tammylc

We did not make it Seneca Shores. Next time - I'll be back in a month or six weeks. We started on the west side of the lake, and looped all the way down and back up the other side, hitting six wineries along the way. Fox Run Anthony Road Wine Company Hermann J. Wiemer Glenora Red Newt Cellars Standing Stones Vineyard Nothing at Fox Run really jumped out at me, although that was where I got to taste the 2004 Tierce Dry Riesling. This is a collaborative effort between Fox Run, Anthony Road and Red Newt, and it was fabulous. And $30/bottle. Interestingly, I tried the individual dry riesling from each of the three wineries and wasn't excited about any of them, but the Tierce totally transcended. Anthony Road was unremarkable to my tastes as well. All the wines I tasted at Wiemer were solid. The dry riesling was very refined and German, and coming on the heels of the racy Tierce (which has the zing of the 2001 German rieslings) it was a little too refined. But definitely the best of the rieslings I tasted. The cab franc was remarkably bell peppery, both on the nose and the palate. Very strange, but they've had some strange years with Cab France recently, from what they were telling us. Glenora was ho-hum, although my travelling companion was most pleased there, I think. Her tastes run towards oaky CA Chardonnays, so Finger Lakes wines are just not her style. The Brut sparkling wine was nice. Things really picked up once we hit the bottom of the lake and started back up. Red Newt knocked my socks off. I loved their Salamander White blend, and the 2003 Red Eft blend, and the 2004 Cab Franc. At $10.49 for the Salamander and $12.50 for the Red Eft, this was the first place I had to decide whether it was worth carrying wine home in my suitcase. They print the bistro menu on the back of the tasting sheet, which made me even more sad that they were closed! I think we had the most fun at Standing Stone, where it was one of the winery owners who was serving at the bar. She had an absolutely contagious enthusiasm. I liked their Cab Franc and was surprised at it's fullness compared to some of the others I'd tasted, and later she mentioned that they had to truck grapes in from Long Island for that vintage. A good lesson in terroir! I spent the extra dollar to do the vertical tasting of their Bordeaux blend - Pinnacle - one from 2000 and another from 2003. She said that growing conditions were almost identical in those two years, so it was a really good indication of where the 2003s would be going. Very nice. With a number of vertical tastings etc. offered, this was definitely the best stop for a wine geek! We ended with their Vidal ice wine, which was quite lovely. Having had both Vidal and Riesling Ice Wines from the Niagara Penninsula, I think I prefer Vidal. Oh, this was supposed to be the thread about restaurants, wasn't it? I'll post about Port's Cafe separately.

Thanks for all the recommendations. Unfortunately, Skanealetes and Ithaca are just too far to drive for dinner from Geneva, where we're staying. Especially after driving around the lake visiting wineries all afternoon! Seneca Lake has a lot of good dining possiblilities and I look forward to scheduling my next trip to fall later in the week - we saw the menu for Red Newt Bistro, and it looks amazing. Dano's, Suzanne's, Rivercat Cafe, all promising. And all closed on Tuesdays. So we're going to Port's Cafe. It was recommended by three different people on our journey today. Being told it was the place where all the winemakers on the western side of the lake go to eat sealed the plan. I'm looking forward to having a full glass of one of the many wines I tasted today!

They are all within less than a mile of each other, and about 3 miles from the Gathering location. Really depends on your price point and how much ambience you're looking for. Weber's is the nicest, Best Western in the middle, and the Super 8 is, well, cheap! ← In the past, I have stayed at the Days Inn off Carpenter Rd. Its cheap too and a great location. ← But completely on the wrong side of town.

They are all within less than a mile of each other, and about 3 miles from the Gathering location. Really depends on your price point and how much ambience you're looking for. Weber's is the nicest, Best Western in the middle, and the Super 8 is, well, cheap!

I think an hour is going to be too long to travel for dinner, unfortunately. Anybody else?

I'm looking for dinner recommendations for the Finger Lakes for tomorrow night (May 16). I had a couple of great sounding possibilities picked out (Dano's Heuriger, Red Newt Cellars Bistro) and both are closed on Tuesdays. Stonecat Cafe is closed too! Any other suggestions that'll be open on a Tuesday night? We're staying in Geneva, will be visiting Seneca Falls, and are willing to dip down along the lakes to visit a winery or two and hopefully get dinner at the end of the day. I'm in on business, but we have a free afternoon and want to make the most of it! Great and creative food is the key criteria, although I expect the coworker I'm travelling with would be more impressed if there were also some ambience. Thanks.

Darn, I wish I'd read this thread a little earlier! I attended a truffle making class a few weeks ago. Came home and the next day turned out a perfect batch of truffles. Thus convinced that I knew what I was doing, I decided to do a little fundraising for my future culinary adventures by making and selling truffles for Mother's Day. Demand was greater than anticipated, and next thing I knew, I had orders for 250 truffles. Tempering did not go nearly so well this time. Definitely passable, given who my market is, but not up to my own standards. (Of course, realizing halfway through tempering my first batch of chocolate that my thermometer was no longer reading accurately was not a good way to start the day...) But now, having read this thread, I know why my first time worked so well, why the next times messed up, and how to make it so much less stressful next time. Thank you. eGullet!

I've been wondering that too. Re. mint - I found that I had a strong tendency to underestimate how much I needed to get the flavor I was looking for. I started with 6 large mint leaves, chopped roughly, since that's a number I had heard from someone. That was barely noticeable in the cream, so I re-infused with about double the amount again, and got something that was at a good level for me. Maybe I should have chopped the mint finer to get more flavor? I also think it will depend on the mint you're using - some is going to be more intense than others. And of course, it will depend on whether you're looking for a subtle or more dramatic flavor. Which, of course, bring us back to your question, doesn't it?

Would you mind sharing with us which resto you're now cooking at in A2? u.e. ← I wanted to ask that myself, but figured if destroit didn't mention it, it was probably because he or she didn't want to. But I am curious!

Welcome to eGullet. Looking forward to meeting you!

Wanted to say thanks to everyone for the tips! My various flavored ganaches turned out great. I had a few problems with the coating - my temper was not quite perfect, I had quite a bit of cracking, and the bottoms of the raspberry truffles stuck and get leaky. I think my centers were probably too cold, so I'll let them sit at room temperature for longer next time, but does anyone have any ideas what's going on with the raspberry truffles and the bottoms sticky? They were the softest ganache. I let them "dry" for a few hours after rolling, then dipped in the tempered chocolate. I'm using a regular fork to pull them out - would a special candy dipping fork help me avoid the problem? My coating is quite thin - do I just need to plan to double dip the raspberry? Comments on the flavors, in case anyone was curious. For the ginger I tried infusing the cream, but as others have said, it wasn't strong enough. Tasting the cream alone it had good flavor, but it got quickly overwhelmed by the chocolate. Luckily I was prepared for this and had a few tbsp of juice standing by to add. For the coffee, I just put a couple of heaping tbsp of finely ground dark roast into the cream and let it stand for five minutes. It was so finely ground that it couldn't be strained out, so I left it in to add some extra kick. For the raspberry, I reduced 3/4 c of Framboise down by half. I should have gone further, as the resulting ganache was a little harder to work with than I would have preferred. Excellent flavor, however, without having to figure out how to work with an actual fruit puree. I'll do that when I'm not pressed for time!

I'm eager to use my newly-earned truffle making skillz, so I'm making a bunch of truffles for Mother's Day and selling them to my friends and neighbors. I have some flavor ideas in mind and wanted to get some input on technique. The last time I made truffles we used Bonny Doon Framboise to flavor some raspbery truffles - probably about 2 tbsp for 1 lb of chocolate. I found the flavor too subtle, but I think the ganache would become hard to work with if I added much more. So I was thinking that I'd start with 1/2 cup and reduce it down to a couple of tbsp, hopefully keep the flavor without adding liquid. Does this sound about right? I really want to make ginger truffles. Seems like there are a couple of schools of thought out there - steep sliced ginger in the cream, or use ginger juice. What are the pros and cons of the two approaches? Lastly, espresso truffles. Most recipes I've seen call for espresso powder, but since my hubby has a good espresso machine, I could use the real thing. I assume I'd need to replace an equal volume of cream with the espresso - how is that going to impact the consistency of the ganache?

For those, like me, who were wondering what the heck u.e. was talking about: The article Very nice.

Uh-huh. We know the truth. You're fleeing the area just in time so you won't have to reveal your true identity... Sorry to hear you won't be around!

Last year 26 enthusiastic eGulleteers and friends descended on Ann Arbor for the 2nd ever Heartland Gathering. We had so much fun, we'd like to do it again. You can read about last year's event here. The idea of the Heartland Gathering is to bring together members from our geographically dispersed forum area to celebrate the height of the Heartland growing season - a time that is all too fleeting in our northern climes! This year's Gathering will be held the weekend of August 4-6. The main event will be Saturday, August 5. The plan so far is that we'll meet at the Farmer's Market in the morning for some impromptu menu planning and shopping, based on what's in season and looks good. There are plenty of lunch options around the market. Then we will head back to the common house of my cohousing community to start cooking and prepping for dinner, hanging out and chatting, and generally having a good time. Mid-to-late afternoon we'll take a break from cooking to have some fun with food and wine. Sommelier Ric Jewell has enthusiastically agreed to put together a fun and educational event for us. Ric was the sommelier at Tribute in Detroit until a year or two ago, and since then he has been the FOH manager for Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor. I've had the pleasure of talking about wine with him on many occasions, and tasting his great selections for the Roadhouse monthly special dinners. Ric has an incredible breadth and depth of wine knowledge, especially wine and food pairing. He's also got a knack for hunting down some rare and unusual wines that are hard to find and not easily available to consumers. So while I'm not sure about the details for this part of the program yet, I know it will be fabulous! After the wine tasting, we'll finish up dinner and sit down for a feast! Attendees will be asked to contribute $20 towards the purchase of food for dinner. There may be a small fee for the wine tasting portion of the event - $5, maybe? I'll post those details as soon as I know them. While part of the fun will be to prepare our dinner based on what we can forage, other contributions are welcome! We all remember fondly the amazing Musician's Tarts that SamIam brought last year! Beverage contributions, alcoholic or otherwise, are particularly encouraged. For those who are interested in making a weekend out of it, and to make it even more enticing for those of you who would be coming in from some distance, we've got a couple other things lined up. Friday afternoon will be a group excursion to the Longone Culinary Archive at U of M. Friday night, dinner out, at a restaurant TBD, followed by an excursion to Zingerman's Deli for some shopping at a time when we can avoid the Saturday crowds. Sunday morning, my husband Eric will be leading a trip to Zingerman's Coffee Company, where managing partner Andy will give a tour, demonstrate his coffee roasting equipment, and lead a "cupping" of some of Zingerman's coffee offerings. There are three hotels very near to my house. Weber's Inn Best Western Executive Plaza Super 8 If enough people are coming in from out of town and staying over one or more nights, I can try to to make arrangements for a discount hotel rate. Kids are welcome, although we don't have any particularly kid-friendly activities planned. We do have a large kids play room in the common house, and a play structure outside. My two year old will be around, but mostly with a friendly neighbor or babysitter. As you can tell, some of this is still evolving, but we wanted to get the word out so folks could get things on their calendars. If you're planning or even just hoping to come to any or all of the activities, please chime into the thread so we can have some idea of numbers. The common house can seat at least 64 for dinner (more in a pinch) so we don't anticipate having any capacity concerns for Saturday. But we do need to know who's coming so we know how much food to buy. And how many people are interested in the wine tasting. Sunday's coffee tour will be limited to about 20 or 25 people, so please comment to this post to reserve a spot - we'll take reservations in first posted, first reserved order. Look for more details and planning to come! Ideas and suggestions are very welcome. This event has been organized through the eG Forums by members but is not sponsored by the Society or its eG Forums. The event is open to all participating eGullet Society members, contributors and their guests. By participating in this event, you confirm your understanding and acceptance of the eGullet Events Policy, to which all eGullet Society members have already agreed.

The scroll bar is the black semicircle to the right of the text box. You have to click and drag. It's very annoying. But I'm glad the website is back up!

I said I'd report back, so here I am. I think I've misplaced the sheet of paper that I wrote down all the wines on, so I'm going from memory. I didn't have the wine I thought I did, so I asked my wine seller for a recommendation while I was out picking up fish. He suggested an Italian white I wasn't familiar with - Vernaccia di san Gimignano? Nice wine, right up my alley - citrusly, mineraly, crisp - but not a particularly good match. I made the mistake of uttering the words asparagus re. the side dishes, so he immediately had to start thinking of things that wouldn't be ruined by the three spears of asparagus on my plate. Note to self - don't mention asparagus to people unless it's a main component of the meal. M brought a 2001 Willm Pinot Gris from Alsace. Off-dry. It wasn't chilled, so it was a little flabby, but tasty, and better then mine. A little too sweet to work well, I thought, although my opinion might have changed if it were at a better temperature. J brought a Alsatian Pinot Blanc, but I just got one sip of it, so wasn't able to give it much attention. D was the winner though. He grabbed a random Italian Pinot Grigio that was on sale somewhere, and I thought it was a stellar match. It was the richest and fullest of the bunch, and I thought that played really well against the pecans and the brown butter. Of course, this is all just my opinion. D though M's wine was the best match, and T, upon tasting all three, though mine was the best. So obviously none of them were bad... I never did open the Chardonnay, but judging from this time's experience, I think it could work really well. The meal went well and I expect to make it again, so I'll definitely try that next time, maybe a nice white Burgundy. Thanks all for the ideas!

We almost always use commercial dressing. We serve family style, and put two different bottles of dressing on each table. People troll the room searching for their favorites. Amy's Organic Shiitake Sesame is the community favorite, although their Goddess Dressing runs a real close second. Very occasionally someone will make a special dressing. Sadly, the last time someone did that, they dressed the salads a) too far in advance, b) with too much dressing, and c) just poured the dressing over the greens instead of doing a nice toss, so it pooled in the bottom of the bowl. Pity, really, because it was a very nice poppyseed dressing for spinach and strawberry salad.

I had my first experience with this recently. I live in a cohousing community where we have optional shared meals several nights a week. Most of the people who signup to head cook are pretty good cooks. One, however, is remarkably unskilled for someone who insists on putting his "talents" on display month after month. Looking for something new to make, he asked for my jambalaya recipe. I wrote it out in careful detail for him, with what I thought were ultra explicit instructions. I was cautiously optimistic - it's a good recipe, pretty easy, how could he possibly mess it up? Oh, by not following the instructions. Yep, that would do it. Somehow it never occured to me that someone (especially someone inexperienced and cooking a recipe for the first time for 20 people) would ask for a recipe and then not follow it to the letter. To be fair, he apparently delegated much of it to his assistant cooks, so I can fault them for not following the instructions either. And I found out just yesterday that he thought 5 stalks of celery meant 5 bunches of celery! Fortunately, one of his assistant cooks new enough to intervene before all that celery ended up in the jambalaya.

Pecan Crusted Tilapia with Brown Butter Sauce This meal went surprisingly smoothly, given that one of my assistant cooks (who was a last minute replacement) forgot he was coming and didn't show up until 5. We recruited someone to set tables for us, so that helped a lot. But mostly, we were just fortunate that despite sounding pretty snazzy, it was actually quite an easy recipe. As much as I love to cook, this menu was a little different for me, as I didn't follow a set recipe for anything I made. Sure, I'd done some research looking at different recipes, but once in the kitchen it was just making it up as I went along. We had 28 meat eating adults, 7 veggie adults, 1 meat eating teen, and 13 assorted children. I spent $196, which works out to $5.89 per adult (including the 12% pantry fee). A little higher than my usual, but still in the ballpark. Not very organic, but hey, we didn't run out of food and even had a goodly amount of leftovers. Pecan Crusted Tilapia with Brown Butter Sauce 12 lbs fresh tilapia filets 2 lbs chopped pecans 16 oz panko bread crumbs (not sure if that measure is weight or volume - two 8 oz cans) 9 eggs flour, salt and pepper from the pantry 5 sticks butter 4 lemons parsley I got the fish from a great fishmonger here in town (Monahan's in Kerrytown) and it was awesomely fresh and really excellent quality. And he cut me a deal for buying in bulk, so it was quite affordable too. I see other tilapia meals in my future. 12 lbs of tilapia worked out to 33 filets. I was worried that if many of the kids ate fish, we wouldn't have quite enough, so we cut all of the tilapia in half before breading and frying them. This was a really good idea, as the more regular shapes were much easier to work with. To make the coating, I just combined the pecans and bread crumbs in the food processor until they were a nice size, then had my assistant cook do a standard flour, egg, bread crumbs thing. We prepped all the fish ahead and had them out on sheet pans waiting for their turn in the pan. The limitations of our stovetop came into play quite a bit here, as I could only cook two pans at a time. All in all it took about 40 minutes to cook all of the fish. I kept the early batches in a warming oven, and while they weren't as crisp as the ones fresh from the stove, the flavor was good and they didn't dry out at all, so that was okay. I made the sauce up in advance, not using the pans the fish were cooked in. For one, I didn't want to have to worry about it at the last minute. And even though we were wiping out pans in between batches as necessary, they were still pretty nasty with burnt bits by the end. Cooking the sauce separately gave me much more control over the heat, and we just reheated it at the last minute to get it to the tables as hot as possible. Technique - brown the butter, add lemon juice, stir to combine, add salt if necessary, stir in chopped parsley - voila! Spinach-Feta Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms 8 mushrooms 8 oz feta 1 pkg frozen chopped spinach Easy. Cajun Rice 5 lbs long grain rice 3 lg cans "petite" diced tomatoes 5 red pepper 4 lg onions 5 stalks celery (garlic - just realized I should have used some and didn't) assorted pantry spices We turned out not to have any paprika in the common house, so this didn't come out quite like I was expecting. But it was still fine. I took a page from my jambalaya making technique for this one. I used the food processor to chop the veggies, which makes prep so much faster. And I used my trick of cooking the rice and the other ingredients separately, and then combining them at the last minute. I probably could have thrown the sauteed vegetables and spices into the rice cooker and cooked it all at once though. Not sure how that would have turned out. Steamed Asparagus 7 bunches asparagus (which I believe worked out to around 8 lbs) When I planned the menu I didn't think about the fact that I'd be busy at the stove frying fish right up until the last minute and thus wouldn't have space for a big pot of water for steaming asparagus. We made the decision to cook it ahead and serve it at room temperature, and I don't think anyone cared. There was warm brown butter sauce to spoon over top of it. Salad 1 lb baby spinach 15 oz mixed greens Once again I was a victim of the grocery store not having my big 1 lb tubs of organic greens. Damn them. So I got one big one of spinach and three of the 5 oz pkgs of the mixed greens. And whereas I usually underbuy on salad, this time I overbought - we didn't even open up one of the packages. What can I say - I'm used to having more people at dinner! Ice Cream This was left over from a birthday party earlier in the week, so I got it for free. Otherwise, given the price point, I would have had to do something cheap, like cookies. I was planning to make mac and cheese for the kids, and completely forgot about it. Realized at 6 pm, when it was far too late to boil water, boil pasta, and mix it all up. I dispatched one of my assistant cooks to make up a couple packages of "Easy Mac" in the microwave and we put out what other kid food we could find. I figured that if we started with some Easy Mac, parents could make more if we ran out. As it turned out, I think a bunch of kids ate and enjoyed the fish, so it wasn't a big deal. As much as I was worried about not having enough fish, we actually turned out to have lots of leftovers. I think cutting the filets in half was a really great idea, as I'm betting there were people who were happy with just one half, which meant other people could have three, and we still had plenty of leftovers. I'd definitely do it again. It was good, relatively simple, and people really enjoyed it. The tilapia was reasonably priced (especially given the quality - I could have gotten cheaper by buying frozen, but wanted to go fresh) and very good. I've been looking for ways to add more fish into the common meal rotation, and this is one solid possibility. Next up, I'm recapping my tortilla soup, as one of my assistant cooks that night is a huge fan and requested the opportunity to help make it. After that, I'm not sure. I want to do a beet and goat cheese salad (just beets and goat cheese and balsalmic-mustard vinaigrette, no greens) but I'm not sure what to make to go with it. Maybe fish again, but a different preparation... Any suggestions?

As I said to my husband while we were watching the episode - they have to throw in a twist in order to make sure something goes wrong. If they gave them ample time and ample money and ample resources and everything turned out amazing, then they'd have a really hard time finding someone to kick off. They have to set them up for failure.

Also reviewed in this month's Observer are two possiblities. Taqueria La Fiesta is at Packard near Carpenter and is a spin off of La Fiesta Mexicana - sounds like they have at least a few things that aren't on the La Fiesta menu. Also, the Pillar's tamale cart folks have opened up an 18-seat Salvadoran restaurant on South State (past the Produce Station). It seems to be the new restaurant time of year! Vinology is opening up on May 1st, and there's an article in the Marketplace Changes section about another that's opening this summer where Bird of Pardise used to be on Main - Melange Bistro/Wine Bar. Apparently French-Asian fusion, with the restaurant design apparently by some hot shot restaurant designer. (It's a basement location, and they didn't want it to feel cramped, so they dug the floor down three feet to give it 10-ft ceilings.) So many restaurants, so little time and money.

$30 for 3 courses with a couple of options, $42 for 4 courses with more choices for the courses. There's a $18 wine bar prix fixe that's smaller portions.

In this case, I wouldn't be coming from Ann Arbor, but from the airport, so it's a drive to wherever we end up. I was mostly thinking that Royal Oak can be an interesting place to walk around. And if one were to find themselves there around a meal time, where are the worthwhile places to go?

Thanks all for the interesting commentary. Just to clarify, while I'm cooking this for a community dinner, we're not providing wine for everyone. I just had a few of my more wine-interested neighbors who had asked for suggestions on what to bring to drink. So I think we're going to end up with several thigns to choose from. I'll endeavor to taste them all and let you know what I think! I thought I had an Alsatian Riesling in the rack, but it turned out to be the Bas-Kuentz Alsace 2004, which is a blend, and the one review I found on line didn't make it sound like what I wanted for this meal. Feel free to chime in if you think otherwise. I ended up buying something from Italy - can't remember the details off the top of my head, I'll post about it later. The asparagus side is something of a spoiler for many potential pairings, unfortunately. I like JohnL's thoughts about the potential of an oaked chardonnay working with the brown butter sauce. All I have on hand is the cheap Bear's Lair Chardonnay from Trader's Joes (bought it for a party this past weekend, and it didn't get opened). Perhaps I'll open it too - it should definitely provide a good contrast!