New Years Eve Dinner

New Years Eve was upon us and it was time to pull out all the stops for dinner. Well, sort of. The wife and I decided to avoid the crowded nightlife, expensive prix fix restaurant menus and chill at home. After all, many of our newly unwrapped presents were food related: Panini press, various cookbooks, and kitchen tools, all ready to be christened. But what to make? There was no shortage of ideas given the thousands of recipes at our disposal from our 'Christmas Cookbooks' alone. In the end something simple rather than sophisticated and stately seemed to fit our mood. Low key was the phrase of the night. Sometimes all you need is a piece of perfectly cooked meat and some ruffage to satisfy. Such a meal would come in the form of Chicken Roulade with a salad of baby romaine, feta, and a rasberry balsamic vinagarette.

This was my first attempt at a roulade. It sounds complex and fancy, "rooo- Laaaaahhhhd," but it's really nothing more than a thin cut of meat rolled around a cheese, vegetable, or in this variation, sage. Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the roulade came from the super big, ultra comprehensive, Italian Bible of cookbooks: Silver Spoon. The book boasts over 2000 recipes, but the chicken roulade was calling my name. Any recipe that includes pancetta is a friend of mine. This porky wonder will always have a place at my dinner table. The thin fatty pieces of italian bacon were wrapped around a gently pounded chicken breast. Inside the breast were just a couple fresh, fragrant sage leaves, salt and pepper. After a little browning and a quick 15 minutes or so in the pan, it was time to throw down. We stared at our plates with wide-eyed ravenous intent until we could no longer hold back. Much to our delight it turned out pretty well. The crispy pancetta worked well with the tender chicken breast and the clean herbal sage helped to brighten the dish a bit. Simple, tasty, and start to finish the meal took about 45 minutes to prepare. It was exactly the type of hassle-free dinner on the last night of 2007 that I needed. The night ended on a high note with a spirited game of scrabble, a good flick, "Hot Fuzz," and super awesome peppermint bark courtesy of my beautiful wife. Not a bad way to wind down the year.

Happy New Year!

Portland: Hospitable and Bountiful

My wife and I recently returned from our vacation in the Pacific Northwest, more specifically Portland, Oregon. Interestingly enough, my co-workers did not find Portland to be an appealing destination for one to spend their hard earned time off. Siege and I found it to be not only a fantastic destination for culinary thrill seekers (getting a little carried away here) such as ourselves, but a very scenic and hospitable place as well with plenty of sights and sounds to keep an ADD man (me) and his patient wife busy.

As with most of our travel, often times they are food centric and this trip was certainly no different. My "pre-trip routine" is always the same, research the crap out of the city or town scouring the net for worthy places to satisfy my palate. So I had plenty of options in mind courtesy of www.traveloregon.com. The following is a brief synopsis of the bounty of food and beverage enjoyed in Portland.

After a day of driving around the city acclimating ourselves to the fresh Oregon air, miles of walking, there was really nothing that sounded better than a slice of hot pizza. Now, Ken's Artisan Pizza and Apizza Scholl's, were my planned pizzerias to hit, but to my surprise and delight Hot Lips Pizza delivered a great pie using local seasonal ingredients. A fine example would be the Waldorf with olive oil, blue cheese, and thinly sliced sweet apples. Yours truly threw down a perfectly baked calzone with layers of mushroom, mild Italian sausage, cheesy mozzarella, and a zesty tomato sauce to round it out. Upon arriving at Hot Lips, I was thirsting for some of that famed Oregon handcrafted beer and the selection here was off the hook! I was even able to sample a locally-made brew before I made my selection of beverage, which was really cool.

So, we were off to a pretty good start. Things continued to trend upward that night for dinner as we tasted the Mediterranean offerings at Olea Restaurant. We began with the ubiquitous calamari. Sounds boring, but trust me, it was anything but drab. It was one of the fresher versions I've had and was accompanied by a superb salsa verde. Next up were the mains, polpette dell' agnello (lamb meatballs), baked in a brick oven and a side of creamy polenta with Mascarpone and parmigianio reggiano. One word: yum! Everything was fresh, cooked properly, and plated well. Definitely a place to check out if you are ever in the Pearl District of Portland.

On Halloween night (our last night), we decided to journey to a new local hot spot, 10-01, for our 5th Wedding Anniversary dinner. We didn't actually get married on Halloween, but this was after all, was our last harrah in Portland. When I made reservations the hostess asked if there were any "special accommodations" she could make. I informed her that it was our anniversary to which she gleefully replied, "We'll take good care of you." Taking care of us was an understatement, Siege and I were seriously taken aback by their good will and hospitality. We arrived and were promptly seated at a table that didn't exactly spell romance. This would be the only minor faux pas of the night and was quickly remedied and we were whisked away to a more private, spacious window table near the kitchen. What transpired from there was pure restaurant bliss. From fantastic Foie gras to succulent and tender beef short ribs in a red wine sauce, everything was cooked and presented to perfection. My Duo of Cascade Beef, with the aforementioned short ribs, came with a well marbled slab of rib-eye (meat is good!) and a side of butternut squash puree, which was absolutely spectacular. It had all of the sweet goodness of the squash with a perfect amount of butter and cream that lifted the dish to new heights. There is really only one wine to imbibe when feasting on a dish with as much girth as this had... Zin me! The 2005 Turly Old Vine Zinfandel was hefty, jammy and stood up well to the marbled beef. My wife opted for the roasted lamb chops and was not disappointed. She especially liked the toasty on the outside, creamy on the inside goat cheese gnocchi that came with it.

I'd like to point out that the experience was great, not only for the outstanding food, but also in large part to the exemplary service and super cool decor. The restaurant was modern, sophisticated, but at the same time quite comfortable. Our waiter was super cool and uber helpful. Siege and I both agreed that we had never been to a restaurant that treated us so well. They genuinely seemed happy to celebrate our momentous occasion with us, offering us complimentary sauternes to go with our foie gras and even throwing in an extra dessert! Speaking of dessert... we had three. Yes, three frickin' deserts. What? We just happened upon them. After discussing my options with our server, I decided on the butterscotch chocolate brownie served with caramel popcorn. The dense and super sweet brownie was nice with the salty and sweet caramel popcorn. My better half was pleased with her choice, a refreshing Creme Fraiche Panna Cotta, fresh and light with great depth of flavor from the honey poached crisp apple. But it doesn't stop there, our server, realizing that I was deeply conflicted between the house made churros and the previously described brownie, kindly ushered some freshly made churros to the table after he brought out the initial two desserts. How cool is that? For the grand finale, the chef topped the night off by giving us housemade truffles with Grand Marnier in the center. We were stuffed, happy, and ready to roll at that point, it was truly a great night. Check out Ten01 next time you're in Portland!

Baking Voyeurism

Ahhhh Yeah!! The sweet smell of baked treats on a cool autumn eve is enough to make a guy shout with glee and click his heels. Okay, that may be going a bit far, but nonetheless, I do enjoy walking through the door to a house perfumed with cocoa-ee goodness. That's right. I said it, cocoa-ee goodness! I say this because 90% of the time my wife is baking, chocolate is the star of the show, and thank God for that. Chocolate is an 'all season ingredient' in my house and rightfully so. I'm not going to try and pretend that throwing down 3 ultra rich brownies in a single sitting is healthy in the slightest. But sometimes, it just needs to be done. Can I get an 'amen' from the chocolate lovin' congregation?!

Anyway, I'm getting off track here, did you really expect a focused and concise blog from yours truly? As I was saying, my wife is a skilled practitioner with the baking sheet. Since my level of skill is basically tossing some 'break and bake' cookies in the oven and hoping for the best, I rely on her to satisfy my sweet tooth and chocolate cravings. Let me just say that she has yet to let me down. From moist Chocolate Guinness Cake to perfect choclate chip cookies that are chewy, sweet and with a just a hint of salt, there is nothing better than to veg out and await with great anticipation her latest baked creation. During this ridiculously long period of time I have to ask myself..."will I ever be as deftly precise with the dough and oven as my wife?" Not likely. But that is okay, we all have our specialty. I'm a great eater of food, and a really solid drinker of liquids.

A former co-worker of mine once offered me some advice, he said, "Jer, do yourself a favor and marry rich". Well allow me to retort. I say, marry someone who makes a killer chocolate cake!