zilla369

May 9, 2005

Gorgeous! I hope they enjoyed them - I love the flowers.
I'm catching up on what I've missed over the last few days - I hope you have a chance to sleep when this is all over. Thanks for the wonderful blog
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Thanks again, Pam. I would have been a nervous wreck without your input.

Hail to eGullet's powers of networking. That's what it's all about for me.

We're not worthy. :wub:

May 9, 2005

Please excuse me for my southern food ignorance Marsha, but what's a hot brown? So far I see bacon, eggs, tomatoes, cheese (?)... are there potatoes underneath all that goodness?

Joie, you've got it almost exactly right. A hot brown is an open-faced sandwich that was invented at the English Grill in the Brown Hotel here in Louisville. It contains turkey, bacon, tomatoes, and mornay sauce. There is a starch underneath all that goodness, but it's toast points rather than potatoes. Although I could definitely get behind some potatoes as a base! :wink:

May 9, 2005

Pam R’s foodblog two weeks ago featured the meringue dessert “pavlova”. I was excited to see her photos and glad she shared her recipe, because a high-dollar dinner party’s coordinator had seen a version of it on Food Network and requested that I make it for their group of 75. And I’d never heard of it before! Pam saved my lily-white southern ass.

Action shot of egg whites being whipped:

The initial sample:

I actually liked this better than the final product. But the catering director had rented ivory-colored dinner plates, and she asked for a lot more color on the meringue so it wouldn’t get lost on the plate. In addition, the sample was, admittedly – and I knew this before I submitted it – too big for an individual dessert.

Here are some shots of the revised dessert (the version that was ultimately served Friday night): Individual pavlovas with spring berries, edible flowers and whipped cream. I used my brulee torch to brown the meringues before baking.

May 9, 2005

Hot Browns being assembled yesterday for a Derby Day luncheon for 50:

After baking:

May 9, 2005

So sorry about my lack of posting over the last day or so. Suffice it to say that I was NOT off work today as I thought I was going to be. Hours worked during this blog so far, Tuesday through Sunday evening: Seventy-three. In six days.

Now, back to my foodblog:

As I said earlier, I have a second job cooking at the Columbine Inn.

I help the owners cook and serve breakfast – usually only when they have more than eight guests (capacity: 13 guests, and two owners).

The Inn was built in 1896, as a gift from a local mahogany baron to his wife. From 1949-1990, it served as the main building of the Louisville Bible College. In 1994, it was renovated and transformed into a bed & breakfast.

I worked breakfast there this weekend – well, Thursday through Sunday. As busy as my week was, this gig seemed (as always) like vacation. The kitchen is very well equipped, and the owners are cool people that are fun to work for.

Blurry shot of the dining room:

Stained glass window in the stairwell landing:

Melon balls for breakfast martinis for Thursday morning's first course:

Derby morning breakfast: A take on eggs benedict, with Benedictine sauce in place of hollandaise, and country ham in place of Canadian bacon:

Also offered Derby morning: Toasted baguette slices with blackberry crème fraiche and “mint julep butter”. I started making mint julep butter at last year’s Derby breakfast at Columbine. I just flamed some bourbon and whipped it into softened butter along with some mint extract and confectioner’s sugar. Guests go nuts over this stuff. Of course, they’re usually in a heightened state of anticipation, since they’re always going to the track later that afternoon for the Race. So that probably works in my favor.

The owners recently bought this sweet, totally money KitchenAid belgian waffle maker:

So, naturally, I had to give it a test drive. Nice last-morning breakfast for the Derby guests: Belgian waffle with fresh berries and the owners’ homemade buttermilk syrup:

May 7, 2005

Marsha's Methode de Mint Julep

Hopefully, you've already done your shopping, per my post upthread. If not, you'll need:

Granulated white sugar

Lots of fresh mint

Water (tap water if your local tap water is good - otherwise, some good non-carbonated spring water)

Good bourbon(see my earlier note; please don't use Jack Daniels)

CRUSHED ice

Make a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water, cooked gently over moderate heat until the sugar dissolves. Allow mixture to cool. How much syrup? That's up to you. Depends how much you think you're going to drink.

Pick several mint leaves and muddle them in the simple syrup. Refrigerate the mixture for as long as you can bear to wait. If I didn't have to work tomorrow, I'd perform the above steps tonight, or as soon as I got up in the morning.

Now, a silver julep cup is the preferred vessel for this concoction. That's because the crushed ice easily conducts cold through to the outside of the cup, forming a frost. The frost is a major component of the experience. By the way, if you have a tarnished old julep cup in a drawer somewhere (I certainly do), you can shine it up with a simple mixture of baking soda dampened with water.

If you don't have a julep cup, try a chimney glass. Or a jelly jar. Something with straight sides. (That advice aside, my roommate has been known to drink his juleps out of a viking drinking horn.) Don't, for Sanders' sake, use a martini glass.

We're going to create some layers.

In the bottom: a layer of crushed ice.

Then a layer of simple syrup.

More ice.

A glug of bourbon.

One more layer of ice.

Last layer of simple syrup.

Bourbon on top.

DO NOT STIR.

And don't be a girl about the mint garnish. Get a big, long, leafy stem that will reach from the bottom of your glass all the way to protruding at least a couple inches above the top. It's supposed to add an aromatic effect, and brush your nose while you sip.

Now, let it sit for about five minutes. This is the joy of the mint julep. The melting/melding effect. This is what you're after.

Commence to sippin'.

As you drink, and the level of liquid goes down, keep adding the layers. More ice. Then more syrup. A few minutes later, more bourbon. Keep it topped off. When done properly, there's no keeping track of how "many drinks" you've had; it's all one big drink. :wink:

I hope someone'll make juleps tomorrow and post their impressions. Like I said earlier, I only drink these one day of the year. It's a novelty, and should be treated as such. Please make sure you're safe somewhere and don't even think of driving. Hell, keep everything within reach and don't even think of walking.

Now, quick like bunnies - go get your julep mise together and learn the words to "My Old Kentucky Home"; they'll be singing it tomorrow right before the race.

Post time is 6:04 PM, EST. Tune in a few minutes early if you want to sing along. I'll check in with you tomorrow night, race fans.

And pray. For my sanity.

May 7, 2005

It's one A.M., and I just got home. My day started at 7 A.M., and tomorrow starts at 6:30 A.M.

I must have been out of my pea-pickin' mind to think I could keep up with this blog properly this week. I apologize for not posting more during these last couple days; I've worked 49 hours between Tuesday and Friday. And another marathon day is in the offing for tomorrow, the day of the big race.

Good news (or bad, depending on your point of view, I guess): I'll be off Sunday and Monday, so I'll be able to catch up on a lot of your questions and post a boatload of photos in a blaze of self-important glory before my blog ends Monday night. :cool:

But, even though I'm running on fumes, I know a lot of people are waiting for the Mint Julep tutorial, and the Race is tomorrow. So before I go to bed (or don't go to bed; I'm seriously considering just staying up) I'm going to post the Methode Mint Julep.

So y'all get your pencils ready.

May 6, 2005

Okay. Also today, we had a tasting (clients came to the Bistro to taste the food

they are considering ordering) for a wedding party coming up. The bride is Indian. She wanted to include at least one of her native foods in the reception menu.

Her choice was “samosas”. It’s a filling wrapped in puff pastry. I’d never attempted any Indian food before today. I had to PM Monica Bhide in a panic, because the recipe the client e-mailed to me included “exotic” things like green chutney and tamarind chutney.

People, this is an example of how eGullet can enrich your life. Imagine being able to PM an expert and get an instant answer in reply. Props to Monica.

The filling in the recipe called for potatoes, peas, cumin seed, “fresh green chiles”, and cayenne.

Fortunately, I have a pretty good affinity for working with frozen puff pastry. We made laminated puff pastry from scratch a couple times in culinary school, but really – there’s no need to go there, at least 99% of the time. Frozen puff pastry is one of the most useful convenience products available to mankind.

Raw pastries, ready for baking:

Making the green chutney:

The finished sample:

As it turns out, the client and her mom really loved my samosas – with a caveat:

The mom told Chef I should mix the thai chili peppers into the pastry dough.

D’oh! Whoopsie - the dough is a frozen convenience product. So that’s gonna be sort of hard to accomplish.

Upon reflection, I realized I screwed up by putting the leaves and vines on the sample pastries for the tasting. That’s gonna come back to haunt me when the wedding rolls around and I have to make them for a couple hundred people.

Ah, well. That which does not kill me can only make me stronger….right?

It’s nighty-night time. I have to be at my second job, the bed and breakfast gig, tomorrow morning at 7 AM. So I will post more tomorrow. Tomorrow is the Oaks (Derby for the locals). I’ll expound more than you ever wanted, I’m sure. Tomorrow.

*yawn*

Foodblogging is hard work. But it's worth it :cool:

May 6, 2005

Marsha- Re: the watermelon
At the risk of coming across all Monday morning quarterback, if your kitchen doesn't have a food mill you should look into getting one for just this sort of thing. On the other hand, it looks like you did admirably well under the circumstances. And the sorbet sounds tasty too.
I'm sure that some Maker's Mark will drown out that evil smell too
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Mmmm...a food mill. That would have worked well, wouldn't it?

And, yes: I can't smell watermelon anymore. Thanks be to the bourbon gods.

May 6, 2005

And now, some pleasant, non-watermelon-inclusive pictures from a fru-fru cocktail party, way out in the uber-burbs. Guest of honor was a retiring UPS pilot. I told the hostess that I was in the market for a well-paid pilot boyfriend, if she could be so kind as to hook me up. Unfortunately, she (or ultimately, I) struck out.

Prep for the party included making 200 smoked-salmon-on-spinach-tortilla-chip hors d’oeuvres:

Tortilla triangles, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt, ready for baking:

The finished product:

On the way to the party, I was hungry, but when we stopped for gas, the snack machine was out of order:

Later, setting up for the party -

Bruschetta:

Our salsa contains: diced roma tomatoes, diced jalapenos, tons of chopped cilantro, sriracha sauce, salt, pepper, chopped fresh parsley, and a brunoise of fresh ginger. It’s the bomb.

Shrimp cocktail:

One of the tables:

A sushi display (these were made by our sushi chefs, not me. I always think the “sushifly” is a bit garish, but clients go nuts over it:

And this is one of my favorite photos of the week. Really simple cheese plate - food cost: less than $7 US.

Finally, a honey-baked ham carving board:

The condiment in the foreground is whole-grain creole mustard. At the top of the frame: horseradish cream.

But look closely at the picture...

…Pretend the perimeter of the ham is a hole in the photograph. What do you see peeking through?

Oh, yeah:

Angry. Ham. Rhino.

(edited for subversive punctuation)

May 6, 2005

Water, melon everywhere

And boy, I need a drink.

Upthread, I confessed a slight aversion to chocolate. It’s just chocolate fatigue, I guess. I still like chocolate – I just never crave it or seek it out. Dessert-wise, I’ll go for fruit-based dishes every time.

Well….watermelon’s a fruit, right? But my slight chocolate aversion pales in comparison to the loathing I have for watermelon. Any melon, actually. I’m not allergic. But it’s almost that strong of a negative reaction. I especially hate fake watermelon-flavored things (like watermelon Jolly Ranchers). The scent of watermelon just makes me, frankly, nauseous.

So guess what? Prie fixe this weekend includes a sorbet intermezzo, and Chef decided on “Watermelon Rosemary”. For 300 reservations.

I realized while I was cutting the melons that I was clueless about how to even break a watermelon down for sorbet. I mean, that means you have to take the seeds out, right? (my recipe called for so-and-so pounds of watermelon, peeled and “seeded”). Deceptively innocuous-sounding, that phrase.

So I trudged back upstairs (my kitchen’s downstairs and across a driveway from the Bistro kitchen – 152 steps and two flights of stairs. Who needs a Stairmaster?) and admitted to the boss that I couldn’t seem to hit on the perfect method for removing the seeds from the flesh to make sorbet. His comment: “Whoops. Did I forget to order seedless melons?”

He grabbed a perforated hotel pan and suggested I push the watermelon flesh through the holes…theoretically leaving the seeds in the pan. But that didn’t work. At all. Some (but not all) of the seeds went right through, and the watermelons I had were perfectly crisp inside and not in the mood to get pushed through the holes:

So…I decided to try a china cap; and initially I chose a wooden paddle as a utensil to moosh the melon thru the holes. That didn’t work, either. The paddle was too big to perform efficiently.

Next, I chose a wooden sausage dowel – inverted. This seemed to work best. But let me tell you – this method took me the better part of two and a half hours to break down four giant melons. Four giant, evil-smelling (to me, anyway) melons:

Good news: the sorbet turned out lovely; a good texture, and - from all accounts of others in the kitchen that tasted it – a wonderful balance of watermelon and rosemary, not too sweet, perfect for a palate-cleansing intermezzo.

Bad news: understand- my sorbet maker is a four-quart. 300 reservations for prie fixe. You do the math.

Blech. I smell like watermelon.

May 6, 2005

Man. No replies for over twelve hours? Well, I'll fix that.

Stay tuned, race fans...I just got home, and I'm going to post a bunch of photos just as soon as I can get them uploaded. Today was a good day.

May 5, 2005

Yesterday’s breakfast, ‘cause I needed the caffeine:

In weeks like this one, I sort of wish I’d developed the taste for coffee somewhere along the way.

Yesterday’s lunch was pretty sweet:

I got this plate off the bistro lunch buffet as it was closing down. Some yummy hummus and pita bread, sautéed vegetables, new red potatoes, and roasted pork loin that looked overdone, but was actually quite tender.

Another shot of The Pie, plating for 45:

Tonight’s episode will chronicle the aforementioned watermelon saga, a fancy cocktail party, my first attempt at Indian cuisine - (Hi, Monica!) - and who knows what else. It’s a real challenge to find time to fit this all in…there aren’t enough hours in the day to live through it all twice!

May 5, 2005

After the tour, a really cool thing happened.

Alan Rupp, president of Kern’s Kitchen, asked if I’d take some of The Pie back to my kitchen and take some photos of various plate-ups. There was a Sysco food show coming up the next week and he needed some new shots for his display.

He offered me a whole case of The Pie!

I will remind you one more time (and I told Mr. Rupp, as well): I am no photographer. I barely understand the camera I’m using. So please be kind.

Here's what I came up with:

And I’m including this one, even though it’s horribly blurry, because I thought it was the best plating (but, unfortunately the worst photo):

Well. As it turned out, Kern’s Kitchen ended up using my photos in their Sysco food show display. Resulting in (drumroll, please):

My very first food-styling check ever!

Is that exciting, or what? (It’s only what I want to do when I grow up!)

Going to bed now. Don’t be out of sorts if you don’t hear from me until this time tomorrow.

I have a date with a watermelon.

May 5, 2005

Here’s a machine that intrigued me:

It’s the machine that makes the pie dough. Alan told me it was actually modeled after the action of a cook’s hands when cutting butter into flour for pastry crust. Come to think of it, he said “just like grandma’s”

Crust, ready for sheeting.

I loved the crust-stamping machine. It imprints “Kern’s Kitchen” all around the perimeter of the crust.

I had to leave the room for a few minutes while a batch of filling was mixed. When we came back in, they were filling shells for baking:

Somehow, I ended up without a picture of baked pies! But I’ll remedy that downthread. :cool:

A stack of pies:

And finally The Pie gets a sweet ride on the “Kramco 2000” (or something like that), their newest packaging machine, which seals the box and puts the film-wrap on, if I remember correctly:

May 5, 2005

Okay, time for a prelude to more pictures. I know some of you just scroll thru the foodblog threads for the pictures, sorta like some bizzaro-Playboy disclaimer (“I just read it for the articles!”).

These pictures are from last week; I hope nobody minds. I definitely wanted to fit this installment in, and I knew I wouldn’t have time to make the journey this week.

Two words (or one, hyphenated word): Derby-Pie®.

Derby-Pie® is served all year ‘round, but during Derby Week, it’s ubiquitous. Derby-Pie® is a chocolate/walnut pie with a transcendently flaky pastry crust, and a filling that’s something like pecan pie, or chess pie. The recipe is yet another closely-guarded secret; and in this case, they ain’t just whistling “Dixie”.

Derby-Pie® (hereinafter referred to as “The Pie” – registered trademark implied) was invented/formulated in 1958 at the Melrose Inn in Prospect, KY. The pie’s name was actually pulled out of a hat, as the members of the Kerns family couldn’t settle on a handle any other way. From that time to the present, The Pie has been exclusively produced by Kern’s Kitchen, a small – very small – family operation.

From their website:

George Kern, manager of the restaurant, developed the Derby-Pie® recipe with the help of his parents, Walter and Leaudra.
Many hours were spent trying to find the unique blend of flavors that make up this classic dessert. And that blend remains a secret to this very day. Oh, most folks recognize the real chocolate chips and walnut pieces - but no one has ever been able to duplicate our special filling and delicate crust.

We serve The Pie at a lot of our catering functions. Everybody, it seems, absolutely loves it.

Knowing that I was going to be foodblogging this week, I called up the folks at Kern’s Kitchen and asked if I could take a tour of their production facility. To my delight, I was routed to the president of the company, Alan Rupp, who graciously invited me to come on over and see what they were all about in their modest space within our local industrial park.

Alan and his office manager, Ruth, greeted me warmly and presented me with a Derby-Pie® ball cap to wear on my tour. There are only about 6 or 7 employees, all members of the extended Kerns/Rupp family, save one: Their production manager, Jerry, who’s been with them for something like 13 years.

Only Jerry and Alan are allowed to be in the room when the filling for The Pie is being mixed. It’s actually that much of a secret.

The facility is all of something like 2,000 square feet. During this "holiday season", they’re producing about 3,500 pies a week. This is their busiest time of year.

Understandably, such a specialized operation has to be very protective of its product and reputation in order to survive. At Kern’s Kitchen, they’re serious about their registered trademark.

If anyone – be it a restaurant, food manufacturing company, caterer, etc. - makes “a” pie and calls it “Derby Pie”, they might just be subject to a little litigation. Alan Rupp told me that they’ve only had to go to court over trademark issues about 10 times in the last 30 years. (that sounded like a lot to me, though!).

Two notable cases: one, for a recipe published in Bon Appetit in response to a letter in their “R.S.V.P.” column, and the other a recipe printed right on the Nestle Chocolate Chips package, entitled “Toll House Derby Pie”.

Now - on with the tour!

May 5, 2005

There is one in St. Pete's FL near my parents place......never been tho'
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Well, hie thee to the S'nS next time you visit. You won't be disappointed!

May 5, 2005

I think I remember reading about that chocolate goat cheese in an article on Jean George Vongrighten pastry chef Johnny Izzuni (sic?).
Great blog, 'zilla.
My dads from Kentucky, it's taking me back
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I'm still kicking myself for not buying any. I don't know if this is a common thing among pastry chefs, but having to work with it so much, I have a real aversion to chocolate.

We did say I was crazy, didn't we?

May 5, 2005

One dish that came up a few times was:
Grilled steak or stuffed beef tenderloin served with Henry Bains Sauce... The sauce is apparently similar to a "Jezebel Sauce" and one recipe here has the following ingredients:
1 (18 ounce) jar peach preserves
1 (18 ounce) jar orange marmalade
1 (18 ounce) jar apple preserves
1 (18 ounce) jar pineapple preserves
5/8 cup ground dry mustard
1 (4 ounce) jar prepared horseradish

What a good race fan you are, ludja!

However, I will say that the real Henry Bains sauce recipe is a closely guarded secret. Years ago, my oh-so-southern landlady used to make it for us tenants, and she claimed to have the real deal recipe, straight from the chef at the Pendennis Club, where the condiment was invented.

She never actually gave us the recipe written down, but I watched her make it twice. And I've made a facsimile many times at work - people request it all the time, especially for carving boards of beef or pork tenderloin. So, although it pains me to tell you this: the ingredients you posted above are pretty far afield from the real thing. Real Henry Bains sauce contains ketchup, worchestershire, peach chutney, chili sauce, horseradish, and "english pickle" (a type of pickled walnut). There are recipes for Henry Bains Sauce all over the internet.

Other dishes mentioned in a few diffrent places are cheese grits, sometimes in casserole form. Also dishes with spring fruits and vegetables like strawberries and asparagus.

Yes, strawberries and asparagus! You'll see these this weekend when I'm cooking at the B&B.

Saw a few mentions of bourbon-based dishes like Bourbon Glazed Short Ribs and Bourbon Balls; maybe these are newer trends?

Well, bourbon balls isn't a new trend at all; they've been made (most prominently by Rebecca Ruth Candies) for almost a hundred years.

As for other bourbon-infused, bourbon-marinated, bourbon-scented, bourbon-flamed recipes, well, as you can imagine: this town is lousy with them. I love - repeat, LOVE - bourbon, but sometimes it's all much too much.

Thanks for the nice photos of older Lousiville as well as of your delicious looking petit fours, cakes and cookies... Hmm... and I vicariously enjoyed your lunch at Steak and Shake!
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Thanks so much for your kind words. Foodblogging can be pure hell, but the compliments more than make up for it :wink:

May 5, 2005

I LOVE Steak 'n Shake, Marsha. My Dad lives in Missouri and it's a big deal there too.
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Yay, Steak 'n Shake! Missouri, huh? I wonder how widespread they are....anyone any further afield have Steak 'n Shake in your hometown?

May 5, 2005

Your desserts look fabulous.
In your Steak & Shake photo, what's in the bottle to the right of the picture? It looks like a bottle of yellow pickles.
pickled hot peppers in vinegar. the top has a little hole in it and you shake out the spicy vinegar on things, leaving the hot peppers in the bottle. it's especially good on greens.
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And that's exactly right, MBJ. The aperture in the top is too tiny to get a pepper out of.

That didn't stop me from getting one out and eating it, though. God bless opposable thumbs! Pretty hot (the pepper, not my thumbs). :blush:

I don't really know what kind of peppers they are, though. Label just said "peppers" in the ingredient list.

May 5, 2005

I live in a part of town known as “Schnitzelburg” – it was originally settled by German immigrants. There’s a neighborhood bar on just about every other corner.
Doggone it, Marsha- that nostalgic feeling that I mentioned earlier has just been kicked into high gear. That's my mom's old neighborhood, and a great one at that! My dad used to hang out at Flabby's. We got out butter kuchens ( the bestest coffee cake in the world, with a gooey butter topping) at Heitzman's, just down the street from Check's Cafe if I remember correctly. Geez- I hope that they still make them.

Michael - I'm going to take a picture of Flabby's (Famous Fried Chicken) just for you in the morning. I live only one short block away!

The picture of "La Petit Patisserie" upthread? That used to be Heitzman's Bakery (they of the transcendant butter kuchen). Heitzman's still has locations all over town, though, so don't fret.

Out of curiosity- have you ever run into the Louisville way of serving chili (which is essentially the same as Cincinnati style with the spaghetti and all, except there's no Greek slant to the spicing)? I think it's one of those regional things that isn't really known outside of its region. Or it could be a family thing, but I don't think so.

I'll be honest. I find most Kentucky restaurant chilis to be insipid offerings. We have a few "Skyline Chili"s here, but that's Cincinnati-style. And I've never been a fan of pasta in the bottom of my chili bowl. Less room for chili!

Louisville's just not a chili town *sigh*. I certainly can make better at home!

May 5, 2005

I'm (still) reading "Foul Matter" by Martha Grimes, and just the other day came across this:
"The air was scented with mint, and they had attempted to track it to its source, but couldn't, until Ned, going up to the bar to get another drink, reported back that the bartender had a reputation for the best mint juleps just about anywhere, and customers from Kentucky, Georgia, and the Carolinas pronounced this to be true. Then they had all ordered mint juleps and had gone to the bar to sit on stools and watch them being made. It was a prodigious undertaking, and no wonder they cost more than twice as much as any other drink."
I never knew it was "a prodigious undertaking" to make a mint julep. (Ignorant fool that I am, I always thought it was "just another drink.") So between the above paragraph and, especially, your blog, I can hardly wait to learn!
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Lovely quote :smile:

I will get to the julep history/recipe, I promise. I'm aiming for Friday.

If you're shopping for ingredients, get the freshest, most beautiful mint you can find; cut the bottoms off the stems and stick the bunch in a glass of water and put it on a shelf in the fridge. Keep it away from the bottom of the freezer and away from any blowing fan - the cold will kill it. You'll need granulated sugar, and good water - buy spring water if your tap water isn't up to par.

And you'll need ice. Lots and lots of ice. CRUSHED ice. You must, must have CRUSHED ice. It's absolutely integral to the structure of the drink. Beg, borrow, steal - get crushed ice!

Most importantly, spring for a bottle of decent bourbon. Naturally, i prefer Maker's Mark :cool: - but any decent bourbon will do.

A caution: please do not use Jack Daniels unless you're trapped in an underground labyrinth and can't get any other type of whisky. Jack Daniels (while it has its charms for some, I know) is filtered through charcoal, which gives it a distinctive flavor that, in my opinion, works against, rather than with, the taste of mint.

May 5, 2005

Zilla,
I'm going out of town today and I'll have to read the rest of your blog after the fact. I just wanted to let you know that I'm enjoying your blog and say thanks. I look forward to catching up when I get home.
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Pam, thank you. I was in awe of your blog during your busy week. It was inspirational!

Tomorrow I'm going to attempt one of Pam's very own recipes (which she graciously pm'd me) - pavlova, a special request from a client. I'm sure I won't be able to do it justice, but knowing I have good recipe to start with is a comfort.

May 4, 2005

Did I mention that, in addition to everything else going on this week, my car’s on the fritz? So I’m bussing it this week. But that gives me a chance to take a few pictures on the way to work.

I live in a part of town known at “Schnitzelburg” – it was originally settled by German immigrants. There’s a neighborhood bar on just about every other corner.

Of course, since it’s on the way to work, it’s a little early, thank you. But coincidentally, that’s the way I take mine, too. So much smoooother than by injection or by enema.

Also on the bus-stop corner:

Check’s Café. Famous for their white bean soup. Otherwise unremarkable in the extreme.

The other corner features this place:

I’ve eaten there once. It was pretty okay, deli sandwiches and whatnot. But I’m a little worried about its chances for longevity. They’ve been open about eight months, and I never see anyone in there.

At the other end of the bus trip, I have to walk past our nearest fine-dining competition:

Swanky Italian joint. Fantastic food. And valet parking! They’re definitely one up on us in that department. Note the funky horse. That’s part of “Gallopalooza”, an urban art installation of about 200 hand-painted horse sculptures all over town. Here’s a shot of the one outside our place:

You know, I walk past this thing several times a day. And I will maintain until my dying breath that the mask should read “My Ears are My Eyes”, rather than the other way ‘round. It really bugs me. I feel sure the artist is staying up late nights, whispering both versions of the phrase to himself over and over and over….

Here’s a small flurry of pictures from yesterday; very little explanation needed. Feel free to ask questions, though.

My ginger snap cheesecake, prior to garnish with mint sprigs

Mini-dessert platters ready to be taken to the buffet

Domestic cheese display for 275 people

My famous (in the building, anyway) garlic herb and parmesan croutons.

Lunch yesterday: Hot right out of the oven yeast roll, with gouda and strawberries...

...along with a baby coke. I love these, because they are restricted to 8 oz of sugary goodness. Also, they somehow taste different than Coke from a plastic bottle or can. I once heard a rumor that they use a different formula or syrup/water ratio for these. But I don't have any direct evidence of that. Anyone know?

Rats! I gotta run for the bus. But I’ll see you tonight, race fans.

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Posts posted by zilla369