Member-organized event - 2006 Heartland Gathering

[CaliPoutine]

Tammy's squash trio

[CaliPoutine]

Judy's soup

[Jason Perlow]

Looks like you guys had a really good time. Wish I could have made it.

[tammylc]

I was in the right place at the right time and somehow lucked into getting to taste one of Zingerman's old balsamics (they're out of stock on their less-pricey balsamics). A tiny dab was laid on the top of my fist with a straw. A dab was all I needed. It tasted wonderfully complex, musty, and had just the right sweetness.

The thing everyone needs to know about Zingerman's is that you can taste pretty much everything they sell. So you didn't luck in to getting to taste it - it's all part of the Zingerman's experience!

It's so great to see everyone getting their photos and reports up. I was *there* and I'm still not wanting to go to bed so I can see the reports roll in. How crazy is that?!

Thanks everyone for making this such a great weekend for me. I had a great time. A neighbor saw me at dinner tonight and commented that she was surprised to see me looking so "fresh" yesterday, given how busy I'd been organizing. But I really like doing this kind of thing (I also run science fiction conventions) and actually find it energizing rather than draining. So if I "aw, shucks-ed" a lot when people were giving me prodigious praise for putting this shindig together, that's why - it didn't feel like work at all to me!

[CaliPoutine]

Porgy stuffed with thyme, and lemon. Wrapped with applewood smoked bacon.

Prepared by me, and Dylan Wiley( Danielle's 4yr old daughter).

Grilled by SamIam and Joyce( sam's wife).

Does anyone have a picture of the cooked fish? I never saw it and I almost didnt taste it. Lisa( my friend, not on eGullet) and I were slaving over the hot stove preparing the pasta dish.

Edited August 7, 2006 by CaliPoutine (log)

[CaliPoutine]

This was freaking amazing.

[ulterior epicure]

Oh... gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous... I'm stuffed. How much food did you all consume?!?!?

Very impressed. Sorry I missed this grand affair! Sounds like you all had so much fun!

u.e.

P.S. Sorry, can someone do a list of real names along with their handles so that I can know who's who? Sam? Joyce? Tammy, Ronnie and Judy I've figured out - but others, not too familiar with real names.

Edited August 7, 2006 by ulterior epicure (log)

[edsel]

From the charcuterie course.

Ronnie's terrine, un-molded and ready to slice.

Ronnie slices the terrine, NancyH and Bob looking on (they're not really worried, it just looks that way in the photo).

A thing of beauty. Mr Ruhlman would be proud!

[edsel]

Porgy stuffed with thyme, and lemon.  Wrapped with applewood smoked bacon.

Prepared by me, and Dylan Wiley( Danielle's 4yr old daughter).

Grilled by Sam and Joyce.

Does anyone have a picture of the cooked fish?  I never saw it and I almost didnt taste it.    Lisa and I were slaving over the hot stove preparing the pasta dish.

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I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but here's one of Sam and Joyce tending the grill.

[Palladion]

Thanks for the kind words, Edsel, but I love seeing your (and everyone else's) pictures, too. Please don't hesitate to post. I'm so glad we had many people taking pictures there.

...And, my camera battery ran out before dinner was ready (which I expected), and then I found that I had left my second battery at home! I was really so disappointed; I love taking pictures, and this was such a great oppurtunity; so many people cooking and having a great time. Still kicking myself about that: my second battery is fully charged sitting in its charger, right where I put it on Thursday.

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Alex Parker

[Fat Guy]

How much food did you all consume?!?!?

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The amount of food consumed was obscene, even by eGullet Society members' standards. I believe this was due to a mathematical error: for each course, enough food was prepared such that if the whole meal had consisted of just that one course then it still would have been enough. It was exhausting. Everybody was full before the first actual course was even served -- we had gorged ourselves on fried calamari and butter-tossed fries at lunchtime, tasted 21 wines in the afternoon, flirted with the green fairy, consumed about a hundred dollars worth of cheese, bread and pate and, oh yes, there was the matter of Ronnie's charcuterie spread. That was before dinner. Then we ate an excessive meal. And when we finished with the meat course, a whole fresh crew of folks moved in to the kitchen and started producing desserts and, somehow, like five more cheeses appeared. Wish you had been there.

[ulterior epicure]

Okay, I posted a question just a few posts up, but with this near-live feed, I'm afraid it's gone ignored. For those of us who sadly didn't make it - could someone give a de-coding of all of the attendees (ie. real name to handle)? Ronnie, FG, Tammy and Judy I've figured out - the rest are hazy.

Thanks!

u.e.

[Sweet Willie]

thanks for posting pics CaliPoutine, that meat looks amazing. thanks to all who posted pics.

[ulterior epicure]

How much food did you all consume?!?!?

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The amount of food consumed was obscene, even by eGullet Society members' standards.... Wish you had been there.

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I'm not sure I would have made it back home! Ohmygosh - did you all hire wheelchair service after the dinner?

[tammylc]

Alex = Palladion

Candace = annarborfoodie

Danielle = daniellewiley

Edsel = edsel

Joshua = destroit

Judy = moosnsqrl

Kristin = torakris

Lisa = kitchen chick (her blog, not actually an egullet name)

Nancy = NancyH

Bob - with Nancy, not on eGullet

Randi = Calipoutine

Ronnie = ronnie_suburban

Sam = Sam iam

Joyce - Sam's wife, not on eGullet

Scott = sweintraub

Deborah - with Scott, not on eGullet

Shannon Elise= Shannon_Elise

Steven = Fat Guy

Tammy = tammylc

Eric - Tammy's husband, not on eGullet

Tom = tino27

Vicki = VickiA2

Edited August 7, 2006 by tammylc (log)

[edsel]

One more pic of the Charcuterie course. This is the spread as presented. Who made up the labels? Very nice!

My one lone contribution was the Andouille. It's Berkshire pork from Heritage Foods (Heartland, ya know!), plus some wild boar shoulder from Dartagnan and some fat back from Niman Ranch (because the wild boar is so lean).

I followed the recipe in the Ruhlman/Polcyn book (more Heartland! Yay! ), except that I didn't have any mace on hand in Indy where I was mixing the stuff, so I substituted a small grind of nutmeg and a bit of allspice. Triangulating a bit.

I was actually reluctant to bring it at all, knowing that Ronnie's stuff would be so impressive. It actually turned out better than I thought. It could use a bit more zip, as has been noted in the Charcuterie thread. I think the second edition of the book should get an eGullet credit.

[torakris]

I am so glad to see the pictures going up! I had left my camera in the hotel room...

First off a big thanks to everyone involved it was a really wonderful event. I ate so much food I wasn't hungry until about 3:00pm this afternoon. On th way home, Alex (palladion) and I stopped off at the big silver thing in front of Zingerman's Roadhouse and I ordered a fresh squeezed lemonade. It was probably the best one I have ever had but it still took me 3 hours to drink because I was so full.

I went straight from Ann Arbor to a family reunion, taking along with me some of the leftover bread and fig jam that Randi (calipoutine) made. They were a huge hit! Thanks guys.

More pictures please!!

[Palladion]

How much food did you all consume?!?!?

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The amount of food consumed was obscene, even by eGullet Society members' standards.... Wish you had been there.

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I'm not sure I would have made it back home! Ohmygosh - did you all hire wheelchair service after the dinner?

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I wish. I still feel full. I ate a light dinner today, and I think I should have eaten an even lighter one.

I thought the dinner itself went amazingly well, especially considering all of the a la minute prep that had to be done (searing the foie, cooking the fish, the pasta, etc.)

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Alex Parker

[ulterior epicure]

On th way home, Alex (palladion) and I stopped off at the big silver thing in front of Zingerman's Roadhouse ...

It's called, believe it or not, the Zingerman Roadshow!

u.e.

[CaliPoutine]

Here is the primavera Lisa( friend not on EG) and I made. As FatGuy pointed out, we made way too much. I was not so good at figuring out how much we needed. I bought 5 bags of some local( to Ann Arbor) fettucini that was more a very short noodle than what I wanted. I should have waited for the supermarket run and bought some DeCecco. I was paranoid about overcooking the veggies so i left the pasta draining in the sink and it turned into a gloppy mess. I also had a heavy hand with the red pepper flakes. Oy, hindsight is 20/20 eh?

My friend made a comment to me after the event. She said " now I get it". We live in a very small town and the quality of food here is dismal to say the least. She's never experienced anything like what she saw and particpated in. She said to me, I'ts going to be hard to go back to eating regular food. LOL.

Btw, Tammy, she absolutely loved that pate you brought out. She wanted to know where you got it. I told her I thought a friend brought it back from France.

[CaliPoutine]

Cheese platter. I believe this is the platter that went out before dinner.

Sweintraub put this together. I made the fig jam.

Im not familar with the cheeses, anyone else?

and, Tom's( tino27) bread in the backround.

Edited August 7, 2006 by CaliPoutine (log)

[tino27]

I also want to emphasize that the rave reviews for tino27's bread are totally legitimate. Let's face it, praise for bread is always suspect: most people are suckers for any homemade bread even if it sucks. Well, I'm here to tell you that tino27's bread was totally up to top-tier professional artisan bakery standards. We all ate so much of it we almost died. I think the majority favorite was the roasted pepper bread, but personally I think the one that showed tino27's talent to the fullest was the basic French. It wasn't technically a sourdough -- he made it with a poolish -- but the end result was similar to a mild, subtle sourdough and the crust and crumb were texturally amazing. I've observed some professional baking classes and tino27's work was definitely A++, extra credit, honor roll, Phi Beta Kappa, MENSA level work.

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Wow. You have no idea how much these generous words have really touched me. I bake my own bread because I love good tasting, healthy bread for myself. That it also nourishes and pleases others really means a lot to me. Thanks to you and others who have commented on the bread.

Now that I've had a chance to peruse the entire thread (not that it isn't changing at a completely insane rate ( ), here are my thoughts ...

I absolutely loved the Amontillado during the wine tasting ... that butterscotch nose with the nutty finish was incredible. The cheese course was a lovely variety of flavors. I'm torn between the goats cheese and the brie. Yum.

The charcuterie. My god. All of it was amazing. But the pastrami. I have never in my life tasted anything so perfect and melt in your mouth. Ok, maybe a little foie.

Which leads me to my next fav pick of the night ... the grilled peach and foie gras salad. Moonsqrl was KIND enough to let me have her foie. And of course I immediately gobbled it up. Wow.

And the chilled soup. As much as moonsqrl protests that the chilled guac sorbet was too salty, it was a perfect match with the amazingly sweet heirloom tomato purees.

And that chili cherry sauce for the beef? Heavenly. The gentle heat hit you at the back of the throat. Not too much, just enough to make it interesting.

Before totally pooping out for the night, I managed to scarf down one of Calipoutine's amazing chocolate cookies. I was told they were destined to be used as the sandwich portion for the peanut butter ice cream, but as a cookie unto themselves, they were marvelous.

Don't get me wrong. EVERYTHING was fantastic (and I really mean that). I'm just picking out some of my absolute favorites.

I went to bed full-on food coma. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Zingerman's Roadhouse was equally amazing. I had the flannel cakes with a side of apple-wood smoked bacon. Um, YUM! Plus, they brought us all of these amazing extras to try ... the egg & oyster omelet, the fresh doughnut holes, the corned beef hash -- it was AMAZING. This is food as it should be.

And finally on to the coffee roasting/tasting. I have to admit ... my palate is not yet fine-tuned enough to discern all of the amazingly complex flavor profiles we experienced today. But I learned a ton about how the whole process is done. And better yet, I picked up a lovely recipe for iced coffee that I think I'm going to try soon!

Tammy, hats off to your organizational skills.

Edited August 7, 2006 by tino27 (log)

[ulterior epicure]

Zingerman's Roadhouse was equally amazing. I had the flannel cakes with a side of apple-wood smoked bacon. Um, YUM! Plus, they brought us all of these amazing extras to try ... the egg & oyster omelet, the fresh doughnut holes, the corned beef hash -- it was AMAZING. This is food as it should be.

Did anyone try their gingerbread cake while at the Deli? Talk about OHMYGOSH GOODNESS!! I LONG for it now... if only they'd publish a full-scale cookbook disclosing all their yummy secrets!

... and yes, the Hang Town Fry is really good!

u.e.

[maggiethecat]

I've learned that the food at eG get-togethers exceeds in quality and quantity anyone's wildest dreams. This weekend proves it one more time. My heart aches that I couldn't make it.

tino: You are inspirational -- all that magnificent bread with a home baker setup. All we need is your knowledge and passion.

[ronnie_suburban]

This morning's brunch at Zingerman's Roadhouse was terrific. It's a pleasure to eat at a restaurant that not only turns out truly delicious and distinctive food but one that is also part of a larger philosophy which advocates eating well and doing so with the highest quality ingredients available. But beyond all that, the Roadhouse was fun.

As it turned out, our 'coffee jockey' this morning was none other than Mr. Ari Weinzweig, who founded Zingerman's. As great as the foods at Zingerman's are, it's really Ari who's the story. A U of M grad who started in the food biz as a dishwasher, he's built an empire on his passion and the culture he's created is truly impressive. Every single Zingerman's employee with whom I interacted this weekend was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and helpful. What a pleasure it was shopping and eating at all their outlets this weekend. I wish we had something as wonderful as Zingerman's here in Chicago.

As I posted waaay back upthread, the Saturday Farmers Market was terrific. Here are a few pics I took while I walked and shopped it . . .

The market building around which the weekly market takes place.

Saturday morning, 10:30 a.m. -- prime time at the market.

A delicious looking assortment of greens . . . and purples.

Ok, not edible, but beautiful nonetheless.

It's been a particularly good season here in the Midwest for blueberries.

I wish I had access to fresh, farm eggs like these at my home market.

House-made Mozzerella from . . . you guessed it, Zingerman's.

Gorgeous-looking (and smelling) basil.

Sweet cherries have also been great this year in the Heartland.

A squash for just about any need. These were just spectacular.

It's the very front edge of tomato season here but these earlies look great.

Some of the market's more discerning shoppers.

=R=