Chef Jason Merrill teams up with Vintner Richard Sanford for a Delectable food and wine tasting.

 

Some how spinning in the gym and burning off 800 or more calories leads to another delectable dinner. Next to me on the spin cycle is Katie Merrill who can chat while she is spinning and she asks what Norm and I are doing for dinner, I told her it was date night and we were headed to the River House, but had no specific plans on where to eat. Perfect she said, Jason her adorable talented husband, is the Chef at the Hanover Inn and he was hosting a Wine Tasting. 

She quickly made the arrangements and lucky for us we were now 2 of the guest.

Upon arrival we were greeted by one of the many Sommeliers with a glass of Pinot Gris 2006, Santa Barbara County.  Trays of bite-size hors d’oeuvres including Foie Gras Torchon, Oysters on the Half Shell, Roasted Poblanos and Red Pepper Tostone and Oyster Shooters with house made bloody Mary mix were passed.  We chatted with Jason and Richard and some of the other guest before being seated for our incredible dinner.  

Richard stands as a legend of California winemaking. His wineries name is “Alma Rosa”, which is the name for the 19^th Century Santa Rosa land grant. He is interested in agriculture as a sustainable harmony and producing extraordinary wines. His specialty is his Pinot Noir.

First of the many courses served, was Pan Roasted Scallop on a curry rice cake and sofrito this was paired with a 2006 Santa Barbara Chardonnay.  

The next course was delectable as truffles always are, Truffled Risotto, paired with El Jabali Vineyard Chardonnay 2005.

Fortunately the portions were small, we were ready for the next course Pan Roasted Organic Salmon, ginger bok choy, soba noodles , mirin-soy broth, gomasio and cilantro. Paired with 2006, La Encatada Vineyard , Pinot Noir.

Duck and More Duck Cassoulet followed, served on a native white teperay of beans, and a tiny frisee and spinach salad with lardoons and egg, the wine: 2007 Santa Rita Hills, Pinot Noir

Quinta do Noval, 10 year old tawny port was finally served with Steamed Orange cake and this was followed by bites size sweets.

The entire event was absolutely a treat for the senses and made for an incredible date night.

Susan Copeland Guest Chef cooks from “Sunday Suppers at Lucques” , Braised Beef Short Ribs with Potato Puree and Roasted Asparagus.

Saturday we were invited to the Copelands Adirondack style home on the southeast side of  Squam Lake. sited on a private cove, the home faces west over beautiful Squam Lake with views of  the sunsets. The rustic and whimsical craftsmanship of their home, is exciting and everywhere you look there is something unique and fun to absorb.

 As we arrived, Bill gave us a tour of their home and then we went outside and walked on the frozen lake as he pointed out neighbors and points of interest. When we returned,  Susan served delicious champagne, with cheese and special crackers around the fireplace.

Eventually, Susan and I went into the Kitchen, to make the final preparations for dinner.  She and I talked about the recipe she was using and some changes she made, as I sat at the bar and watched her cook. She was working from the Sunday Suppers at Lucques” Cookbook, by Suzanne Goin. Susan Copeland describes this book as, delicious and labor intensive recipes, which you need two days to prepare.

The short ribs are rubbed with cracked pepper and thyme and are sautéed for 15 minutes. The recipe amusingly tells you not get lazy and rush this step or crowd the meat. Remove the short ribs from the iron kettle and  sauté the vegetables, onions, carrots and celery, for 6-9 minutes and add a ¼ cup of  balsamic vinegar and 2 ½ cups of  wine in the large pan, the short ribs. add 6 cups of beef stock added, then place the kettle in a hot 400 oven for 3 hours.

 The Potato Puree is basically mashed potatoes with lots of cream and butter ran through a fine mesh, however Susan used milk and a small amount of butter and it was delicious.

After the short ribs had cooked for 3 hours, we removed them from the stock and put the stock in the snow so the fat would coagulate and we could remove it from the top. After an hour so, we removed the fat and reduced the liquid in half. She made a horseradish sauce from the same menu in the cookbook out of crème fraise and horseradish. She made a bed for the short ribs on the potato puree and then ladled the reduced stock over the ribs. On the side she serve roasted asparagus which is really simple, you rub asparagus in olive oil and cook on a cookie sheet in a 400 oven for 10 minutes.

Some notes Susan made were, she felt the stock was way too much liquid only add enough to cover the ribs. Also definitely the recipe for potato puree could cause an instant clog in your arteries. A recipe for 6 servings,  called for 1 ½ sticks of butter and 1 cup of cream.  

After dinner we went downstairs to play pool and had many laughs. It was a wonderful and memorable weekend. The house is absolutely uniquely beautiful and a very special place, perfect for the Copelands who are special people.

Beef Bourguignon on high fiber egg noodles, with butternut squash and Broccoli Dessert German Chocolate Cake

Kim Ann Vollers Full Proof Chocolate Cake with German Chocolate Frosting

I am having a small dinner party tonight and thought that German Chocolate Cake would make a nice desert. I usually buy desert for my parties because, I do not like to bake.

Last night at spinning class as my body was melting onto the mat below me, I turned to my friend Kim Ann who was barely even breathing hard and asked for her German Chocolate Cake Recipe. After class while I was in the shower she wrote it down from memory (pretty impressive I think) and left it at the front desk. Kim has an incredible skill for baking and cooking, so before I could grab the recipe people were making copies of it.

I got all my ingredients out to make my cake this morning. My first dilemma- to sift, or not to sift? It is like asking if you should tell the truth, of course I know when baking a cake you should sift your flour. But why? The bag of flour say’s pre-sifted. I sifted the flour and followed the directions. Kim said the cake is fool proof, I don’t know if this fool will prove her wrong.

The final direction before baking, was to add a cup of boiling water. Why boiling? I did it anyway, and it looked really watery but good thing I did not add a bunch more stuff because, I just took the cakes out of the oven and they look perfect. I had one annoying thing happen, the batter dripped out of the bottom of  the spring-form pan and smoked the whole kitchen up while the cake was baking and then I was trying to get the little cake, burn bubbles, out of the oven with a spatula. I ended up putting tin foil under the pan and this worked pretty well. Luckily the smoke detectors did not go off. I did have a message from Kim after the cake was baked, you should have 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and baking soda. And she uses 1/2 of the cooking oil and the cake is still very moist.

Chocolate Cake (Kim Ann Vollers)

Grease and flour 2 round cake pans

Mix Together:

2 C. of Sugar

1 ¾ C. of Flour (Sifted?)

¾ C. of Cocoa

1 tsp. of Baking Soda

1 tsp. of Baking Powder

1 Tsp. of Salt

Add

1 C. of Milk

2 Eggs

1 Tsp. of Vanilla

½ C. of Vegetable oil

Beat on high for 2 min

Then add slowly 1 cup of  (boiling) water.  This will be a very runny batter but it is suppose to be.

Put in your round pans and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Cool  completely.

German Chocolate Cake Frosting:

1 can of evaporated milk

2 c. of  sugar

1 ½ sticks of butter

4 egg yokes (beaten slightly)

Bring up to boil stirring for 12 minutes. Important  advice from Kim Ann. “Do not get distracted during the 12 minutes, stir constantly until golden in color and thick.

Turn off heat and add  1 ½ cups of chopped pecans and 7 oz of unsweetened coconut.

Frost cooled cake.

 We had friends over for dinner  Melody, Dorothy  and David Stauffer, John Bledsoe from next door, Betty Anne and David McGuire and Linda Thomas. John Bledsoe made an appetizer of sesame encrusted tuna served on wilted arugula, drizzled with a wasabi mayonnaise.

 I served Beef Bourguignon on high fiber egg noodles, with butternut squash and Broccoli.

Marinade the beef in wine the night before. Drain in the morning. Dry and shake in flour. Brown 4 pieces of bacon in skillet and brown the stew beef.  Put in large Dutch oven and cover with wine,. Cook at 300 for 3 hours. Thicken with a rue, add salt to taste , some fresh basil and cooked pearl onions.

Steam your broccoli.

Steam Squash, when tender mash with cream cheese.

 

Serve the beef over egg noodles with broccoli and squash on the side.

 

Pork Tenderloin marinated in Stubbs served with Oriental Cucumbers and Tylers Green Beans

This dinner is a collaboration of three chefs, Norm, my son Tyler and I. Norm is the grill chef in the family and also does the dishes, wipes the counters, takes the trash out and acts as the Sommelier.  Tyler is an extraordinary cook but, makes and extraordinary mess in the kitchen and uses an extraordinary amount of fat, cream, butter and bacon while cooking, so as with anything for a 20 year old, you must keep an eye on him.

Start with marinating the pork in “Stubbs” marinade, if you use a gallon size plastic bag, you can use less marinade. Or you can just throw it all in a bowl and let the pork swim.

Cucumber Salad

Slice 3 cucumbers extremely thin. Mince 2 green onions and 1 tblsp. of red pepper.

Add 5 tbsp. of Soy Sauce, 2 Tbsp. of Mirin, ½ tsp. of Sesame oil and 3 tbsp. of rice vinegar. Stir and add enough water so the cucumbers are all bathing in the liquids. Cover and put the salad in the fridge.

Fried Rice Multi Grain (Tyler Style)

Start your multi grain rice according to the directions.

Green Beans

Blanch the beans and drain well.

Go watch the news.

After the news, turn the grill on and send the grill chef out to cook the tenderloin.

Fried Rice part 2

Fry 3 pieces of bacon in a skillet, remove the bacon and add chopped green peppers, diced onions and sliced water chestnuts. Add the cooked rice to the hot skillet  and break an egg or 2, frying quickly. When the substance is very hot, turn off the heat.

Green Beans, Part 2

Heat enough grape seed oil in a skillet to cover the bottom, and throw in a dash of sesame oil. Add the blanched green beans to the skillet. Add sesame seeds, a piece of broken up crispy bacon, and drizzle with soy sauce.

The pork will take about 15 minutes turning often and should be just a light shade of pink inside.

Give the rice and the beans some heat before serving.

Slice the cooked pork and bed it on the fried rice. Arrange the cucumber salad and green beans on the plate.

Bon Appetite!

New Years 2010 with Guest Chefs Charlie Rattigan and Jim Giller

 A fun way to start 2010 was pizza night on New Years Eve with our good friends Martha and Jim Giller, Charlie and Beth Rattigan and  Peggy and Mike Willis. Katelyn and Kelly Willis and friends made a guest appearance. The guest chefs were Charlie Rattigan and Jim Giller.

Charlie used a baguette recipe from King Arthur Flour and the link for that recipe is  

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/7512947c75dd4ce76f3a611041c1fe40/miscdocs/baguette-ciabatta.pdf.

 

 

Charlie shows how thin the pizza is.

Jim and Charlie watch carefully as the pizza bakes.

After making the baguette recipe, James Rattigan, Charlie and Beth’s son, rolled the dough very flat and baked it. This is a procedure he learned by working in a local Italian Trattoria. Charlie brought 4 of these flat pizza shells. All of us had prepared various toppings which included: caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, red peppers, sliced tomatoes, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, grated mozzarella, cooked hamburger, pepperoni and basil

Guest chef Martha Giller, cooks up Chicken Enchiladas!

Two day's after Christmas, Norm was not feeling well. The operation was proving to be a painful undertaking with sleepless nights from the swelling and the frustration of not being able to exercise or help with the multiple of tasks that we have. Our household atmosphere had become a bit pissy. Thank goodness for our dear friends the Gillers! Martha called and asked if she could bring over her delicious Chicken Enchilada’s and Jim her husband was making the fixings! Norm was instantly cheered up.

I whipped up a chocolate cream pie and tossed a nice salad.

Ingredients:

Corn Tortillas

Vegetable cooking oil

Shredded chicken

Monterey Jack Cheese Shredded
Diced Onion

Chopped tomatoes 3

1 cup of cream

2 tbsp of chili powder

1 can of green chilis

1 tsp of salt

Cilantro

                                                         Mexican rice:

Cooked brown rice

Chile powder

Green chiles

Onions

Monterey Jack Cheese

Guacamole:

3 ripe avocados

2 tbsp of diced red pepper

3 tbsp of sour cream

Lime juice

Salt

I am recreating Martha’s and Jim’s recipe from memory.

Dip 8 corn tortillas in hot oil.

In a greased casserole dish roll the chicken and cheese in the tortilla and arrange the rolled tortilla to lie next to each other. Top with the diced onion and green chiles.

In a blender, blend the cream, tomatoes and chili powder. Pour the blended mixture over the rolled tortillas. Top with some extra jack. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

 Cook the rice according to the directions. Mix all of the ingredients with the cooked rice. Top with cheese and brown 
before serving.


Mash the avocados, mix in all ingredients and squeeze extra lime juice on top. Place the seed of one avocado in the middle to prevent discoloration.

The chocolate cream pie was from Betty Crocker. Use good dark chocolate and add less sugar.

Dinner was just perfect and the mood was cheery, Martha and Jim pause for a kiss!