mktye

Without further ado, here it is... Fall_05_Picnic_Recipes.pdf

Thank you so much to everyone for generously sharing your recipes. And a big thank you to crackers for designing the cover and adding the artistic touches. And, last but not least, thank you to Jacques Gastreaux for so adeptly coverting the document into a .pdf file.

Will it feature a ventworm swallowing a smoked pig basted by flaming martians?

We now have the recipes put together in an aesthetically pleasing format and are just working on turning it from a hefty-sized word document into a managable .pdf file. Hope to have it up on this thread soon!

For what it is worth (I have not eaten there myself), I was talking with my uber-foodie sister last week and she is still raving about the meal she had at Campton Place Restaurant about six months ago. She said it was the best meal she's ever eaten.

An update on the status of the recipe collection:

I’ve gone through all of the recipes submitted, changed a few things for clarity and standardized the abbreviations and such (editing the recipes as a little as possible). I PM'd everyone this afternoon with a version of their recipe as it will appear in the final compilation. If there are no changes, we'll get to work on beautifying the package (including a nice cover, courtesy of crackers) and hope to have it ready for you all soon.

(If you submitted a recipe and did not hear from me today, please let me know. Thanks!)

A fine establishment - I had dinner last Friday at the Arthur Treacher's that shares counter space with Nathan's.  The service was particularly impressive.

And my fries were soggy.

I also ate at CityZen last week and everything has pretty much already been said by my dining companions. I can only add that the slight unevenness in the execution of the dishes and a few glitches in the service that I experienced last year (when they’d been open less than a month) have certainly been smoothed away.

I ordered the 5-course vegetarian tasting menu for $80. In addition to the previously mentioned pre-amuse, amuse, and other extra courses, I had a grilled matsutake mushroom and cucumber salad, warm heirloom tomatoes with a fine dice of various winter and summer squash in a tomato water sauce, and a cauliflower dish in a garlic-y cream sauce.

The dessert that was supposed to come with the veg-tasting menu was forbidden rice pudding with pineapple and coconut sauce, but I am not a huge fan of rice pudding so I asked if I could substitute the delicious-sounding hazelnut griddlecake dessert off of the 3-course side of the menu. Luckily, it was not a problem to do so "since it was dessert and would not interrupt the designed flow of the tasting menu". That was great with me because the hazelnut griddlecakes turned out to be as good as they sounded.

(And what was the next thing I had to eat after my dinner at Cityzen? French fries from the Nathan's in the food court at the Leesburg outlets. )

A banana/cardamom smoothie.

A big "Thank You" to everyone for posting (and/or sending in) your recipes. We currently have the recipes for all but a few of the dishes from the picnic and are starting to work on putting them together in an easily downloadable/printable format. Your willingness to share your recipes and taking the time to type them out is much appreciated.

(And to you folk who know who you are: don't worry, it is still not too late to submit your recipes! )

Mktye, did you see the commotion outside just as I left?  I walked out, noticed a black sedan parked strangely out front, blocking another car from moving.  Suddenly there were about a dozen guys dressed in black, with bullet-proof vests and ski masks  and the word POLICE stencilled on their backs (good thing for that).  They were apprehending a suspect, right in front of TemptAsian's front door.  Luckily there wasn't any gunfire!    These didn't look like county or state cops to me--maybe Federal agents--but why the ski masks?

We didn't have anything to eat tonight that has not been mentioned here before...

Triple Bean Curd

Cilanto Fish Paste Rolls

Wonton in Chili Oil

Roasted Fish with Green Onion

Stir-fry Eggplant

Salt & Pepper Shrimp, Scallops and Squid

Kung Pao Chicken

Green Beans with fresh garlic (I thought these were even better than the special green beans with smoked pork we ordered the previous week)

and the Pine Nut-less Pork Belly dish.

Everything was quite tasty even though the place was packed and the kitchen was obviously slammed.

Then the night ended with a strange guy wearing two(!) baseball caps who came in just to wander around and look under all the tables. A rather interesting evening overall.

Home canning is my latest self-taught project, and so far  I've attempted jam, chutney, pickled veggies, and relish.

However, the leftover syrup was wonderful -- I used it in various desserts and dishes for almost a year. I think next time, I'll simply chop up the ginger in a food processor, strain it out and toss it after cooking, and just keep the syrup.

I crawled into bed last night, closed my eyes and saw… gutters. Feet and feet of gutters. Rows and rows of gutters. Empty gutters, dirt- and plant-filled gutters, gutters up on stands, gutters on the ground, gutters chopped into 16’ lengths and stacked. Gutters, gutters, gutters. For the time-being, the disassembling of Mr. Lankford’s large greenhouse is all about the gutters.

After what felt like swimming, fording and hydroplaning all the way out to the eastern shore, we arrived at the farm yesterday morning at the same time as mdt, aka, Colonel Chop Saw. We immediately got to work turning very, very long pieces of gutter into short, manageable 16’-lengths of gutter. We were just getting into our rhythm – pull, chop, stack, pull, chop, stack, pull, chop, stack – when the competition showed up… the swashbuckling Captain Chop Saw (Beau of Camille-Beau) and J-is-for-Jack(of all Trades)-PW. Meanwhile, Mr. Pipeman (TedE) had also arrived and was expertly wielding his weapon of choice, a reciprocating saw, against the snakes of PVC piping.

But what about our beloved organizer, you ask? The Camille half of Camille-Beau? She was hard at work doing skilled labor in the seeding house because some of Mr. Lankford’s hired help had not shown up. Hard physical work and thinking at the same time? Better her than me!

By 11:00, the farm was awash with noise… competing chop saws, seeding apparatus, Mr. Lankford’s tractor, Mr. Pipeman’s saw, the wind whipping the greenhouse plastic and the ever-present falling rain.

Although Captain Chop Saw had a newer saw, Colonel Chop Saw had an extra helper and a pretty good head start, so his victory was inevitable. But ever the gentlemen, the Colonel, after dispatching his pile of gutters, joined Captain Chop Saw’s team. So upon waving adieu to the pile of gutters and removing his hearing protection, Mr. mktye, “The Crowbar”, got busy toppling the wooden gutter stands that were anchored to the ground with 10”-long metal spikes. And with that, I found my calling… spike extraction (not be confused with my secondary task, spider eradication).

Earlier in the morning, I had heard legends of gutter stands with spikes that could be removed with a simple push and twist of the hand, but the forces of nature had conspired to make my job much more challenging. Because of the moisture from the recent rain, the wooden bases of the stands had swollen and were holding on to the spikes as if they were their dearest possessions. There was only one answer for this problem: concentrated application of force. In other words, hammering.

Around 1:00, we stopped for lunch. Camille-Beau provided Cheesetique cheeses (including Humboldt Fog ), potato salad, fruit salad, Terra chips (in very vexing-to-open bags), and sinfully rich brownies to supplement the sandwiches we all brought from home. Mr. Lankford joined us at the table and told us about working with a Hollywood film crew for the movie "For Richer or Poorer" (the Lankford’s provided the corn “field” for the movie – the same field, at three different stages of growth, all within a span of a couple of weeks, in May!), his notable experience with a surprise under the back wheels of his combine (not his tractor ) and his quest to photograph all the castles in Europe. And then, after consuming far too many calories, it was back to work in the big greenhouse.

Sometime before lunch (I missed out exactly when because I was off in my own little spike-pounding world), the combined chop saw team had disbanded and reformed into the Wonder Trio of Cordless Drills (mdt, JPW & TedE, with Beau as an alternate). The Wonder Trio was breathtaking in their speed and skill at removing the screws holding the gutters to the stands. Row upon row they tackled, only stopping to knock the unfastened gutters to the ground to await chopping.

And so it continued: removing dirt from the gutters; unscrewing of the gutters; cutting of the gutters and pipes into manageable lengths; removal, de-spiking and stacking of the gutter stands; and by the end of the day… progress!!!

Yes, we could actually see that the big greenhouse was finally starting to empty out a little. There was even enough space for Mr. Lankford to drive his tractor between some of the rows to aid in the removal of the dirt from the filled gutters. We were excited. Mr. Lankford was excited. We finished the day gathered around Mr. Lankford, hearing his plans for taking apart and reassembling the greenhouse itself. Then we changed into drier and cleaner clothing and splashed back home.

The drive out there is long, but beautiful. The work is hard, but rewarding. You might be stiff and sore the next bay, but it's a better workout than anything at the gym. There is no real downside to doing some honest labor for a good reason. Go.

And to think Del Ray Dreamery is right there too!

Count us in for post-cheese tasting dining.

Regardless of the quantity of much-needed rain falling from the sky, we'll be heading to the Del Ray Dreamery this evening for some Maple Walnut frozen custard.

I think the bourbon is a southern (U.S.) modification to the traditional fruitcake. I would not have thought of it either, but the cake I had last year was so good and bourbon is what is called for in the recipe.

Royal icing, in my opinion, is vile.

(And thanks Jael, I'd forgotten that I had been considering doing a gingerbread house this year. )

This past weekend, I made chevre for the first time

I'm with Porcupine on the well-stocked freezer: containers of various stocks, tomato sauces, breads, pastas, cakes, buttercream, puff paste, fruit coulis, more bread, and pie & tart crusts.

The thing I make that I can never decide if they are worth the effort are crackers. I know they are healthier and better tasting than anything store-bought, but they're so tedious to make and my hubbie can demolish a whole batch in one sitting.

(Hey laniloa -- you need to spill what you make all the time! )

Thanks laniloa and crazeegirl for the location-specific replies. They have been very helpful in planning a dining itinerary for my husband's trip.

Are the brandy, rum, and sherry just in the fruit, if the showers are bourbon?

And it is my understanding that it is a very British thing to wrap one's fruitcake in marzipan.

Until recently, I was never one who liked fruitcake... All I had ever tasted were dry, harshly-boozy cakes filled with unnaturally-colored, oddly-flavored fruit. But, last December, a baker friend gave me one of his fruitcakes. Oh. My. Goodness.

It was moist and filled with currants, raisins, dates, pineapple, figs, apricots, almonds, walnuts, pecans and candied ginger, with just enough spiced cake to hold it all together. Yes, there was definitely alcohol in the cake, but good alcohol... bourbon, brandy, rum, and an elusive hint of sherry.

So I have decided to make my own fruitcakes this year. After a trip to Trader Joe's this morning to buy supplies, I just chopped and mixed almost 7 pounds of various dried fruits and poured a quart of alcohol over the top of them. The next step is to lovingly tend the macerating fruit for two weeks or so until it is time to bake the cakes. Then the real fun begins -- aging the cakes, which entails alcohol showers (bourbon, daily at first, then weekly), air-tight containers and squirreling the cakes away in a dark, cool location. And when December rolls around, the cakes should be ready to eat (and I hope delicious).

Does anyone else here make their own fruitcake? Any helpful hints? Opinions on wrapping them with marzipan?

Also, still waiting for recipes for the Cincinnati chili and the mango jello mold.

And what about the sate, mdt's surprise meat, the homemade ranch-style dip, the green bean salad, the carrot salad, the applesauce, Nadya's tomato/blue cheese/bacon appetizer, the "improved" sugar cookies, and all the rest of the cakes?!?

Don't force me to start nagging you all via PM...

I'm about 2/3 through "The Last Days of Haute Cuisine" by Patric Kuh.

It has been very interesting so far... started with Soule's Le Pavillon, moved on to Beard, the RA restaurants & Child, then jumped to the other coast with Waters & Towers and I am currently reading about Puck & his pizzas.

Mr. mktye is escorting some VIPs around the Honolulu area next week and, to add insult to injury (the injury being that he is going to Hawaii without me ), he has asked me to find some places for them to dine while they're there.

The suggestions already posted in this thread have taken care of most of the meals, but I am stuck on the first night they are in town. Their flight gets in around 6:30 and they are staying at the west (or would that be north?) end of Waikiki near the Hilton. They don't really want to venture too far from the hotel on that first night, prefer something within easy walking distance, open late and not too fancy. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

Sugar cereal, grape soda and hot donuts are some of the things that make life worth living.  It's OK to want to feel like a kid sometimes.

A couple of years ago, I ran across a jar of Goober PB&J (the kind with the peanut butter swirled with the strawberry jelly, not the more common grape jelly variety) and had to buy it... eating it straight up with a spoon was as satisfying as it was when I was a child... that super-sweet, squishy jelly and the oddly-firm, sweet-in-its-own-right peanut butter... mmmm.

Okay, before you all forget what you did to make that dish you brought to the picnic extra special... we are gathering the recipes to compile into an easily downloadable and printable collection.

So if you are willing to share your picnic dish recipe, please go to here.

We are gathering the recipes for the dishes brought to the DonRockwell.com Fall '05 Picnic so those who want more of that delicious food do not have to wait until the next get-together.

If you are willing to share (please! please! please!) your recipe, please either post it to this thread or send it to me via email or PM.

Next Monday(-ish), we'll attach a document to this thread with all the submitted recipes in a format that can be downloaded and printed.

Thank you!!!