little ms foodie

We'll be in Napa next week over Memorial Weekend and are staying in Yountville. How far/where is ZuZu? Sounds great!

One suggestion - use a little more cheese than you think you should - if you don't they can end up a little too delicate. ← We used about 1/2 c. of grated cheese for 4 crisps

Susan the crisps are really easy! You just need a Silpat on a good baking sheet. We finely grated parm and used a 2 1/2" biscuit round as our guide. Spread the parm evenly and bake for about 10 mins. at 350F. Using a spatula remove the rounds from the Silpat, they are hot and soft. Guide them into an egg carton to form a tulip and let them cool. Fill and eat!

While reading 'The French Laundry' today decided to make parmesean crisps with goat cheese mousse since we had everything mmmmmmmmmm dinner was grilled leg of lamb with Bengal spice rub and cucumber yogurt sauce, orzo pasta salad with feta and pan roasted brocoli (sorry about this photo, I can't get it rotated!) Served with a Columbia Valley merlot

It's spring!! Morels and Peas. This is excellent, I cooked the morels a bit too much but the flavor is still fantastic. Next time I will saute them for a shorter amount of time.

I cook a lot out of F&W also, I use to get Martha's Living and made tons of stuff from that too. Most have been keepers.

Haven't had a chance to post much so here is some stuff from last week: Cucumber soup with dungeness crab and creme fraiche, tuscsn ribs with balsamic glaze, roasted asparagus with parm and EVOO, gratin of potato, leek and gruyere strawberries with creme fraiche and balsamic for dessert, gotten eaten before I could take the picture! Another night- larb! served with Erath Gwertzimener (sp) Breakfast for dinner night- herb omelett with gruyere, homemade sausage patties Last night- starter of Lillet blanc and bruschetta with asparagus and fontina then Morels, Peas and onion confit from 'Bouchon' with NY strip steak with Point Reyes blue cheese for Dayne the same but with Maitre de butter on mine- served with a wine that some of the PNW people are tasting this month- Latitude 47 Cuvee, very nice rhone style.

You can eat outside at the Bistro at Ponzi if it's nice, the food is good there but the service is slow usually. If you want to stay right in that area you can call and make a few appts. Not sure what your interest level is in Pinot but Chahalem, Owen Roe, JKCarriere, Erath and Lange are all easy to get to and have fantastic wines. Argyle is across from Ponzi and of course you can taste there too. Map and Winery info here: http://www.willamettewines.com/index.shtml

I don't know what Halva is?? I notice that although you both cook and bake you seem to be more excited by baking. Is this true? Those pinapple upsidedown cakes look awesome!! When I have fig jam I like to make apps of crostini with fig jam and a dollop of fresh goat cheese on top. Then I put 2 or 3 little thyme leaves on top of the cheese. it is yummy!

and that is why I post on eG! thanks Bill!

We do this with our El Gaucho pizza but we don't really hold it that long. Pre bake, then load and cook, take out and add goat cheese, back in for a minute and then out to add arugula. The crust on this is from Food&Wine, I love it!

We brought back cheeses, jamon iberico, lots of Rioja, Spanish brandies, chocolate, saffron, bouquet garnis, and CHORIZO!!!!!

No not Bice, I thought I heard something about the casual place Mama Dells??

Good morning! Cali you have been so busy already! 1) I'd love to see pictures of packaging with stuff in French and English, when I visited my cousins in Calgary when I was little it was so interesting! 2) I was telling my hubby about your blog last night and the deviled egg thing and he said he never met anyone who ate so many hardboiled and deviled eggs as when he met my mom and I. Too funny!! 3) There is a recipe in this months (?) Food and Wine for a dulche de leche bread pudding!!!!

Has anyone eaten at the restaurant in the Portofino hotel??

I'm so happy to see you blogging! My mom was from Thunder Bay and she always made deviled eggs. I really never thought anything of it as I grew up with them but now I learn it's an Ontario thing! too funny. She had the tupperware deviled egg holder, haha! I've never been to Ontario, is French spoken or mainly English? What about the packaging on your food, is it in French or English? I like what your partner said about passion, it's very important to be passionate IMO.

my votes would go for carnitas, paella, osso busco, gnocchi, crepes! Not nessesarily in that order

I also take a moleskin book, they are small and fit nicely on the table. I've never gone out of my way to make it look like I wasn't taking notes, or pictures for that matter (with out flash). Restaurants never seem to mind and we've even had signed menus sent out to us by the chef before, comped desserts/wines and kitchen tours. Really Nice! I LOVE that story!

handsome husband is out of town for the weekend, tonights dinner was a small popcorn at the theater and then some steamed brocoli with parm shavings and good EVOO drizzled over with a few glasses of merlot. no pictures

I'm interested, do it olivina!

Did a bit of Italian-ish for dinner last night. Started with crostini with batuto, mozzerela and topped after baking with arugula, it's a take on a crostini served at the restaurant where we had our wedding reception and it's our favorite. No picture as we ate them right out of the oven over the kitchen sink! haha! Next up asparagus with fried egg and parmesan. Used up the leftover pasta dough from the French Laundry cookbook and made butter and herb noodles Then pork loin chops seared with rosemary and finished with a onion confit and balsamic sauce. Drizzled with 15 yr old balsamic. Everything served family style as all good Italians do!

I love Le Pain Quotidien! It's a new thing in Europe to have this type of establishment and my friends who live there love it. The one in Paris has a huge communal table downstairs with jars of amazing chocolate spread, honey, etc. that you can try on your bread. Very fun and popular with the locals.

Oh man that duck confit salad looks good! Must make more confit. We tried a recipe out of The French Laundry - Fava bean agnoliotti with curry emulsion We had some troubles, nothing major but practice will make this a much better dish. It was served with a green salad with vinaigrette and later some Lingot Saint Bousquet d'Orb on country bread.

I thought soldiers were sausages???

I think Oceanaire is very expensive though where as the others are all in the 'normal' price range, if that makes sense.