rolled in. This was last night just before bed, though it could have been last November, perhaps. In fact, it was this morning as well. The fog has rolled back in this evening - I cannot see the lake at this time. Is this really spring?