Dinner with Friends

We have friends who live in Houston but have a “toe,” as they refer to their studio, in San Francisco when it’s too hot to live in Texas. We try to spend as much time with them as we can when they are in the area so we hosted a dinner this past week. It was a simple BBQ dinner. I must confess I did not serve grass-fed locally grown New York Steaks for the main entré. They were prime NY steak cuts that I bought from Costco….sorry. This photo shows the filled plate: marinated BBQ'ed steaks, Mexican Street Corn, Tomato slices, carrots and sugar snap peas, green beans & cherry tomato salad, and garlic french bread.

We had the toasted baguettes topped with brie (both cow and goat) with the crispy garlic and onions that I spoke about a couple of blogs back. And, I am happy to report, the garlic and onions stayed crispy 2 months after I made them so the experiment was a total success!! AND continues to get rave reviews… Our Houston friends brought some lovely cheeses and Artisanal breads to nosh on while I was going nuts in the kitchen! Bill served some lovely bottles of champagnes out of his cellar to complement the cheeses and breads. He was so nice to offer more champagne to give me more time to get the meal (and myself) together! They were: Bollinger 1995 Champagne, Grand Annee Rosé Brut from Reims, France and Francois Diligent nv Champagne, Carte Blanche Rosé Brut,France. Don't you just love Rosé Brut champagnes with their slight blush of pink?!! It's a wine that reminds me of summer.


If you’ve seen the film Julie & Julia, you’ve witnessed meltdowns in the kitchen and I would have had if my friend, Nan, from Houston, hadn’t stepped into the kitchen to see what she could do to help. I was having one of those weekends when I had 4 events to do on Friday; a funeral 50 miles away and a dinner at our house on Saturday; and a family potluck reunion on Sunday to which I was bringing my BBQ Chili Beans and Garlic French Bread for 40 people. A-A-A-A-AUGH! I must have been insane to think I could do it all. Of course, many of friends (and Bill) will attest to my inability to say “no,” to my own sad detriment!

But let me get back to the dinner. So we started out with appetizers and then we served dinner, family style. BBQ NY steaks that were marinated in a simple marinade using ½ cup of Worcestershire Sauce, 3 Tblsp. each of Brown Sugar, Balsamic Vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO). Another couple brought a delicious Green Beans and Cherry Tomato Salad that had a simple vinaigrette. There were several side dishes of baby carrots and sugar snap peas, slices of fresh Heirloom Tomatoes out of my garden, Garlic grilled baguettes and Mexican Street Corn (Corn is coated with EVOO mayonnaise, cayenne and salt and rolled in parmesan cheese). I add the photos here to show what a colorful, as well as delicious, dinner it was. And, to top it all off, Bill dug up some wonderful Rhones out of his cellar to share with the dinner: Hermitage 1990 Red Rhone La Chapelle Paul Jaboulet Aine Hermitage, France and Hermitage, 1998, Red Rhone, La Chapelle Paul Jaboulet Aine, Hermitage, France

Our dinner was topped off with a homemade Apple Pie a la Mode made by Bob who used to be a member of our Cookbook Club. He makes it from a secret family recipe and apples from the Gravenstein tree in his backyard. How's that for eating locally? Bill served a Chateau Climens 1999 Barsac, Sauternes, France. I was so busy enjoying the delicious pie, that I forgot to take a photo of it so you'll just have to let your imagination conjure up an image of a slice of apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

We ended the evening with a taste of Venerable nv Sherry Very Rare Pedro Ximenez Sherry Jerez Spain Bottle #5179 Drawn from casks 19/7/85 . It is so old that it doesn't pour from the bottle, it sort of drips. You just need a touch of it on your tongue and the taste lasts for about 30 minutes! Well, maybe 15, but a pretty long time!

The dinner was 80% local and sustainable so I’m pretty proud of that!

HARVEST, Farm-to-Table event, Sept. 26-27th. A 2-day event celebrating agriculture, viticulture, cheese and good times will be held at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley. It is replacing the TomatoFest with a more varied venue. It’s also being sold for this year for a pretty reasonable price!! $85 for one day and $150 for a 2-day pass. Several local and California restaurateurs, chefs, wineries will be serving food, teaching seminars, etc. I was told that Cynthia Sandberg, from the Love Apple Farm, will be there with her tomatoes and teaching a seminar as well. For more information, go to www.harvestcarmel.com. Hope to see you there!

Picnic at Mt. Eden Vineyards

Jeffrey kindly offers the Mt. Eden Vineyards for an annual potluck picnic that a wine group has. As many of you already know, wine and food go together and many times, people who collect, taste and savor wines are also gourmet cooks. This group is no exception.

Have you noticed that when you go to pot lucks at your church, workplace or community gathering, very little of it is homemade anymore? It’s often ready-made food from Costco, re-heated frozen entrees from a grocery store, delicatessen food or take-out fast food. It is so marvelous to go to a pot luck that, except for cheese and bread, all of it is homemade, often original recipes and fresh! This wine group is exactly like that! Several members of the group were part of the Cookbook Club at one time but dropped out due to time constraints and other commitments. And, of course, Jeffrey, Bill and I are still part of both groups.

The meal started off with homemade Gravlax that Einar makes each year….and yes, Einar is Norwegian so you know it was the best gravlax ever! He & Cammy brought a wonderful wine to drink with his Gravlax, Mount Eden Vineyards 2007 Chardonnay, Edna Valley, a wine we all know and love! We then moved on to the next course that Bob prepared. It was an original recipe of sliced Yellow Beets placed on pepper boursin and puff pastry. Several people who say they “hate beets” liked these beets and started a conversation about pickled beets ugh! And how they thought that’s what beets were supposed to taste like and that’s why they thought they hated beets! These beets had that wonderful earthy, sweet flavor that were enhanced by the pepper boursin and made elegant with the puff pastry. Yea, Bob!!! Another success! He served a beautiful German wine, Maximin Grunheuser Abtsberg 1999 Riesling Auslese Mosel with his dish. We were then served with a Gazpacho that Martin made, again from scratch. It was a very rich & thick gazpacho that had crunchy bits of bell peppers, celery and onion. Instead of the bright red color that you normally see in gazpachos, this one was a deep red and almost thick enough to eat with a fork. It received rave reviews as well from everyone! He brought a bottle of Suavia 2007 Soave Estate Superior Classico Verona from Italy, of course, to partake with his soup.

Our main course and sides was Braised Baby Back Ribs, a recipe from the cookbook Braise by Daniel Boulud. Jeffrey prepared it perfectly and it came out falling off the bone, draped in a rich sauce that can only come from hours and hours of braising. Kudos to Jeffrey for another star entré! It was served with a jalapeno corn bread that was equally a smash hit. He shared a bottle from his neighbor on Pierce Road, Katherine Kennedy 1977 Cabernet Sauvignon. Tony prepared a Panzanella that was made with fresh tiny mozzarella balls, fresh tomatoes & basil and toasted bread croutons. It was the perfect foil to the rich braised ribs. And his Barbaresco 2004 Nebbiolo Ovello Riserva, Produttori Del Barbaresco from Piedmont, Italy and Ipsus 2007 Mosato (Muscat) Passito di Pantelleria from Sicily went well with the ribs as well as his Panazella.

We then had a cheese course. The artisanal breads and cheeses were just what we needed to add another layer of richness to the potluck. These cheeses were just fabulous! They were served with a little slice of a fruit geleé that enhanced the flavors of the cheeses. And, of course, Acme bread, in my estimation, the best large producer of breads in the Bay Area! Bruce & Nan brought a Chateau Coutet 1989 Barsac Sauternes to drink with their cheeses.

The last piece de resistance was, of course, dessert prepared by the all time Dessert Queen, yours truly! I made a Lemon Buttermilk Pudding Cake with Berries and Chantilly Cream. An easy-peasy dessert that is so mouthwatering delicious, thanks to Cincy Pawclyn’s book, Small Bite Plates. The recipe is now also online so you can bake this cake without having to buy the book. I made the cake in a baking pan and cut out the circles using a biscuit cutter but you could make the dessert in small ramekins if you have enough of them….I didn’t. Bill & I shared a bottle of Louis M. Martini nv Moscato Amabile* Estate Bottled from Napa. It’s a lovely blend of muscat canelli, Gewurztraminer, mixed white, and French Columbard

We had to rush off to another dinner at Beausejour in Los Altos and a TheatreWorks play, Yellow Face, currently at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts. If you have a chance to go, try to see it. It’s well performed, powerful and humorous. And, if you want a marvelous dinner at a very reasonable price in a QUIET restaurant with great service, do try Beausejour. It’s run by a Vietnamese family and has been there for years. It’s consistently good food and has a pretty wide menu so there’s always something that will please everyone. They are running a 3-course prix fixe for $18 so in these economic hard times, it’s a way to go out to a nice dinner without draining your checkbook!

Enough for now…I have to prepare for my next dinner!

FRESH, a film about sustainable food

Sorry, my life’s been busy with non-food related activities lately.

Last Saturday, 12 people got together to watch the film FRESH about local, sustainable foods. It was a wonderful evening filled with great food and good company!

The film is a powerful statement of how we can all eat healthier foods by buying locally and sustainably grown food. I learned more about cows and chickens are raised that I didn’t really know before and now will only buy organic free range chicken. Grass fed local beef is another option that will show up more often in our refrigerator. Tears of joy came to my eyes when I see what farmers are doing across the country to move away from the 3 food producers that are stealing the souls of family farms. AND, you will see how happy these freed farmers and ranchers are after doing so. The farmers who are beholden to the large conglomerates don’t smile…they struggle to live with what they have to do for these companies. The farmers who have turned to sustainable farming enjoy their livelihoods, love their pigs, chickens, cows, goats, produce, worms, etc.

Anyway, bottom line: You must watch this film!! It is not a doom & gloom film like Food, Inc. is. It is an uplifting documentary that illustrates how sustainable farming is profitable, more rewarding, more nutritional, more flavorful and kinder to the earth.

You can purchase the dvd for a showing at your home like we did at http://www.freshthemovie.com OR check the website to see where local showings are in theaters.

We had a sustainable foods pot luck dinner after watching the film. Each dish was fabulously delicious...no surprise there! It demonstrated that if you start off with fresh, local ingredients, you don't have to do a lot to it to make it taste good!

The main course was Roasted free-range chickens. The cavities were stuffed with fresh rosemary from our garden and sage leaves, also from our garden, were inserted under the skins. Other than that, it was just salt, pepper and a little EVO. I learned should buy “Rosie's” chickens rather than “Rocky Free Range” chickens because Rosie's are both Organic and Free Range.

I also cut organic russets into wedges, tossed with olive oil and baked at high temperature. Sprinkled with S&P. And made some Garlic Bread (Acme bread) made with 50/50 butter and EVO. How much more simple can you get?!!

We had lots of veggies with the dinner. Tina brought a squash dish, seasoned with parsley. We had 3 salads: Annie brought a tomato & bread salad and Mary brought a tomato, feta, cilantro salad and Janis brought a mango, avocado and butter lettuce salad. All of the salads had very simple dressings that brought out the goodness of the fruits and vegetables.

Sandy made a fabulous dessert using fresh cut up strawberries, raspberries and blueberries topped with Barbados Cream (50/50 whipped cream and whole milk yogurt topped with brown sugar) and accompanied by Coffee Crunch Bars. We enjoyed every bite and I got to keep the leftovers!!! YUM! Recipe for the cookies is online: http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/02/coffee_crunch_bars

Annie mentioned that she would have liked to have more discussion after the film. In lieu of that discussion, I thought it would be a good idea for each of us to make a commitment to local sustainable organic food.
Some ideas:
1. Buy copies of the film FRESH to give as gifts to family & friends. You can buy a dvd ($20) at the film's website: http://www.freshthemovie.com
2. Commit to eating local, organic, sustainable foods for xx% of your grocery purchases. If more of us eat this way, it will bring the price of this food down.
3. Read the Omnivore’s Dilema by Michael Pollen
4. Have a Fresh film showing at your house with your family & friends and/or have a local organic sustainable pot luck.
5. Shop at Farmer's Markets, or wherever they sell local foods. Make sure the produce is sustainable and local. Some vendors at Farmer's markets are actually mass producers.
6. Ask your grocer where the carrots, beets, chickens, etc. come from? Ask for locally produced produce.
7. Drink locally produced wines.
8. Support restaurants who serve local, sustainable foods.
9. Some people are beginning to raise chickens sustainably in their backyard (I think Sandi and Willie are thinking about it). If they do, sign up to buy eggs from them!

My commitment to local sustainable foods: I will NEVER buy mass produced chickens again, only buy locally produced produce (i.e. within 100 miles of my home), buy grass fed beef when I can and share our copy of FRESH with our family and friends. I wish I could say I will never buy off-season fruits from other countries but I will reduce my off season fruits and vegetables by 50%.

Make YOUR commitment by writing in the "comments" section of this blog!!

Eat sustainable foods, yea!!!