Bowling for Soup - Pumpkin Soup!

I've only made soup once. My college roomie Jul-Bean and I made cream of broccoli soup from a Moosewood cookbook recipe as part of a Valentine's Day double date dinner. The soup wasn't all that memorable - actually neither was the date.

Fast forward x amount of years later and I decided to embark on a rematch with soup making. Spurred on by the sugar pumpkin that has been my tablescape and my new blender, I was up for the challenge.

After scouring the web for the simplest pumpkin soup recipe I could find, I settled on Kerry Simon's (of Vegas' Simon Kitchen & Bar fame and now Ago) recipe from The Food Network site. (link to recipe: here)

The result? Well, now I know why I don't make soup. Besides basically not having the patience, there was a ton of chopping (carrots, onion, apple, sage in a fine dice) just to put it all in the blender. Not to mention roasting the pumpkin forever and chopping that up as well! I was also a bit heavy handed with the cream and needed to season, season and season again to get it just right. Couldn't believe how much salt this dish needed! The cleanup was a bit much as well although if I owned an immersion blender it might have helped lessen the mess.

In my defense, the soup actually tasted so much better the next day after all the flavors settled. Still a bit too creamy for my palate but overall not too shabby.

Foodie F-Rants: Taste Bud Torture

In this edition of Foodie F-Rants....

I'm not a good sick person. Simply because I rarely get sick. When I do, no matter how severe the illness is; I am just miserable. Miserable because this usually means I won't be eating for a bit.

Having a cold is torture on the taste buds. If you have an appetite at all, the only thing that will satiate you is chicken or matzoh ball soup, tea and orange juice. Not exactly on a gourmand's wish list. And being under the weather, I am not exactly up to the challenge of finding quality matzoh ball soup outside of Manhattan.

So as I sit and wait for this illness to pass, I will try and conjure up some delicious meals to make up for the ones I am missing. I only hope my taste buds will forgive me for boring them to death.

A Salute to the Return of Top Chef!

In celebration of the return of Top Chef (fingers crossed it doesn't jump the shark this season) I thought I'd bring back my Tom Colicchio post... enjoy!


Below is my long overdue Vegas culinary recap. While it was a crazy jam-packed week of work related insanity, I did manage to hit a few restaurants during my stay.

First, was a trip to Emeril's in the MGM Grand. This was a staff dinner and I must admit that I was curious how the Food Network Kingpin's cuisine would fare. The verdict? Not so great. I started my meal with the miso glazed black cod with green onion soba noodles and sweet soy. It was actually pretty decent (and by default wound up being the highlight of the meal) but far from spectacular; flavorful without being overpowering but not super memorable.

I followed that up with the steamed grouper with lobster, gulf shrimp, shucked clams and vegetables in a saffron and shellfish broth; while sending most of my co-workers to the pecan crusted Texas redfish with grilled vegetables, stone ground grits and Creole meunière butter sauce (when in "New Orleans" get the Gulf fish, right?). Much to my surprise, the grouper arrived table side in a plastic bunched pouch - are the ladies from the Reynolds wrap commercials in the kitchen? When I opened the pouch I was left with a mismosh of nothing special. There wasn't enough salty sea flavor from the shellfish and the saffron didn't do much except add some color to the dish. Overall, very run-of-the-mill. In a town of excess you need to do a bit better to keep up with the competition.

After leaving the restaurant, we walked past CraftSteak. Long story longer, Top Chef Tom Colicchio was actually in the kitchen and came out to say 'hello'. My co-workers took a step back and left me face-to-face with Tom and his baby blues. We introduced ourselves and I alerted him to the fact that I was a food blogger and coming to CraftSteak (a place I've enjoyed on previous visits) the next evening so he should expect a review. He was pretty gracious and an all-around good sport.

The rest of the conversation went a little bit like this:

Tom: A food blogger? Oh, you're on of those... (laughs)
F: Yup. So expect a review...
Tom: What's your site? I'll check it out.

F: f is for foodie

Tom: f is for foodie dot com?

F: f is for foodie dot blogspot dot com (mumbling)

Then Tom seemed to be getting a little creeped out by my co-workers snapping our pics like crazed paparazzo (one of eleven posted above) and politely excused himself to get back to his event. That event happened to be a three-course $500/head dinner with wine tasting courtesy of the lovely folks from the awesome Shafer Vineyards. Not too shabby, Tom! I'd prefer the company of some Shafer cab sav myself!

That being said - JC, CJ and I returned the next evening for a beef extravaganza and we were not disappointed. We started with an excellent 'someday-I'll-learn-to-pronounce-it' charcuterie platter.

I went with the expertly cooked lean but tasty bison as my entree while JC and CJ split the soft as butter Porterhouse for two.

What an excellent char on the Porterhouse and a great cut of beef!

We rounded out our meal with a side order of chanterelles as well as the super creamy and delicious potato gratin.

The only downside to our meal was that our server didn't seem to take us as serious diners.

In fact, I felt like we were treated like some kids who snuck into the dining room. Our server even mocked me a bit when I told him that I was chatting up Chef Colicchio the prior evening. Not cool! And Victor, I am not a fly by night Top Chef freak fan I am a serious diner! You should treat every customer the same respect - c'mon you should know better!

On one of the only other nights I was able to have a proper meal was when a good number of our team managed to snag the back room at Planet Hollywood's P.F. Chang's. Not sure if we were getting special treatment or they were looking to sequester us from the other diners but no matter...

I have never been to the chain before and I must say I was quite impressed with the chicken lettuce wraps and the kung pao shrimp. The fried rice was pretty decent as well and the overall 'grease factor' was much less than anticipated... or perhaps exhaustion and the shot of gin (thanks CJ!) I did before dinner made me a bit more easy on the cuisine.

As far as the on site catering, some things are better left unsaid.

I left Vegas exhausted and more than ready for culinary adventures in Spain and Portugal.

Stay tuned for the day by day recaps!

Bolognese Sauce Doctor'd Up

I've been becoming a regular at the West Hartford Farmer's Market. One of the items I've been eyeing on my visits is Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm's Bolognaise Sauce. For a mere ten bucks you can have one quart of sauce that includes ground lamb, tomatoes, onions, celery, carrots red wine, extra virgin olive oil, lamb stock, garlic, spices and salt.

While I prefer the Italian "Bolognese" to the French "Bolognaise" I was still intrigued and decided to treat myself. How bad could it be?

As my salted water was bubbling away, I started to heat up the sauce and once warm gave it a taste. It was a bit sweet for my palate and finally determined it was the large amount of carrots that were adding an overpowering sweetness of the sauce. I decided to add a can of tomatoes and season generously with salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and nutmeg. After the flavors began to settle and the rigatoni was cooking away, I still needed to add something else to the sauce and was kicking myself for not buying tomato paste on my last trip to the supermarket!

What else can thicken this up and off set the sweetness? After combing through my pantry and fridge, I finally decided to throw in some eggplant I had roasted the day before. What do I have to lose?

It wound up being a pretty successful experiment and after a liberal helping of grated cheese I had a delightful meal whose depth of flavor was even more pronounced on the next day when I heated up some pasta for lunch.

Tales from the Grill

A big plus of my new suburban life is having a grill. On my day off, I basically throw every meat (chicken, various sausages, pork) and veggie (mainly zucchini, squash, eggplant, peppers, onions) in my fridge on the grill and (voila!) I have lunch and/or dinner for the week.

One dish that is quickly becoming a staple in my grilling repertoire is swordfish kabobs. After burning quite a few wood skewers, I've moved on to metal ones but the basis of the dish has remained the same. I alternate swordfish cubes, red onion (for color) and red and green peppers. A generous coating of olive oil spray, kosher salt and a lemon pepper spice mixture I purchased at Penzey's rounds out the dish. In minutes, it is done. Plain, simple, delicious!

A great accompaniment to the kabobs is grilled corn on the cob. I parboil the corn on the stove then spray liberally with butter spray and let the cobs caramelize on the grill. For a side salad the next day, I've removed the kernels from the cob and added to greens, black beans, tomatoes and avocados. A Southwest inspired delight!

Another fish I've tried to grill is tilapia with mixed results. I figured I'd give myself mercury poisoning if all I'm eating is swordfish, so I branched out. Since tilapia's not quite firm enough to stand up to grilling it can be a bit of a challenge. Again Pensey's Sunny Spain seasoning really saved the day and added a subtle fresh flavor to the fish.

The key to meats that you are planning on reheating is to ever so slightly under cook them so they do not dry out upon reheating. Pork chops and pork tenderloin grilled in a pineapple sake marinade became something extra special when I grilled some fresh pineapple along side it. Chicken in a teriayki glaze caramelized beautifully on the grill and I met equally outstanding results with a sesame ginger marinade. I must admit the marinades come out of a bottle, but hey, this is mostly low maintenance grilling.

It's pretty safe to say that I will be "that weirdo neighbor" that you see outside working the grill in a parka in the dead of winter and it's also pretty safe to say I'll be "that weirdo neighbor" taking pictures of her grill too!

Peppercorn's Grill

RRR headed into Hartford late Saturday night to check out Peppercorn's Grill. The menu was extensive. In addition to the wide array of items offered on Peppercorn's regular menu, there was a pretty long list of specials to add to the indecision.

We finally came to a consensus and decided to share the il piccolo ragù di funghi selvatici con il loro brodetto e polenta di semolina which is a fricassee of seasonal wild mushrooms in their own juices with parmigiano reggiano and semolina polenta. The polenta had a nice crusty outer layer and the rich sauce provided a nice bed for the earthy mushrooms.

For a main course, RRR had the sea bass special with haricot verts, artichokes, potatoes and olive and tomato bruschetta. The fish was fresh and perfectly cooked and the artichokes really stood out from the rest of the vegetables. Overall, a very well-rounded nice dish.

I chose my traditional pasta with seafood dish. The fettuccine was freshly made and toothsome and well coated by the rich thick hearty tomato sauce that came with it. Fresh clams, mussels, calamari, scallops and half a lobster tail were all well cooked and delicious.

Would I say it is the best Italian I've ever had? No. Would I say that it was a good restaurant option if you're in Hartford and itching for Italian? Yes.

Glastonbury Apple Harvest Festival

What are you going to do after you help your friend run his first 5K? Pig out at the nearest fair of course! After running the 34th Annual Apple Harvest Festival 5K road race, the 'official' race photographer (aka RRR) and I headed over to the fair grounds of the Glastonbury Apple Harvest Festival.

We perused the various stalls and made a few purchases including the adorable lunch bag (see post below) and a super cute pumpkin lantern for RRR. We tasted a few of the gourmet food items of some of the vendors but weren't moved enough to make a purchase.

And what's a fair without lots of fried goodness at your fingertips? The apple fritters seemed to be the item du jour and we chose a stand and decided to give them a whirl.

Basically, we're talking batter dipped apples that you coat with some powdered and cinnamon sugar. Yeah, it's fried dough with fruit in the middle. They were pretty good but RRR and I are 'purists' when it comes to fried dough (aka zeppoles to those not up on the Jerz slang) and weren't totally enamored with the fritters. Plus, this was not the apple fritters we remembered from our childhood...I believe those came courtesy of Mrs. Paul!

But there were more apples to be had and I followed the fritters with a slice of apple pie while enjoying the band playing at the fair. The pie was decent, but the chill in the air took a bit out of it... it would have been better if it was warm.

We didn't totally leave empty handed, however, and left the fair with bags of... what else? Apples!