Testing Christmas Cookie Recipes

Christmas may be two months away but it's time for me to finalize recipes for my Christmas Cookie class. I want to do two classes this year: one featuring classic Christmas cookie recipes like sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies and spritz cookies; the other featuring a cookie assortment suitable for giving which will include different flavors and techniques. Here's some photos of what I'm working on.

Madelines. This is a delicate French cookie that has the texture of a poundcake. I flavored this with vanilla bean paste. It uses a special pan that results in the finished cookie looking like a shell. I'm going to try a couple more version using lemon or orange zest and extract.

Ribbon Cookies. I like these because they look like bacon. You start off with one dough that is divided into three parts. Each part is then flavored and layered in a loaf pan. After chilling overnight, the dough is sliced very thin and baked. They are yummy!

P.S. My baking is a lot better than my photography!

Bacon Chocolate Bar

I am a firm believer in the "everything is better with bacon" and was excited to checkout Mo's Bacon Bar. It's a milk chocolate bar with applewood smoked bacon and alderwood smoked sea salt.

Since no one at home was brave enough to try it with me I decided to take it to the office ... the guys there will eat just about anything. Not the case.

We waited until mid afternoon to break into the bar ... no one thought chocolate, bacon and morning coffee was a good combination. The first bite was weird ... there was the chocolate taste, then the saltiness and finally dried bits of bacon. The second bite was better but overall it wasn't the fantastic experience we expected.

I'm not giving up ... I think one of these days the state fair will come up with the perfect combination.

Baked Mac and Pimento Cheese

I'm a big fan of the blog of Cream Puffs in Venice. The writer, "Cream Puff", does an amazing job photographing the fruits of her labor and sometimes she also includes pictures of her progress with the recipe.

Here's a photo of my own ... I made it about a month ago ... I was practicing the baked mac and pimento cheese for the Childhood Favorites For Your Adult Palette cooking class later this month.

Whaddaya think? It was as yummy as it looked (even if I do say so myself).

Visiting Beantown

I've been on the road a lot lately ... mostly for work (day job) ... mostly in cities that are not food friendly ... and mostly with no free time for exploring. That was not the case last week when I got to visit Boston, a city with many well known ethnic and eclectic neighborhoods, many of which are known for their shops and restaurants.

Since I've been to Boston several times before, I opted to skip the historical sights and focus on food this time. My first memorable meal was at Eastern Standard in the Kenmore Square area on Commonwealth Avenue. The coziness of the outdoor dining area and the vibe in the restaurant bar hinted at the pleasant dining experience ahead. The menu was a little bit French brasserie (with standard offerings of foie gras, steak frites and duck confit ravioli), a lot of raw bar, some comfort food (grilled cheese and roasted chicken) and touch of weird (BTLT which is beef tongue lettuce and tomato).

As much as I love classic french food, I opted for seafood choices starting with the Maine lobster in puff pastry. Served in a shallow soup bowl, large pieces of lobster meat in a puff pastry shell sat in a creamy pool of roasted corn and shitake mushrooms that was flavored with bacon. I used a spoon to eat this. Then the server surprised us with fresh oysters, so fresh it seemed you could taste the salt water. For dinner, I had the grilled swordfish which was served with heirloom tomatoes and seasonal vegetables (fennel and baby eggplant). The swordfish was cooked and seasoned perfectly! Wine for the meal included a glass of rose champagne and a glass of pinot noir. Service was fantastic.

The next memorable meal was the following night at Tapeo, a tapas restaurant on Newbury Street in the Back Bay area. The restaurant had three distinct dining areas, the outdoor patio, a traditional dining room and a cozy bar area that was decorated in colorful tiles. The menu had over 40 tapas which were divided by hot, cold and signature dishes. We started with a plato mixto which included serrano ham, Manchego cheese, roasted red peppers and olives that were flavored with garlic and cumin. I need to try that at home ... the cumin added a very earthy flavor. Baby lambchops in an apricot sauce was next, followed by prunes stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in bacon (which tasted so much better once they cooled down). Dessert was rice pudding with a twist ... made into a custard with a caramelized sugar crust similar to creme brulee. The food was very good but the wine was fantastic ... a sparkling Pinot Noir from Spain called Aria.

My last memorable meal was in Cape Cod. I had the day to myself so I decided to do some exploring and headed south. After a quick stop in Plymouth, I went in search of my first lobster roll. I stopped at the Barnstable Restaurant and Tavern and tried their tomato crab bisque which was a bit spicy with corn and bits of potato. Yum! Their rendition of the lobster roll was lobster salad on crostini served with mesclun greens and cherry tomatoes. I really don't get why they would do that to lobster ... such an exotic food served so bland. Good thing I didn't have the traditional lobster roll on a hot dog bun.

On the way back to the hotel, I stopped at the Tea Shoppe for a cup of Earl Grey and an almond macaroon to wrap up my day.

And by the way, Boston may have been called Beantown years ago because of their love for baked beans but today I think it's called Beantown because there's a Starbucks and a Dunkin Donuts on every corner!

What is the Bacon of Wine?

My latest obsession (of many) is with Food and Wine magazine, both the print and online versions. I recently subscribed to the print version and have been putting that ahead of the other cooking magazines in the review cycle. And between issues, I surf the online version frequently!

The October issue arrived earlier this week and I showed remarkable restraint in leaving it in its plastic cover until last night (Friday night). This issue focused more on wine than previous issues and had a few interesting articles including food and wine pairings and the best classic wines under $15. I flipped through most of the articles paying attention mostly to the recipes.

There was one article, however, that caught my attention and got me thinking that the writer's thoughts were worth sharing. It was written by Salma Abdelnour who is more comfortable talking about food than she is about wine even though she drinks it everyday. Despite her desire and joy to learn about varietals, regions and producers she is intimidated by the lingo and the ever changing trends. So she tends to second guess her tastes and instincts and stays quiet during conversations about wine. I'm sure we've all been to one of those events when there was one blowbag in the crowd who was a know it all about wine (and if I was the blowbag I blame it on the wine!).

To overcome this, she did conducted an experiment ... she took the food and beverages she was most comfortable with and asked experts (wine directors of respectable restaurants and wine importers) what would be their eqivalent in wine.

She started with burgers and asked what would be considered the White Castle of the wine industry -- meaning what do the snooty mc snoods drink that they don't want anyone to know. The answer was Pinot Grigio. It seems most sommeliers would not admit to drinking Pinot Grigio but in a blind taste test would associate it with more exotic whites with a similar taste profile like Gruner Veltliner Federspiel, Chabblis or Albarino. The other wine that professionals do not like admitting to drinking is Zinfandel (the red kind!) mostly because it is a New World wine. And if you don't know what a New World wine is you need to come to our annual Old World, New World Wine tasting!

The second food she used for comparison was bacon. Her justification was that everyone is happy when eating bacon -- it is so basically delicious that you don't have to think much about it. The experts came back with two responses. The first was Pinot Noir and the second was Merlot which was described was "an easy wine to drink", "like a bear hug from your grandma" and "safe and warm".

The last wine correlation was for coffee ... she wanted to find a wine that was "versatile as it was reliable", something that she could drink every day as she would coffee. The experts came back with Sauvignon Blanc more than any other varietal. It was picked for how well it pairs with food and the low probability it would be tainted (due to being refrigerated during storage and its acidity). Wine director Alpana Singh of Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants stated " There's a big difference between good and bad coffee, but if you really need caffeine, you'll drink bad coffee. It's the same with Sauvignon Blanc". To test theory, the write drank Sauvignon Blanc for an entire week experimenting with wines from various growing regions and with different cuisnes and she found that it was a "fantastic utility player". There was one night the Sauv Blanc did not deliver and she figured what she really needed was espresso rather than coffee.

Here's a link to the article: http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/wines-for-drinking-not-overthinking

My Hot Date with Tyler

I was going through some old photos and saw this one with me and Tyler Florence. He did a book signing at the Super Target in Mooresville just a few months after I moved here.

San Francisco – Part 1: The Food

I love San Francisco -- it is my favorite city in the US. There’s so much to do in the city and within a couple of hours you can be in some of the most beautiful (and palette pleasing) places in the world … some of my favorites are Napa/Sonoma, Monterey/Carmel/Pebble Beach and Big Sur. Back in the day when I was a travelling consultant I would “have” to be there at least once a month for work, now I ‘m lucky if I can get out there every few years for “research”.

In my four days, I did a little bit of everything. I spent an afternoon in Walnut Creek walking around the quaint town and window shopping at my holy trinity of stores: Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and Crate and Barrel. I spent another afternoon in Sausalito, having lunch at a sidewalk café and browsing the local shops and art galleries. I laid out at the hotel pool drinking cold Coronas (yes I drink other beverages not just wine) for the good part of a day and spent an entire day in Napa!

In the 4 days I was there, I gained 3 pounds! Here are some of the food highlights from my trip.

My first meal was lunch at Artisan Bistro in Lafayette (a small town between the city and Napa that I like to use as home base). I started with an organic heirloom tomato salad with feta cheese on a bed of arugula that was dressed with pesto and balsamic vinegar. The main part of my meal was a croque monsieur (a grown up French grilled cheese sandwich) which was filled with gooey Gruyere cheese and salty ham in between perfectly crisp and golden pieces of bread. I decided to skip dessert since I nibbled on the shoestring fries on my plate.

Believe it or not, I was hungry a few hours later and ate at Il Fornaio in Walnut Creek. I am not sure how I got away with this but at most of the restaurants I went to I was able to get tasting portions of the dishes I ordered. Given that its summer I couldn’t resist the caprese salad with vine ripened tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and as a bonus, olives. My next course was ravioli (made at the restaurant) stuffed with butternut squash and walnuts and served in a tomato sauce with brown butter, parmesan cheese and crispy sage. This was so fantastic that my next course seemed just okay: thinly pounded veal sautéed with sliced artichokes and lemon which was served with potatoes and sautéed vegetables. I continued my feast with dessert: chilled zabaione with fresh berries and peach sorbet which was topped with fresh whipped cream and a cherry! I slept good that night.

Day two was spent mostly in Sausalito. I had a late lunch at Poggio Trattoria. I had plans for a big dinner in the city so I went with a light lunch, a Margherita pizza (tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil) with prosciutto di parma and arugula. The arugula was amazing … it was crisp with a nice peppery bite. It added a nice touch to the pizza which I had with a glass of petite syrah.

After some sightseeing in the city, I had worked up an appetite and was ready for dinner at Epic Roast House on the Embarcadero. The restaurant was right on the water overlooking the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. I got there a bit before the sun went down was took this picture. This is pretty much the view from my table. Again I had tasting portions … I started with a warm spinach salad with bacon and a poached duck egg. For dinner I had the wood oven roasted halibut which was delicious. The fish was light yet firm and was served with fennel on a gratin of potatoes and onions and topped with crispy mushrooms. The highlight of the meal was beignets and coffee. What an amazing presentation. First they brought a latte bowl which they poured in caramel. Then coffee from a French Press was added to the caramel and topped with fresh whipped cream. The beignets were delivered to the table in a paper bag, warm and dusted with powdered sugar. These beignets put Café du Monde to shame. A nice Merry Edwards Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley helped with digestion.

Day three was focused on wine more than food. However, I did start the day with a latte and glazed donut from the Oakville Grocery … I needed a solid base for all the wine I would be tasting. Four wineries later I had to get real food in me and stopped for lunch at Go Fish on Main Street in St. Helena. I went for quantity (and quality) starting with the shrimp cocktail, then a taste of the crispy calamari that was served with a lime aioli and finished with a half of the citrus chipotle chicken breast sandwich. No dessert and just water.

By the time I got to the last winery, I was so excited by their cheese plate I had to get it … it was three cheese (a sharp cheddar, brie and goat cheese), roasted almonds, dried apricots and dried pears and cashews served with melba toast. What a nice pairing with the champagnes I was drinking. By the end of the day, I dragged myself back to the hotel and had a Reuben and a beer and called it a night.

Most of my last day was spent at the pool with beer and salty snacks. For dinner I went back to Walnut Creek and ate at Lark Creek. I was intrigued with the blue cheese soufflé so I ordered that in the name of research. Note to self: must reverse engineer the recipe for that. It was fantastic. While it had the texture of a traditional soufflé, it was brought to the table in about 10 minutes and was delicious ... not overly blue cheesey … plus it was served with baby arugula dressed with a cherry-balsamic vinaigrette. I opted for the half portion of the bacon wrapped meatloaf which came with horseradish mashed potatoes and sautéed wax beans. Beans, schmeans. I left those on the plate to save room for dessert. Since they did minis … I tried both the butterscotch pudding and chocolate cream pie. While both of them were delicious, the butterscotch pudding won hands down. Another note to self: perfect butterscotch pudding. I was on a merlot kick from the day before so I drank the Twenty Rows Merlot with dinner. I slept good that night too.

Then I got on a plane the next day and came home 3 pounds heavier. I can see why now.

Stay tuned for the wines I tasted in Napa.