Cookin' in the 'Cuse

Building a Menu

I don't know about you, but I typically have a series of dishes that make regular appearances on our dinner table.  I say "series" because it changes depending on the season.  We try to stay out of ruts but tend to depend on our regulars--just to keep meal prep simple in these very busy days.  Summer tends to be our creative season not only because there is more fresh produce available, but because I have much more time to cook them up and experiment.

During the winter, my default mode is--roast, braise, or simmer--as in roasted chicken and root vegetables, braised short ribs (that was Thursday's dish), and simmered soups.  Thankfully, a pantry stocked with pickled beets, fig jams, poached pears, and beans helps to keep the meals fresh.

All that is to say, I don't give a lot of thought to menu planning.  I kind of throw things together and it works.  But with folks coming over for dinner tonight I've spent the past few days thinking about what to serve. 

Two of my "go to" resources for menu planning ideas are Maria Helm Sinskey's The Vineyard Kitchen, and Martha Stewart's latest "Dinner at Home".  The recipes in both are quite solid and the menus--with wine and beer suggestions, take some of the guesswork out of figuring what will go well together.

For tonight, I settled on the menu below.  I didn't get the menu idea from a cookbook--I just thought about what dishes I really enjoy eating.  I imagined the progression of flavors from course to course--a rich entree I thought, ought to be preceded by a light and refreshing salad.  I considered what the last bite of the night might be.  And then I did a bit of a mental exercise:

Think about how each dish looks on the plate. 

Take a mental bite and imagine how the flavors will taste together.  If my mouth begins to water, if I can imagine the flavors and textures complementing one another--then I suspect they'll work together in real time.  We'll see.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Here's the plan:

Appetizers:  Medjool Dates stuffed with Lively Run Goat Cheese; apple slices dotted with honeyed hazelnuts; served with Atwater Estate's 2007 Vidal Blanc

Salad:  Frisee and arugula salad with pumpkin seeds, slivers of Manchego cheese and pears.

Main:  Chicken with Black Pepper Maple Sauce served with Creamy Polenta with Marscapone Cheese and roasted carrots; Wine--Lamoreaux Landing's 2007 Reserve Chardonnay

Dessert:  Buttermilk lemon cake drizzled with Renee Suzette's Passionfruit flavored Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce; French press coffee and tea selection

Look what I won!

I'm so excited about this book!  I entered a give away on one of my most favorite blogs, SFGirlbyBay and won!  This beautiful and inspiring book by Gayla Trail of You Grow Girl fame is just what I need to get me out of the snowy winter doldrums into springtime seed-sowing and garden planning. 

I used Gayla's first book and blog when I planted my first-ever garden on Dorset.  Now that we are gardening a much smaller plot (read:  one raised bed and pots on the front porch and small backyard) this book will help us use our small space productively. 

I'm already dreaming of strawberries in pots, radishes, chard, tomatoes, herbs of all kinds, beets, spinach, peas climbing the fence...

And if you want to know why I stay obsessed with the Bay Area, check out Victoria's most excellent blog.

I have a question...

What will it take to make Syracuse more of a foodie town?

Seriously.

And I'm not even going to define "foodie".  I'll let you interpret that anyway you wish.  But here's why I ask:

I stopped into Pasta's Daily Bread recently and was delighted to see that in addition to their iconic stretch bread, they were offering loaves of semolina raisin and chocolate cherry.  Check it out:

Pecan raisin, chocolate cherry, and semolina raisin loaves from Pasta's Daily Bread.

I tasted a sample of each while at the bakery and asked when they'd be available again.  The answer: 

NEVER.

Because they wouldn't sell.  The folks at the counter said, people see these alternative breads, like what they see and then buy what they always buy.  And the chocolate cherry and semolina raisin are still on the shelf at days' end. 

Meanwhile, at the CNY Regional Market, both Heidelberg Baking Company and Rock Hill Bake House are doing brisk business with their dozen or so offerings.  Which is great but they're only available to us on Saturday.  You can go to Wegman's--but then if you're like me, you have to sort out which breads don't have a form of corn syrup in the ingredient list and recently they've stopped producing breads that contain nuts.  Of any kind. 

So what will it take to make Syracuse more of a foodie town?  A place where people line up to get the day's special offerings from the bakery (just to name one barometer).  It is a simple question with a complicated answer.  And each of us owns a piece of the solution.

This is what's blowing my mind these days...

First up:  Jennifer Ward's by lines on the Atlantic Monthly Food Channel website.  You know Jen--Fresh Cracked Pepper Jen.  Well, her piece on Coffee in Haiti after the earthquake is getting tweeted all over the blogosphere.  That's our girl! 

I'm finally pulling some decent looking--and great tasting--espresso shots.  But when I'm getting my latte's on the run--the shots pulled at Funk 'N Waffles is blowing my mind.  I checked them out after a commenter sent me there (you see, your comments really do help me out)  Their shots of Gimme!'s Leftist were so spot on, I could taste the nuance of the flavor profile through the steamed milk--genius! 

Local cooking oil!  Have you had some of this butternut squash seed oil--it is fantastic!  It has a smooth and nutty taste that is just perfect for roasting up all of those root vegetables that are still left in the larder.  And there's something about roasting butternut squash in its own oil seems just so right.

I picked up this bottle at Max Market in Pittsford but check out the Syracuse Real Food Co-op to get some closer to home.  Update:  I guess I posted too soon.  The Co-op doesn't carry it but I put a note in the suggestion box so perhaps they will soon.

Based in Geneva, NY and Boston, Stony Brook is all about the deliciousness--you may have also come across their cookies.  Trust me, if you see them, don't pass them up. 

 A cafe destination for your country drive.  Red and White Cafe is in DeRuyter and I plan a more extended post on them because there's lot's to tell.  But for now, let me just say--this place rocks!  This is the real deal--authentic to its community, delicious house-baked breads, doughnuts, and other treats, good coffee, fantastic people--you have got to get there.  More on them soon....  Thanks to Neil Miller for introducing them to me.  Speaking of Neil--have you checked out his blog lately?  Check out his post on our lunch at Circa and dessert at Red and White.

So how about you?  What's blowing YOUR mind these days?

Groundhog Day and Blogging

Actually--there is isn't a real tight link on these two topics, except that if Puxatony Phil is looking for his shadow, I had better get back to blogging.  (I won't even go into how much groundhogs remind me of giant woodchucks that traumatized me last summer.)

Anyway, there is so much on the food scene that is blowing my mind these days and I can't wait to share it with you.  Soon, soon.  But shadow or no shadow--Groundhog Day is our first signal to begin sketching plans for our vegetables gardens, ordering seeds (if you haven't already) and beginning to get set up for starting seeds indoors--because spring will be here before we know it.  Really.