johnder

I have made in the past the overnight crockpot oatmeal from Alton Brown and it was pretty well received. I like the idea of baked eggs and quiches. A good quiche and salad may make it onto the dinner rotation. These suggestions are awesome! Keep em coming!

No, there can be meat for the 3 that do eat meat. I for one will be having copious amounts of bacon for instance. So two meals can be done. I was thinking about doing a roasted chicken one day and using the leftovers for sandwiches one day for lunch.

So I am heading off to a ski trip for a week with a few other people and I always end up being the one planning the meals and doing the cooking, (which I am fine with and actually prefer). However, it is always challenging when you are not doing it in your own kitchen and also when you can't really just run down to the corner to pick up something from the supermarket that you forgot. I usually make a pretty precise menu plan for each night we are eating at home and from that come up with a very specific, department by department shopping list for the market so that on the trip back from the airport we have the driver stop and the group of us run into the supermarket split up and get everything on the list as quickly as possible. Given this is a ski based trip, hearty, warm meals are a plus and given two people dont eat meat they are seafood or veg based. Given we are in Utah, the choice of fresh seafood will probably be somewhat limited. The house we are staying at luckily is well furnished with kitchen supplies and a large but probably aging spice selection so that helps somewhat. Given I have 6 nights of dinners to plan I am interested to hear what others use as their go do vacation dishes when they are cooking for a group. (In this case it is 6 people) I think I am definately going to do the fish stick tacos I saw here. Also my mac and cheese is a big hit, so that will be on the menu. I tend to stay away from non-baked type pastas because of the altitude and its impact on boiling water. Any non-baked pastas I have made tended to be pretty gummy. Given there is a crock pot, it will also be called into service at one point, probably in the form of a chili. Anyone have any other thoughts on other items? Also looking for good breakfast ideas aside from the normal waffles and pancakes.

We also used to do the breakfast flip at PDT. Whole Egg, Bentons Bacon fat washed bourbon, maple syrup, and lemon. It was good, but very rich.

Here is ny short list: Restaurants with an amazing bar program: Beretta Slanted Door Nopa Alembic Bar Agricole 15 Romolo Comstock Saloon Prospect Range Fifth Floor Bars where you can get a serious cocktail Rickhouse Smugglers Cove Bourbon and Branch Rye And this is just one you should check out on a sunday morning. Buena Vista for some of the best Irish Coffee

Wow, this is amazing. Just catching up on this blog now after getting back from skiing, this is amazing! I was planning on cooking some Chinese food tomorrow for New Years and this has given me a lot of inspiration! Looking forward to the next few days.

Mitch t was actually just one beer each. Which isn't really drinking.

I did. It was so dark it couldn't get any pics at all. The sushi overall was actually very good, but obscenely expensive. I know there would be a price surcharge because it was in Vail Village, but there was also a probably cost increase due to flying seafood in. The fish was really fresh from what I could tell, but dropping 20 bucks each for the more complicated rolls and 8 bucks for a maki roll is a bit much. Two of us, without any drinks really (2 beers) set us back about 150.

I wanted to let everyone know that it has been an amazing week and I am glad everyone enjoyed a little bit of NYC with everyone. It has been a blast. I just wish I had a bit more time to post the meals from Vail here, although it isn't very exciting. Mostly just hearty ski fare. Cheers everyone!

Tell us more. What's it called? I love Billington's, which is also from Mauritius. I will have to see if I still have the bag. It was a 50 pound bag that they use in the distillery. I will see if Splificator knows off hand since he gets the same sugar for hom. What is the advantage of the muddling spoon over just a muddler? I don't think there is any direct advantage to this over another aside from the fact that it is in a set, and typically each person would get their own spoon (up to 6 people as thats all I have) and each out muddle or stir their drink to their own specifications. They aren't meant to give any fruit a serious crushing, but it does work well to abrade the orange and lemon peels into the sugar at the bottom with the bitters.

Hello everyone from sunny Vail. I had a long day of skiing now and relaxing in the room and trying to get some caffiene in my system. Luckily the room has one of these new fangled nespresso pod systems which I will happily take over nothing in the room, and even over a regular stale pack of coffee and a never cleaned mr. coffee machine. Last night after the pretty bad meal we stopped and got some gelato, which was passable and surprisingly not 10 bucks a cup. Two cups (two scoops each) came to a total of 5.25 which was surprising for Vail. They did have a mystery flavor called.... [sorry for the pics, I am taking these with my iphone for now) I couldn't get the info from the counter girl as to what was in it though. I opted for the salted caramel. So this morning was the buffet at the hotel, which for the most part was your standing hotel servicing the ski crowd. Eggs, french toast, sausage, bacon, some overcooked oatmeal. It was enough to keep my stomach full until lunch, but by no means gourmet. Lunch was taken at the top of the mountain, in this case it was 10950 ft. I can tell you that the altitude is definately taking a toll on me. You just feel like there is a weight on your chest. I had a banana, bowl of Vail's famous buffalo chili. A twin eagle health bar (basically a four grain brownie, with nuts, fruit and chcoolate chips) and a pretty crappy sobe drink. I only drank about a third of it before switching to mucho agua. The view from lunch wasn't too shabby. As you can see, it was a blue bird day. Tonight we have been told by at least 4 people that this sushi place here is the most amazing food in the village. So reluctantly I am going to give it a try. I would much rather try the fondue house myself. But maybe that will be tomorrow.

Hello from Vail Colorado! After getting gouged at JFK with my $10.32 pint of Stella it was an uneventful flight. Once we made our way to the hotel we went to look for some food. Not really knowing much about what was available we just picked the first place we came across which was called Bol. We should have turned around and walked out when we saw the dj but we were hungry. We just had a bowl of olives ti start which to our surprise were actually roasted olives and came to the table scalding hot. We found this out unfortunately after we bit into some. My friend had the margarita pizza going against my advice. I had a nondescript burger and fries. Overall it wasn't horrible and given the fact we got out of there for under 60 bucks which included 2 beers isn't bad. I have some pics I just need to figure out how to load them since I left the cable at home. Duh.

I know exactly who that is. I guess I have been going to Mailino too often and like their pasta with fried eggs. Guess it isn't a Tuscan thing.

I should also mention that they are doing their own breads in-house as well. During the time I was there I was being tempted with the smell of fresh bread being made...

Ok, back from applewood.and back from the pig butchering. Today it was a pig from Amlaw family farm. They had a side of a pig delivered last week and hung it for a few days to stiffen it up, so it is easier to work with. This pig had a hanging weight of around 140, so this side was approaching 70-75 lbs. Removal of the head. Head for roasting... Butt removal Butt and shoulder Tenderloin removal and breakdown of the loin Breaking down the ribs Loin Notice how small the tenderloin is on this pig. This was probably approaching 220 pounds live and gave up a tenderloin that maybe weighs a pound if that. Quite a difference from the mass market pigs. Loin, and upper rack One thing you sure get enough of is fat and fatback. Broken down... Chef Shea decided he was going to roast off the butt for a roast pork special. And lastly, the belly is going in for a cure, then a smoke to make some house bacon. .

Wow mitch, you actually get a magazine delivered? Old skool! For me, I fly off to Vail in a few hours, but this morning I am going to be heading over to one of my favorite local restaurants applewood. They are very much into, and have been since 2004, using the whole animal and farm to table thing before it became the buzzword of the day. Each week they take delivery a variety of whole animals, lamb, pig, goat and then break it down for service and decide their menu each day with what is available. I am heading over in an hour or so to take some photos as they break down this week's haul. While it won't quite as much as Shelby's, there will be some hard core butchering involved. Since I am home this morning, maybe I will actually try this breakfast thing you speak of Mitch.

We will let the people decide. Free picon for everyone who votes for me. (kidding)

No, it was speck thank you very much. You had bacon and chicken stock! eta: you are just jealous my dish is better.

Did you hit those with a bit of butter at the end to brown butter baste them?

Ok, dinners done. Overall I think it was a great success, and I am sure I beat the pants off Mitch and most definitely Sam. First, pics of the cocktails I had that I mentioned in a previou post. Now onto the dishes... First course -- pasta. Buttered bread crumbs: Finished communal serving of pasta. At the last minute, yolks broken and mixed into the pasta. Next course -- scallops. These were beautiful, sweet scallops, and they cooked up perfectly. Served in a shallow dish with some of the braising broth, hit at the last minute with some blood orange zest and some banyuls vinegar. And finally -- the clafouti.

John has enough Picon to get through till 2015. I do. I have quite the horde of picon. :unsure: I am having a fitty-fitty now while waiting for the guests to come over. Basic fitty/fitty but with uh, maybe some malacca I have. I had to crack a new bottle just for you guys. I am trying it with a bergamot twist as well. We shall see how it works. John

I am thinking I may switch the order of the dishes, since the stew is looking pretty hearty at this point. In the interim, I am having a variation on: (from the Del Maguey website) Untitled (as of yet) Misty Kalkofen, Drink, Boston: 1.5 oz. Minero, .375 oz. Amer Picon, .5 oz. St. Germain, .5 oz Lemon Juice. Shake until very cold then strain into martini glass. I am doing: 1.75 oz Del Maguey Vida .375 oz Amer Picon .5 lemon .75 Blood orange Dash of agave nectar. Shake, strain, Blood orange twist. The orange in the picon matches up nicely with the smoke from the vida and the fresh orange flavor from the blood oranges.

Here are a few pics of what is happening so far. Prep for the spring veggie stew. Clafouti cooking on the stove before going in the oven.

I am confident enough in my meal tonight that I am actually going to tip my hand to my competitors and lay out what I am making. Since I am cooking for 3 people instead of two, I realize I have a shortage of scallops so I am going to stretch them out. That, combined with the 37 bazillion feet of snow outside, I figured I would do a little homage to spring. I am going to do a hot pot of vegetables, spring onion, ginger, shitake mushrooms, radishes, artichokes and a bit of habenero with a broth made from the mushroom soaking water a touch of butter and a little dry vermouth. I am going to quickly sear the scallops, and then serve them in the bowl full of the veggies and some of the broth and lay a few pieces of speck and a sprinkle of alleppo pepper on top. For the entree a pasta with the cavalo nero, garlic, hot pepper, buttered breadcrumbs and a fried egg and a few drops of banyuls vinegar on top. And for desert -- if it works, Jaqcues Pepin's apricot clafouti.