A Wiseman Once Said...

New Life, new blog

2010-05-30T10:25:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,

Due to the fact that I've moved back to Michigan, it didn't make sense to continue with this blog. This particular blog was very Connecticut/New London-centric - I didn't think I could smoothly transition from East Coast to Midwest on the same page. I have started a new blog - same name (for now - it may change), different look and different platform. I will leave this blog accessible for the time being, but please update your links and follow my new posts at http://amywiseman.wordpress.com/.

Thanks!
Amy

Indiana bargains

2010-05-13T22:36:00.000-04:00

One would not necessarily think of Indiana as a shopping mecca. However, whenever I visit Noblesville/Indianapolis, I leave with WAY more stuff than I came with. Sometimes it's clothes; sometimes it's housewares; more often than not, it comes from the antique mall.

This year's trip was no exception. When I wasn't busy running 13.1 miles - and injuring myself - I managed to pick up some adorable clothes and accessories.

The yellow polka dot top and the vintage pearl drop earrings in this pic are both courtesy of Retro 101, a vendor in the Logan Village Mall in Noblesville. The blouse was $5.00 and the earrings were $4.00. (The pencil skirt was actually a $12.95 buy from Forever 21 a couple seasons ago.)

This great red and cream striped cotton top (it has adorable ruched sleeves) came courtesy of Francesca's Collections in Clay Terrace. The silver "ball and chain" earrings were also a vintage score from Retro 101.

The killer score didn't end there - I also got a beautiful vintage clutch and some great costume jewelry. I spent way less than I would have spent in antique or vintage stores out here. Indiana may not be the hippest place in the world, but for what it's worth, I always come back a little more hip.

New posts are on the way

2010-05-07T09:27:00.001-04:00

There are new posts coming - check back on Monday! There will be a new post every day next week. Sorry for the delay!

BAR none

2010-04-24T21:18:00.000-04:00

The other night, we decided to do something a little different for happy hour. As much as we love our usual haunts - Hanafin's, Dev's, Hot Rod's, our houses - sometimes you need to change things up a little. Since Dr. Scott had rounds in New Haven, Rob, Caitlin, Noe and I decided to meet him at BAR, a bewpub/restaurant/nightclub on Crown Street.

Outside BAR

Scott and Caitlin had been trying to sell us on BAR for several months, but it never seemed to work out for everyone to get to New Haven (about 45-50 minutes from New London) at the time Scott was finishing up rounds. They were very persistent, however, telling us the microbrewed beers and pizzas - in particular the mashed potato pizza - were well worth the drive.

We hitched a ride to Hew Haven with Rob. After a rather adventurous stop at IKEA (it involved setting off an alarm and impulse-buying a wok), taking the "scenic route" past several very interesting barber shops ("E&J's Barber Shop & Sporting Goods"; "My Favorite Barber Shop - specialized in fadez"); and an extremely frustrating parking experience (downtown Ann Arbor parking - New Haven parking makes you look GOOD), we finally arrived at BAR.

Excited to stop at IKEA

We were seated in the Bru Room, which had sort of an upscale pub-type feel. After perusing the microbrew selection, Scott ordered the "Damn Good Stout" while Noe, Caitlin, and I all went with the "AmBAR Ale." (I was hoping to order the Blonde, but alas, they were out.) Both beers were decent, with the AmBAR having a malty but refreshing flavor and the stout tasting, well, like a stout (milk-shakey).

AmBAR Ale and Damn Good Stout

The true standouts at BAR were the brick oven pizzas. BAR's menu starts with red (tomato sauce) or white (parmesan and garlic) pies; you build your toppings from that point. We decided to one of each. For our white, we chose the famous mashed potatoes, accompanied with onions and bacon; for the red we went veggie with mushrooms, green pepper, and black olives.

I was skeptical of mashed potato pizza. It sounded weird. But on BAR's brick oven-fired thin crust, accented with garlic and just the right amount of parmesan, it was delicious. The salty, crispy bacon and the slightly carmelized onions called to mind a baked potato - but BETTER. It had just the right potato-to-crust ratio - too much potato and it would have been heavy and goopy and bland. This had just enough to still taste the crisp crust through the mash.

SO much more glorious than this picture makes it look

We had devoured half the mashed potato pizza before guiltily remembering our neglected red pie. I think we were all expecting to be disappointed by what seemed to be a very average veggie pizza. However, the same crust that held up so well to creamy mashed potato turned out to be the perfect vehicle for delivering veggies - crisp enough to provide some crunch, doughy enough to hold its shape without being chewy. The red sauce tasted very tomato-ey - not sugary like some sauces - and was spread thin enough (without being stingy) that it didn't overpower the salty olives, crisp green pepper, and mild, earthy mushrooms.

Caitlin actually didn't want olives on her half -

what's wrong with her?

Both pizzas were so good that the five of us managed to completely devour two larges before we realized how much we'd eaten. We were uncomfortably full on the drive home, but otherwise completely satisfied.

If you're in New Haven and you want to try some really fantastic brick oven pizza, I would highly suggest BAR. I can't speak for the nightclub atmosphere or anything else on the menu, but the beer is decent and the pizzas are amazing - what more do you really need?

Chickety China, the Chinese Chicken...

2010-04-18T09:17:00.001-04:00

I forgot my lunch last Thursday. I also walked to work that day, meaning that my usual options (Thames River Greenery, Muddy Waters, a sushi roll from Singapore Grill) were out of the question (even though I could technically walk to several of these places, I could not walk there, order lunch, and walk back in the time allotted to my lunch period). This left me with one option: the Chinese restaurant across from the Shell Station.

I ordered wanton soup. That's all. But as I sat at my desk eating it, I kind of started craving the sticky, fried, MSG-laden gloriousness of the typical Chinese restaurant lunch special. However, I didn't want to go out for dinner or get take-out that night. I had plenty of food at home. So instead, I did some googling and by the end of the day had decided to make sesame chicken for dinner.

Noe was skeptical, to say the least. He was pretty sure the dish would have good flavor, but was not convinced it would have the right texture or stickiness quotient.

Our worries were completely misplaced. The dish tasted EXACTLY like sesame chicken from a take-out Chinese restaurant - so much so, in fact, that I was almost disappointed (shouldn't there be some kind of discernible difference?) The texture - achieved by battering and deep-frying the cubed pieces of chicken and draining them before tossing them in a thick, sticky sauce - was spot-on as well.

The finished product, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds

and served with white rice (courtesy of Noe)

Seeing how much sugar/cornstarch/etc went into the homemade version of this dish kind of made me cringe - and made me keenly aware of how much must be in the real take-out version. The unexpected bonus of this awareness is that I ate a much smaller portion than I probably would have out of a take-out container because I DID see exactly how much crap was in it.

One minor caveat - although the flavor was still fantastic the next day, the homemade version of sesame chicken was a little soggy after spending the night in the fridge. Not terribly so, but more so than typical take-out.

You can find the basic recipe I used at AllRecipes.com (as usual, I made some minor tweaks). If I make this again, I will add extra vinegar and chili paste (I had added extra chili paste and garlic but it still came out just a touch too sweet, in my book - Noe thought it was fine) and cut a little sugar...it's a work in progress.

One other note - I do not have a deep fryer. I fried this in a deep saucepan and it worked fine. Just make sure you test the oil with one piece of chicken to make sure it as at a good temperature, don't crowd the chicken in the pan, and watch it carefully to see when it turns the appropriate golden color. I would test a few pieces and cut into them so you get an idea of how long, time-wise, you want to leave them in the pan.

Do you ever make your own take-out?

Premium vintage

2010-04-13T10:52:00.000-04:00

I've written about my love of vintage dresses, vintage salt and pepper shakers, and even mentioned my new-ish obsession with vintage aprons. A recent search through my closet brought back an older interest: vintage pocketbooks.

When I still lived in Michigan, I discovered a great block of antique stores that were then all located in Depot Town. This was when I was just starting to collect salt and pepper shakers. Every once in awhile, I would go in to Salt City, Silver Spoon, or occasionally Apple Annie's and look for new additions for my collections. Eventually I noticed that all three stores had a vast array of other items besides salt and pepper shakers, including some vintage clothing. With vintage clothing came vintage accessories - hats, jewelry, and pocketbooks. Thus a new collection was born.

First vintage pocketbook -

my crappy photos don't show the beautiful, shiny bronze-y color

I call them pocketbooks rather than purses because a "purse" to me is a different kind of bag entirely - one of the larger, slouchy shoulder bags I tend to carry on a regular basis (although I tend to just call those "bags," quite honestly). These structured little handbags (none have shoulder straps) look like they came straight out of the Mad Men costuming department.

My second - and favorite - pocketbook

I only purchased three of these gems before moving to Connecticut, and somehow they were relegated to the back of my closet. However, when I was looking for the perfect accessory for my Shabby Apple dresses last weekend, I unearthed this:

So sixties! So patriotic! So perfect!

It was the perfect whimsical touch to my vintage-inspired weekend looks (I didn't take any pictures, but I'll post some if anyone gives me any). I may have to start scouring the CT-area stores for more pocketbooks to add to my collection (Noe will LOVE that).

Opening Day (of grill season)

2010-04-07T20:36:00.000-04:00

Today the temperature hit the high 70s. Not only did this mean an extremely pleasant walk to work (yes, I am back on that kick again) but also meant that Noe was just itching to get the grill going. While I was at work, he went out and bought some country-style pork ribs. By the time I got home, the grill was going and the ribs were sizzling.

Noe gets the grill going

Meaty goodness

We could have been stuck for side dishes, however, the night before I had attempted to make bean soup in the crock pot (trying to find a use for the ham bone from Easter, despite the fact that bean soup is horrendously unseasonal at this point). Unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately - I either didn't add enough water or let the soup simmer too long (or both). By the time I got home, the soup had thickened into the most glorious baked beans imaginable. I stirred in about two tablespoons of barbecue sauce for some sweetness and it was all mmm, mmm, good.

Ribs

We hung out outside while Noe cooked the ribs, he minding the grill and me sitting on my ass in a lawn chair, dragging it around trying to maximize the last of the sun's rays, drinking rose and reading Vanity Fair. It was AMAZING.

Being lazy while Noe does the work

Country-style ribs, baked beans,

and some leftover Zinfandel from work

How do you enjoy the warm weather?

FEASTer

2010-04-05T10:54:00.000-04:00

I love dying Easter eggs. I'm not sure why. It doesn't rank anywhere near carving pumpkins on the scale of using a childish activity to release some stress. Anyway, it's hard to get Noe psyched up for an afternoon of egg dying, so I have taken to foisting my enthusiasm for this Easter tradition onto my friends' children. Dr. Scott's children Fia and Colm (our companions on recent journeys to Fred's Shanty and the Mystic Seaport) were more than game to indulge my egg dying impulses.

My egg coloring companions

Although I admire crafty things and people, I did not go to the Martha Stewart school of egg decorating. I - and Noe and Scott - am a staunch egg coloring traditionalist, insisting on the PAAS egg coloring kit. (As we dissolved our color tablets in vinegar, we surmised that the colors are much more vibrant than they were when we were younger - advancements in color tablet technology?)

Noe experiments with the crayon -

and the vibrant yellow dye

Fia made me a monogrammed egg

Experiments involving dunking the egg in every single cup of dye were conducted in the name of creativity. (This ALWAYS results in gray.) By the end of the experience, we had two cartons of rainbow-hued eggs ready to be consumed.

Colm's experimental color

Colm wanted to dip pretty much everything in blue

Carton number two

We celebrated our egg coloring accomplishments with a trip to the best ice cream shop in Southeaster Connecticut, Michael's Dairy, and then returned home for some Guitar Hero and a traditional (for all of us midwesterners) Easter dinner of ham, green beans, and rolls - and Kraft macaroni and cheese for Colm (you can't win them all). We termed our new holiday tradition "FEASTer."

Scott and Fia learning Guitar hero

Our Easter feast!

How did you spend Easter?

Basket Case

2010-04-01T21:37:00.000-04:00

Every once in awhile, I get a mysterious package from "Kevin" at Southwest Brake & Parts.

These boxes are actually shipped by my dad, Jack, from southwest, where he works (Kevin must be a coworker). Usually I know they are coming and therefore know what to expect - for example, we received several boxes right after Christmas with gifts that we couldn't bring on the plane. Dad surprises me every once in awhile, though - like when he shipped me three bags of my very favorite coffee that he bought while on vacation in the upper peninsula.

When a box arrived today, I honestly had NO idea what was in it. I wasn't expecting anything, hadn't left anything behind on my last trip...I was mystified. Imagine my surprise and delight when I opened it and found that it contained...

...an Easter basket, chock full of candy, some cute dish towels, a pair of sunglasses, a hat for the Buns, and even a couple McDonald's gift cards for Noe. How great is that?!

Bonus: the cats got a gift, too - they adore boxes.

Thanks, mom and dad!

Wine down

2010-03-25T20:59:00.000-04:00

Some of the wines I have sampled over the past few weeks. Have you tried any of these and, if so, what are your thoughts?

Famous since 1972

2010-03-21T20:57:00.001-04:00

My friend Liz once said to me, "Amy, are you sure you aren't a New Englander? You like antique stores, and pubs, and seafood shacks...are you sure you're from the Midwest?"

I could argue that a lot of people like antique stores - and my favorite one is Indiana - and I have not met a person yet who dislikes pubs. But if there is one thing that everyone on the planet SHOULD like, it is seafood shacks.

Fred's Shanty

(photo courtesy of fredsshanty.com)

Noe, Scott, and Colm at Fred's (which is also kid-friendly)

I've blogged about the gloriousness that is Captain Scott's Lobster Dock before. The problem with Captain Scott's is that it opens later in the year. Also, it is NOT down the street from our house. Therefore, we sometimes turn to Fred's Shanty.

Fred's - famous since 1972 (according to the sign) - is within walking distance of the Wiseman/Erasga residence, making it a convenient option on warm, sunny days. It's a little more fast food-y than Captain Scott's. However, if what you are craving are friend clam strips and salty, skinny fries, Fred's is the place for you.

Fried clams, fried fries, fried chicken strips

If seafood is not your bag, fear not: Fred's has an excellent long dog, served on the ubiquitous hot dog roll (see the Captain Scott's post for the difference between the hot dog roll and the hot dog bun).

Noe with the long dog

Fred's location on Pequot Avenue (along the river, overlooking Pfizer) does not quite have the charm of Captain Scott's boatyard/downtown locale. However, the views are good and the service is actually faster and friendlier, even when packed (which it often is).

Scott and calamari

Me with my glorious clams

All in all, Fred's is a good value and a good experience - and a fairly dangerous place to have within walking distance. If you're over by Mitchell College or on your way to Ocean Beach and a fried clam craving hits, I would highly recommend it. It may not be gourmet, but it sure does hit the spot.

When Irish eyes are smiling

2010-03-17T22:01:00.001-04:00

I grew up in an area rich in St. Patrick's Day tradition. That tradition was going to one of the crappiest of local bars, the Wooden Nickel, at approximately 6:00 AM to get in line for green beer that would go up in price every hour starting at 7:00 AM.

Sad - or glad? - to say, I never actually participated in the Nickel tradition (I am probably the ONE EMU student that didn't), although I did spend many a St. Patty's day drinking beer on the balcony of someone's crappy apartment (sometimes my own crappy apartment).

Since moving to Connecticut, we have usually celebrated St. Patrick's Day at Hanafin's, our local Irish pub. However, Noe and I usually opt for a fairly early celebration, ending up home by 8:00 or so. This year, Noe stayed home - he didn't feel like dealing with the crowd - and I met up with Scott and Caitlin for my yearly Guinness followed up by a Jameson at Dev's. Then I went home for our own Irish feast.

Outside Hanafin's with Kristina, Max, Caitlin, Scott, and Kevin Lester

Me, Miss Murphy, and the Guinness

For the first time ever, I attempted corned beef and cabbage. I did it in the crockpot, knowing that I wouldn't be able to totally resist the pull of Hanafin's after work on St. Patrick's Day. I chopped all the veggies on Tuesday night and baked a loaf of soda bread in anticipation of sopping up all those delicious meat juices.

Soda bread - yummm

The meal itself was not fancy: I threw the corned beef brisket and some potatoes, celery, carrots, and onions in the crockpot, sprinkled with the pickling spice that came with the meat, put in enough water to just cover everything, and let it cook for nine hours.

Chopped celery and carrots

Potatoes

When I got home, I removed the meat and veggies and cooked some cabbage wedges in the cooking liquid for about 25 minutes. I also boiled down about 3/4 cup of the cooking liquid until it was reduced by half and mixed with equal amounts sour cream and prepared horseradish to make a sauce.

Meat and veggies resting while I finish the cabbage and sauce

Dinner was simple, hearty, and good. Corned beef isn't my favorite thing in the world, but once a year it tastes pretty awesome. The leftover meat and the soda bread (delicious - dense and chewy with a nice hard crust) will make amazing sandwiches (topped off with a smidgen of horseradish sauce). I'll probably just eat a bowl of veggies for lunch tomorrow.

The feast...mmmmmmm!

How did you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

Stuff I Like Sunday

2010-03-14T14:30:00.001-04:00

My object of the week: monogrammed tea cup from Anthropologie. If I have to drink tea instead of coffee (Lent, *sigh*) at least I get to drink it out of this ladylike vessel.

Shabby Chic

2010-03-14T00:23:00.000-05:00

When one of our editors at work received a press release from a company touting "modest" clothing, I was not inclined to browse the company's website. It sounded lame (and quite frankly, we get a lot of lame press releases around my office).

However, I for whatever reason opened the forwarded email and clicked on the link...and immediately fell in love with Shabby Apple's vintage-inspired dresses.

I ordered my first one last summer and found it to be very well-made. The second one I ordered had an imperfection; I emailed the company and received a response within two hours offering me an exchange, with my shipping costs to send the dress back reimbursed.

My first Shabby Apple purchase -

the "Bon Voyage"

I haven't ordered anything in awhile (due to finances) but when I saw the new Baja line, I couldn't resist. I immediately ordered two dresses. Imagine my disappointment the next morning (not even ten hours later) when I received an email promotion for free shipping. Once again, I emailed the company, and once again, had a great experience - the shipping on my previous night's order was refunded.

New spring dresses!

My new dresses arrived today and I can not WAIT to wear them! They immediately put me in a "spring" frame of mind.I highly recommend checking out Shabby Apple - beautiful clothes, good quality, and a great customer experience.

Pizza Party

2010-03-09T23:12:00.002-05:00

I have become a huge fan of happy hour over the past few years. You go out right after work, the drinks are usually cheap, maybe you eat a cheap snack, and you're home in time for dinner. It works out to be ideal both time-wise and economy-wise.

The thing is, though, when you go out for happy hour a lot, it still adds up. And Dr. Scott, Rob, Caitlin, and I were going out to happy hour A LOT. (Plus, we were getting oh-so-slightly sick of going the same places all the time.) So we came up with a solution: move happy hour to our houses and rotate every week. We started out at Scott's, and this past week moved to my house.

Caitlin and I drinking Laphraoig at Scott's

As hostess, I felt compelled to provide food for my guests. I wanted to keep it fairly simple and casual, but filling. I also wanted to make something that Noe would want to eat when he joined us after his basketball game. I went with homemade pizzas - fairly cheap, pretty easy, and I could offer a variety of toppings.

I cheated a bit - I bought two Boboli crusts and a bag of dough from the refrigerator section of the supermarket. The day before our gathering, I took inventory and built my pizzas around things I already had. I decided to do three pizzas: a pesto/artichoke; a fig/bacon; and a classic Margherita.

For the artichoke pizza, I mashed a few cloves of roasted garlic (purchased from the olive bar at Stop & Shop - didn't have time to roast my own) and spread them on the crust. I then spread a couple tablespoons of pesto (found in my freezer; God only knows how old it was) over top of the garlic. I topped that with some chopped artichoke hearts (I had a can in the cupboard from making spinach-artichoke dip) and some grated cheeses: mozz, provolone, and parmesan.

Garlic, pesto, artichoke, and three cheese pizza

For pizza number 2, I did purchase a jar of fig preserves. I spread them over the crust like I would sauce, then topped it with chopped bacon and thinly sliced red onion. I topped it off with crumbled bleu cheese (leftover from a bistro steak I made over the weekend).

Fig preserves, bacon, red onion, and bleu cheese

The third pizza was the classic Italian combo of tomato, basil, and mozzarella. I spread the crust with crushed tomatoes (chunkier than plain tomato sauce). I sprinkled it with some dried oregano and basil from my spice cupboard, topped it with some slices of fresh mozz,and baked it. After I took it out of the oven, I tore up some fresh basil leaves and sprinkled them over the top.

Classic.

All three pizzas turned out pretty tasty. Scott voted the artichoke the winner. I was a big fan of the bacon/fig/bleu combo. Rob liked the Margherita, but that was mostly because of the chewier crust. We decided to let Noe pick the winner - he went with the fig (probably because he has a bit of a sweet tooth).

(This was a very cheap meal for me to provide, because I happen to be the type of person that has things like imported tomatoes, cans of artichokes, and frozen containers of pesto on hand. But anyone can make a pizza with a pre-made crust, and you don't have to pick expensive or "fancy" toppings. And most of the things I used were not very expensive to begin with. You could buy everything to make any one of these pizzas for less than ten dollars.)

Scott brought a couple bottles of Scotch, one of which we had made a dent in last week. I am really starting to love the smokey, complex taste of Scotch. Scotch is very expensive when ordered in a bar, so
buying it by the bottle has definitely saved us some money (I'll be writing a Scotch post in the near future).

Scotch and Rob - NOT a match made in heaven,

but what a great photo!

So far, home happy hour has been a huge success (although it does make me want one of those sixties Mad Men-style bar carts with wheels). We've eaten better, consumed higher quality booze, and even saved a little bit of money. Rob's up next - we'll see if he can take up the mantle and continue the tradition.

Off day

2010-03-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

I had today off.

You're probably thinking, "Of course you had today off. It is Saturday, after all." However, between volunteering at the aquarium and working at the winery, I haven't had a Saturday off (when not on vacation for a holiday) in months. Don't get me wrong - I love the aquarium and my second job. But when then winery offered me the chance to switch to working Sundays (more hours and Noe plays tennis on Sunday, so more time to spend with him) I jumped at the chance. Today was my first Saturday sans winery or aquarium.

Noe and I wanted to do SOMETHING now that we had a whole day to spend together; we just didn't know what. Luckily, our good friend Dr. Scott called us up. Dr. Scott often has his kids on the weekends, which rules out things like going to bars or R-rated movies. However, Scott and the kids love books, museums, parks, and the outdoors - in other words, a perfect match for me and Noe. Since we lucked out with unseasonably warm weather (about 55 degrees), we decided to spend some serious time outside.

We first hit the Book Barn, a fantastic used book store in Niantic. Scott, his daughter Fiachra, and I browsed the various buildings for books while Noe and Colm (Scott's son) hunted down cats, pet the great dane and mastiff puppies, and fed the goats (the Book Barn seemingly doubles as a petting zoo). After making our purchases, we headed down I-95 to Mystic (to the tune of Kenny Rogers - Scott's kids love "The Gambler" and "Coward of the County") where we ate lunch at Friendly's and then headed over to Mystic Seaport.

Fiachra, Scott, Colm, and Noe in the sun at Mystic Seaport

Noe and I have been meaning to get to the Seaport for awhile, but had just never made it there. Going with Scott and the kids was awesome. They had a family membership plus a guest, so Noe and I split the cost of a ticket. We headed first to the Charles W. Morgan, a whaling ship built in the 1840's. The Morgan is currently out the water for some restoration, but you can still go up a staircase and into the ship. We explored the cabins and the blubber room - Fiachra proved more knowledgeable than the museum staff.

The Charles W. Morgan

Scott and I "steering" the Morgan

Noe trying out one of the ship's bunks

After checking out the nooks and crannies of the Morgan, we headed over to the restoration exhibit in the shipyard. Theoretically, this was so Colm and Fiachra could do the "hands-on activities" but, truth be told, the adults all got a little too involved boring holes in a piece of plywood with an auger (Scott had to be told to stop boring before he bored through the table). We then headed over to some of the exhibits. Fiachra managed to make quite a splash at the cooperage (the barrel maker) before we made our way to the shipsmith.

Colm and I drilling holes

Fia in a barrel in the cooperage

Noe and I in front of the L.A. Dunton

All in all, we had a great day. The weather was beautiful and we all had a little cabin fever - the minute we got out of the car, all of us - adults and kids - were off and running. We basked in the sun, ran around on the grass, and strolled by the water. Along the way we picked up a few books and learned some fun facts about whaling ships. It may not have been a big party or a huge night out, but we considered it a Saturday well-spent just the same.

Colm with his "souvenir" from the cooperage

The Fruits of My Labor

2010-03-02T20:26:00.000-05:00

Occasionally I pick up a Sunday shift out at Jonathan Edwards Winery (my second job). This past Sunday was a bit brutal, being the morning after the annual Winemaker's Dinner (think libraried wines paired with five courses...plus cocktail hour and post-dinner drinks) which kept us at work until well after midnight. However, there's a bright side to everything. The winery isn't open on Monday and Tuesday, so on Sundays we will take home the open wine. There isn't usually very much (we're pretty careful about how much we open) but being the night after an event and a horrendously slow day, we found ourselves with quite a selection. Obviously, there was no way I was going to work through this much wine (even though some of these bottles were pretty empty) while it was all still good, so I took it over to Dr. Scott's apartment for a little impromptu wine tasting...which evolved into a Scotch tasting, but that's another story.

What I brought home

Preparing the glasses

Chatty and Caitlin

Lagavulin with a Sauv Blanc chaser

Glazed over

2010-02-23T23:03:00.001-05:00

I recently discovered that the co-op downtown, Fiddleheads, carries a large amount of meat from my favorite local meat provider, Four Mile River Farm (even since being seated next to Nunzio and Irene Corsino at a River Tavern farm dinner, I have made a point to seek out their products). I had been ordering Four Mile River Farm products from CT Farm Fresh Express, but to find such a selection available a couple miles from my house (where I could look at it before I bought it and not pay an additional delivery charge) was a true find.

Four Mile River Farm specializes in beef and pork. Last week, we had meatloaf and hamburgers made from their amazing ground beef (it tastes different than supermarket beef - I swear, it does). We had a beef roast I did in the crockpot with veggies and red wine two weeks ago. However, on my last trip to Fiddleheads, I scored some pretty major pork chops - over an inch thick, bone-in, of the most beautiful shade of pink - and those pork chops became tonight's dinner. I looked at a couple recipes, took inventory of my ingredients on hand, and mashed together this spice-rubbed, honey glazed concoction.

First, I made a rub of ground cumin, Hungarian sweet paprika (thank you, Penzey's!), thyme, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. I threw these all in the mini-chopper and pulsed to combine.

I am pretty sure I picked up this mini-chopper

in a Ladies weekend give-away

I rubbed the rub (duh) all over the chops.

I tried to resist the urge to totally overdo it with the rub

Following a cooking and glazing technique outlined in Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, I heated a pan over high heat and cooked the chops for about ten minutes, flipping every minute or two (these were very thick chops, so they took the whole ten minutes - use your discretion).

Yes, I need a bigger pan. I know this is too crowded.

After heating some honey in the microwave so that I could pour it easily, I slathered each chop with a healthy dose, turned them over, poured a tablespoon or so more honey on, and then flipped again to thoroughly coat. I continued to cook them, flipping frequently, until the honey thickened and the glaze was almost red in color.

The honey bubbled up quickly

These were delicious. It was a subtle enough treatment to not overpower the fresh, tasty pork, but still plenty flavorful. The spices in the rub balanced the sweetness of the honey. We ate this with corn muffins and green beans. Noe LOVED it.

(Slightly blurry) finished product

What's your favorite pork chop treatment?

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T11:24:00.001-05:00

Noe and I have a tradition of NOT going out on Valentine's Day. Neither of us are against the holiday, and we don't make a huge deal out of it or buy presents, but I like goofy cards and Noe likes candy, so it's really sort of a good fit for us. However, almost four years of working in "the most romantic restaurant in Ann Arbor" convinced me that Valentine's Day is one of the LEAST romantic days to go out, and certainly not a great time to try to really get a feel for a restaurant you haven't yet tried. So Noe and I try to collaborate on a really good dinner at home.

Sometimes we run into disagreements because I like to make "fancy" food (Noe considers any meat with a sauce to be "fancy") and things I haven't tried to make before, and Noe likes the tried and true. We also disagree on what constitutes a great dessert. This year, we decided to do things a little differently than usual - instead of Noe selecting the majority of the menu and me cooking it, I made the appetizer, one side dish, and dessert, and Noe made the main dish and one side.

(We did Valentine's Day dinner last night because we have the big New London Main Street bash tonight.)

For an appetizer, I chose seared scallops sauced with white wine, lemon juice, garlic, shallot, and parsley. I served these with a little split of Champagne.

Searing the scallops

Scallop appetizer with Champagne...

and look at those awesome glasses...

Noe used our new grill pan to cook up some excellent rib eye steaks from Four Mile River Farm. For his side dish he (of course) chose rice. I went simple and steamed some asparagus.

Noe at work on his part of the meal

These steaks were huge

I had to cut mine in half!

Dessert was difficult. I looked at a lot of different options. I finally decided to go decidedly un-fancy with red velvet cupcakes topped with a gigantic swirl of cream cheese frosting. This was my first time baking red velvet cake or cupcakes, and I think the results were spectacular.

Cooling and ready to be frosted

Oh, yeah.

All in all, a great collaborative meal. Letting Noe take over the main course every once in awhile might not be a bad idea - and now that we have the grill pan, he can keep his skills sharp for summer.

What did you eat for Valentine's Day dinner?

Gettin' Crafty

2010-02-11T22:20:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I saw a post on one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love, where they were giving away some extremely cool wine glasses from Whitewash Sundries.

Whitewash Sundries glasses

(photo: http://www.etsy.com/shop/WhitewashSundries)

Now, these glasses were engraved, not etched, but being cheap (and not really loving the style of glasses) I thought maybe I would get some glass etching cream and try a similar concept. So...one trip to A.C. Moore and a couple cheap wine glasses frome the Dollar Tree later, my practice round was complete.

While the etching supplies were easy enough to locate in the craft stores, I didn't like the stencils that were available. I thought the designs were cheesy (kind of '80s) and the letters were too small. I didn't see any numbers at all. Luckily, I saw a blank stencil mat, so I decided to get that, cut out some stencils, and practice on some cheap glassware.

I stuck some scrapbooking stickers on the mat and cut them out with an Exacto knife. I only had letters, so I picked a sans serif "W" for Wiseman (I'll just let it be known here that I love the "W" so much I am probably not going to be able to change my last name when Noe and I eventually get married - "W" is so much more dramatic than "E"). Here is what I came up with:

Cutting out the stencil and taping it to a practice glass

Covering the stencil with etching cream

Rinsing after 5 minutes

Funky monogrammed wine glasses (with some pretty decent wine) -

better glass projects to come

Re-vamping

2010-02-09T22:57:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, my friend Tracy and I attended Re-Vamp: An Independent Runway Experience at the Crocker House, put on by Aticc Boutique and the Takeout Gallery here in New London.

Not only were the clothes fantastic (the ones I liked best reminded me of a combination of Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters with some vintage-inspired accents), but the Crocker House itself looked amazing. I have seen this event space done up for several radically different events (Hygienic Halloween party, Rock Fix, Food Stroll, etc) but on Friday night, it looked how I imagine a high-fashion runway event would look. The energy in the room was something in and of itself - this crowd was into it. Add some drinks and some excellent music to the mix, and you had a real party.

I am hoping to get some better photos from a photographer acquaintance - until then, enjoy these few crappy photos I shot with my hopelessly out-of-date camera before the battery died.

Good Hygiene

2010-01-31T11:05:00.001-05:00

This weekend was "Hygienic Weekend" here in New London. The Hygienic, for those who are not familiar, is a downtown art gallery and arts association. (The gallery itself has a very interesting history, which can be read here.) Although the Hygienic has shows and exhibits year-round, their biggest show by far is the annual "Salon des Indépendants," based on the French Impressionists' movement of the same name (again, read the history here).

The rules for the Salon des Indépendants are simple: Anyone can enter. 1 piece per person. Get to the gallery at the appropriate time the day of the opening to jockey for prime wall/exhibit space. No judge, no jury, no fees - just art for the public by the public.

Although the art is displayed over several weeks, the opening night reception has become a huge event in New London, often resulting in waiting in line for admission to the gallery (despite traditionally frigid temperatures). Other art-related events have sprung up around the opening - all kinds of art, including music, fashion, and performance. Downtown is truly alive on Hygienic weekend.

Last night I hit the town with my friend Loree (whom you may recognize from several food-related posts) to catch some of the festivities. The photos below were all taken by Loree.

We started out at the Rock Fix at the Crocker House Ballroom. Presented by local record label The Cosmodemonic Telegraph, the Fix featured a line-up of eight popular local bands each taking the stage for a 30-40 minute set. Not your typical rock concert, a wide range of sounds were presented at the Fix - everything from roots to a sort of jazz-rock fusion. I arrived just in time to catch my friend Jonas take the stage with his band, Above/Below. Loree somehow managed to get a few photos; I'm not sure how since we were dancing for the entire set.

We took a break from the music after A/B finished and headed over to the gallery (we were trying to avoid some of the massive crowd). We were pleased to find the Hygienic pleasantly packed but not too jammed, and were able to really take in and observe some of the offerings.

The night took a random detour when we ran into a friend of Loree's on the way back to the Crocker House. Brian invited us up to see some studio space above the El & Gee, where after-hours preparations were under way. Local artist (actually, one of the Hygienic resident artists) Ania Simpson had her photographs projected onto a large screen in the middle of the room and a DJ was selecting appropriate music.

The night (well, MY night - I believe Loree continued her evening) was capped off with a drink at the Dutch Tavern, former haunt of literary great Eugene O'Neill and one of my favorite bars in town. Beer and wine, cash only, and a stamped tin ceiling - what more could you want from your neighborhood tavern?

Hygienic-related festivities will continue over the next few weeks. (I am particularly looking forward to Re-Vamp, a fashion and music event also at the Crocker House, next weekend.) However, it's hard to beat New London on Hygienic opening night - the energy running through downtown is infectious.

Lunch Lady

2010-01-24T21:37:00.003-05:00

For the past few weeks I've been making a pot of soup on Saturday or Sunday and eating it for lunch throughout the week. You might think that this would get boring, but truth be told, I tend to go through phases with breakfast and lunch and eat the same things for a month or more at a time. Making a different soup every week is actually nice variety for me. Usually there is enough for Noe to get some lunches out of it as well.

Today - perhaps inspired by my fab fifties skirt apron - I went back to Julia and made the very first recipe that appears in Mastering the Art of French Cooking: leek and potato soup. (Actually, it probably had less to do with inspiration and more to do with the fact that I had leeks and potatoes left over from other recipes that we getting to the "use or throw out" point.)

Julia's leek and potato soup is the easiest thing in the world:

1. Slice up some leeks (about 2 cups).

Sliced leeks

2. Peel and chop up some potatoes (3 or 4 cups).

Chopped potatoes

3. Put in a pot with a tablespoon of salt and 2 quarts of water (I actually cheated here - I had one quart of homemade chicken stock left, so I threw that in there instead of one of the quarts of water).

Putting everything together in the stock pot

4. Bring it to a boil and then simmer it partially covered for 50 minutes, remove the cover, and simmer for 15 more.

Simmering

5. Puree it using a food mill, immersion blender, or food processor.

6. Stir in a few tablespoons of heavy cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Adding cream and seasonings

That's it! It's probably the least-complicated - and possibly least fattening - recipe in the whole book (maybe that's why it appears first!) I'm looking forward to a week of good lunches.

Cod pieces

2010-01-17T09:55:00.000-05:00

Last night, I combined part of my CT Farm Fresh Express order with my current favorite cookbook, Jamie's Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver. The result? Cod fillets seasoned with rosemary, salt, and pepper, wrapped in bacon, drizzled with olive oil and baked in a very hot oven. I served these fillets with Jamie's recipe for baby potatoes (basically standard boiled potatoes tossed with some butter, salt, pepper, mint, and lemon juice). The result was delicious - even with the bacon, you could tell that this fish was fresh.

Can't wait to cook my steaks!

Farm Fresh

2010-01-15T21:03:00.000-05:00

I just received my first order from CT Farm Fresh Express. CTFFE is a great service that some of my Facebook friends turned me on to - basically, they work with a number of Connecticut farms/fishermen/etc to offer local, seasonal product for purchase on a website, and then deliver them right to your door.

I know, it sounds too good to be true, right? That's sort of what I thought, too. I mean, how good a selection could they possibly have? And were they really going to bring these products to my house?

Well, it turns out the selection is great - and updated every week. It's like going to twelve different farmers markets without ever leaving your house. And, although there is a shipping fee, it's very reasonable. Obviously, the groceries are more expensive than going to Stop & Shop - but they are no pricier than a farmers market and of much higher quality that factory farmed goods.

I just got my first order today. I am so excited to cook with and eat these wonderful, local ingredients. I will keep you posted on how it tastes!

My order: butternut squash, organic salad greens, beef roast,

locally caught cod, and two ribeye steaks - YUM.

Soup-er Woman

2010-01-14T23:35:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, I had to go the bank during my lunch break. I do most of my banking at Bank of America on State Street, across the street from where I used to work. Since I was already parked downtown, I figured I might as well head over to Thames River Greenery and grab a quick bite to eat before heading back to the office. I had in my head that I really wanted soup that day, so that's what I ordered. The soup of the day was split pea with ham. Split pea soup has never been one of my favorites, mostly because of its resemblance to baby food, but it smelled good, so I ordered it anyway.

Wow, was that soup delicious. It was possibly the best soup I've ever had. And ever since that day. I've had it in the back of my head that I was going to make split pea soup. I happened to find a recipe while flipping through an old Sara Moulton cookbook, and, since I had a starting point (I almost always modify) decided that tonight was the night, mainly because Noe was at tennis and would eat whatever I made when he got home without complaining about the lack of meat.

The first thing I did was chop up an onion and cook it in olive oil until is was soft. Once the onion had been cooked enough, I put two ham hocks, a quartered ham steak, a pound of split peas, some chopped up carrots and celery, and eight cups of chicken stock into the pot, brought it to a boil, and let it simmer for about an hour.

Cooking the onions

Ham hocks

Adding everything to the pot and bringing to a boil

After I determined that everything was sufficiently simmered (mostly because it smelled so good I just couldn't take it anymore), I fished out the meat and pureed the soup in batches in the food processor. I added some heavy cream while I was pureeing to thicken it up a little (it looked slightly watery) and to smooth out the texture a bit (I didn't add a lot - maybe a quarter cup).

The meat removed

Halfway pureed

After I pureed the soup, I put it back in the pan and back on the stove on low. I shredded the ham steaks and the little meat I could get from the hocks and added it to the pan. I also dumped in about a palm full of sea salt and a few generous grinds from the pepper mill.

I finished it off Sara Moulton-style by adding a quarter cup of dry sherry. Just for fun, because the sherry bottle said "try over ice with a twist," I decided to try some, over ice, with a twist.

Sherry on ice with a twist

Yeah. That ended up down the drain pretty quickly. Polly Duncan in the Cat Who mysteries may have been a sherry drinker, but she was also a boring 50-year old small town librarian. I quickly determined that sherry (at least the $5.99 variety) was NOT for me.

Anyway, after thoroughly rinsing my mouth out, I tried the soup. It was tasty. It wasn't quite as thick and meaty as the Greenery version, but it was good. The sherry really added a nice dimension to it and gave it some depth that wasn't there before I added it. I didn't feel like the meat had a lot of flavor, though - it seemed like it was just kind of there.

Stop & Shop ciabatta

Mmm, mmm good!

I ate this with some crusty bread. I thought it was pretty good, but want to continue to play with the recipe and see if I can get that rich meaty thing happening. If you have any tips, let me know!

Skirting an issue

2010-01-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

I don't know if I am suffering from too much Julia Child or what, but lately I've become obsessed with aprons - skirt aprons, to be exact. I even decided to find vintage skirt aprons to give my girl friends for Christmas. This proved to be slightly more difficult that I thought, as the antique store in New London didn't have any. But all was not lost - the Noblesville Antique Mall in Indiana and Salt City Antiques in Ypsilanti had plenty to choose from.

After picking out black and white checks for Amanda, blue checks for Katie, lavender checks (with fun black embroidery) for Sophie, and obnoxious yellow and red flowers for (who else?) Jess, I still had these two left for myself (I would have taken pictures of me actually wearing them, but Noe wasn't home to to do that):

This pink and white check has a great sweetheart hem

This one was going to be a gift but I couldn't bear to give it away

I have been wearing these more or less every night that I've cooked. I adore them. If anyone has any good tips on where to find more vintage skirt aprons, please share!

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble - Fire Burn and Caldereta Bubble

2010-01-12T21:29:00.000-05:00

With memories of Eduardo's still fresh in our minds, Noe and I decided to start perfecting another Filipino recipe. We decided on beef caldereta, a rich beef stew simmered in tomato sauce. Much like the adobo, we combined recipes from several Filipino cookbooks and made some personal modifications.

We started with 2 lbs. of beef stew meat. Both recipes mentioned using less stew meat and also using beef or pork liver. We didn't do this because the grocery store was actually out of liver, but if you're squeamish about liver, this would be a good alternative for you.

I browned the meat in a couple tablespoons of oil, then dumped the meat, oil, and beef drippings into a stock pot.

2 lbs. of cubed beef

Browning the beef in oil

After I transferred the beef to the stock pot, I added a chopped up onion (a large one), four cups of beef stock (I used Emeril beef stock- it had less additives than the other grocery store stocks and I just have not had the time to make beef stock lately), and a couple cups of water. I brought this all to a boil and then let it simmer.

Adding onions and stock to the beef

While my pot of beef and onions simmered away, I added a little more olive oil to my beef skillet and threw a whole head of minced garlic in there (tip - if your hands/knife/counter/cutting board reek of garlic after this chopping bonanza, rub them with half a lemon before washing - it neutralizes the odor). The recipe said to cook the garlic until fragrant; as my kitchen was already pretty pungent, I just sort of winged it.

Garlic browning in oil

After I determined the garlic was fragrant enough, I added about 1.5-2 cups of tomato sauce or puree and 1/3 cup of white vinegar. After giving it a stir, I added some grated parmesan (one recipe said cheddar, one said parm - I had parm in the fridge, so parm it was), salt, pepper, and two tablespoons of sugar. I stirred this together and simmered for about six or seven minutes.

Adding vinegar to the garlic and tomato sauce

Parm, sugar, salt, and pepper

After the tomato mixture came together, I added it to my simmering stock pot of beef and onions. I let that all simmer for 30 minutes, then gave it a quick stir, added some tomato paste (to thicken it up) and some chopped up carrots, then let it simmer for another 30 minutes. At that point, I threw in a chopped red pepper and let it go while Noe cooked the rice. When the rice cooker light went off, we determined dinner was ready.

The finished product over rice

All in all, this turned out pretty well. It had a nice richness, probably from the beef stock along with the drippings and oil added at the beginning. The tomato sauce was nice and tangy, but Noe and I agreed that perhaps more sugar to balance out the acidity would have made this even better. Both recipes had various things that we did not add (one had peas, one had olives, one even had pickles) which may have enhanced the overall flavor, but Noe and I were happy with just the onions, garlic, carrots, and pepper.

If you're into comfort food and looking for an alternative to beef stew, this recipe might be a good option for you. Play with a little bit - Noe and I will be!

Fun Finds

2010-01-11T23:02:00.000-05:00

I love sea lions, as many of you know from my posts about volunteering at the aquarium. I also love vintage salt and pepper shakers shaped like animals. Imagine my delight when, over my Christmas vacation in Michigan, I found not one but TWO pairs of sea lion salt and pepper shakers for my collection! I found both at Salt City Antiques on Michigan Avenue (Salt City will be mentioned in more detail in an upcoming post about antique stores). Can you believe my luck?

Chartreuse sea lions from Miami

(according to the sticker)

More traditional black sea lions

(and a Ralphie paw)

A little bit of the islands, nestled in Indianapolis

2010-01-10T11:01:00.002-05:00

Even though I live with a native of the Philippines, I have not been exposed to a lot of Filipino cuisine. Noe and I have done a few experiments, most notable our ever-evolving Adobo recipe (which we think we're getting pretty good at). Other than adobo, we haven't really tried out any other recipes yet. So when Joan (Noe's sister) told us about a Filipino restaurant in Indiana that she swore "tastes like mama's cooking" we had to check it out.

Exterior of Eduardo's

Eduardo's doesn't look like much on the outside. It's in a pretty run-down section of town. It's actually pretty confusing, because the sign next to the door says "Charlie Bigg's Chicken" - you have to look at the door itself to see "Eduardo's" spelled out in barely visible red letters. Inside, it looks like a (remarkably clean) fast food chicken restaurant - which it is. Apparently, the owners do a lot of regular weekday business with the fried chicken and fish crowd. However, when they started putting their Filipino dishes on the menu, a new crowd started seeking them out.

The owners actually have a Filipino catering business and a cart that they take to fairs and events. Seeing how well the food went over at these events, they decided to add several Filipino dishes every day to their otherwise standard fried chicken menu. On weekends, they have a whole buffet spread of Filipino food, but we were there on a Tuesday afternoon, so we had about four dishes (rotating daily) to choose from.

The woman behind the counter (one of the owners) was kind enough to let us sample everything before we made our decisions. Although the pork adobo was excellent, Noe and I were both swayed by the beef caldereta.

Beef Caldereta

Beef caldereta is basically a tomato-based beef stew that includes vegetables such as onions and peppers and is served (like many Filipino dishes) over white rice. Eduardo's caldereta was extremely flavorful - I definitely could taste some garlic, and there was some spice I couldn't exactly pinpoint in the background. It was warm and filling and perfect for a cold winter's day (which is exactly what we were facing, weather-wise).

Noe's brother Jan ordered the adobo, which, with it's pickle-y vinegar tang and subtle soy sauce flavors, did not disappoint.

Pork Adobo

We all ordered pancit noodles, which I had never heard of prior to this trip. Pancit noodles are skinny rice noodles, fried with soy sauce and a bit of something else (citrus? I couldn't quite pinpoint it, but it added some depth to the soy) and served with some shredded meat (in this case, chicken) and thinly chopped vegetables.
These noodles were amazing. I could probably eat them for lunch every day.

Pancit Noodles

We rounded out our meals with some mini lumpia (egg rolls) - which the Eduardo's staff fried up specially for us so we could have them extra-fresh and extra hot.

Lumpia

I couldn't resist finishing off my meal with a dessert. I ordered flan. I have a love-hate relationship with flan. Sometimes it can be slimy - more like Jell-O than a custard. I am pleased to report that Eduardo's flan was of a non-offensive consistency. In fact, it was almost creamy when it hit the tongue.

Possibly the best flan I have ever had

I have to give one more mention to the cleanliness of the building and the friendliness of the staff. I have been in sit-down restaurants that haven't been as clean and where I haven't been treated nearly as nicely as we were at Eduardo's. Ask questions about the food if you're not sure about something - not only will you get an explanation, but you'll probably get to try before you buy.

Noe enjoying his meal at Eduardo's

Eduardo's may not look like much, but if you're in the Indianapolis area and are interested in Filipino food (or if you're just looking for a warm, filling meal or an interesting alternative to Chinese, Thai, or other rice/noodle-type cuisines) I would highly recommend it. The three Filipinos in our group all gave it two thumbs up. Don't let the fast food atmosphere fool you - this is quality comfort food, island-style.

Eduardo's
2412B East Raymond Street, Indianapolis, IN 46203-4557
(317) 788-9615

Quick Note

2009-12-29T10:22:00.002-05:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know I have not disappeared. I am here in Michigan/Indiana, and have enough material and photos for several blog posts - but no way to upload my photos. Therefore, I am holding off on the posting until I am back in Connecticut on January 3. Please be patient and check back in January for new posts.

Thanks, and happy holidays to all!

Amy

PS - I am the process of editing some of my restaurant postings for Yelp.com - and also adding some more brief restaurant thoughts that I have not shared on this blog. Check them out here: Amy's Yelp Reviews

Champagne wishes and oyster dreams

2009-12-18T11:13:00.007-05:00

I've always liked shellfish. Even when I was younger and a fairly picky eater, I still ate shrimp (they were fried, but hey, it counts). Since moving to New England, I have become completely enamored with almost anything in a shell. You can get shellfish of amazing quality out here. Local lobsters and scallops pepper the menus at fine-dining restaurants and roadside shacks alike.

Yet as I devoured any shrimp, scallop, lobster, or clam put in my path, I neglected one shellfish completely for two whole years: the oyster.

I get why some people think eating oysters is a little weird, or even gross. If you have problems with texture, oysters may not be for you - at least, not in their raw form. Oysters are versatile enough to show up in a variety of cooked dishes, adding a little briny shellfish-sweetness to almost anything they touch.

I was lucky enough to attend (another) local dinner at the River Tavern in Chester last Tuesday night, this one focusing heavily on local oysters farmed in Noank, a small village near Mystic. Steve Plant from the Noank Oyster Co-op not only provided the oysters, but also provided lively commentary about oyster farming, sustainable aquaculture, and a slew of other topics.

As usual, I attended with my fabulous Foodie Friend Loree, who once again took pictures for this post.

You might think that a four-course dinner designed around oysters would be a one-note affair - but not with James Wayman (left, standing) in the kitchen. Using other locally farmed meats and produce, James crafted a meal that highlighted the subtle flavor characteristics of the oysters to their best advantages.

Cooked oysters were served in a warm salad of sorts comprised of onions, celery, and that glorious thick-cut bacon I've had in other River tavern dishes. The second course consisted of (very) lightly smoked oysters, still in the shell, lightly sauced with something lemony (I always wish I had a printed menu from these dinners) and served with a brown butter crouton. The little bit of smoke gave a little "oomph" to the oyster's natural saltiness. It didn't taste smoky - it just seemed like the natural flavors had more depth.

These appetizers of sorts were follwed up with two meat-centric blockbusters: smoked duck from Soeltl Farm, served with carrots and brussels sprouts with a mustard-y sauce; and James' version of Korean barbecued pork and cucumber kimchee. (Cucumber kimchee is a genuis idea. The cool, crisp cucumbers are the perfect foil for the heat.) Two gigantic fresh oysters were served in shells alongside the pork, providing a refreshing finish to the dish (well, they provided me with a refreshing finish - I am sure other people may have started with them).

Duck from Soeltl Farm

Pork, kimchee, oysters

The conclusion to this meal was a savory dessert: a poached pear served over a bed of creamy ricotta cheese and topped with a crunchy chocolate biscotti. The poached pear brought to mind mulled or spiced wine - perfect flavors for a cold night.

Poached pear with ricotta

I would have been happy to simply drink water alongside this meal. After all, what beverage can compete with oysters, smoked duck, barbecued pork, and kimchee?

As it turns out, there's only one: Champagne. I'm not talking about the $4.99 stuff you buy to serve to 27 people on New Year's Eve (yes, I buy it, too) - I'm talking about real Champagne, grower Champagne from smaller French vineyards that shows amazing character (not just bubbles) in a glass.

I'm only just beginning to explore Champagne, and this dinner was a delightful introduction. You can really pick up the flavors of the grapes used in these smaller-produced varities. A Chardonnay-based Champagne has a heady, almost yeasty smell and taste. A rose Champagne made with Pinot Nior grapes tasted heavily of strawberries - but was not the least bit sweet. In fact, it was bone-dry - a perfect example that "fruity" and "sweet" are not synonyms.

Going to this dinner was sort of a Christmas gift to myself - and if that weren't enough, I recevied an actual Christmas gift when Donna Lesczczynski of Soeltl Farm presented all of us that attended with golden goose egg ornaments. Mine is hanging on my tree, and every time I look at it, I will think of this wonderful night of great food and amazing company.

Touring the Towers

2009-12-14T11:07:00.003-05:00

Last week, Noe, Liz, Dr. Scott, and I called on our friend Tammy. Tammy works for New London Harbour Towers, a high-end condominium building going up on Bank Street in downtown New London. The project has been under intense scrutiny - it was started before Noe and I moved to Connecticut (over two years ago) but building was halted shortly after we got here and only resumed...well, I can't even tell you exactly when. All I know is that some steel beams jutted into our New London skyline for what seemed like a very long time.

At the beginning

Rumors abounded. Negativity flourished. The naysayers came out in droves. People who had put deposits down got them back and moved into other luxury condos across the street. It seemed like New London would be stuck with that skeleton forever...until one day...

Construction miraculously began again.

Progress being made

Not that the resumed construction silenced the naysayers. People commented that the development would halt again, that no one would go for luxury pricing in New London, and countless other things.

Still, the building commenced.

When I heard that people - any people - could take tours of the building-in-progress, I had to ask Tammy if this was true. First of all, I do not have the income to buy a luxury condo - I think this is a known fact - so there was never any question of me purchasing a unit. Second, I had four curious people - also not in the market for luxury housing - that wanted to tag along.

"No problem," Tammy said.

See, the people behind New London Harbour Towers want anyone who is curious to come take a tour. They want to dispels the myths and rumors and start positive conversations about the project. So, up we went.

The virtual tour of Harbour Towers

We started in the office, where we watched a short movie (above) that took us on a virtual tour of the finished building. Then Tammy took us through a model unit, where we all drooled over the beautiful appliances and countertops and Tammy sold us on the virtues of radiant heat. We then went up in the unfinished condos and poked around on the fourth, seventh, and ninth floors, stopping the longest at the top to admire the view from the penthouses.

Obviously, I am not in the market for a high-end condo (these things start at prices higher than my house) but I appreciated the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity about the mysterious building on Bank Street. If you're curious - or if you happen to be in the market for a downtown home - give Tammy and her coworkers a call at 860-444-6969 and ask to set up your own tour.

Photos from jbsurvey.com and chvogt.com/photographs.html

Simple Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T21:58:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving for just two people may sound kind of lame, but for me and Noe this year, it was PERFECT. I would have been perfectly happy with just the two days off work, no feast required, but since I like to prepare food, we made our own mini-feast.

I roasted a chicken rather than a turkey. I thought of doing something more interesting, like lamb, but Noe is not crazy about lamb and I kind of figured "what the heck" - it's a comfort food kind of day. I suppose I could have found a small turkey, but - wait for it - I don't really like turkey. There, I said it. It's out in the open. I mean, turkey is okay - I just don't get what the big deal is. I've never loved it. I'll gladly eat it if it is put on a table, but do I want to make one and eat the leftovers for the next week and a half? Nope.

For side dishes we had a variation on Julia Child's braised brussels sprouts, roasted in the oven with tons of butter (and a little bacon - my personal addition); stuffing (Noe will only eat stuffing out of a box, but I cooked it in homemade chicken stock instead of water and added some onions and spices); carrots, potatoes, and onions (slow-roasted in the pan with the chicken); rolls; and perhaps my least favorite dish in the universe, green bean casserole. I fought Noe violently over this one. I see nothing good coming from a can of green beans mixed with a can of mushroom soup (for the record, I don't like mushroom soup in any form - nothing personal Campbell's) but because I am a good girlfriend and want to call in favors in the future, I made it.

Brussels sprouts braised with butter and bacon

Gross.

For the chicken itself, I mixed some butter with a ton of herbs de provence and rubbed it under and over the skin. I stuffed the cavity with an onion and a few whole cloves of garlic, then trussed it up and stuck it in the oven for awhile. Heavenly.

This...

...plus this...

...equals THIS.

We topped off the meal with some apple pie from a local apple orchard served with French vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Even though it was just the two of us, I am glad we still decided to celebrate. We compromised on some dishes and ended up with a delicious meal that didn't take me all day to prepare (although it was nice to be able to go about preparing it at my leisure). I hope everyone else had as great a day as we did.

Noe laughed at me for putting up the tree already,

but I didn't care.

Arts and Crafts

2009-11-23T23:50:00.020-05:00

I've recently come across a couple new shops/boutiques downtown. They may not be "new" - to be honest, I have no idea how long either one has been open - but they are new to me. The offerings in these boutiques are truly unique works by local artists - the kind of stuff that makes me wish I had even the tiniest bit of artistic talent.

Aticc is a combination gallery and boutique tucked away on Green Street (although the address is technically State Street) across from my favorite under-the-radar watering hole, the Dutch Tavern. I noticed the shop one night when Tracy and I were having a post-committee meeting drink at the Dutch. Since Tracy is in the know with everything New London, I asked her for the story. She filled me in on the basics: recently opened, collaboration between a couple local artists, funky clothes and accessories. Tracy highly recommended visiting.

I meant to go in sooner, but didn't get in until food stroll. The first thing I saw was a rack of vintage coats and dresses, which the girl behind the counter informed us belonged to a friend of hers that didn't know what to do with them. She volunteered to sell them in the shop, figuring they were unique and people might be looking for halloween costumes. It speaks to the eclectic nature of the boutique that had she not told us this, I would assume they were part of the regular rotation of merchandise. Here you can find screen-printed t-shirts with likenesses of Woody Allen or throw pillows screened with images of Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, or even Alfred Hitchcock. You can also find checkered skirts, ruffled and apron-style tops, and brands such as Kill City Denim.

Some of the merchandise is available on the website, but the store has an ever-rotating selection, plus the art displays - if you're a local reader of this blog, try to check it out in person. Check the Aticc Blog - http://aticc.blogspot.com/ - for updates on featured artists and designers.

My second recent discovery is Arciolinda, the "custom interior design center and drapery workroom" at 52 State Street. Arciolinda came onto my radar the same way Aticc did - through Tracy. We were having a post-meeting drink at Hot Rod's (are you noticing a pattern here?) when we ran into Nichole Arciolinda Bonanno (Nicki), the owner. Tracy introduced us and told me about her work. A few weeks later, I was able to see samples when Nicki donated four chairs to the Flock Theatre fundraiser.

Nicki finds her chairs at places like the New London Antique Center. She then refinishes them, reupholsters them, and basically breathes beautiful new life into them. She showed me one that she had painted a minty, antique-y green and covered the cushion with a vintage fabric that had swirls of the same green as the paint. Nicki had even gone through with a small brush or toothpick and detailed the swirls in the wood with a darker shade of paint to match her fabric exactly. While I was falling in love with the green chair, Tracy was falling in love with a "tuffet" (think Little Miss Muffet) that had been finished in gold and cushioned in powder blue and gold fabric. Imagine our surprise to find out these two items had been made from an identical set of chairs - Nicki had sawed off the top portion of one chair to form the tuffet's low back before painting it.

The green chair and the tuffet -
these are made from two identical chairs

Nicki bought at the New London Antiques Center.

While I may not have any immediate need for custom drapery or reupholstered furniture, I really admire Nicki's work and hope to someday purchase one of her benches or chairs.

If you are in the New London area, I highly encourage you to take a look at these two unique businesses. We can't all be incredibly creative and artistically talented - but I think it is somewhat of a responsibility to keep encouraging those who are.

Best Mex

2009-11-11T20:33:00.001-05:00

I have to admit, I was hesitant at first to go to Milagro. For one thing, Milagro is in Stonington, and I just didn't find myself out that way very often (although a trip to Water Street Cafe with Liz and her dad convinced me it was probably worth going to Stonington more often). But the main reason that I didn't want to take the trouble to visit Milagro is because I'm not a fan of Zavala, New London's Mexican restaurant, owned by the same family.

Zavala was the first restaurant I went to downtown. I wanted to like it. At the time, I was trying desperately to like New London in general. And I loved the atmosphere when we walked into the restaurant that night - but that was the last thing I loved. The food was bland and the service was poor. On return visits, the service got even worse - waiting upwards of 20 minutes during a slow mid-day meal to place a drink order - and the quality wildly inconsistent. Despite a delicious hibiscus margarita, I finally gave up on Zavala.

Yet I kept hearing great things about Milagro. Curiosity got the best of me when a new foodie friend, Amanda B., recommended it. So last weekend, Tracy, Amanda and I headed out for a Saturday night girls' dinner.

Milagro is much smaller than Zavala - only about ten tables and a small bar. It's also darker and a good portion of the soft lighting comes from Christmas-type lights. We took a table by the window and ordered house margaritas (on the rocks with salt).

Our waitress brought over a tray laden with three different shaped (but roughly the same size) glasses, all rimmed with salt. She set one in front of each of us and poured our drinks from individual shakers, which she left at the table. The margaritas were citrus-y and sharp - in other words, NOT made with sour mix. You could taste the bite of tequila, but it was not overpowering. (At the end of the night, Martin - the owner - showed us his homemade margarita mix, all made with fresh ingredients, and told us that you could use the crappiest tequila in the world and no one would know as long as you had developed a good recipe for mix. I was inclined to agree.)

We started with chips and guacamole. The chips were house-made - they were warm and crispy. They were salted for flavor but didn't taste salty. The guacamole had the consistency of sour cream (I was expecting chunkier) and tasted of ripe avocado, a little bit of lemon or lime juice, and a little kick, perhaps from some pepper or onion.

Entrees were harder to choose - everything on the menu sounded delicious. I eventually went with the tuna ceviche and fish tacos.

Ceviche, for those not familiar, is cut-up raw seafood tossed with citrus juices and herbs, vegetables, or spices. The raw seafood "cooks" in the acid from the citrus juices. The tuna ceviche at Milagro is among the best ceviche I've had. everything was cubed into small enough pieces to be scooped up with more of Milagro's warm, crispy chips, almost like a chunky salsa. The tuna flavors shone through the citrus. Some cilantro added a bright, fresh taste to the whole mix. Best of all, it came topped with a little squiggle of the creamy guacamole.

The fish tacos were excellent as well; however, the ceviche was such a standout that I barely remember the tacos. They were fresh and expertly cooked - not too dry and not drowning in condiments.

We were really too full for dessert, but the waitress tempted us with a margarita sorbet concoction that was on special that night. It was the perfect finish for the meal - the citrus flavors and icy sorbet (complete with a tequila glaze and some shortbread cookies) cleansed our palettes and left us feeling refreshed rather than laden down by a heavy finish.

The food and atmosphere at Milagro were both spectacular. I wish they could find a way to duplicate this experience at Zavala in New London. It could be that Zavala is too large for such an intimate dining experience. It could be that New Londoners aren't interested in Martin's authentic Mexican menu. I'm not going to ponder the why too much - for now, if I want quality Mexican, good service, and cozy atmosphere, I'll be driving to Stonington to dine at Milagro.

It's All Greek To Me

2009-11-03T21:48:00.004-05:00

I devote a lot of my blog space to food. A decent amount of that space is given over to food or wine-related events - food strolls, wine festivals at Jonathan Edwards, chili/chowder fests at Ocean Beach, etc. I love these events (obviously - I work at JE and have been found on the recent stroll committees) but I truly believe that THE best eating event in New London is the St. Sophia Hellenic Orthodox Church Greek Food Festival.

The early dinner crowd at the St. Sophia Greek Food Festival

I mentioned the festival in the blog last year - but my brief post didn't do it justice. What I didn't mention was that I ate lunch there every day and dinner two of the four days. I'm already on track to meet or beat that record this year - it's day one and I had lunch and dinner there today.

For one week every November, St. Sophia operates essentially as a full-service restaurant, dishing up dish after dish of authentic Greek fare from 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM. No matter what time of day I've shown up, I've been greeted at the door by a (youngish-looking) priest that I assume (from reading the menu) is Fr. Dean Panagos. Fr. Dean is always cheerful (even when you see him at noon and again at 6:00 on the same day). He asks whether you'll be eating in or taking out, hands you your menu - with handy descriptions and pronunciations of the Greek dishes - and points you in the correct direction.

The festival is held in the big church hall. Large round tables fill the space. The hall has beautiful chandeliers and a mural along the back wall, where there is also a stage set up for the traditional Greek dancers. The food and bar are set up in an recessed area off to the side.

St. Sophia chandeliers

St. Sophia mural

St. Sophia runs an efficient operation - take-out orders are kept separate from dine-in orders. Take-out is ordered in one place and picked up in another. Dine-in customers go through a line where Greek women wait behind chafing dishes of green beans, potatoes, and dishes such as moussaka.

I have two methods of operation at the Greek festival: Lunch Mode and Dinner Mode. Lunch Mode is all gyro, all the time. I can not resist that combination of spicy meat, lettuce, tomato, and tzatziki sauce all wrapped up in a fresh pita. I don't even like thick salad dressings/mayonnaise/goopy sauces, but there is something about tzatziki that calls to me. It helps that it is not gooped on - just enough to add some flavor. (Of course, the base of good tzatziki is Greek yogurt, which I love for the thick texture and slightly sour taste, and I don't really like "other" yogurt.)

Dinner Mode is a little different. At dinner, I like to try the other specialties, such as the moussaka, the chicken oregano, and the pastitso. These entrees come in large portions, and often with a side of Greek-style green beans or potatoes, so it's best to come hungry.

Today, to inaugurate this year's festivities, I had my gyro for lunch with my work friends, then went back for dinner with Noe and Scott (AKA Dr. Chattybox). For my first dinner, I went with one of my personal favorites, the pastitso (otherwise known as Greek lasagana).

Side salad with pita

Pastitso with Greek-style green beans

Pastitso is a heavenly combination of layered ziti, beef, cheese, and Bechamel sauce. You can always taste the meat and cheese. Unlike lasagna, you run no risk of getting overpowered tomato sauce (which means your meat and cheese have to be extra-good). The St. Sophia pastitso has creamy cheese and fresh-tasting meat, and comes in a portion big enough to guarantee (for me, at least) that I'll have leftovers the next day.

Noe - normally a chicken oregano fan - went a different route tonight, choosing the stifatho (cubed beef with onions and seasonings, served over rice). Scott chose this as well. The onions looked like the little pearl cocktail onions. The dish was not entirely unlike adobo, but didn't have the pickly flavor of vinegar. I could not pick out the individual seasonings, but then again, I only got one bite - Noe and Scott inhaled this dish.

Stifatho

We were really too full for dessert, but that rarely stops anyone. The desserts, like all the food, are homemade by the ladies of St. Sophia. At lunch, my coworker Rosanne sprang for a box of assorted pastries that included baklava and my personal favorite, flogeres. Flogeres are pastry rolls filled with a chopped nut mixture and topped with honey, syrup, and spices. I taste what I think might be cinnamon and perhaps nutmeg (the bite is sharp enough). I'd take flogeres over baklava any day.

Noe and his ever-present love of rice of course chooses rice pudding over the pastries. Although rice pudding is not my favorite dessert, I do like it occasionally and in small doses. (This may sound weird, but I think of it kind of like oatmeal - it's cinnamon-y and kind of breakfast-like.) The St. Sophia rice pudding has a creamy texture and is served cold, which almost reminds me of cinnamon ice cream - not bad!

Noe and Scott enjoy their dinners

I'll be eating at St. Sophia's at least three more times this week, but I wanted to get this post out early so that hopefully anyone who may be on the fence about seeking out the Greek festival will do it. Have your big, fat Greek lunch or dinner - you won't be sorry!

Blowing Smoke

2009-11-02T22:09:00.000-05:00

I realize I'm a little late with this post, as it was promised several days ago. I can only blame computer fatigue (as in, I look at a computer so much every day at work that I couldn't stand to look at one at home).

Last week, I recounted our tradition of carving pumpkins and getting takeout from Chester's. Noe and I discovered Chester's shortly after moving here. Located past the "downtown" part of downtown, the tiny storefront that you could smell almost a block away called to Noe. Every time we drove past, he would say, "Maybe we should go to Chester's." One night, I finally gave in.

Chester's Barbecue in New London

(photo from chestersbbq.com)

As I mentioned, the New London location is tiny. It has a few seats but the main business is takeout. (Chester's now also operates a sit-down location in Groton, but I have not been there - mostly because the New London location is convenient to our house, and also because I have heard that if you eat in at the Groton Chester's, you leave smelling like smoke.) According to the menu, Chester's philosophy is that "“Barbecue is not the sauce, It’s what the sauce goes on.” Therefore, Noe and I were expecting some high-quality smoked meats.

Noe and I looked over a menu and decided the best bet would be the Chester's Sampler - "A little bit of every meat we smoke, your choice of three sides, cornbread and two drinks." All this for $26.00.

We weren't sure how little a little bit was. Turns out it isn't "little" at all. Our sampler included brisket, pulled pork, red hots, baby back ribs, beef ribs - and possibly more (believe it or not, it seems to get bigger every time). For sides, we had a choice of baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw, corn nibblets, mac & cheese, green beans, collard greens, and cinnamon apples. This was all accompanied by Chester's cake-like cornbread and two cans of soda.

Piles of smoked meats

Sides, drinks, cornbread

I am by no means a barbecue expert. I really am not qualified to "review" Chester's. I do, however, believe myself qualified to tell people what I like about Chester's.

I know that when I eat Chester's I taste more meat than smoke - although the smokers give everything a rich and smoky flavor, the true flavor of the meat shines through. Sauces come on the side for the sampler, and while I use some of them, I'm not much of a sauce person - I enjoy the smoky meat more on its own. I like the texture of the brisket - it's not stringy. The pulled pork is shredded to a consistency that makes it good eaten with a fork or on a sandwich. Ribs have never been my favorite meat, but I enjoy Chester's, drizzled with a bit of sauce (although Noe and I agree that beef ribs in general are too much bone and not enough meat, no matter where they come from).

Bag o' pork ribs

I enjoy most of Chester's side dishes, although the two times we have asked for green beans they have been out. The mac & cheese can be a little on the bland side. The baked beans, however, are fantastic (I love the smoky-sweet flavor of good baked beans) and the coleslaw is not goopy (always a plus in my book). Noe loves the cornbread, which is moist and has a cake-like texture. I tend to prefer a little more crumbly cornbread, buts till enjoy Chester's.

A movable feast

Chester's also offers a good deal if you are trying to feed a group. On several occasions we have ordered the Big Family Special: 2 racks of ribs, 2 chickens, 2 lbs. of brisket, 2 lbs. of pork (Carolina or Memphis style), 2 pounds of red hots, 2 quarts of coleslaw, 2 quarts of baked beans, and 12 pieces of cornbread. The price tag for this feast? $120.00 - a bargain if you are feeding 12 or more people (we've served it to 14 and had leftovers for lunch the next day).

So...while I admit that my barbecue education is lacking, I do not hesitate to recommend Chester's to anyone who wants a hearty (read: meat-centric) meal for a good price. I've never been disappointed - they are a welcome part of the New London dining scene.

Recipe for a good night

2009-10-28T22:56:00.000-04:00

1. Get takeout from Chester's BBQ - preferably the sampler so you get a little bit of every meat they serve (FYI - Chester's is getting their own post on this blog tomorrow).

Chester's box-o-meat

2. After consuming a borderline disgusting amount of Chester's, make a pot of hot spiced cider, preferably using some of the fresh cider you bought at Holmberg Orchards over the weekend. (My way of doing spiced cider - put the cider in the pot with some sliced lemons, a few cloves, and some cinnamon sticks and let it simmer for awhile. Pour a nice slug of Captain Morgan in your glass prior to serving.)

Cider simmering on the stove

3. Let your cat inspect your pumpkin (also purchased from Holmberg's). This process could take awhile depending on the picky-ness of your cat.

Buns gets final say on anything brought into our house

4. Carve pumpkins. Swear a little bit because your pumpkins are over an inch thick, making them rather difficult to carve with intricate patterns. Abandon finer points of your chosen pattern in favor of getting done sooner.

Are we done yet?

5. Light up the pumpkins (in the sun room because it is pouring rain outside) and admire your hard work. Drink more cider (with more rum).

We both chose cat patterns. Is that cute or lame?

A River Runs Through It

2009-10-25T21:47:00.001-04:00

On Friday night, Noe and I made plans with my favorite "foodie friend", Loree. Loree introduced me to what has become my favorite restaurant in Connecticut, the River Tavern. We've been on a mission to get Noe out there for awhile, but it hadn't worked so far. However, all the cards lined up on Friday night, and we met Loree in Chester (about half an hour from New London) at 5:45.

The River Tavern door - all photos by Loree Borgoin

The River Tavern is a very small restaurant with a warm decor (a lot of yellow and red). When you reserve a table for dinner (and because it is so small, I would recommend doing so if you plan to go there on a weekend) they block that table off for two hours - they believe in enjoying your food at a relaxed pace rather than rushing through your dinner. The restaurant was opened in 2001 by Jonathan Rapp. The kitchen is currently presided over by co-executive chefs Chris Flahaven and James Wayman (Jim Morrison, formerly of Thames River Wine and Spirits, put me on to James). The kitchen's focus is "simple, delicious cooking" always using fresh ingredients (local ingredients whenever possible).

We decided to start our meal with cocktails. The River Tavern has a unique, wide-ranging wine list, and I knew I would want a glass with dinner. For an apertif, however, we selected drinks from the innovative cocktail menu (River Tavern cocktails are delicious - not only are they well-crafted but they are made with quality liquors and fresh-squeezed juices. I chose the Ginger Blossom, a delightful concoction of white rum, fresh ginger juice, and honey, shaken with ice and strained into a martini glass. The bite of the ginger was tempered slightly but not totally mellowed by the honey - spectacular.

We decided to order an appetizer while we sipped our cocktails. Loree pointed out a squid dish, sauteed with green chiles. That sounded fine to me and Noe. We weren't disappointed. Sauteed squid can be rubbery if overcooked, but this was nice and tender. The chiles gave the slightly sweet squid a hint of heat. This dish was a great alternative to the usual fried calamari you see on so many menus.

It was a bit harder to decide on our entrees - all three of us were debating between two or three different dishes. Ultimately, Loree chose some Sicilian-inspired scallops, sauteed with squid and tomatoes and served over polenta. Noe gave in to his first impulse, the Tavern Burger - a patty of local Four Mile River Farm beef served up with onions, bacon (thick-cut, delicious bacon), aged cheddar, and house-made ketchup. I went for pan-fried skate with warm lentils, bacon, and arugula.

Loree's scallops with polenta

The skate was amazing - lightly fried so the outside was browned, it flaked immediately when grazed with a fork. (For those who have never had skate, the texture and the flavor remind me of a firmer white fish.) The warm lentils gave it a little bit of heartiness. The whole thing was infused with flavor from the tick-cut chunks of bacon (this bacon was glorious) and topped with arugula, finishing off the dish with an interesting hint of bitterness.

I loved every bite.

Pan-fried skate with lentils, bacon, and arugula

I managed to snag a bite of Loree's scallops, which were also perfectly cooked and delicious, but Noe's burger disappeared so fast I barely saw it, let alone got to try it. He gave it a rave review, noting that the meat was moist but the burger was not overflowing with juices and soaking the bun like some burgers he has eaten. (He also put in a request that I start seeking out Four Mile River Farm beef from the local farmers markets.)

The Tavern Burger

We were all pretty full, but we couldn't resist the idea of dessert. We settled on vanilla bean creme brulee. It came to the table ungarnished. This creme brulee needed no additional presentation. The caramelized top was nice and crisp and cracked when tapped sharply with a spoon. Underneath, the warm custard tasted of real vanilla. It was decadent without being heavy - the perfect ending to our meal.

Creme Brulee

Noe and I crack the crust

Noe agreed with me and Loree - the River Tavern is more than worth the drive to Chester. The food is uncomplicated, but sophisticated. It's simple and fresh, well thought out and carefully prepared. I'm glad we managed to convert Noe - maybe now that he is a fan, I will get to eat there more often!

Sword play

2009-10-19T23:24:00.001-04:00

The broiler is my new favorite thing. I hadn't really done much broiling up to this point - just the occasional browning of something or the other. Yet ever since buying Mastering the Art of French Cooking (which has a number of broiled dishes) and discovering that Noe had a broiler pan (where did this come from?!) I have been on a broiling kick.

My latest broiled dinner - this is super easy:

I got my hands on a couple big, fresh swordfish steaks from a local fish market. I threw them in a marinade of olive oil, herbs, a little white vinegar, and a little fresh lemon juice. I marinated them for about 30 minutes (they were big, thick steaks - about an inch thick).

Swordfish steaks after marinating

Then...I stuck them under the broiler for about six minutes, turned them over, and stuck them back in for another five or six. They were done when they were an opaque white all the way through and flaked fairly easily with a fork.

After broiling...they don't look that different than the raw ones in the photo

We ate these with simple sides of rice and steamed veggies. As for wine, I tried an inexpensive ($10) Riesling from my local wine store, Thames River Wine and Spirits:

The Clean Slate was just a tad sweeter than I normally enjoy, but still had a nice, minerally quality and a bit of crsipness. It actuallt paired pretty well with the herby, slightly acidic marinade.

This is a very simple dinner - but it is dependent on a quality piece of fish. If you can get your hands on a nice piece of swordfish, I highly recommend the marinating/broiling method if it is too cold or rainy to grill. These turned out great.

Picking and Choosing

2009-10-17T23:17:00.006-04:00

I've had an urge to visit an apple orchard for a couple weeks now. Back in Michigan, Kristen (my sister) and I would occasionally find ourselves both home and bored on a Saturday or Sunday morning in the fall. When this happened, we would get in Kristen's truck and drive over to Plymouth Orchard for fresh cider and homemade cinnamon-sugar doughnuts.

Fall recently hit New England with a vengeance, and with cool weather and colorful leaves comes a craving for crisp apples, fresh cider, and of course, the ubiquitous cinnamon-sugar doughnut. The problem? I had no idea where any apple orchards were located around here. So I turned to Google and quickly located Holmberg Orchards in nearby Ledyard. This morning, Noe and I bundled up in our sweaters and jackets and headed out.

We pulled up first to the market in front of the orchard and went in to poke around. I was immediately disappointed to find out they did NOT have my doughnuts. However, we saw plenty of apple crisp, pies, and other assorted pastries, and the whole thing smelled overwhelmingly of fresh apples. We decided to drive up to the orchard itself and hit the market on the way out.

When we got to the top of the winding drive, we discovered some pleasant surprises. In addition to apples, you could pick and buy pears (yum!) and pumpkins as well.

Noe searches for the perfect pumpkin

I found mine!

There was also what appeared to be a small barn with a sign reading "Tasting Room". We entered, thinking maybe we would be tasting cider. We quickly found that Holmberg Orchards produces several fruit wines and hard ciders and all were available for tasting.

I don't normally go for fruit wines, but Holmberg's seemed to be at the high end of this genre. While their peach wine was too sweet for my liking, I was very impressed by the Pearfection, a light, dry pear wine that I thought would be perfect to sip by itself or perhaps while nibbling a milder cheese. The Three Sheets apple wine, aged in oak barrels, had an almost Chardonnay-like quality with a bit of apple-y crispness. Both of the hard sparkling ciders had a crisp, fresh quality that I appreciated.

When we wandered back into the market on our way out, we were immediately greeted by the smell of fresh-baked bread. A woman was stacking a shelf with baguettes that were still warm. Even Noe, who is NOT a baguette fan (he calls it "bad-gette") was somewhat intoxicated by the yummy, yeasty smell.

In addition to produce from the orchards, the market carried a nice selection of local and specialty products. We saw wines from many Connecticut wineries (including Jonathan Edwards, where I can occasionally be found moonlighting in the tasting room), cheeses, fresh meats stuffed, marinated, or otherwise prepared for cooking, and a good selection of oils, vinegars, and condiments.

By the time we left, we had loaded up the car with two giant pumpkins, a whole bunch of apples and pears, a jug of cider, a bottle of the pear wine, some steaks stuffed with Gorgonzola and mushrooms, two bags of Deep River Snacks potato chips (these are seriously the best chips in the world!), one of the fresh baguettes, and a few more items I can't recall at the moment. Overall, a successful trip.

However, if someone can point me in the direction of an apple orchard where I can get that cinnamon-sugar (or apple cider) doughnut, I'd be very grateful.

America's pastime

2009-10-07T18:15:00.001-04:00

Last night, I happened to have both my Facebook and Twitter accounts open while researching some social media opportunities for a potential freelance client. I was also watching the Detroit Tigers take on the Minnesota Twins in a do-or-die battle for the AL Central Division title.

As I worked and watched, I also watched the tweets and status updates rolling across my screen. Many people appeared to be doing the same thing I was. I couldn't believe how many status updates were about the Tigers, even as I was posting one or two myself.

The thing I probably miss most frequently about Detroit is obviously sporting events. Most of my regular readers know that I am a huge Red Wings fan. But before I loved the Wings, the Detroit team I had seen in action repeatedly was the Detroit Tigers.

We went to a few games in the old Tiger Stadium when I was younger (way younger - I'm talking about Cecil Fielder walking up to bat while "The Phantom of the Opera" music played over the loudspeaker). They weren't great then - after their World Series win of 1984 (we've all seen the picture of Gibby jumping victoriously in the air) the team had started a downward spiral. They were OK through the rest of the 80's, and in the early 90's traded hands from one Michigan-based pizza man - Tom Monaghan of Domino's - to another - Mike Illitch of Little Ceasars, who also owns the Red Wings. By the time I was in middle school, they were beginning their eleven-year stretch of losing seasons.

In 2000, the controversial Comerica Park was opened. Comerica was very different than Tiger Stadium, not just because it was newer. For starters, it was located in a prime downtown location by the historic Fox Theater, the Detroit Opera House, and Hockeytown Cafe. This was a much fancier location than Tiger Stadium's corner of Michigan Aveue and Trumbull in Corktown. Secondly, the original distance to left-center was brought under fire for being too hard to hit home runs (it was later shortened). Then there was the historical factor - Tiger Stadium was tied with Fenway as the oldest active baseball stadium in the country.

Certainly not the least of the criticisms was the rumbling that the Tigers were so bad they didn't deserve a new ballpark. The supporters of Comerica Park argued that the new stadium would put fans in the seats - something the team and its losing record was struggling to do.

The new park was certainly a novelty, but the striped kitties were quickly becoming to baseball what the Lions are today to football. Even having popular veteran Tigers like Allan Trammell on the management and coaching staff did not keep the Tigers from a dismal 2003 and pretty crappy 2004.

(You are probably thinking at this point that I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. Or if you don't know, you're probably wondering where I'm going with this.)

Where I'm going is here: the Tigers may not have deserved that park; they may have been the worst team in baseball, but I loved them - and that ridiculous park - because I got to go to games.

At that time in Tigers history, you could barely give tickets away, let alone find people to pay for them. Which is exactly why the company my grandpa worked for at the time always had 4-6 tickets behind the first or third base line in the lower section to give away. AND they came with parking passes.

There were multiple times we'd gather up a group of friends and head to games. Sophie, Anthony, Eric, Becky, Kelli, Rose, and more all went to Tigers games with me, and we always cheered for the Tigers and always had a great time. And I am attached to that team out of more than just the proximity of where I grew up - I am attached because I got to see them play fairly often.

2004 and beyond were a renaissance period: first came Pudge, then Guillien, then Mags, then old-man Leyland came along to replace Trammell. By the end of 2005 the team looked good. My grandpa was retired now, and all of a sudden tickets had gotten harder to get.

Still, even though we weren't going to games on a regular basis at this point, we were invested in that team and felt entitled to cheer for them because we jumped on the bandwagon when they were so bad. And we were firmly on the bandwagon when the team made their (failed) World Series run in 2006.

Flash forward a couple years: I live in Connecticut. Professional sporting events are not easy to come by. I live between two rival baseball teams that have rabidly passionate fans (Yankees and Sox) but don't really watch either. I don't really make much of a point to watch the Tigers, truthfully, not the way I do the Red Wings. But I follow the front office and the Free Press on Twitter, read the scores in the paper, and in general keep up with them, even though I'm not a fanatic.

And last night, I watched hundreds of people all over America engage in conversations about "my" team. Even being stuck out on the east coast and not at Sticks in Ypsilanti, the Arena in Ann Arbor, or anywhere in Metro Detroit, I was still part of the Detroit crowd cheering for the hometown team. You can't convince me social networking is worthless after that experience.

And I'll call the Tigers "my" baseball team no matter where I live or how out of the MLB loop I am. It doesn't matter why you become attached to a team (in my case, it was free tickets during the reign of despair) if you still harbor a genuine attachment and desire to see them do well.

See you next year, Tigers.

Hey, Macaroni

2009-09-23T22:52:00.001-04:00

I love macaroni and cheese. I love it in almost any form. For a long time, my favorite m&c was - embarrassingly enough - Velveeta Shells and Cheese. Seriously - I would eat that fake cheese right off a spoon, I thought it was so delicious.

At some point, I finally got wise to the fact that REAL cheese has better flavor. I've been playing with homemade mac & cheese recipes for a couple years now - some have been quite bland, some have been very onion-y, some haven't been quite creamy enough while others have been a bit too soupy for my taste. None have really been bad - in fact some have been quite good, just not exactly what I was looking for at the time.

I happened to see a mac & cheese recipe last week when I was flipping through Wine Spectator. I also happened to be craving comfort food in a major way (it's FALL, people!) so I decided to give it a whirl.

The recipe was basic, but it was delicious. Noe and I agreed this has been the best recipe I have used for mac & cheese so far.

First, I got my dry ingredients ready (using my new Le Creuset pinch bowls from Gray Goose Cookery - aren't they cute?) The dry (and ok, one wet) ingredients were salt and pepper; flour, red pepper flakes, and mustard.

Then, I chopped up an onion and grated a TON of cheese. Seriously - my arm got tired. If I hadn't cooked enough to know that freshly grated, quality cheddar tastes much better than the Kraft cheese-in-a-bag, I would have taken the easy way out. I cooked the onion up with some butter, being careful NOT to brown it.

Then I sprinkled the flour in with the onion, poured in some milk, and stirred until it thickened. Once it was the proper consistency, I took it off the heat, dumped in all my grated cheddar, the mustard, pepper flakes, and salt and pepper, and stirred until smooth.

While all this was happening, I had been bringing a pot of salted water to a boil and cooking up half a box of cavatappi (hey, it was what I had in the cupboard). When the pasta was cooked to just a little less done than I'd want to eat it, I drained it and stirred it in to the cheese mixture.

I finished up by grating a whole mess of parmesan over the top and throwing it in the oven for about half an hour at 400 degrees.

We ate it immediately when it came out:

This was so basic, but so good: it was not too onion-y, and the pepper flakes added just enough flavor without really giving any noticeable heat. We ate it with a green salad and some dry, mineral-y white wine, but the recipe offered several variations to go with different white wines (like leaving out the pepper flakes and swapping some of the cheddar for mozz to pair with a round, more buttery chardonnay). If you're looking for a good, basic comfort food recipe - nothing fancy, but tasty - I suggest tracking this one down and trying it out.

Thursdays with Inuk, part two

2009-09-22T22:53:00.001-04:00

A couple pictures of me with my buddy, Inuk. I am still doing whale enrichment on Thursday mornings at the aquarium and can not imagine giving it up. As if the whales weren't cool enough, I have the best partner, Marliese. She and I have a blast playing with these guys - plus, she takes the best pictures!

French Finish

2009-09-21T10:07:00.002-04:00

Even though Noe and I had been on the Vineyard all weekend, then sat on a very cold ferry, then rode in a car for two hours, then looked at some piglets at Fred and Julia's house, I still felt ambitious enough to tackle a Julia Child recipe for dinner on Sunday night. Granted, it was not a super-complicated or very lengthy recipe - it was simply "pan broiled steak" (although the term "pan broiled" makes no sense to me; I thought broiling was done under, well, a BROILER) with a red wine and butter sauce. I decided to make this not because it looked easy, but more because I was sort of craving red meat after a weekend of delicious sushi and fried seafood.

Bifteck Saute Marchand de Vins -

Fancy French for "beef cooked in a pan and sauced with red wine."

(Sorry about the shadow on the page.)

I bought a couple sirloin steaks at the grocery store (I know, I know - I am not supposed to shop at the supermarche - but convenience sometimes wins) and uncorked a bottle of Little Penguin Shiraz that had been sitting on my kitchen wine rack for awhile (cheap and Australian, yes, but also rated as a great bargain by Wine Spectator), poured a glass, and set to work.

The first thing I did was chop up the shallot and parsley I would need later in the recipe. I swear, onions and shallots get worse for me with every chop. This was one shallot and I was literally IN TEARS.

Chopped shallot and parsley for use in the pan sauce

I threw some butter and oil in a pan and heated it to what I assumed was hot enough (Julia had said that when the foam from the butter subsides, the pan is hot enough. I had to use my judgment as to when the foam had sufficiently subsided). At that point, the meat went into the pan and was cooked for about four minutes on each side, giving it a nice sear.

Steaks in a pan, seared on one side

Once the steaks were seared to medium-rare perfection (the little droplets of blood appeared on the surface, just like Julia said they would!) I set them aside, poured the fat from the pan into the fat jar (you know, the jar you keep under the sink for bacon drippings), then put the pan back on the heat and cooked up the shallot for a minute or two. Then came the wine.

Shallots, wine, and meat drippings - what's NOT to like?

I boiled the wine down to an "almost syrup-like" consistency. Then - this is the good part - I took the pan off heat, and - one spoonful at a time - stirred in four tablespoons of butter (I TOLD you it was good). Once the butter was stirred in and the sauce thickened, I threw in the parsley and we were ready to go.

Sauce - YUM.

All that was left was to spoon the sauce over the steaks, add our sides (Noe made rice - surprise, surprise), pour a glass of wine, and enjoy.

The steaks were cooked perfectly - a nice sear on the outside and a great pink-to-red gradient on the inside. As for the sauce, it was good - buttery and rich - but Noe and I both actually thought it lacked depth. Noe thought I should have added a handful of garlic (but my personal rule is not to modify Julia until I try it the way she wrote it); I felt like I should have used a really meaty wine (like a big California cab) rather than a $7 Shiraz. There was nothing WRONG with it; we were both just looking for a little more.

Overall, I think this was a success - I liked the cooking method and Julia has several sauce and flavored butter options that I am definitely anxious to try. And I hope I haven't discouraged anyone from trying this one - Noe and I are just a little too accustomed to my normal heavy hand with garlic - for someone with all their taste buds still in tact, this has ample flavor to please.

Vineyard Weekend

2009-09-20T22:00:00.000-04:00

Noe and I just got back from another weekend adventure (I know, September's been a bit obnoxious, hasn't it?) - this time, we were out on Martha's Vineyard for our second annual Vineyard Weekend with our Connecticut friends. I blogged about our last Vineyard Weekend in August 2008 - this one was pretty different, but equally great.

John, Noe, Sarah and Chad on the 8:00 Island Queen-

better late than never, right?

We were missing Kevin Lester this year, since he is in the midst of a two-year stint in England. Doyle wasn't able to make it, either. But we had out new friend, Jason, and he fit in just fine with me, Noe, John, Katie, Amanda, Mini Deal, Chad, and Sarah.

We didn't have as much time this year - a bunch of us had to put in time at our jobs on Friday - so our first group got out around 5:00 and the rest of us followed on the 8:00 boat. It was a more laid-back trip: more porch sitting, no beach time (it was pretty cold); more casual drinks in the living room, no dance parties. Laid-back does not mean lacking, however - I think the relaxing weekend was exactly what most of us needed.

The boys play home run derby - with a wiffle ball.

Hillrest (Katie's house) was just as fantastic as it was when I first saw it. We are all so lucky to have a friend like Katie who is willing to share something so wonderful with us. Thanks are in order for Katie's parents - Fred and Julia - as well: they encourage her to share the house and have no problems with the idea of 8-10 of their daughter's friends taking over their house for a weekend (plus, they let us see piglets when we park the car at their house in North Stonington!)

In short, I am just as in love with the Vineyard as I was when I first saw it. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Noe and I at dinner at the Lookout Tavern

Trifecta drinking rose on the porch

Tivoli Day street sale

Mocha Mott's coffee: it really IS good coffee

Superfecta reunited! The weekend was too short.

Michigandering

2009-09-15T23:15:00.000-04:00

Noe and I just returned from a weekend in Michigan. Our original reason for going was my ten year high school reunion combined with finding some very cheap flights, but we ended up getting much more bang for our buck: Chet and Lorraine - our very good friends and former neighbors that moved to England when we moved to Connecticut - ended up coming through Michigan the week before we arrived and ended their stay in Ypsilanti with us. AND some of my mom's relatives that live up north and in Indiana were in town, along with my Uncle Jim. So Noe and I ended up attending multiple reunions of sorts.

Not only did I get to see all my favorite people, but I got to go to most of my favorite places. Being a whirlwind weekend, we kept it pretty casual. On Friday night after we landed (in Detroit via North Carolina - but that's another story) we headed immediately to Sticks/Aubree's to meet up with Chet, Lorraine, and our good friends Jen, Becky, Steve, and Rose, along with my sister Kristen (all of whom still live in Michigan).

Becky, Noe, Jen and me at Sticks

While Sticks is mostly known for lots of pool tables and great beer specials, they also have pretty good food. Lorraine and I were seriously craving some Aubree's pizza and feta bread. Aubree's has always had great pizzas (just the right ratio of crust, sauce, and cheese) with creative and delicious topping combinations. And as if the feta bread weren't enough, some genius invented spinach and feta pizza rolls - all that spinach and cheese stuffed into a garlicky, buttery crust. YUM.

Lorraine and Noe

With all the laughter and conversation, the night passed by quickly. It was 2:00 AM before we knew it. We parted reluctantly, but Noe, Jen and I were able to catch Chet and Lorraine for breakfast at the Bomber on Saturday morning before sending them back across the pond.

The Bomber, an Ypsi institution, is known mostly for the ginormous "Bomber Breakfast" (thanks, Food Network), a glutton's delight. However, if 27 sausage patties (OK, it's really more like seven) AREN'T your cup of tea, the Bomber has plenty of basic, hearty diner fare available, including some very good omelettes. I went for the Greek with feta, tomatoes, and olives (among other things) while Noe chose the Bomber omelette with ham, sausage, bacon, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and American cheese. To add to the Bomber's charm, it's located on a most rundown section of Michigan Avenue and has model airplanes hanging from the ceiling and WWII paraphernalia on the walls.

The Bomber's less-than-glamorous Michigan Ave location

Saturday night brought reunion night - and for me, Noe, Sophie, and Anthony, a great homemade dinner at Jess and Josh's apartment. I should have taken some photos of the interior, because Jess can seriously work wonders when given permission to paint and put holes in a wall. She can also work wonders with a pork tenderloin and a spice cabinet. When I do pork tenderloin, it is usually on the grill, rubbed down with herbs de Provence and basted in garlic oil. Jess kept the herbs de Provence but added several other spices - including just the slightest bit of chili pepper for an extremely subtle kick - and roasted the meat in the oven. The result? Delicious. The drink? There was only one choice for celebrating 14 years of friendship - Champagne.

She and I could have some killer dinner parties:
Jessica's roast pork tenderloin

Rosemary potatoes and stir-fried broccoli

We hit the reunion for awhile and enjoyed catching up with everyone. In the internet age, there aren't exactly many surprises, but it is always nice to see people in person.

Jess and I at the reunion

We finished the night off with a stop at Rose's, where her Mad Men party was still in full swing. Having come from the reunion, we were unfortunately not in costume (Rose and her buddies looked AMAZING), but still enjoyed vodka tonics and gin and tonics and a Neil Diamond/ABBA dance party in the living room of Rose's period-appropriate house.

Sunday was our last full day in the mitten. During the morning we hung out with Uncle Jim (he was staying with my parents as well) and then went to see Gran and Grandpa. Noe and I hit downtown A2 for a bit (I even bought some junk at Middle Earth, just like I was 19!) then headed to the family party at what is quite possibly my favorite restaurant in the world, Sidetrack.

Kris and Noe at Sidetrack

Sidetrack is a bar. It has a great, laid-back bar atmosphere and lots of great beers on tap (including that elusive Michigan favorite, Oberon). However, they also have GREAT food. I am obsessed with their burgers, but I've had salads, sandwiches, and more, and they have always been fresh and delicious.

But let's get back to that burger.

A Sidetrack burger is a beautiful thing. Half a pound of fresh-ground, hand-rolled beef cooked to order and topped with more or less whatever you could imagine. My toppings of choice? Bleu cheese, bacon, and grilled onions - nothing else. Medium rare.

The best meal in the world. Period.

I swear, if I ever by some misfortune find myself on death row putting in my order for a last meal, it's going to be a Sidetrack burger and a draft Oberon.

We had a low-key Sunday night with a campfire and some of Sophie's black bottom cupcakes (chocolate and cream cheese goodness - Soph, you must send the recipe). It was fun, but bittersweet as we knew we had to leave again the next morning.

I have a good life in Connecticut, but weekends like this make me realize just how much I truly do miss my Michigan (and England) friends - and my Michigan food. Hang in there, Michiganders - hopefully we'll be back again soon!

Captain, my captain

2009-09-10T21:06:00.001-04:00

I occasionally tell people that the first thing I learned to like about New England was the hot lobster roll. This usually gets a chuckle or two. I'm not saying it to be funny, however. I'm deadly serious when it comes to the local delicacy.

I'm a seafood fan in general; a shellfish fan in particular. I love shrimp, clams, scallops, and lobster. I do NOT love mussels, but this has more to do with working 3+ years of Earle happy hours (cheap-ass grad students, ugh) than it does with the food itself.

I think seafood in almost any form is delicious: raw, grilled, sauteed...yet there is something exceptionally glorious about fried seafood, preferably bought from a sea side stand. Needless to say, there weren't many sea side clam shacks in Michigan, but I had NO trouble finding any when we moved to Connecticut.

We knew about a few places in Mystic (we had seen them when we came here for house-hunting trips) and we live down the street from Fred's Shanty, which served my fried clam craving well for a few months. Noe had eaten at Abbott's in Noank, which is supposed to be pretty famous. But our mutual favorite, hands down, is Captain Scott's.

Photo from roadfood.com by Cliff Stehle

We never knew Captain Scott's Lobster Dock existed, and we may never have found it if not for Amanda and Kevin. They took us there for lunch one late spring day last year, and we've been addicted to it ever since.

Captain Scott's is located between the downtown and residential sections of New London, by Crocker's Boat Yard. To get there, you turn down a weird little side street near the boatyard and an office park and drive straight toward what appears to be a dead end. At the last second (before you drive over the railroad tracks), you hang a left, and all of a sudden you're on an idyllic little inlet, looking at the boats, the train, and the buildings of New London, all from strange new angles.

The usual gamut of fried deliciousness is available - clam strips and whole belly clams, scallops, fish and chips, fish sandwiches, and fritters. However, Captain Scott's also specializes in fresh lobster, offering full dinners with corn and potatoes as well as that New England legend, the hot lobster roll. Naturally, I had to order one.

A hot lobster roll is, quite simply, hot lobster meat drizzled with butter and stuffed into a hot dog roll.

Why do I call it a hot dog roll and not a hot dog bun, you ask? It turns out that in New England you have two options when it comes to hot dog receptacles. There is the bun, which us midwesterners are familiar with: open on one side. The hot dog roll (right; photo from dreamstime.com) is split open on the top. It toasts up much better than a bun and is better for holding in lobster meat (it would all just spill out the sides of a bun).

Lobster, butter and bread may not sound like the most exciting combination, but it is heavenly. Captain Scott's really piles the meat on - giant chunks of tail and claw spilling out of the roll. The lobster is extremely fresh and has that ever-so-slight briny sweetness. Anything but butter would be overwhelming to the delicate flavor, but the hot, melted butter just enhances it perfectly.

Trust me, this thing is heaven on a roll. I have never tasted any sandwich as delicious as a fresh hot lobster roll.

Calamari, fried shrimp, lobster roll. Photo by me.

Captain Scott's fried food is great, too - they have the nice, thick batter on their fish and chips, and everything is appropriately crispy. Their lobster dinners are really reasonably priced, usually coming in around $20.00. They are open seasonally (all seating is outdoors) and are BYOB (I recommend picking up some a nice, minerally white wine and chilling out at a picnic table on a sunny afternoon). They also have a fresh seafood market, from which I have purchased high-quality, fresh-caught scallops that have made a delicious meal.

It may take a little work to find, but Captain Scott's is worth the effort if you like simple but high-quality seafood. And if you, like me, have never experienced a lobster roll, please try one. This sandwich changed my mind entirely about east coast living - no exaggeration.

Something fishy

2009-09-07T22:22:00.004-04:00

Oh, man. It's a good thing Noe and I got in a few hours of tennis today because I once again turned to Julia Child for dinner. We all know that Julia LOVES butter...and cream, and cheese. Tonight's poached fish might sound healthy at first, until you hear what I poached it IN and what I did to it after said poaching.

The master recipe

I had some flounder fillets (sole would have been more Julia but was, alas, not available) on hand, so I used that for this recipe. I followed Julia's master recipe for poaching fish in white wine (take three guesses which white wine I used). Because I did not have any fish stock, I tried her tip for a substitute: 3/4 cup of white wine combined with 1/4 cup of clam juice. I buttered a dish, sprinkled some minced green onion on the bottom, seasoned the fish with salt and pepper and laid it in the dish, covered it with another tablespoon or so of green onion, dotted it with some cut-up butter and then submerged it in the white wine/clam juice mixture and enough water to cover the fillets.

The fillets before the liquid

I brought this whole mess to barely a simmer, then threw it in the oven (350 degrees) covered with a piece of buttered parchment paper. I kept it there for about eleven minutes, removing it when the fish could be sliced with a fork (but before it was dry and really flaky).

I fished (ha ha) the fillets out of the dish with a slotted spoon and put them on a plate. I then poured the poaching liquid into a saucepan and brought it up to a boil. I boiled it until it had reduced to a cup or so, then took it off the heat. I used a whisk to beat in a paste I had made out of flour and softened (NOT melted) butter, then put it back on the heat, beat in half a cup of cream, and boiled it up again. I taste-tested it and seasoned it up with salt and pepper.

When the sauce was of a thickness where it coated a spoon, I took it off the heat. I put the fillets back in the original dish, poured the sauce over them, sprinkled everything with about a quarter cup of grated Gruyere (the recipe said Swiss; close enough, right?) and some more cut-up butter pieces (of course) and threw it under the broiler for three minutes.

Coming out from the broiler

YUM. The sauce was awesome - creamy but not cheesy with an excellent seafood-y flavor (you know the flavor I mean - like the flavor in really good chowder or real seafood stuffing). The fish was moist from the poaching and subtly infused with wine and onion (I am sure it would have been better if I could have gotten super fresh fish, but I had supermarket fish for this one). The butter and cream added an element of richness but this dish did not really taste heavy (although it was pretty filling). I served it with broccoli (I wanted green beans but the broccoli really needed to be used) and baguette (though of course Noe made rice).

Dinner

Both of my Julia seafood recipes have been awesome. I'm really looking forward to trying some of the beef and pork recipes. I saw several stews that make me wish for cold weather. If you can get your hands on a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking - and get over the fear of butter in mass quantities - I promise you, the time spent making one of these recipes is worth it.

Mansions of Glory

2009-09-07T10:45:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we headed into Newport, RI with my mom and dad to tour some of the historic mansions. Newport was a favorite summer retreat of the Gilded Age millionaires such as the Vanderbilts and the Astors. These "summer houses" look like museums - recessed ceilings, moldings and marble everywhere, gold leaf and platinum on the walls...they have to be seen to be believed. France - Versailles in particular - was pretty popular with this set: lots of busts of Louis XIV; reliefs of Marie Antionette. Even more amazing than the decor is that in some cases the families that built these mansions only spent 1-3 summers there before succumbing to poor health or perhaps bigger mansions by way of divorce.

Photography was not permitted inside, but here are some exterior photos of the Breakers, Rosecliff, and Marble House.

I think Noe and I need some statuary at our house

I sort of feel like we should be marching in a circle
singing "Doe, a Deer" at Rosecliff

Marble House exterior

Chilling in the backyard at the Breakers

Grand Slam

2009-09-05T09:23:00.001-04:00

Noe and I watch a lot of tennis, as you may have gathered from previous posts about attending tennis tournaments in Indianapolis and Newport. This year, we decided that being so close to New York provided too great an opportunity to pass up: we made the decision to attend our first major, the U.S. Open.

We took the Metro-North from New Haven into Grand Central and then hopped on the subway to get to Queens (FYI - the parts of Queens you see from the subway windows do NOT look like "The King of Queens"). We could see the silhouette of Arthur Ashe stadium as the train pulled in - wow.

The Billie Jean King Tennis Center is the most beautiful sports venue I have ever seen. The grounds are meticulously landscaped and extremely clean. Noe and I kind of stood stupidly and stared for awhile before deciding where to head first.

We chose to get in the line to go into the grandstand (the smallest of the three stadiums). We were rewarded for our patient waiting when we walked into the small stadium and on the court was none other than Gael Monfils, one of our favorite up-and-coming French players. Monfils is incredibly athletic and is known for leaping and diving all over the court. He also slides a lot. Naturally, this style of play is particularly effective on clay, but Monfils manages to employ it on a hard court as well. We could hear his sneakers squealing before we even entered the stands.

Monfils running for a shorter shot

After Mofils sewed up his victory over Jermey Chardy, we headed to our nosebleed seats in Arthur Ashe (the big stadium). We had thought about just buying grounds passes but figured if we were going to our first major we should try to see someone really big. Neither of us imagined we would actually see our current favorite, Rafael Nadal. But sure enough, thanks to the luck of the draw, that is exactly who ended up playing the afternoon headliner on Wednesday. And before him, Venus Williams. So we ended up with an excellent double bill, totally worth the money. Actually, had Noe and I known it was going to be Nadal, we would have shelled out the bigger bucks to sit closer.

After the Nadal match ended, we wandered the grounds for awhile. We explored the food and beverage options (the Open has all kinds of food, from sushi to seafood to pasta to crepes; and tennis attracts high-end booze sponsors like Grey Goose, who had beverage carts set up every five feet), then we checked out the wall of champions. We perused the outer courts for awhile, catching Robbie Ginepri's win.

We were headed back to the grandstand to watch some of Lleyton Hewitt's match when we noticed a small crowd gathering. We followed, and found ourselves about three feet away from John and Patrick McEnroe, who were doing some commentary for one of the TV broadcasts. (The guys behind us were debating whether or not to yell "Jimmy Connors rules!"; they ultimately decided on NOT.)

We watched Hewitt grind out the first set with Chela, then sadly gave up our seats to catch the subway and head back to CT. The sadness of leaving the Open was slightly dampened when I found the Grand Central Market still open and was able to make a Murray's run, but we still spent the train ride back wishing we could have stayed.

The U.S. Open is the best sporting event I have ever attended. The grounds are nice, you can see high-quality play up close, and tennis fans are great - they like the big names, but if an underdog starts making a good run, they rally behind him or her. There are about a million different languages being spoken all around and every chair umpire has a different accent. If we stay in CT, I definitely plan to attend this event in the future.

Mastering My Domain (My Kitchen)

2009-08-29T23:10:00.002-04:00

A couple months ago, I was lucky enough to snag a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking at the Book Barn before all the Julie & Julia hype hit full force. Last night, with all my good CT friends tied up with other plans and not really feeling great enough to go out (getting over a nasty summer cold), I decided to cook myself and Noe a restaurant-quality meal at home.

This was my first Julia entree. I've dabbled with some of the soups and side dishes, but this was my inaugural main course. I selected Coquilles St. Jacques a la Provencale for several reasons, not the least of which was it did NOT have a note anywhere commenting that it would take approximately three hours to prepare (it was actually a fairly short forty-ish minutes). I also picked it because the only thing I had to go purchase was the scallops - everything else (butter, herbs, cheese, etc) were more or less staples that I had on hand.

My chosen recipe

After swinging by Thames River for wine tasting (even though my senses were definitely still compromised from the cold) I picked up the fresh sea scallops and a baguette (this recipe looked pretty butter-rific and I figured the baguette could soak up some sauce) and headed home to work.

Of course, I started by pouring myself a glass of wine. I chose my current favorite white wine, the 2008 Chateau La Rame Bordeaux Blanc. Not only is this sauvignon blanc extremely tasty to sip; I was planning on using some of it in the recipe. I had seen further down that the scallops would be simmered in "dry white wine", and I thought the minerality of the La Rame would add some nice flavor and the citrusy acidity might cut through some of that butter.

A great thing about Mastering the Art of French Cooking is that it breaks down recipes into sections and lists the ingredients you need for that section by the instructions - so you know what you need, when you need it. I began chopping a yellow onion, shallot, and garlic clove in preparation to heat them with some butter (I think every step of this recipe called for butter) in a small saucepan.

Onion, shallot, and garlic

After setting aside my fragrant stove top mixture, I dried my scallops (just patted them with a paper towel), seasoned them with some salt and pepper, and dredged them lightly in flour, shaking off the excess (cheater's note: I did NOT sift the flour as the recipe instructed. It was the only step I skipped).

Seasoned scallops

Lightly dredged scallops

While I was dredging, I was letting a skillet with some butter and olive oil get hot on the stove. After the final dredge, I threw the scallops in the screaming hot skillet and let them get a light sear on each side (this took maybe two or three minutes, tops), at which point I dumped in the aforementioned wine, some thyme, a bay leaf, and my onion mixture, threw a cover on the skillet, and let the whole mess simmer down for about five minutes.

Simmering on the stove top

When the five minutes were up, I took the cover off the skillet, brought the whole mixture to a quick boil to thicken up the liquid, then divided the scallops and liquid between a couple oven-safe Pyrex dishes. I covered each dish with some grated Gruyere and dotted them with pieces of cut up butter, then through them under the broiler until the cheese began to brown.

About to be broiled

WOW. Noe and I were knocked out first by the smell - this dish is heavily aromatic. But the flavor was out of this world. First of all, that much butter can never be bad. The wine's flavor had cooked down and concentrated, and it complemented the butter and seafood exactly as I had hoped. We had thought the dish might have a strong onion flavor with all the onion and shallot I had included, but it was a subtle, delicious flavor. The herbs added a delicate finishing touch.

The scallops themselves? Slightly sweet and not at all tough - in a word, perfect.

I didn't even make a side dish for this meal -we ate it with a simple salad and some cut-up baguette to soak up the excess butter mixture (which was almost as delicious as the scallops). I served it with more Chateau La Rame Bordeaux Blanc.

Tumbler of wine; sliced baguette; finished scallops

This was quite possibly the best meal Noe and I have eaten in the past six months. He even gave me a high five when he was finished eating it. If you are intimidated by Julia's recipes, or by cooking seafood, or by the thought of eating six tablespoons of butter, I highly recommend getting over it. You won't be sorry.

Hall of Famers

2009-08-28T13:20:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I hear myself say something and think "Wow. Did I really just say that?" Like when someone asked "Hey Amy, what did you do this weekend?" and I replied "Well, I spent Sunday drinking Chardonnay while sitting courtside at a grass-court tennis match in Newport."

I know how it sounds. But...its true. That is indeed how I spent my Sunday.

My classic tennis-watching pose,
trying to get players in the picture

Jonathan Edwards, the winery where I work part-time, was a sponsor for the Champions Cup - or as I like to call it, Old Man Tennis - at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Because Noe and I are kind of tennis geeks, I was able to snag us a pair of tickets from the girl who does outside sales and events.

I didn't realize that they were VIP tickets - box seats, lunch buffet, and free booze. That was a pleasant surprise.

The first match we watched was Jim Courrier versus Pat Cash. The great thing about these kind of tours is that although you are seeing high-quality play, the players are much more relaxed and interact with each other and the crowd a lot more. Courrier and Cash were full of witty remarks. The second match was between Todd Martin and Mark Phillipoussis, who, to be totally honest, I really only know of because he was on the stupid reality show a few years back that I believe brought the term "cougar" into the mainstream lexicon.

Here are some photos from our super-classy afternoon:

Serving

Pat Cash surrounded by fans

There is a such thing as a free lunch... and this is that lunch

Noe is pretty happy with our VIP status

Cool as a cucumber

2009-08-18T21:53:00.002-04:00

Due in no small part to the near-record amount if rainfall we experienced in Connecticut at the beginning of the summer, I have ended up with a garden full of freakishly large cucumbers. The cucumber plants have literally overrun the entire space, choking out everything but my squash plant, which struggles valiantly to gain ground. Not only do I have an abundance of the crisp green fruit, but they are gigantic. To quote Noe the first time he looked at my garden: "What is that, a watermelon?"

You understand what I'm dealing with here.

Now, I love cucumbers. I like to slice them and eat them as snacks. They are cool and refreshing on a hot summer day. However, I can not eat an entire garden worth of radioactive-looking fruit. And honestly, after an entire week of sliced cucumbers, I was so sick of them I didn't even want to pick any more.

I knew I needed to figure out something to do, and quickly. There had to be some recipes other than gross cucumber salad involving cucumbers. I should have realized right off the bat this was a job for Julia Child. Luckily I ended up there after a few misplaced search efforts.

The first Julia cucumber recipe I attempted was baked cucumbers. This shows you how truly desperate I was to do something with these plants because I thought the idea sounded disgusting even as I was already counting out the ingredients from my cupboards. I mean, who cooks cucumbers?

Julia does, that's who. I read My Life in France. I know she's crazy. I just went with it.

The first thing I was advised by Mastering the Art of French Cooking to do was to soak the cut-up cucumbers in a mixture of wine vinegar, salt, and a bit of sugar. According to Les Tres Gourmands, this would draw the excess water out of the fruit and the cukes would not become much in the oven. I'm not a fan of mush. I followed the instruction.

After a while (hours?) I drained the cucumbers. Sure enough, there was a pool of liquid in the bowl. I tossed the drained cucumbers with some chopped green onions, some herbs, and - of course - melted butter. I cooked them for an hour, taking them out every twenty minutes to toss/stir them.

Noe and I were a bit apprehensive, but we dug in anyway. Surprisingly, the cucumbers were really quite good. The salt/vinegar/sugar marinade had not only drawn out the excess water but given them a very slight pickle-y flavor. It's hard to imagine something roasted for an hour in melted butter tasting cool and fresh, but these almost did. They also retained a bit of their crispness, which I thought was great since limp cucumbers sounded pretty gross.

The second Julia cucumber recipe was not from MTAOFC. It was from a later book and not quite as out there as the idea of baking the fruit. Recipe number two was a sort of cucumber salad. The two recipes began similarly, only recipe number two added water to the marinade of sugar, salt, and vinegar. After the cucumbers chilled out in the marinade in the refrigerator for a couple hours, I drained them, tossed them with olive oil and some fresh basil and parsley, salt and peppered them to taste, and served them up at Amanda's house. This cucumber recipe truly was cool, crisp, and delicious.

These two recipes have given me confidence that I will not grow to hate one of my favorite garden items. So if you, like me, find yourself with an abundance of cucumbers, I highly suggest letting Julia guide you on your path to cucumber enlightenment. You won't be disappointed.

Photo courtesy of readersdigest.com

Reasons why I am kind of a horrible person

2009-08-17T23:33:00.004-04:00

4) I'm incredibly selfish. This may seem like an odd thing for someone who spends so much time volunteering to say, but it's true. I volunteer when there is something in it for me. Volunteering for town stuff is fun for me because I meet people, make good connections, do stuff that could potentially benefit my career down the road, and help plan and attend events. At the aquarium I get to occasionally feed whales and play with sea lions. Every minute I give, I gain something I consider worthwhile in return.

3) I have, on occasion, successfully faked a conversation I knew nothing about. I consider the most grave lie I have ever told to be book-related. I have indicated that I may have read and even discussed - at length - a certain book that I have never actually read (it is only one book, and Doyle, Amanda - I have NOT pretended to have read this book in a conversation with you). In fact, I've never actually claimed to have read it, per se; I have just discussed it as if I have, and this makes me officially kind of a liar.

2) I eat certain very inhumane food products. I understand animal cruelty. I give money to the ASPCA and the Humane Society. I try to buy free-range, grass-fed, small-farm meat from local farmer's markets. But you know, every once in awhile I see veal something or the other or foi gras on a menu - neither of which have any remotely humane characteristics about them - and I just can't resist ordering. I hate myself when I say the words, but honestly, I forget how much when I take the first bite.

1) I am not really interested in anyone's baby. I try. Really, I do. (Okay, I don't try that hard.) I am just not interested in babies. They are all the same to me. Don't take it personally; I do not mean it to be insulting. But I'm just not into it and can only feign interest for so long.

Well, that was rather cathartic. If I was a good Catholic I would go to confession rather than blog it, but that's a list I'm not going to make right now.

Squash-ed Hopes and Dreams

2009-08-11T09:37:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure how or why people started eating squash blossoms. (I'm sure there is research available on the topic; to be quite honest, I haven't really looked for any.) I had never really given the squash blossom much consideration; however, I rarely give squash much consideration as a full-grown veggie. I vastly prefer the zucchini.

I don't hate squash, though, so I wanted to plant some in my garden this year (I needed something to replace that obnoxious bean plant I ripped up). The problem is that I intended to plant a couple squash plants and a couple zucchini plants. However, I was not paying attention at the garden center and picked up some squash that had been mislabeled as zucchini - resulting in a squash takeover of my garden space.

At this point, I have only harvested two whole squash, but the vines and blossoms are flourishing. A couple days ago I started getting panicky - what was I going to do with all this squash?

Someone somewhere heard my thoughts, because suddenly everyone around me was talking about squash blossoms.

First it was my friend, describing her parents' anniversary dinner at a restaurant in Providence. Then I ran across them in a couple food newsletters and food blogs I follow. When my west coast colleague Nick posted a Facebook status update about sauteing squash blossoms, the light finally clicked on in my head and I asked him for his recipe.

People eat these?

Nick's method called for stuffing the blossoms with a cheese and herb blend, dipping them in beaten egg, dredging them lightly in cornstarch, and sauteing them in olive oil (well, he didn't specify that part; I just assumed it was olive oil) for a minute or two per side.

(I had seen some references to battered, deep-fried squash blossoms when doing my preliminary research, but a couple blogs mentioned that this completely destroys the flavor of the blossom itself. Nick had seen recipes for both deep frying and sauteing, and he chose to saute, so I followed suit.)

I headed outside to pick the blossoms, not entirely sure what I was looking for (I should have researched this better). I finally decided to pick the ones that were slightly open at the ends so I wouldn't have to force them open to stuff them, but not the ones that were wilted to the point of just dangling off the vine (foodies, if anyone has any tips on selecting squash blossoms, please post in the comments!)

Back in the house, I removed the stems and very carefully removed the pistils. This was pretty difficult. Nick said he skipped this step, but I wanted to try it.

At one point I was attacked by a giant bee that had been hiding inside a blossom and apparently objected to being smothered with cheese and thrown into hot oil.

For the stuffing, I used a blend of grated mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheeses - partly because that's what Nick used and partly because those cheeses are almost always in my refrigerator. I mixed the cheese up with some basil - dried rather than fresh because my basil plants have unfortunately succumbed to whatever bug has been plaguing them since the beginning of summer.

I stuffed the bulbous part of the blossoms, continuing up to where the ends started to taper, then - at Nick's recommendation - twisted the tops a little to keep the stuffing inside.

I beat an egg in a bowl and dipped the blossoms in, letting the excess egg drip off before dredging them lightly in a plate of cornstarch. While I was dipping and dredging, I heated a small pan with enough olive oil to coat the bottom over medium-high heat.

Blossoms in the pan

After all the blossoms were dredged, I threw them in the oil and listened to the quiet sizzle. After about a minute and a half, I turned them over with tongs to saute the other side.

I removed them with the tongs and set them on a plate of paper towels to drain the excess oil. These are meant to be consumed immediately (otherwise the coating becomes less crispy and more stale and soggy, plus the cheese stuffing re-solidifies). Luckily, Noe was walking in the door from his softball game as I was removing the blossoms from the pan. He gave me a look indicating he thought this was an odd post-game snack, but he took one anyway.

Fried deliciousness

These turned out pretty tasty. Noe thought his could have used more cheese (I probably did err on the skimpy side - I was trying not to burst the blossoms) or even some crumbled bacon in the stuffing. The cornstarch provided a light and crispy coating - just enough for a crunchy texture but not so much that you couldn't see/taste the blossom. The blossoms themselves don't have a strong flavor, but they have a tiny bit of an herb-y, earthy thing going on that I could taste (though maybe only because I really wanted it to be there).

As long as I have squash blossoms, I'll continue to try to perfect the art of cooking them. I suggest you try it, too - it's a fun twist on fried snacks, and way more interesting than just another squash from the garden.

2 Wives are better than one

2009-08-02T23:31:00.001-04:00

I've been meaning to get in a post about 2 Wives Brick Oven Pizza here in New London for awhile now. We all knew it was opening awhile before it actually did, thanks to being plugged in with New London Main Street and downtown in general (New London is NOT a big place). We were excited to sample the four cheese pizza with pink vodka sauce at the Spring Food Stroll. We were really excited to eat there the first time...and the second time...and the third time...and even more excited when we heard they had brunch. So how come I never got around to writing about it?

Laziness, I guess.

It was going to brunch at 2 Wives that finally convinced me that the time to blog had come. With Dev's done with brunch until fall, I've felt a need to try out some other Sunday breakfast venues (Passion Coffee House and City News - you're up next). 2 Wives' brunch menu is not extensive, but it is creative and delicious (plus, I never even expected them to offer brunch, so there's a bonus point right off the bat).

But let's start with the pizza.

I suppose I didn't want to blog about another brick oven pizzeria right on the heels of Apizzo in Pawcatuck (which does have very good pizza). Yet I was very excited that New London was getting our own brick oven pizzeria. We needed some new blood downtown, and we didn't really have any pizza offerings, let alone good pizza.

I knew when I tasted the four cheese at Food Stroll that it was a winner. However, I was surprised the first time I tried the actual pizza (not just the inch-wide snippets we got at the Stroll) how much of a winner it was.

For instance, I knew that the gorgonzola gave it that little kick in the cheese department (stronger flavor than the mozz, parm and romano, but used sparingly and effectively so as not to overpower) but I had totally missed the delicious onion-y flavor in the Food Stroll sample. Grilled onions and four cheeses equal a match made in heaven. And the pink vodka sauce is a great alternative to traditional pomodoro sauce - a little creamier with a little more bite - perfect for onions and gorgonzola.

The other pizzas we've tried have been very good, though none have rivaled the Four Cheese (that's not a bad thing - every restaurant is entitled to at least one stand-out dish, as long as the other dishes don't suffer). The Garden Pesto was completely LOADED with veggies, and the pesto actually tasted like basil, not oil. The Margharita is basic but tasty - adventurous isn't for everybody, anyway. I did think the Lasagna Pizza with meatballs was on the bland side - but perhaps that was in comparison to the other things we'd ordered? (I'd have to try it again to find out, and quite frankly, my love affair with the Four Cheese will probably prohibit that action.)

(I have not yet tried 2 Wives paninis or salads, although several look intriguing. I have heard from one person that their panini was fantastic and another that they were less-than-impressed. Both were people I would trust food judgment from. At some point I'll have to order one and find out.)

Already enamored with the pizza, I decided to go with Amanda for brunch this morning. The idea of a pizzeria serving brunch was just too intriguing to pass up.

As I said before, the menu is not extensive - there are only four things on it, with only a couple variations (but I believe you can get the regular pizzeria menu as well, which gives you the options of salads, etc) but the few things on it are VERY good.

I want to personally thank whoever invented the Eggs Benedict Calzone. People know from previous breakfast posts on this blog that I can not resist eggs benedict (although after reading Anthony Bourdain's Ktichen Confidential, I almost reconsidered my position on hollandaise sauce - almost). This delightful concoction swaps out the Canadian bacon for prosciutto (who in their right mind would complain about that substitution?!) and wraps up the eggs and the salty, delicious meat into pizza dough, which is then baked and drizzled with hollandaise.

Wow.

This thing is SO good, I just might prefer it to real eggs benedict. It's huge, though - two small-ish calzones - Amanda and I could have split it (but...we didn't).

The other standout on the menu - which has been ordered by both Amanda and Carrie - is the French Toast Panini. 2 Wives dips their panini bread in egg, toasts it, then stuffs the "sandwich" with cream cheese and berries and provides the diner with a carafe of syrup to drizzle over the top. The panini bread stays nice and crisp, never falling into that "too goopy" category I feared this dish might.

The breakfast pizza seemed pretty average, nothing special (but how could a breakfast pizza compete with the two dishes I've just described? It couldn't. It was set up to fail by comparison).

2 Wives has a fairly extensive wine list for a small pizzeria - many varietals are represented (not just Pinot Grigio and Chianti, as is too often the case with "Italian" restaurants) and much of the list is available by the glass. They feature five draft beers and a selection of bottles. (There's also a very good, generously poured $5 mimosa available on the weekends to compliment your brunch.)

While I need to go back to try the salads and paninis, the pizza alone made 2 Wives a great addition to our local dining options, and I am thrilled that they do such a good weekend brunch as well. I'm looking forward to eating there many more times in the future.

Oh, those summer nights (or days)

2009-08-02T10:36:00.005-04:00

I always blame work for my lack of blogging lately, but the real thing that has made blogging so difficult lately is that New England really can be an amazing place to be in the summer. I know I hated it when I first moved here, but we moved mid-September - by the time we unpacked and were settled, it was the gross, drizzly shoreline winter (which I'll never love).

But summer on the East Coast (when it actually shows up for a day or two at a time - we're having awful weather this year) can be truly spectacular. And the ocean is a mile and a half from my house, and the sound is NOT infested with jellyfish this year. The water was actually warm yesterday. It was awesome.

Here are some pictures of our group at Amanda's birthday party last weekend at Lake Terramuggus. Who would rather be blogging than grilling out, swimming, and spending time with friends in the sun?

Not me!

Jonas Brothers plates - you know it's a party when...

Dev's vegetable dumplings - Amanda's stroke of genius

Trifecta toasting summer with our favorite summer wine:
Don David Torrontes

Noe and Greg attempt to mow people down in the paddle boat.

Everyone in the lake - I love summer.

Marketplace

2009-07-24T15:42:00.004-04:00

Some images from the Farmer's Market in Kerrytown from my trip to Ann Arbor last weekend. I wanted to buy everything!

Can anyone tell me where there are some good, large farmer's markets here in Southeastern CT? Or even some farms with farm stands where I can buy a small variety of things. I am interested in farm fresh cheeses and meats as well as produce.

I know there is a Saturday market at Fiddleheads in New London, but does anyone know of any other - and possibly larger - markets?

Ode to the BLT, that most glorious of summer sandwiches

2009-07-15T23:32:00.002-04:00

Is there a better sandwich in the summer than a BLT? In a word, no. The tomatoes are in season, the lettuce is cool and crisp, and the bacon - well, bacon is good any time.

Ironically, I used to hate BLTs. This is because I mistakenly thought I hated tomatoes (luckily I never harbored any illusions that I hated bacon).

I discovered only several years ago that I do not hate tomatoes; rather, I am simply extremely particular about them. I will ALWAYS ask for any fast food or deli (unless that deli is something on par with Zingerman's) to remove the tomato from whatever I order because I do not trust these places to have fresh, seasonal tomatoes. The reason I though I hated tomatoes is because I do hate out-of-season, pale, sickly-pink, fat-slices tomatoes. (Ugh - I shudder just thinking about these.)

A fresh, ripe, red tomato, however, is delightful. Sometimes I'll eat tomatoes fresh from the garden sliced with just a little balsamic vinegar. And very few things are more tasty than a caprese salad made with fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil ( have you picked up the key word here?)

Which brings us back to the BLT. The bacon may steal the show, but even copious amounts of thick-cut bacon can not hide a sub par, disgusting tomato. For this reason, I only eat BLTs in the summer.

I make BLTs occasionally - or, when my tomato plants are out of control like last summer, often - but mostly when I need a quick dinner, which doesn't satisfy the lunch craving. Luckily, there are several places around New London where you can get a fantastic BLT for lunch.

Muddy Waters has a very basic, traditional BLT. It comes on somewhat thick toasted wheat bread. It has what I would call an average bacon to tomato ratio and very nice, crisp iceberg lettuce. The bacon is not really a stand-out bacon (not particularly thick or juicy, but just as good as your average bacon from the grocery store) and tends to be on the crispy side. I have never had a problem with gross tomatoes at Muddy Waters (and if you really want a great tomato product, wait until it gets a little cooler and get their tomato soup - it's very good!)

Thames River Greenery - part of my favorite group of businesses (Greenery, City News, Thames River Wine & Spirits, and Brie & Bleu) - also has an excellent BLT. The emphasis on the Greenery BLT was most definitely on the bacon - mounds and mounds of it. This is a thick sandwich, and extremely delicious. Plus, when you order a sandwich from the Greenery, you get the bonus of getting to poke through their excellent greeting card selection and all the fun City News magazines and newspapers, which in all honesty could have been part of the appeal for me.

I believe that best BLT in town can be found at the South Side Bistro. I discovered South Side while working downtown and have never ordered a meal there I didn't like. South Side's BLT comes on lightly toasted ciabatta and has some magical mixture of greens (maybe the only instance where I would say non-iceberg lettuce works on a BLT), tomatoes (sometimes yellow ones - no less fresh or delicious) and juicy, juicy, bacon that can not be duplicated )I have tried - it does not work). The South Side BLT also has the virtue of never once having too much mayonnaise (I am very grossed out by mayonnaise and goopiness in general - if I see thick schmears of mayonnaise leaking out of a sandwich, I can't eat it). Plus, on a beautiful summer day you can sit on the deck and look at the river - does it get much better?

I could wax poetic about the BLT for several more paragraphs, but I'm sure you've heard enough by now. Where do you think the best BLT is available? Or do you have another sandwich that does it for you? I'd love to know your thoughts!

Things to do when your friends come to New York City:

2009-07-05T23:27:00.003-04:00

1. Take touristy pictures in Times Square

2. Relax for a few minutes in Bryant Park

3. Take touristy pictures in front of the New York Public Library

4. Order a $63 piece of meat for dinner and be ever-so-slightly sickened by the size

5. Go see a show - preferably a completely un-PC show involving some very inappropriate puppet behavior

6. Get drinks in some random divey bar and wish your friends showed up on the east coast more often

Poker should not be played in a house with women. *

2009-07-01T23:25:00.006-04:00

*Mitch (Karl Malden), A Streetcar Named Desire 1951

There's been a lot of celebrity death in the headlines lately. It was tragic to hear about Farrah and her amazing hair battling cancer, and I think many people suspected that Michael Jackson had some pretty serious problems going on behind the scenes. Those headlines were depressing and shocking, respectively.

No one could really call today's celebrity death depressing or shocking - after all, it was a 97-year-old man dying of natural causes - but as an admirer of several of Karl Malden's movies (On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire in particular) I found the news of his death a bit sad.

As Father Barry in Waterfront, he encouraged Marlon Brando (*sigh*) to stand up to Johnny Friendly and mob that controlled the docks. Although Noe likes to snort and say "That's a stupid priest!" when Waterfront comes on cable and I insist on watching, I do not think Father Barry is a stupid priest. An idealized 50's Hollywood priest? Yes. A stupid priest? No.

The other quintessential Malden role was the rather thankless role of Mitch in the 1951 film version of A Streetcar Named Desire. It's no secret that when it comes to men, Streetcar is all about Stanley (also Marlon Brando - seriously, I adore 50s Brando). But the movie wouldn't be the same without Malden's heartbroken Mitch.

I'd write Karl a tribute, but other people who have watched more of his movies and who aren't obsessed with old-school Marlon Brando will do it better. I could not, however, pass up the opportunity to acknowledge someone who helped define two of my all-time favorite movies.

RIP, Karl.

Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it?

2009-06-21T19:04:00.000-04:00

Last year I wrote a blog about Kevin Doyle's Great Gatsby party. I am glad to report that this year Doyle held the second annual Great Gatsby Party and that the costumes and cocktails were even better. We were lacking Kevin Lester this year, but attempted to make up for his absence with lots of toasting and "Lester-posing" for photographs.

Here are some photographic highlights from the evening:

The early crowd sets up the tent in case of rain.
Luckily the weather held out.

First drink of the evening: the French 75. Recipe appears below.

Trifecta in costume complete with vintage cocktails

Lester-posing

Depression-era Noe looks rather depressed.

Last year we really only made one vintage cocktail, the Monkey Gland. It was tasty, but it's the kind of drink you can really only have one of due to the sweetness factor (well, at least I only wanted one). This year, we all did some research on vintage drinks and had a tasting session at John and Katie's prior to the party. We found several - all involving gin - that we loved. Here are the recipes for our favorites:

The South Side (pictured):

1 1/3 cups fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup Simple Syrup
1/4 cup packed fresh mint leaves
6 ounces Gin
seltzer water

Directions:

Muddle mint, lemon juice and simple syrup until mint flavor has been released. Divide ice and gin evenly between each glass, add lemon mint mix and top off with seltzer water. Garnish with a lemon twist, if desired. Serves: 4

The Aviation:

Ingredients:

2 oz Gin
1/2 oz maraschino liqueur (we used maraschino syrup instead)
1/4 oz lemon juice

Directions:

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake well. Strain and serve. Garnish with a cherry. Serves: 1

*We topped this one off with club soda because the portion was extremely small.

Left to right: French 75, Blackberry Bramble, South Side

The Blackberry Bramble:

Ingredients:

Club soda
1 ounce crème de mure (blackberry liqueur)
1/2 ounce Simple Syrup
1 1/2 ounces fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 ounces Gin

Directions:

Combine the gin, lemon juice and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain into a glass, top with soda and float the crème de mûre. Serves: 1

The French 75:
*This one was not truly 1920's but it involved gin and it was tasty, so it made the cut.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (we used simple syrup)
2 ounces gin
3 ounces plus 1 tablespoon chilled Champagne

Directions:

In cocktail shaker, combine lemon juice, sugar, gin, and ice cubes and shake to chill. Strain cocktail into a glass and top off with Champagne.

Thursdays with Inuk

2009-06-18T15:31:00.002-04:00

This is what I do on Thursday mornings before I go to work. I play with three Beluga whales, including Inuk, the curious guy in the background there - and give them plenty of fish and tongue rubs (yes, belugas like their tongues rubbed). Sticking your hand in a whale's mouth may not be your idea of the right way to start the day, but it rates pretty high on my list.

Working for the Weekend(s)

2009-06-17T23:02:00.006-04:00

Because I am not quite busy enough (sarcasm), I decided to get a second job, at least for the summer but hopefully something I can keep a few occasional hours year-round. Luckily for me, Jonathan Edwards Winery happened to be looking for a couple people to work in their tasting room at the same time I was looking for a part-time job.

The winery - which produces both Napa Valley and estate Connecticut wines - is located on what is probably the most beautiful piece of property I have seen in southeastern CT. 20 acres planted with Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, and Pinot Gris - what's not to like? Plus, it's fun. Even when it gets busy - which it defnitely does during the summer - you still get to socialize, talk to people about wine, answer questions about wine, and drink wine. What's not to like? It's hard work, but I really enjoy it.

These are some pictures from a recent event, the Spring Festival, held on June 6. Noe actually worked this event with me - with over 1600 visitors, the winery needed a lot of volunteers (and nothing warmed my heart more than seeing him pour himself a glass of Sauvgnon Blanc on his own free will - usually when Noe drinks wine, it is one sip and it's because I have stuck a glass in his face and said "try this.")

These photos were taken by Susan Denice, who works in the tasting room and does outside sales - she's an awesome photographer.

You can also check out what's happening around the winery at http://www.jedwardswinery.blogspot.com/ - or just come see me if you're bored some weekend.

Petite Sirah, waiting to be opened

The crowd outside

Noe working the tasting bar under the tent

Me working the cash bar inside

Jon giving a tour of the vineyard

Pizza Pizza

2009-06-16T18:05:00.006-04:00

How to make a simple and delicious homemade pizza. This dinner tastes like true comfort food but takes very little work or preparation, depending on what you're using ingredients-wise (a hint: just a little extra effort - like grating some smoked gouda or using thick-cut applewood smoked bacon) goes a LONG way.

Spread a Boboli crust with decent-quality BBQ sauce (not TOO much - a little goes a long way).

Grill and chop a chicken breast. Throw the pieces in a bowl with about a tablespoon of BBQ sauce and toss to coat.

Chop up about half of a red onion and two strips of uncooked bacon. (Tip: I cut my uncooked bacon with kitchen scissors instead of with a knife.) Sprinkle chicken, bacon, and onion on the pizza crust.

Top with cheese. I personally like smoked gouda on this pizza but mozz or provolone work just as well.

Bake at 450 degrees until the cheese starts to brown and you can tell the bacon is cooked through (maybe about 12 minutes). Sprinkle with fresh cilantro if you have any. I promise, this is the most delicious of homemade pizzas and super-easy.

Other great homemade pizza combinations:

Pesto sauce, chicken sausage, and crumbled goat cheese
Pesto, fresh tomato slices, basil leaves, fresh mozzerella

Green Acres

2009-06-15T20:13:00.003-04:00

The garden is well on its way! So far, we've got (from right to left): basil, red bell peppers, cucumbers, orange bell peppers, green bell peppers, and squash. I also have herbs in containers along the side of the house as well as a tomato plant in a pot (I learned my lesson with tomatoes last year - this year it's staying contained).

I try really hard during the summer to limit my vegetable and herb consumption to what I can grow (supplemented by stuff from farmer's markets, which is way easier in the summer). I wish I was better at this year round, but summer is at least a start, right?

I can honestly say that last summer I did not buy a single bell pepper, cucumber, or tomato (although I couldn't give away all those damn tomatoes). The squash is really the only new addition, replacing the beans I ripped out because we never ate them.

Hopefully all goes well. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

For your consideration

2009-06-13T00:27:00.003-04:00

Things that were awesome about today:

I got a ton of work done
I bought Bruce Springsteen tickets that are NOT in some horrendous sports arena with terrible sound
I bought plane tickets to go to Ladies Weekend and Indianapolis on our summer vacation
I found out my company will pay for me to go to grad school
Noe cooked me a fab steak on the grill

Things that were NOT awesome about today:

I didn't get ALL my work done
I spent a gazillion dollars
I figured out there are at least three weddings I can't go to this summer
In order for the company to pay for me to go to grad school, I actually have to go to grad school
The Red Wings totally blew the Stanley Cup finals

Five Things I Love This Week: The Beginning of Summer Edition

2009-06-05T16:11:00.001-04:00

5) Walking to work

Last summer, I rode my bike. This summer - at least until it gets boiling hot - I'm trying something new: walking. My new job (which is also something I love this week - I've loved it since I accepted it, actually) is even closer to my house than my old job. 1.5 miles is very walkable in under half an hour. It's a great walk down one street with tree-lined sidewalks the whole way. Of course, if I leave for home much later than 4:00 PM I run the risk of encountering some of the characters lining up at the soup kitchen across the street from my work building, but the morning walks are downright tranquil.

4) Large cats in small baskets

Buns likes to put her big kitty body into little tiny spaces. I like to point and laugh.

3) Local Dinners at the River Tavern

The River Tavern has to be the most delicious restaurant in Southeastern CT. The chefs know when simplicity is key but also know when to go for the exotic. The local dinners they do showcasing meat, produce, and wines from local farms are out of this world. Check this blog later in the weekend for a post about last week's dinner (above - Jonathan Rapp, owner of the River Tavern, and me).

2) Oberon

The best - or at least among the best - beer in the world. You can't get it in Connecticut...unless your new friend at your second job who is also from Michigan gets you a mini-keg!

1) Sunday Kickball

A birthday, an empty field, and fantastic weather = impromptu kickball game. No one is really great at it; no one is really bad at it...win-win situation.

Tony D-elightfuls's

2009-05-24T09:55:00.003-04:00

(Sorry about the lame stock photography in this post - I thought my coworkers might think it was weird if I pulled out a camera and started photographing everyone's dinner - although I now that I have several meals with them I am thinking they may have been pretty cool about it.)

I had been to Tony D's exactly one time since living in New London. It was for my former employer's company Christmas party. We shuffled in off the street to a very basic nondescript banquet room with nondescript folding tables and chairs cushioned in a nondescript color. We severed ourselves from a buffet that had grown room-temperature as opposed to hot by the time Noe and I made our way up. We thought the calamari was pretty excellent, but everything else was run-of-the-mill, slightly bland buffet food.

I know better than to judge a restaurant by a banquet experience (quality ALWAYS gets sacrificed - at least a little - for quantity) but still, Tony D's didn't exactly jump to the top of the list when trying to come up with places to go for dinner, even though people around town kept telling me it was a dependably good meal.

We popped in toward the end of Food Stroll, hoping to get a taste of that fabulous calamari (they were out). We went into the restaurant itself for the sample, rather than the bland and boring street front banquet room. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the restaurant itself had a ton of personality - dark wood contrasted with white napkins, low lighting, waiters dressed in black (I really hate white shirts on waiters, FYI - probably because I wore won for so long and because it is DUMB - waiters spill things!) The lounge was dominated by a large bar with an elevated seating area for more private conversation. The dining room walls were lined with intimate booths and the tables were spaced far enough apart that you wouldn't be on top of the party next to you.

We ate our bite of tortellini in the lounge and moved on. But I found myself back at Tony D's not a week later for another company dinner (we ate out a lot last week - out-of-towners in for meetings).

We were seated at a long table in the dining room. Water was immediately poured (a step that gets neglected in a surprising number of restaurants around here) and we perused the wine list (limited, but not terrible - I am forever spoiled by the Earle when it comes to wine lists). Tony D's was out of the first Chianti we selected, but our waiter was quick to suggest a substitute and the whole table was pleased with the result.

Our waiter was good, by the way - great timing, didn't forget anything, refilled wine/water glasses on every trip to the table, and recited the specials from memory. Compared to some "nicer" restaurants I've eaten at in Southeastern CT, this is above and beyond the norm.

For my entree, I was about to select tortellini with grilled chicken and pesto (mmm, pesto!) but got sidetracked by one of the specials - a fresh-of-the-docks piece of halibut served with a little bit of mushroom cream sauce alongside a mound of whipped cauliflower. There were several components that appealed to me - the fresh, local fish; cauliflower rather than potato for a side; the words "cream sauce" - so I made a last-minute entree switch. Actually, I think four or five out of eight of us made that switch.

When the fish arrived, I was immediately pleased just with the presentation. It was beautifully plated, a nice size without being gigantic, and had a squiggly drizzle of thick cream sauce with large mushroom pieces visible (as opposed to drowning in a pool of runny, mushroom-less sauce).

I cut into the halibut with my fork - no knife necessary - and the crispy brown crust opened to reveal hot and flaky white fish - fully cooked but not dried out. The subtly rich flavor of the cream sauce enhanced the mild fish rather than overpowering it. This was a dish of mild flavors, not strong, but just because you don't have a powerful flavor doesn't mean that everything in the dish doesn't compliment each other harmoniously.

The whipped cauliflower was more or less like an airier version of mashed potatoes, with a slightly grainier (not overly grainy, just a little more so that mashed potatoes) texture. Sort of nondescript, but still a nice break from potatoes.

We decided to be decadent and order some desserts for the table. I unfairly judge every "Italian" restaurant by the quality of their tiramisu, and Tony D's is the closest I've found in CT to the style of my friend Richard's (former pastry chef at the Earle) - lady fingers lightly soaked in a mixture of espresso and cognac, enough to soak up both flavors but firm enough to hold their shape - mascarpone, egg yolks, and sugar whipped and folded into an airy confection, and lightly dusted with cocoa powder. Richard, yours is still the best - but this one is pretty good.

The show-stopper of Tony D's dessert menu is not the tiramisu, however - it's that other Italian confection, the cannoli. The shell was crispy, indicating that it may have actually been fried on the premises (maybe - I can't confirm this, but the shell was crispy, fresh and delicious) and the ricotta mixture inside was definitely lightly enhanced with something - maybe lemon zest, perhaps a touch of amaretto? Whatever it was, it was subtle and wonderful. The whole thing was dusted with powdered sugar. Some people shy away from desserts without a chocolate component, but please, if you find yourself eating dessert at Tony D's, order the cannoli. I promise you will not be disappointed (unless you like sickly sweet cream filling and slightly stale shells - in that case you'll be devastated).

I've learned my lesson about ignoring restaurants based on one slightly weird banquet experience. I need to try out more of Tony D's menu before I rank it as a favorite, but the dishes I tried on Tuesday made a major case for going back.

New London still isn't close to Ann Arbor in terms of variety and general quality of dining options, but I'm discovering more, better restaurants every day.

Steak-ing my claim

2009-05-22T10:59:00.003-04:00

Once upon a time, there was a restaurant on Bank Street called Cafe 57. I went there with Noe, Jack, and Mike because someone told us that Cafe 57 had "really good burgers."

Well, perhaps they did have good burgers; however, we found out at dinner that night that they only served said burgers on the lunch menu (which was not specified on their website at the time).

I don't remember what we ended up eating. I guess it must have been OK, but I was in no big rush to get back to Cafe 57.

Fast-forward a year and a half or so. I have a new job (that even after two months I am still sort of in love with) and said new job involves going out for a business dinner with five coworkers on a Monday night.

The parameters: not too pricey (try to stay in the $20 an entree range) and stay in New London.

Right off the bat we had a huge problem. Southeastern CT restaurants don't like to be open on Monday, including pretty much anything I would have chosen. We were going to have to try something new and untested: Steak Out - formerly Cafe 57.

I don't really get the Steak Out/Cafe 57 switch. From what I understand, it's the same people who own the restaurant. They have no done any redecorating. Apparently they just wanted to do an entirely new menu, so they decided to confuse people by closing and re-opening as something entirely different.

Whatever. If the food was good, I was willing to forgive. and forget - and maybe pretend the (lack of) burger incident hadn't happened.

I got to the restaurant before my coworkers and ordered a glass of wine. I appreciate the atmosphere of Steak Out. Although the name implies cheesy western decor, the interior actually has a strange air of sophistication - dark wood and dim lighting, with maroon cushions and a wood and granite bar. It's not new, and it's not modern, but it's cool.

Needless to say, the menu is based primarily on beef. I appreciated the fact that most of the steaks were available in two sizes. I chose a 12-oz New York Strip, medium rare.

Steak Out scored a major point by actually delivering me a medium rare piece of meat. Not rare (although I would rather have someone err on the side of underdone with beef than over done) and not medium - it was the perfect shade of red in the center, pink around the edges, and nicely grilled on the outside (what is it about grill marks on a steak that look so appealing?) In addition, I could tell that this piece of meat did not sit in the window waiting to be brought out because the center was still warm. When I cut into it, warm meat juices rushed out to mingle with the mashed potatoes. Delicious.

Each steak comes with two sides. Despite the stupid name they are given on the menu - "Show Down Sides" - the sides at our table looked quite good. Some asparagus (kind of skinny, but still tasty) and some mashed potatoes rounded out my plate.

I had originally ordered a baked potato, but the kitchen was out, so I went with garlic mashers instead. Normally I leave a huge pile of potatoes sitting on my plate, but I made more headway with these than I normally do. They were delicious. Perfectly whipped with just enough lumps to have that "real" potato texture, they contained amazing but not overpowering garlic flavor.

Service was decent if not spectacular. The waitress was a little confused by one of our party's drink order (apparently Steak Out does not have a Rob Roy on draft - I guess we can forgive her for not knowing what it was; it is kind of an old-fashioned drink) but overall she was very pleasant and our food came out in an orderly fashion.

One note - the glass of Zinfandel I had with my meal tasted like nail polish. PLEASE Steak Out - invest in a vacuum pump to seal your wines that you are pouring by the glass, or taste them every night before you serve them. It was gross, not because the wine itself was disgusting, but it had obviously been open way too long.

Overall, I was very pleased with my meal. I would like to return to Steak Out and try the "fancier" food, but if you're looking for a good, basic cut of meat and some dependably delicious side dishes, Steak Out is a solid bet.

Things that are awesome about coming home from New York

2009-05-16T08:55:00.002-04:00

1. (clockwise from top left): Olive oil & sea salt crackers, black crackers, Marcona almonds, Jamon Serrano ham, aged Manchego, Italian soft cheese - all from Murray's;

2. Junior's Most Fabulous Cheesecake;

3. Sleepy kitty who you have missed all day while you were gone!