A Brilliant Meal for Fall!

This lovely is stuffed with Mexican ingredients--tortillas, sour cream, roasted chiles, tomatillo sauce, roasted chicken, cheese, and generous seasoning--and roasted for 2 hours. Scraping down the cooked insides of this Baby Blue Hubbard yielded a delicious dish!

Get Ready to Garden!

So you don't have to, I've linked pages of catalogs I'm ordering from this year:

Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds Good herb & Asian greens selections; no photos

Seed Savers Exchange Great pics, lots of organics

Baker Creek Heirloom Heirloom, huge selections (8 pages of tomatoes), not much growing info, not all depicted

Johnny's Organized by category, good growing info

Stokes Commercial catalog has a ton of growing info and mostly hybrids

Seeds of Change I'm ticked because they increased packet prices 50 cents--nearly a 20% increase; NM farm that grows organics

The Chile Woman My friend Susan ships transplants of chiles, peppers, tomatoes & tomatillos, $3 per plant

And if you want to see my veggie wishlist, it's growing & posted at my new garden produce wiki.

More on the Food Economy

Wrapping up the previous post of the NYT article, his books, and prior rumored nomination to Secretary of Ag, Bill Moyers interviews Michael Pollan.

Big Red F talent on the small screen

So last night was the start of the new season of Top Chef and what a joyous surprise to see there are two Big Red F chefs (albeit, from Boulder) in the competition. They didn't mention a connection between the two during last nights episode nor do I recall seeing them on screen together. He is from Jax Boulder. She is from Centro... on the same block in Boulder. Of course there were 17 chefs last night (now 15) including two culinary school buddies a group that has dubbed themselves "Team Rainbow" (what gays on Bravo... um, totally expected!) I love Top Chef anyway but having folks from my most favorite local restaurant group in the mix just makes it all the more appealing! For the un-cabled, I think you can catch up on line.

They are in NYC this season. Last night they had to draw knives and venture into the different neighborhoods and prepare a meal inspired by that neighborhood's signature culture. Hosea won his head to head with Russian fare. Both made the final cut to move onto next week.

Gadgetry

Here's my new OXO food mill.

What could be better than grinding up apples, peels and cores to can (oh, don't start me on that dated word & my encounters with it this summer) applesauce this fall? Leaving behind the seeds, stringy peel parts and hopefully some stem pieces, many rotations produced Batch #1 of applesauce. 2 gallons down, 6 to go.

I could do this, you know, for real. This is who I was meant to be. Too bad I work.

And, it's ready to borrow at the BB&B.

Fix the Food Economy

If you only read one piece on food or of this week's news, make it Michael Pollan's Farmer in Chief.

Already a rabid Pollan fan, I'll read anything of his that's put in front of me. But this is a smart article that has very little to do with food and everything to do with why the economy and the energy crisis won't be dealt with until the food economy is addressed by the next administration. Users of 19% of our fossil fuel, and contributors of 37% of greenhouse gas emissions, the agricultural industry has strayed way, way away from its roots. It now takes 10 calories to produce 1 supermarket food calorie, and the average American eats a half-pound of meat a day.

And I've only read about a third of the article--just had to share it!

Lunch @ Red Trolley

Perhaps to prepare for the winter, Red Trolley is expanding their offerings to include soups, salads, and popovers at lunch time. They are still working out the service kinks so not recommended if you are in a big hurry but the food was quite good. I had a cup of potato-leek soup, a salad of mixed organic greens-apples-pecans (had to opt out of the blue cheese crumbles), and a popover with peach preserves for $8. There isn't a menu but the choices provided to me verbally were two soups and two salads (the other was called the Red Trolley Salad so I assume that means it is standard. It involved goat cheese.) I took mine to go to make it home in time for a conference call so there was no temptation of an after lunch ice cream but they do have the $1 Tiny Trolley which might just make it the perfect lunch.

I saw the lunch news the other night when we went in for coffee from the fancy clover machine. (Now owned by Starbucks so only available at a limited number of local shops.) The decaf was excellent.

Oh, and Gelman's is now proudly serving Red Trolley ice cream.

Freedom Fries and Obamapolitans

Gelman's is hosting Debate Watching events that include food and drink specials.

Haagen Dazs Reserve

With all the new Ice Cream Shops in the neighborhood, you may be surprised that we have time to try the new Haagen Dazs reserve line. The Amazon Valley Chocolate was decent but it is the Fleur de Sel Caramel that is blog-worthy. "Fleur de Sel caramels covered in a chocolaty coating blended into caramel ice cream with caramel ribbons and French sea salt accents. Crisp, salty nuances harmonize with rich, creamy caramel for the ultimate combination of sweet and salty." Ironically it was a Westword rumor of a similar flavor at Red Trolley (never available when we stop in) that planted the seed in our mind that we must have salty caramel ice cream... which we then discovered in the freezer dept at the grocery! Who knew.

On the subject of Red Trolley, IC reminded me that they do have a $2 Wynkoop Root Beer Float for "Happy Hour" 3-6 pm.

Re-invented (again)

I think it is TJ Maxx who has a motto of "never the same place twice". It seems Gelman's has adopted this approach. Saturday night we discovered that Gelman's has forgotten that they are in a strip mall next to a Domino's and a by the scoop Chinese take out. They have moved further from casual neighborhood joint with yet another menu change and a velvet curtain at the entrance. The food was good but the tables were empty. I took advantage of the 3 course tasting menu while JB enjoyed the roast chicken (an entree that has made the cut through several menu changes.) Not that I can enjoy these days but I was most alarmed to see the Gorgonzola cheesecake had not made the cut. I really want this place to succeed but they worry me with the constant reinvention.

A sign that things are not going well- all the wait staff have turned over. But we found Springy Shoe girl at Mona's on Sunday morning. (Actually she recognized us but I guess it has been a while b/c she was thrown by my virgin bloody mary order... until I stood up.)

French Food in NW Denver

Friday night JB & I went to Brasserie Felix on Tennyson. We were surprised to get seated right away on a First Friday but based on our experience, I am certain reservations will soon be needed. (Early on we were able to walk right in at Duo too.)

We had an enjoyable meal. JB had a special salad with local heirlooms. The goat cheese free bite he shared with me was divine. I started with the french onion soup which had too much cheese for my taste but otherwise was solid. We both enjoyed seafood entrees (Sea scallops and shrimp over asparagus risotto with a lobster bisque sauce and mixed seafood, mussels, cockles, calamari, shrimp, garlic, parsley, lemon butter broth) but the menu is packed with carnivore options. We rounded out our meal with Crepe Suzette which would have been much better if we had not recalled the dulce de leche stuffed crepes from Centro.

The reason I know we will be back is that our most favorite waiter in Denver was wrapping up his training there. We have been fans of this sarcastic yet service oriented guy since we first crossed paths with him at DJs and then Mead St and now Felix. And if he leaves in a year for another spot in the hood- I am sure we will start to frequent that spot too.

Another note: Felix has recently added bottomless mimosas to the Sunday brunch (about the same time that Gelmans removed this from their menu.)

Okay food. Awful Service.

Yesterday was our first (and likely last) visit to Earls on the 16th Street mall. We were looking for a low key meal before catching Hamlet 2 (C+) at the Pavilions. We were really disappointed in our last trip to Appaloosa Grill (one of the few local spots on the mall) so we decided to give Earls a try.

Downstairs was open seating which is code for sitting 11 minutes before any servers notice you. The menu does not match the online menu. (Both items JB had picked out online were not offered at the Denver location.) The food was actually okay. The mixed greens came with dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, carrots, and grape tomatoes which were all fresh but the vinaigrette was a bit flat. The soup was decent and JB enjoyed his seared tuna sandwich. Just one example of the poor service: Our waitress took my club soda to refill mid-meal and disappeared for 20 minutes.

(sigh) Does dinner and a movie in Denver really have to be this cumbersome?

Suburban Venture

Saturday night we took 25 South to Greenwood Village. It was the new-ish Landmark Theatre that inspired the trip. We wanted to see Bottle Shock* without the discomfort of the Mayan. The theatre and screen were pretty modest in size (compared to a mega plex). The room smelled strongly of Dillards- enhanced by the over perfumed couple sitting next to us and perhaps a side effect of the overall demographic attracted to a 3pm showing of a wine theme movie in Greenwood Village. Tickets were $12 a head (flat weekend rate) which included the movie and self serve popcorn and soda. (Bonus: They have the fountain machines that include the secondary club soda option.) There is a full bar and they serve things in real glass. There is also a $3/tix VIP upgrade with better seating and wait staff who will bring you things from the self serve free selections or from the bar. (Most of the folks our age in the movie had shelled out the VIP charge and kicked back while bottles of wine were delivered to their seats.) Even the "cheap" seats are much more comfy than the Mayan. It is an interesting experience which I encourage you to try out next time there is a flick you really want to catch and it is only showing at an uncomfortable Landmark spot in Denver. It is quite a hike from NW Denver so I don't see it becoming a frequent destination but it is all rather intriguing.

*The movie, Bottle Shock, was solid and enjoyable. The plot is not as dark as Sideways and some appreciation of Napa Valley may be required. There are some subtitles which made me wish I hadn't left my glasses in the car. It is set in the late 70s and based on a true story. I would give it a B+.

Dinner at Pappadeaux rounded out the evening. It has pretty good food but less than 5 star service (example: when the host walked us to our seat- there was a tote of dirty dishes sitting in one of the chairs). It is always strange to me when chains have good food and bad service. It seems like something they could address in a universal training program- like Starbucks has. I have eaten at Pappadeaux in other cities and the food was very consistent (also pretty good).

Other dining options near by include Ted's Montana Grill and Hapa. (In a different time we would have planned our trip around Hapa Happy Hour where they have awesome cocktails and yummy raw fish.)

One of the downfalls of spending time in Greenwood Village- and eating at chains- is the increased likelihood of seeing evil characters in real life. In our case: Tancrazy. (Jeepboy quote of the week: "It's like seeing Hitler in person.")

Forbes Top 10 Richest Celebrity Chefs

1.Rachel Ray- $18 million 2.Wolfgang Puck - $16 million 3.Gordon Ramsay- $7.5 million 4.Nobuyuki Matsuhisa - $5 million 5.Alain Ducasse - $5 million 6.Paula Deen - $4.5 million 7.Mario Batali - $3 million 8.Tom Colicchio - $2 million 9.Bobby Flay - $1.5 million 10.Anthony Bourdain - $1.5 million

I feel sad for Paula that she makes so much less than Rach. And am I bit surprised that Tom Colicchio is ahead of Bobby Flay. I guess Bravo pays better than Food Network.

I am sure DHP & Rspe are just happy to see Giada didn't make the list.

Good news for Creamy Crafter....

... and a to-do for any visitors to the Springs: Josh and Johns is still open in Colorado Springs!

Bucket List- White Truffle Beurre Fondue

It has been suggested that we come up with a bucket list around our household. A list of things we want to do before the baby comes. (Of course recent new parents have only one suggestion for the list: sleep, sleep, and more sleep.) Our list includes dining at locations that we would never dream of dragging a baby pod into. Which is perhaps what lead to one of the most delightful meals I have had in a while at Fruition. I really can't recall the last time I have had a meal as enjoyable. Reservations are required but available on Open Table. I think the food really speaks for itself here:

Seared Maine Diver Scallops: English Pea Agnolotti, Vidalia Onion & Foraged Mushroom Ragout, White Truffle Beurre Fondue, Pan Roasted Alaskan Black Cod: Littleneck Clam Chowder, Yukon Gold Potato, Smoked Bacon, Grilled Scallions, Fruition S’Mores: Chocolate Butter Cake, Banana Ice Cream, Toasted Cinnamon Marshmallow, Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Mousse: Bing Cherry Compote, Almond-Citrus Tuile, Red Wine Granita

The one unpleasant element of the evening was a table of country club seniors who loudly discussed topics including- history of lactose intolerance, fabulous wines served by Hitler at dinner parties, etc. These table neighbors did produce a JeepBoy quote of the week: "Not all old people are treasures."

Tennyson Street Eats

I am not sure if it is heat or the hormones, but the kitchen at our house saw very little action this weekend. The thought of cooking just doesn't sit well with me.

Friday night we tried Gemelli's Ristorante Italiano on Tennyson. It is in an old house closer to the 44th end of the strip. Don't be alarmed by the temperature in the lobby- the back dining room is nice and climate controlled. There is also a cute patio. The service still has a bit of a new feel where folks seem to be bumping into each other. I was dining with JB so of course one of the owners made an appearance at our table.

The dinner salad was really good with cucumber, carrot spirals, and mixed greens that included something other than iceberg and romaine. It was a much more exciting salad than the house salad at Patsy's. (But let's be honest, the homemade pasta will keep Patsy's on our dining list no matter all it's other flaws.) The entrees were solid. The best ever? No, but we didn't have any complaints. They were modest servings but reasonably priced. JB was very pleased with his ice cold Moretti on tap. They only listed one or two dessert on the menu but then our waitress brought a tray of options. The cannoli was very good.

Would I go again? Absolutely. Would I recommend it to GT as authentic? Probably not.

Saturday morning found us reunited with an old friend. DJs cafe is open again! They have new menu items but we both jumped right back to old favorites that were as good as we remembered. JB remarked that he was surprised they weren't promoting the grand re-opening more until we realized that every table was full 35 minutes into breakfast service on the second weekend they have been open since the fire.

Home of the 20 minute wait/Smoke-free Hotels

We have just returned from Mead Street and have good news to report. They have acquired additional church pews and have re-arranged their dining space. They ripped out the useless floating bar and added more booths and tables. Perhaps now the wait really will be 20 minutes! They have also updated their menu recently to include many pear & blue cheese combos (damn their timing!) that sound delicious. (The online menu hasn't been updated yet.)

Also, on an unrelated note- David Sedaris was on Daily Show earlier this week. Damn, he is funny. He discusses how he recently quit smoking because all the good hotels have gone smoke free and he got sick of staying at Amerisuites on the highway during book tours.

Ginger Treats

Best Ginger Ale: Grown Up Soda (GUS) Extra Dry Ginger Ale

Okay so the best, best ginger ale probably involves a trip to the asian market to buy tons of fresh ginger root to make a ginger simple syrup to mix with club soda. But if you have no time (or energy), GUS is a gingery delight that no canned ginger ale- not even Blue Sky- can top. So far I have only seen it at Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) near the Izze.

Best Ginger Snap: Sha Sha Co Original Ginger Snaps

Spicy and just sweet enough- warning: these are addictive. Lately they have been in the freezer at our house. You know what is better than a Sha Sha Ginger Snap? A COLD Sha Sha Ginger Snap! (Again, I have only seen them at WFs. Specifically a WFs location not listed on the company website as stocking these gems.)

Iron Chef InfoChef

A blogger from one of our Good Eats links, serious eats, was a judge on last night's Iron Chef America. It has become a habit that food bloggers are often found on the judging panel. Mysterious career choices aside... This reminded me that I never posted about the secrets of Iron Chef:

"Both the competitor and the Iron Chef are given a list of five ingredients
before the battle, of which one will be the secret ingredient....Chefs provide
the producers with shopping lists for each of the possible secret ingredients." Read More

Now compare this to the competition that our own InfoChef participates in where a box of random ingredients are handed over with little planning time and the sous chef is often an elected official. No list of possible items given in advance. No shopping list. Is Iron Chef InfoChef a rockstar or what?