David Ross

We have a number of small Farmer's Markets in the Spokane and Couer d'Alene area. Our Farmer's Markets are certainly not huge in scale like the market down in Los Angeles, but we hold our own. Our local markets are usually open on both Wednesday's and Saturday's. There are a lot of locally grown, seasonal products available that give cook's wonderful ideas for supper. Here are some photos of what was available at the Spokane Farmer's Market this morning: The farmer told me that 'Garlic Scapes' are tender shoots of spring garlic with a seed bud just starting to form on top. They are delicious served fresh in a salad or served hot in a stir-fry dish. There was an Asian family of women at this wonderful produce stand. I love these fresh, baby daikon radishes. This was the highlight of the market for me-a bakery that was selling individual brioche! I have searched for brioche in Spokane for a few years and finally, fresh out of the oven! They were selling for $1.75 each. Earlier in the week I talked about 'Bing' and 'Ranier' cherries. Now you see them fresh-picked at the Farmer's Market. It may seem late to you that we are selling cherries a week away from the 1st of July. But it takes that long for our warm weather to kick in and give the cherries that last few weeks of sweet ripening. You can see that the Ranier's are 50cents more per pound than the Bings. The Raniers were picked in orchards over in the Yakima Valley which is in the South, Central part of Washington. I hope you may have had time to read my story on asparagus a few pages back. Here is a photo of our beautiful local asparagus. The stalks aren't too fat, not too skinny. I think it was selling for $2.50 a bunch. I came away with a bag of fresh pea greens, one of those puffy little Brioche and a 'Fig and Anise' loaf of freshly baked bread. We'll see the pea greens and the fig bread later tonight.

If you are like me, you don't eat a 'good breakfast'-during your work week. But on the weekend-oh the weekend-and breakfast. Food memories are some of my best memories from my childhood. My paternal Grandparents lived on a ranch in Prineville, Oregon in 'Ochoco' County in the central part of the state. My Grandfather cooked Sunday breakfast. On every single Sunday he made the same thing-pancakes. I don't know if he made the batter by hand or if it came out of a box. It didn't matter. They were delicious-light, yet doughy and a bit tangy. Grandfather's pancakes always had that consistent, golden-brown, delicate crust that only short-order cooks at diners seem to be able to pull-off. I guess it's because his pancakes were so wonderful that I rarely try to make them at home on the weekend. While I didn't make pancakes today, I did make another one of my favorite breakfasts-poached egg on toast. Now don't think it's easy to poach an egg. It really isn't-at least for me. It took me about three years to finally get my technique down for poaching the perfect egg. The ingredients? Just three. One fresh egg, some white vinegar and some water. That's all-no salt or pepper until the end. You could probably change up the flavor of the vinegar, but if you do I don't think you would get the egg white to come out so brilliant. Oh boy have I been reading the thread about Alan Richman and the people who took umbrage over his comments about the $8 organic eggs in San Francisco. I'm not going to get into that today! I will tell you though that in order to get a perfect poached egg you have to start with fresh eggs. If they aren't fresh, the egg white won't blanket itself around the yolk. I buy 'naturally nested' local eggs. The hens are fed an all-natural, organic vegetable diet and are allowed to run around out in the open and peck at bugs and grass. They do taste better than standard eggs and they seem to gel up better for poached eggs over the standard ones. What you see here is the stirring of the water with a chopstick. I use chopsticks in the kitchen almost as much as I use my knives. They are incredibly adaptable to just about anything you need to do. I use about 2 tablespoons of vinegar to a full saucepan of water. I don't let the water boil, or even simmer. I put the egg in when the water is steaming really well but there are no bubbles coming up from the bottom of the pan. I guess I'd call it 'medium-high' temperature water. The vinegar helps the white of the egg set. The reason you stir the water is to create a little 'eddy' or tidepool of water circling around the pan. Then you gently slip in the egg and the white should immediately start to swirl around and encase the yolk. The egg is perfectly poached after about 3-4 minutes. This is the final poached egg breakfast. I love, love, but don't eat, eat, much bacon. I serve poached eggs on buttered toast. But my trick for toast is to 'fry' it in a hot pan with butter so that the toast gets evenly browned. I find that a toaster makes the toast 'curl' as it gets hot. The photo isn't as clear as I would have liked, but you get the idea. The yolk is set around the edges of the egg white, but the center is runny and gooey. The toast soaks up all that eggy juice. Delicious.

If you are like me, you don't eat a-what should we say 'good breakfast'-during your work week. But on the weekend-oh the weekend-and breakfast. Food memories are some of my best memories from my childhood. My paternal Grandparents lived on a ranch in Prineville, Oregon in 'Ochoco' County in the central part of the state. My Grandfather cooked Sunday breakfast. On every single Sunday he made the same thing-pancakes. I don't know if he made the batter by hand or if it came out of a box. It didn't matter. They were the delicious-light, yet doughy and a bit tangy. Grandfather's pancakes always had that consistent, golden-brown, delicate crust that only short-order cooks at diners seem able to pull-off. I guess it's because his pancakes were so wonderful that I rarely try to make them at home on the weekend. While I didn't make pancakes today, I did make another one of my favorite breakfasts-poached egg on toast. Now don't think it's easy to poach an egg. It really isn't-at least for me. It took me about three years to finally get my technique down for poaching the perfect egg. The ingredients? Two cost a couple of coins and one is free. One fresh egg, some white vinegar and some water. That's all-no salt or pepper until the end. You could probably change up the flavor of the vinegar, but if you do I don't think you would get the egg white to come out so brilliant.

My Mother, who is now 83, would be someone who would have put canned, diced pineapple in coleslaw. I don't know if she got the inspiration (if that is what you would call it), from Beard. Housewives in the 1950's loved putting stuff like pineapple in coleslaw. Better yet, how about that pickled carrot that my Mother put in pineapple aspic! Yuck.

Ok everyone, I apologize for being slow yesterday and this morning. I've got the computer issues resolved. Last night I made an easy dinner of 'Soup and Salad.' Not what sounds like a 'gourmet' meal-but it actually turned out very gourmet and was uniquely Northwest in flavors. The salad was simple mixed greens tossed with olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper. But what made the salad unique were the garnishes-bleu cheese and 'candied hazelnuts.' Just take some raw hazelnuts and put them in a pie pan. Roast them in a 400 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes or just until they turn brown. Remove the hazelnuts from the oven and put them on a cotton kitchen towel. Wrap the towel around the hazelnuts. This 'steams' the nuts and loosens the skins. Rub the towel and the hazelnuts for a few seconds and the outer brown skin or the 'husks' will rub off. Then roughly chop some of the hazelnuts and leave some others whole. Heat some butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper in a saute pan. Add about a tablespoon of corn syrup and a tablespoon of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the hazelnuts and turn the heat down to medium and cook the nuts for about 10 minutes to 'candy' them. Spoon the candied hazelnuts into a bowl to cool. Once the hazelnuts are cooled you can break off some of the candied hazelnuts to garnish your salad. The candied hazelnuts keep in a covered container about a month. You get the crunchy, nutty, woodsy taste of hazelnut, a bit of spice from the cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne, then finally some sweet, candy-brittle crunch from the brown sugar. It's a simple but delicious and different salad. I couldn't find any locally made bleu cheese so I bought some bleu cheese made by the Amish in Pennslyvannia. The Rogue Creamery in Southern Oregon makes very good bleu cheese. I was raised in Salem, Oregon in the Willamette Valley. Salem is the State Capitol and is about an hours drive South of Portland. We grow a lot of 'filbert' trees in the Willamette Valley. When I was a kid all we called the nuts were 'filberts. I know, it doesn't sound trendy enough for the marketing folks does it? It was probably sometime during the 1980's that the filbert marketing board decided they needed to change the name of the little round nut back to the name it is called back in its birthplace in Europe-the 'Hazelnut.' Well, being the nuts that we are in the Northwest, we protested at first because we thought it was sacriligeous to call a filbert a hazelnut. But we went along and of course the marketing gurus were right. The sale of Northwest hazelnuts took off and continues to grow. On occasion I'll still call them filberts just to throw somebody off track, like a waiter in a restaurant. "didn't you mean to tell me those were filberts on my trout?" The 'soup' was 'Ivar's Clam Chowder.' Ivar's is a Seattle institution and they have a number of casual chip and chowder houses around the Puget Sound area and in food court malls throughout the Northwest. I was surprised to see hot, fresh, Ivar's Clam Chowder at the hot soup bar in the grocery store deli. I couldn't resist so I brought a quart home. I dressed up the chowder with some smoked salmon from a company in Oregon City, Oregon, just South of Portland. Sorry, forgot to get the name of the company and a photo. The salmon was hot smoked over Alderwood and it was very oily and juicy. We use a lot of Sockeye Salmon for smoking in the Northwest because the Sockeye has a lot of natural oils that keep the fish moist during smoking.

Yes, you are right, Mr. Beard! I am off for a couple of hours to get some more groceries, and then I'll be back to start on the Rhubarb Chutney.

THank you for your kind comments. Today I plan to post some more meal photos and photos of what I have planned for tonight's dinner. I'm also going to talk about the Las Vegas dining scene and then the 'closer' to the week tommorrow-a short tale about another man from the Northwest who made a huge impact on the way American cooks and eats. Thanks again and enjoy your weekend.

What a great story ! He sounds like a special man, and his attitude reminds me a lot of Jacques Pepin. Simple, straightfoward, no pretense. Just about the craft and the results. Gotta love it ! ETA: By the way, I have loved the rest of your blog as well, and am very much looking forward to the next couple of days. It's impressive that you cook as you do with your schedule. ← THank you so much for the recognition of my blog. I'll be talking about another very humble and gracious French Chef-Guy Savoy. (You probably saw the photo I posted of Chef Savoy inviting me into his restaurant in Las Vegas). Like Soltner and Pepin, Savoy is gracious and accomodating. You might even call him a simple man if you met him. But these great chefs all seem to share that sense of quiet confidence and the ambition to serve others through their food. The recognition from the customer after a delicious dinner is their number one goal. I'm off to our small farmer's market to get some rhubarb to make a rhubarb compote to serve with some duck tonight!

The first cookbook I showed was the 'New Boston Cooking School Cookbook' by Fannie Farmer, published in the early 20th century. Another one of my cherished books was written by Andre Soltner at the end of the 20th century in the mid 1990's. Chef Soltner had retired from Lutece and was on a book tour. I met him at a book signing he did at Powell's Books for Cooks in Portland, Oregon. I will never forget how comfortable and relaxed Chef Soltner made everyone feel. For serious foodies, it was like meeting a celebrity but Chef Soltner was not at all pretentious. I'll never forget when someone asked him about his 'celebrity chef' status. Mind you, this was before the Food Network and 'named' chefs were just starting to gain mass appeal. Chef Soltner said he really didn't consider himself a chef as much as a 'cook.' He said he was a 'craftsman' just like the carpenter and the other craftsmen he knew in France. When you think about that statement today it really rings tru. I think there are a lot of 'chefs' who aren't 'cooks.' In other words, today we have a group of 'chefs' who look good wearing trendy glasses and spiked hairdos. But can they 'cook?' Just last week I was watching a new program on PBS that interviews famous American cooks in the kitchens of the French Culinary Institute in New York. There was 'Cook' Soltner-the same affable, relaxed man that I had met many years before. He told of growing up in France and how his family and their love of food and cooking fueled his own passions for the kitchen. Then he stood up and prepared an omelette for the students in the audience. Butter, eggs, salt and a bit of pepper. He stirred the eggs with a fork and then poured them into the hot butter melting in a copper skillet. He stirred the egg with a fork a few times and then gently nudged the omelette onto a plate. An unadorned white plate. When the hostess of the program asked him if you could add vegetables to the omelette he just said "yeah sure, if you would like." Of course the omelette was perfectly cooked-creamy scrambled eggs on the inside and the outer wrapping of egg set but not over-cooked. Watching Chef Soltner again reminded me how humble yet confident he was. A man who truly loves his 'craft.' Here is his autograph of my cookbook:

Lord have mercy - David, that is just stupenous. I am not generally prone to sweets, but your fruit concoctions have me over the moon (says I, who is just finishing off the last of the amazing cherry clafouti, which shall henceforth be known in these parts as David Ross Clafouti). ← Ahhhh. Thank you so much. My first named after dish! If I ever open a bistro we'll call it "Clafoutis ala Ross." I love desserts-and desserts with berries are my favorite. Let's see, how many can, or should, I list? Cherry Clafouti Huckleberry Pie Coconut Cream Pie Apple Pie French Apple Pie Cherry Pie Apple Crisp Pear Brown Betty Peach Cobbler Peach Ice Cream Strawberry Ice Cream Cherry Ice Cream Lemon Bars Raspberry Napolean Boysenberry Kiss (oops, that's a cocktail, but equally good for dessert) I'll stop with that.

OK, computer problems being fixed. THe lavish feast of duck confit I planned tonight will have to wait for tommorrow since I've spent most of the day hacking at this stupid machine. But I've got a couple of surprises to share tonight after dinner. Since we've been talking about berries-but mainly huckleberries-I thought I would share another story about Northwest berries with you. This is a piece I wrote about 5 years ago when I was just getting my fingers wet at the keyboard. It may read a little rough, so forgive me. At the end of the piece are links to some recipes using the different berries. Let me know if you have some questions about the berries. I said at the start of the blog that summer wasn't necessarily my favorite season for cooking. Now after day five of the blog and so much discussion about summmer berries, I think I've changed my mind. The Cane Berries of Summer by David Ross Summer is the best time of year for a cook—the time of year when the bounty of Mother Earth is literally at our fingertips each day. A new surprise turns up almost every week in my local farmer's market. In June, we are blessed with buckets of ruby-red Bing cherries. July delivers crates of "Blue Lake" green beans. In August, we start husking ears of sweet corn and September brings voluptuously juicy peaches. And in late September, the season is crowned with the exalted and elusive wild huckleberry. One of the stars of any summer table is the many varieties of "cane" berries that grow throughout the season. Most of us don't even realize what a cane berry is. We see pretty little hillocks of berries standing at attention in the produce section of the supermarket and don't consider the history of these beautiful fruits of summer. All cane berries are part of the rose family of plants. Like roses, cane berries have long stems (canes), which are studded with prickly thorns. The fruits of cane berries have the same sweet fragrance of rose petals. Some people consider any type of cane berry to be a noxious weed that grows out of control along the sides of a road. This falsehood could be due in part to the fact that many cane berry bushes border the murky waters of sloughs - it's not too appetizing to think of a berry basking in the sun next to a sewer pit. However, cane berries are not snobbish neighbors. Other than finding a place to soak up the hottest rays of sun and a cool drink of water, they can adapt and flourish in almost any surroundings. Cane berries also seem to take a bad rap because they are so damn hard to pick. I remember picking wild blackberries in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains just east of Mollala, Oregon. We would trudge through a mucky cow pasture to reach a huge outcropping of blackberries. Of course, the best berries were laughing at us from their sun-soaked perch at the top of the bush, nearly 10 feet above our heads. We were totally unprepared for the torture that awaited, outfitted in t-shirts and shorts, our bare skin exposed to the sharp thorns on the canes. Hours and untold scrapes and pricks later, we had our bounty: a handful of blackberries. But dreaming of the warm, juicy pie that would grace our dinner table that evening made the trauma of the hunt seem unimportant. In Oregon, each local berry farmer pays an "assessment" or fee, based on the acres of each crop he grows. The money collected from the farmer is paid to the Oregon State Department of Agriculture. As one of his duties at the Department of Agriculture, my father was the administrator of the "Oregon Cane Berry Commission" for many years. In Oregon, "Commodity Commissions" run the gamut from animals (beef, fryer and sheep commissions), to fruit and vegetables (strawberry and onion commissions), to hay and grasses (wheat, alfalfa and ryegrass commissions). Through these "Commissions" the state promotes and markets Oregon products around the world. One of the most popular varieties of cane berries is the "raspberry." Raspberries have been known since prehistoric times. The ancients attributed the origins of raspberries to divine intervention from the Gods--the nymph Ida scratched her breast while picking a delicate raspberry for young Zeus and thus raspberries, until that time white, turned red. The blood of love, so to speak. Raspberries have been cultivated since the Middle Ages, yet commercial farming methods were not perfected until the start of the 20th century. The "Loganberry" was created in 1881, when James Logan of Santa Cruz, California, inadvertently crossed a red raspberry and a blackberry. Loganberries possess the red color of the raspberry, albeit a more ruby red, and are somewhat larger and more elongated in size than the blackberry. Loganberries have an especially tart yet sweet flavor that is best suited to baked desserts like pies and tarts. Rudolph Boysen of Napa, California developed the boysenberry—a hybrid of the blackberry, in the early 1920's. Mr. Boysen collaborated with Walter Knott and together they produced boysenberries on the Knott farm in Buena Park, California. As a means of helping get through the Depression, the Knott's began selling boysenberry jams and jellies from their farmstand. In later years, the farm became the amusement park we know today as "Knott's Berry Farm." The Marion blackberry, or "marionberry" is a cross between the Chehalem and Olallieberry and grows exclusively in Marion County which lies within the rich farmlands of the Willamette Valley in Western Oregon. Although Walt Whitman tasted berries that would develop into the marionberry, it was not until 1956 that the first commercially grown marionberries were to the American table. The aromatic marionberry has an intense blackberry flavor and is nearly double the size of the blackberry. Whereas other blackberry varieties are sold simply as "blackberries," the Marionberry is only sold under the Marionberry name. This is "branded" marketing--selling a high-quality product under its given name. Another example would be "Certified Angus Beef." Today, foreign berries can be found in supermarkets year-round, and at sky-high prices in January. Nevertheless, it's always best to avoid spending your money on interlopers from halfway across the globe and wait until summer when local cane berries are in season and at the peak of flavor. So the next time you are winding down a country road this summer and happen upon what appears to be a gangly weed, you may want to stop. It just might be a bushel of sweet, juicy berries-and the best way to taste the flavor of the season is to pick the tender, little morsels straight off the cane and savor the moment. Enjoy. http://www.themediadrome.com/content/recip..._palm_fruit.htm http://www.themediadrome.com/content/recip...r_ice_cream.htm http://www.themediadrome.com/content/recip..._lemon_bars.htm http://www.themediadrome.com/content/recip...rry_cobbler.htm

What a day to have computer problems! I've been fighting with this bugger for almost two years and the darn thing is only four! Bear with me for the next few days as I struggle with this beast. The responses may be a bit slow. Or, if I get really mad, I'll open the window, shout "I'm mad as hell I'm not going to take it anymore," and chuck this piece of >>>>>out the window. Not to worry if I go that far, the blog shall continue onward!

I think that fresh cranberries would be delicious in this coffeecake. I would probably boil them in water and sugar first until the 'popped' meaning they burst open. That way when you baked the coffeecake the cranberries would be soft and not hard like a raw cranberry. The flavor would be much different than a huckleberry, but very tart and wonderful I am sure. Spokane today is getting close to 350,000 people in the metro area-depending on who you ask. To the east are Post Falls and Couer d'Alene, Idaho which are towns in their own right, but could be considered a part of the Spokane metro area. We'd love to invite you down to Spokane any time and maybe a trip into the forest to pick some berries.

Since the huckleberry discussion has been so popular, I thought I'd end it with some huckleberry cooking today. I keep a gallon bag of huckleberries in the freezer and use them throughout the year, hopefully ending up with a few berries left in July, just in time for the new crop to ripen. This morning I made a huckleberry coffee cake with the last few cups of berries that I have left. Not to worry though, I'll be buying this year's crop of huckleberries in about 6 or 7 weeks. Here is a photo of what our wild huckleberries look like. They are red, black and purple in color and are about 1/2 the size of a blueberry. Here you see the coffee cake batter spread in a baking dish with the huckleberries scattered on the top. I don't like to stir the huckleberries into the batter because it can turn the batter a pretty unappetizing purple color. I also like the flavor boost you get when you eat a piece of coffee cake with a cluster of huckleberries on top. I sprinkled some sliced almonds on top for texture, and then I put a crumb topping on top of the coffee cake. The crumb topping was a mix of brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour and butter. Here is a slice of the final huckleberry coffeecake with some grilled apricots.

I'm guessing something near the airport? ← Yes, it was the Salty's on Redondo Beach just about a 20 minute drive South of the airport. Great view, so-so food and service.

It was the Salty's at Redondo Beach. While the view of the water and islands of Puget Sound is beautiful (you know that), sadly the food was not good and the service worse. 25 minutes to get our lunch after ordering. Yesterday I took another employee to lunch for her birthday and we ate at Anthony's Seafood in the airport. The 'Halibut Fish and Chips' at Anthony's was far better than the lunch the day before at Salty's. Yes everyone, the Seattle Airport has a good restaurant! Anthony's is a local restaurant company and if you have time while transitting through Sea-Tac airport, (short for Seattle-Tacoma), stop in. They have lots of Northwest seafood selections.

My Showtime doesn't really come apart for deep cleaning. But I kind of look at the grease spots and stains as a badge of courage. Maybe it's a guy thing. I'm one of the die-hards that doesn't do a lot of cleaning of the grill on the Weber kettle out back. Somehow I mistakenly think that an ultra clean and shiny Showtime or a slick and shiny grate on my barbecue grill will kill the taste of the food.

I don't seem to have much trouble cleaning the Showtime, but after four years of splaterring grease, it is looking a bit tired. The grease is the hardest part to clean off the metal. ← I, too, am an embarrassed Showtime owner. I'm on my second model after #1 died. Foodies may laugh, but rotisserie duck is second only to confit in my mind. It's a very nice way to cook. Cleaning is a bit of a pain only because of the volume of hand-washing. I line the drip tray with foil so that I (usually) don't need to wash the bottom. The edge of the heat reflector gets greasy, as do the rods. I find soaking and then scrubbing does the trick for the rods and drip tray cover. Dishwashing works to de-grease (as I found on the first model), but fails to get rid of the blackening - and quickly accelerates rusting. ← I know what you mean about the foodie label. I consider myself in that group, but sometimes it's an internal struggle to balance my foodie side with my everyday home cook side. I reconcile the two because I see them as both expanding my knowledge about food and cooking and what other people eat. If it helps-Julia Child once said her favorite snack food was 'Cheetos.' We can sip Krug and sup on Kumamoto oysters-but we also like a mean bowl of Nalley's chili. I think you fead my mind. Tonight I'm going to do a duck confit so please check back! The poor little duckies have been sitting in a crock of fat for three weeks now. It's not really an early summer dish, but I can't resist bringing them out of cold fat storage. Now that you've mentioned duck confit it fits perfectly with tonight's dinner.

I don't seem to have much trouble cleaning the Showtime, but after four years of splaterring grease, it is looking a bit tired. The grease is the hardest part to clean off the metal. Prime rib is very good on the Showtime believe it or not. I figure on 18 minutes per pound. The Prime Rib won't have a crispy outer fat crust like it would if you cooked it in the oven, but it will be incredibly juicy. I hate those cotton 'rubber bands' that come with the Showtime. Because they are elastic in the center, I found them to burn and almost melt from the heat of the oven as a chicken roasted. I use the basic old-fashioned cotton string for trussing any poultry or tieing up meat. I am so glad you mentioned the lobster stock base. It is way too salty so I only use a small amount in sauces. I love the concentrated flavor, but not the salt. I'll start searching for other lobster stock bases and let you know if I find one I like. I do use this company's beef and chicken stock bases and they are very good. I don't find them as salty as the lobster base. Let me know if you find a less salty lobster stock base.

Thank you for the nice comments. I use my George Foreman grill to make very good hamburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches. Wow-that gives me an idea for lunch!

Last night for dinner I made fresh halibut with a simple butter sauce, mixed rice and grilled zucchini. I menitioned earlier in the blog that during the work week I try to keep my dinners simple by limiting the dishes to grilled meats and vegetables. Last night was the best of the past week's simple dinners. I am thankful to be going into some days off and I can really get cooking. You might think that because I live in the Pacific Northwest I get seafood cheap. That's not the case. While I may not pay as much for halibut that has to be shipped fresh to North Carolina, I still pay a steep price as you can see in this photo: That's right-$18.99 a pound for fresh Alaskan Halibut-and it is worth it. I've always thought the best halibut comes from Alaska starting in the Spring and running into mid-Summer. There seem to be two factors that have the most impact on the price of fresh halibut. One is the size of the fishery each year. We call it "the size of the run," meaning how many halibut are in the water each year. If the 'run' is small that obviously makes the price of halibut in the market go up. The size of the run of halibut can be affected by weather conditions, water conditions and even the dang sea lions that eat up so much of our seafood. We seem to be in an endless war in the Northwest between predator-sea lion-and prey-the halibut. Sea lions also take plenty of our salmon. The story of the salmon being eaten up by sea lions is a blog unto itself. The second biggest factor that affects the price of our seafood is the weather. If there are big storms and the boats can't get out for a few days we see an immediate spike in the price of halibut. It happens that quickly. Just like the price of gas for your car can go up from one day to the next. I seasoned the halibut with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper and some Cajun spices. I use the exact same method every time I cook fish filets-seared in a hot cast iron pan for 4 minutes per side then the pan is put in a 425degree oven to finish roasting the fish for another 5 minutes. This halibut filet was about 1 1/2 inches thick and I cooked it for about 13 minutes total between the searing and roasting. I made a simple butter sauce for the halibut. I had to improvise a little because I didn't really have what I needed to make a classic Buerre Blanc. Usually I use chopped shallots reduced in white wine to make the flavor base of buerre blanc. I didn't have either wine or shallots, so I substituted chopped green onions and tarragon wine vinegar. I added some lemon juice and then boiled the mixture down to a glaze. I added about a teaspoon of lobster stock base and then took the pan off the heat. I then added the butter and swirled it around the pan to combine the butter with the reduced vinegar sauce. Just before serving I strained the solids out of the butter sauce and then spooned the sauce over the finished halibut. This is the final dish showing the halibut on top of a mixture of wild, brown and white rice. I added some grilled and chopped zucchini to the rice. I spooned some of the butter sauce over the fish and garnished it with snipped chives from my garden. Enjoy.

Remember last night I said that during the work week I try to keep my dinners simple-like grilled meats and vegetables? Well, last night I did a 'Rotisserie Game Hen with Greens.' YOU CAN SLICE IT--YOU CAN DICE IT--YOU SET IT AND FORGET IT Here, in all its glory, is my infamous 'Showtime Rostisserie Grill' brought to you by the one and only Ron Popeill. I told everyone on Monday that my blog would be personal-at times maybe too personal. Have you admitted to anyone on eGullet that you have a 'Showtime Rotisserie Grill?' Maybe some of you are like me. I've got all the latest fou-fou kitchen equipment-a $350.00 KitchenAid Pro Mixer to mix focaccia dough and a $150.00 French Mandoline to hand-cut waffle fries. But one of my favorite pieces of kitchen equipment I bought from the guy who hawked hair for men in a spray can. Yes, you really do just set it. No, you don't really forget it. You need to keep an eye on that bird spinning around. The 'Showtime' is, in my opinion, simply the best rotisserie type grill I have ever used. It is perfect for any type of meat, fowl or pork you would normally roast in the oven. The 'Showtime' is especially good for making perfect Rotisserie Chicken. As the bird turns the fat and juices baste the bird in a continuous motion-turn after turn after turn. The bird turns out juicy and with golden, crisp skin. Delicious, and an easy way to make a weeknight dinner. I rubbed this game hen with olive oil and that was it. No salt, no pepper, no seasoning. Since game hens are small they can slide on the rotisserie spit, so I trussed the bird with cotton string to keep it from slipping as it turned. I brushed the game hen with melted butter about 4 times during 1 hour of roasting. And here is the finished game hen served with a salad of mixed greens dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

You really can get creative with leftovers for lunch. You'll get some stares, but so what. I'd rather eat my food than the junk they put in vending machines. I have found microwaves are good for heating water for hot tea. I've re-heated many a Thai Seafood Curry in the work microwave so don't think you are alone. Nuclear seafood is tough, stringy and stinks!

The man and the master: I wanted to give you a teaser photo for a subject that I will be discussing with you this weekend-dining in Las Vegas. This is a very special photo for me. It was taken this year on May 17 at a private dinner at Guy Savoy restaurant in Caesar's Palace. I was attending a private dinner as part of the Bon Apetit Magazine Food and Wine Focus. This is my photo with the Master, Chef Guy Savoy. Chef Savoy was in the kitchen that night. We also celebrated the one year anniversary of the opening of the restaurant-and in celebration, the President of Caesar's Palace was there and presented the chef and his staff with a special cake. I think that will be quite the teaser to get you excited about looking forward to the menu-and photos, from this very special dinner. Come back to my blog soon for the details.

Yesterday we took an employee out for lunch to celebrate her 25-year anniversary with the company. I ordered the "Copper River Salmon served on Mashed Potatoes with Basil Oil and Saffron Riesling Sauce." I didn't get a photo, and you wouldn't have wanted to see it if I posted one. I get really mad when restaurants, decent, fine dining restaurants, don't put on the plate what they post on the menu. So-here is a blow by blow of where the kitchen went wrong: -The filet of salmon looked like it was cut from the back end of the tail section of the fish. A flat, no more than 3/4" thick piece of salmon. It was a good-sized portion, but the tail of the salmon isn't the choicest part. When you are paying for fresh Copper River Salmon you should be served a very thick slab cut from the center of the filet. The salmon had been grilled over a gas flame-evident from the black 'grill marks' and the black, oily sheen that slid off the salmon making a black oil slick on the edges of the white plate. Have you ever cooked something on your outdoor BBQ grill when the gas flame was TOO HOT? Right-it sears the surface of the meat with a black oil slick that oozes onto your plate. -The Basil Oil with Saffron was intensely flavored and a beautiful, deep-emerald green color. Basil and olive oil are good accompaniments for salmon because the spicy, licorice flavor of basil complements the strong oils in the salmon. The only criticism I had was not with the flavor of the oil but the amount. The mashed potatoes were literally swimming in a soup of basil oil. -There was hardly any of the Saffron Riesling Sauce to be had. I thought I saw a small yellow speck of the sauce peeking out from under the mashed potatoes, but I couldn't be sure. There were a few strands of saffron threads floating in the green basil oil so I guess they delivered on that promise of Saffron. Now a sauce made of sweet, effervescent, riesling wine sounds like a nice counterpart for an oily fish like Copper River Salmon. But I'm not so sure that it is appropriate to pair two totally opposite flavored sauces-Basil Oil and Saffron Riesling Sauce-with a strong flavored salmon like Copper River. Note to restaurants-keep things simple and don't overcomplicate a dish. You don't need to throw everything in the pantry into this dish. The basil, probably. The Saffron, maybe. The Riesling, o.k, but on it's own. Maybe in a Buerre Blanc spooned over the salmon filet but sans the basil oil. And please don't try to fool me by putting something on your menu and not delivering it on my plate!