The Party's Over, for Now

I find the end of any term somewhat sad and yet since it affords me more time to do other things I've been putting off, in this case for eight weeks, it's a good thing too. We had so much fun with the Basics course and those who were involved turned out to be such a fabulous group of folks, guys and gals, that I shall miss them. Except that one of our group is hosting a party next Wednesday for all of us plus several other OLLI members so we shall meet again. For my own edification, I listed all of the dishes we worked on over the eight weeks, and was astonished to find that we cooked 22, including entrees, desserts and sides. There was a baked chicken that evolved into chicken noodle soup, fried chicken and steamed fish, Swiss steak that was fabulous, eggs Benedict with real Hollandaise sauce, spaghetti sauce from scratch and now in my freezer awaiting use at the party, and any number of interesting ways to do vegetables. Desserts: baked apples, pumpkin pie and apple pie. The regrettable thing is that we ran out of time to do everything I would have liked to show my group. We never got to seafood and you can do a lot with a potato. Oh well, maybe that's for the future.

Hopefully, I can post the instructions for these dishes on the Doc Store.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Recipe Sources on the Web

Suggestion: It might be fun to cite some web sites in the blog which have good, tried-and-true, generally reliable recipes.

I tend to use www.epicurious.com as my first stop. I also refer to www.allrecipes.com occasionally. Then there is www.closetcooking.com, an eclectic mix of cuisines and idea. Recently I discovered www.thefrostedcupcake.blog.com (I need to verify this URL, as I am not at my usual computer to doublecheck) for yummy cupcakes. Google is also a go-to site, as long as you add "recipe" to your search query. It is amazing how many sites that come up as a result!

Some people like to use recipes with photos attached; this is not a criterion of mine, though.

Where do you search and what recipes appeal to you?

Doris

Fish Night

The usual crowd showed up for Fish Night this week – these are the folks we can count on every week. In addition to Husband and two adult daughters, we had neighbors Jack and Nancy and friend Hugo (names changed to protect the guinea pigs). It was great to see our neighbors at Fish Night because they are recently home from a vacation in Great Britain. They missed two successive Fish Nights, and we missed them. Daughter No. 2 is just back from an exhausting few days in New York, so we had lots of travel stories to talk about. Hugo brought a great bottle of white wine and a new (to us) CD to share, as he always does.

With our pre-dinner drinks, we munched on olives (from the Wegmans olive bar) and unsalted almonds. Then I served a tossed green salad with a simple vinaigrette dressing. For the main event:

• · Pan-Seared Prosciutto-Wrapped Flounder. I substituted flounder (rolled up) for the cod in this recipe because it looked better to me at the fish counter. The recipe calls for a number of Wegmans-specific ingredients that you don’t need – just substitute something similar. In fact, I used some of the Tomato-Vodka Pasta Sauce I made over the week-end instead of Wegmans Sweet Red Pepper Sauce called for in the recipe. Some people really liked this dish and some thought it was “ordinary.” It certainly made for a pretty presentation.
• · Mashed Potatoes and Celery Root -- just boil cubes of peeled celery root along with the potatoes and prepare as usual. I love celery root (also called celeriac), but it’s offbeat and not universally admired, especially when served by itself. In fact, I got a “thumbs down” on a raw celery root slaw last week. (I loved it!) But, I find that mixing celery root into mashed potatoes both disguises it and makes the mashed potatoes sweeter and tastier. Celeriac is an excellent source of vitamin K and a very good source of fiber. My guests loved this dish until a couple of guys learned they were eating celery root.
• · Peas – just plain old frozen peas – in fact, I think frozen peas almost always taste better than fresh peas (unless the fresh peas are eaten raw right off the wine out in your own garden), and they are just as healthy. I added a little mint to make them slightly less ordinary. Everybody likes peas; Daughter No. 2 took the leftovers home.
• · Slow Cooker Fennel Braised with Artichokes. This was an experiment. I found the recipe on the California Olive Ranch website. This company makes my favorite mid-priced olive oil. Fennel is another one of my favorite, slightly off-beat, vegetables, and I thought my guests might like it in this recipe. I knew I would and it’s so easy! Again, mixed reviews from the “corn and peas” guys.
• · Maple Cornbread was also a first-time use of the recipe (am I brave or foolhardy?) and is from the King Arthur Flour cookbook. I added a cup of frozen corn (thawed and pulsed a bit in the food processor). The reviews were mixed. Next time I will add a bit more maple syrup and more corn.

I don’t hesitate to purchase dessert for Fish Night or make something simple like cookies. But Daughter No. 1 bought some black walnuts at a farm market recently and she suggested that we use some of them in ice cream and the idea haunted me for the last couple of weeks. Black Walnut Ice Cream. While dessert was being served, Nancy went back to her house next door to retrieve her iPad so we could enjoy the pictures she took in England and Scotland (as well as some cupcakes she and Jack had bought at Lavender Moon in Old Town Alexandria -- delicious!).

Fascinating Fish Facts: According to a 2006 global study by a team of scientists from 12 academic institutions in five countries, all of the world's fishing stocks will collapse before mid-century, devastating food supplies, if overfishing and other human impacts continue at their current pace.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (a relatively conservative body), reports that over 25% of all the world's fish stocks are either overexploited or depleted. Another 52% is fully exploited, meaning that these are in imminent danger of overexploitation (maximum sustainable production level) and collapse.

Enough lecturing – I just wanted to explain why I try to be careful to make sure my fish purchases do not add to the problem – economic (when cod fishing collapsed from overfishing in Canada in 1992, 40,000 jobs were lost) or environmental (‘nuf said!). This is easier than you might think. The Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch puts out a great pocket guide that tells you what fish to avoid when at the grocery store or a restaurant. There is a pocket guide for our area. You can print the guide on your computer or order free cards that will be sent to you in the mail. The idea is to take it with you when you shop or dine. (I keep the guide as an app on my iPhone.)

A great National Geographic article on overfishing and its effects.

I see I’ve run on too long – new to blogging. I’ll do better next time.

Le Maitre d'Dites: An Improbable Conversation

Bon soir, mesdames, and welcome to

This temple of the Cordon Bleu;

A site so frankly Francophile

We ask you stay and dine a while.

Like Immanuel Kant our Tour d’Argent

Will challenge your lingering taste--

For philosophy’s like gastronomy

(And neither thrives on undue haste.)

Our warm hors d’oeuvres will soothe the nerves

While you sample our Gallic ways

Of Soupe Terrine and Boeuf sublime

And naturally, our sauce Bearnaise.

Beyond that sauce our Bouillabaisse

Would shame the chefs of old Compagne

Our expertise is just to please:

Would you care for un peu de vin?

And now behold, quelle surprise

Wonderful as a diligent spouse,

Like the roofs of gay Paris,

This evening is…“on the House”.

Mike Mc Namara

Thanksgiving Wines Suggestions

Our friends Eric and Carol Henderson know a lot about wines. They've led many wine trips in Virginia to our members' delight. I asked them what they would suggest for the typical Thanksgiving dinner and here is their reply:

For roast turkey and rich side dishes such as stuffing and mashed potatoes, we like a Gewurtztraminer. This is a nice aromatic wine, often with a bouquet that reminds one of flowers. It usually has a touch of sweetness that goes well with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  A Riesling would also work, and one might also try a Viognier from Virginia. A full-bodied Viognier is also aromatic and sometimes has a touch of sweetness. Viognier is rapidly becoming one of the best white wine offerings from Virginia wineries.

Eric and Carol Henderson

Fish Night

Unless commenters beg me to stop, I’ll try to post on this blog on Tuesdays about the previous evening’s Fish Night at the Spooner Household. It started more than 5 years ago when my next-door neighbor had serious heart issues and clearly needed to work on his diet. We all know that fish is heart-healthy, but he ate no fish (mayo-loaded tuna salad doesn’t count – nor does batter-coated deep-fried seafood) and told me he hated fish. We all needed more fish in our diets, and I was confident I could change his mind.

So I invited him and his wife to come to dinner every Monday to dine on fish. The project has ballooned and now most of our friends know they can join us on any Monday, and the numbers around our table range from 5 to 20 (and, a few times, even more) each Monday. Fish Night has even gone international. My daughter’s Australian friends have done the “Fish Night” thing with their own friends and family. And our European friends know not to phone any of us on Mondays, as we will have our mouths full! I love to cook and entertain – I especially like trying new dishes, so my guests are also my test subjects for new preparations. Win-win, right?

Anyway, I'm thinking I will write a note each Tuesday about our guests, what we ate and drank, and anything else what was noteworthy about the previous night. Maybe a recipe or two? Or a mention of which foods are in season and/or local? I’m hoping to get comments and suggestions – and maybe stories by others about their attempts to eat healthy and force their friends to do likewise!

Come Saturday Morning...

I have always enjoyed breakfast out, especially on Saturday when my favorite restaurant exudes a certain community feeling..families laughing and enjoying being together,  the baby in the booster with dad for a change watching the little one; long married couples, he's reading the "Post", she's quietly enjoying her coffee; young couples lost in one another's presence; divorced dads feeding the kids on his weekend. I enjoy the hum of the place and the smell of bacon and fresh squeezed oranges and even good old fry in those peppery hash browns that wind up on every egg plate. You can get anything you want for breakfast, and certainly what you don't have in your own fridge at home for a nice change. The coffee is always hot and frequently refreshed, and the service welcoming and friendly offered by waitresses you want to call "Flo". I speak of my favorite morning spot for breakfast, Virginia Kitchen in Herndon on Baron Cameron Road in the Kmart Shopping Center. They are open all week for breakfast and lunch with a very nice menu for lunch too. You get the feeling with the lunch group that they eat there  regularly.Their chef is very creative with his specials, my favorite so far is mashed potato omelet with sour cream and scallions; regular breakfasts come in so many combinations, it's difficult to decide whether you are in the mood for pancakes, grits, or eggs in any number of forms. I like the people who run the place and I always enjoy the comfort there on a rainy morning. It's not the place where everybody knows your name, but you still feel you are among friends.