musings.schelley.org

We had a huge bag of new potatoes, maybe called red potatoes?, that needed to be used. Since I rarely eat baked potatoes - and the amount we have would require a lot of meals with baked potatoes, I decided to make some soup. I found a recipe for potato leak soup in the Williams Sonoma Dutch Oven cookbook. BTW, a regular size soup pot substituted just fine for a dutch oven, as I've found that my Grandma's cast iron dutch oven is on the smaller end.

The recipe was really good. It made a huge amount - lunch for a few days before I get tired of it and freeze the rest. Sautee leeks in olive oil and butter. Add the potatoes, chicken broth, salt, pepper and ground ginger. I didn't quite have enough chicken broth, so substituted wine and water. And, I grated fresh ginger into the soup rather than ground. When it was done, I didn't puree the separated solids and remix with the liquid; instead I pureed about 2/3 of the total volume and then mixed it all back together so that whole pieces of potato and slices of lentil were still intact. I would make again...although I think that it needs more spices, like some garlic or something to give it a bit more zest.

I also made Southern style cornbread, which is flatter and not as cakelike as the cornbread I've always eaten, actually Northern style cornbread. I think I like Northern better, probably as a result of acquired taste rather than whether one is better than the other.

Dinner was paired with a 2000 Spring Ridge Pinot Noir from the Santa Cruz mountains.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanksgiving attendance totaled 17 people, not including two 2-year olds and one 3-month old. That's a lot of people to coordinate just for the sheer purpose of seating, not to mention determining where to place the food and how to serve everyone so that all eat at the same time.

The butternut squash soup was wonderful - it's a great way to start a meal during appetizers, when people are milling around and kind of starting to get hungry, and needing something to take off the edge before the turkey and fixings are served.

The turkey was definitely fabulous. Mike and Jeff brined the turkey and then bbqed it, complete with some type of wood chips. I actually went back for seconds on the turkey, it was soo good, an amazing thing for me since usually I get seconds of everything else and ignore the turkey. Mom made a mashed potato casserole (heated up on the bbq, since oven space was at a premium). There was ham, corn bread stuffing, yams, jello salad, cranberry sauce and the infamous, American classic holiday treat of green bean casserole. Plus my cazeula pies, 2 pumpkin pies and an apple pie (Mike forgot that I was bringing two pumpkin type pies). I came home with almost a full pie...which of course I've been eating off of for a while.

I brought a bottle of L'Etage Pinot Noir, which I received from my wine club and was told that it paired well with "a roasted turkey stuffed with sausage apricot sutffing". We got the turkey part...and the pinot did go quite well. Mike had also purchased several bottles of champagne (domaine, maybe?), which went well with everything.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm going to my cousin's house in Santa Cruz for Thanksgiving. My contribution - butternut squash soup and dessert. Both were made last night, after Dan and I talked and realized that he was going to be baking pie this morning to take to his Thanksgiving dinner.

The butternut squash soup is quite good, from Cook's Illustrated. So simple to make: saute some shallots and the seeds/strings from the butternut squash in butter, add some water and then steam the cut up sqash with the broth. When it's done, puree together, add some cream and brown sugar, and that's it. Quite amazingly simple, tastes fantastic. It should be quite good - soups tend to be better after sitting in the fridge over night.

I also made Cazuela pie, from the Sweet Recipe. The pie is an interesting combination of sweet potatoes and pumpkin and a lot of spices and coconut milk. Supposedly Cuban or Peruvian or some Latin American country of origin.

I'm not such a fan of pumpkin pie, but after someone made this pie and won first place at IDC's pie baking contest last year, I was hooked on this pie. It is simply incredible. The raw pie tasted amazing - hopefully the cooked result is just as good. We'll see...of course, I've never seen anyone in my family pass up dessert, no matter how much I bungle it (which rarely happens, a smug smile on my face).

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lunch for the past two days at the excellent Mountain View-based Fiesta del Mar.

Yesterday, my team went to Fiesta on Shoreline to celebrate two November birthdays. Four of the five of us ordered the shrimp fajitas, which considering the number of times I've been to Fiesta and the problems of trying to choose what to order when everything is absolutely fabulous on the menu, it surprising that I've never had. They were quite good, but really messy. Not sure I'll want to order the fajitas again, but glad that I had them. Interestingly, just eating the shrimp/veggies/rice/refried beans separately did not taste half as good as eating them all together in a warm flour tortilla.

Today, the Stanfurdites wore blue and gold while the Golden Bears gloated in the fact that Cal WON THE BIG GAME. Ahhhh, it still feels so good to say. We had a very pleasant conversation, recounting Big Games of past, and I discovered that Dot's (colleague) father was part of the immortal 21, a group of Stanfurd students that in 1931 (?) boldly stole the axe from Cal during an Axe Rally. Really, truly impressive.

I had a corn and black bean quesadilla - so very good.

On a lark, I picked up some trout fillets from Trader Joe's. I have never cooked trout before, so scanned a bunch of recipes, and ending up pan frying/baking fillets crusted with ground pecans. Really, quite good. The recipe came off of cooking.com. I paired the trout with a 2000 DeLoach Zinfandel from trader joe's, which is actually not bad considering that it's $7.99.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My roommate, Dan's birthday was Friday. Yesterday, he invited a small group of friends over for what was first intended to be cake and champagne, but turned into massive appetizers, dinner, cake and copious amounts of champagne.

Appropriately, I baked a cake, German Chocolate from the Best Recipe (Cooks Illustrated). It was quite tasty - thin layers of chocolate cake sandwiched between a gooey coconut-pecan filling. As far as baking cakes go, it wasn't that labor intensive. Although, when toasting the pecans, I accidentally burnt them, leading to cursing and with a grand flourish, tossing the blackened pecans in the trash.

Dan makes incredible clams, with homemade cocktail sauce and white cheddar cheese. He baked them until the cheese is bubbly, after which when they're cool enough to eat, we proceed to suck the clams and their juices down. A huge cookie sheet of clams disappeared in about five minutes.

For dinner, Dan grilled up a huge filet of salmon, which he first rubbed with his "special rub", coriander, old bay and a few other things. It was nice and crunchy, and done perfectly. I made mashed potatoes, which I tossed with some sour cream, half and half and a handful of herbs from the garden. And, braised cauliflower (another cooks illustrated original) with garlic, olive oil and anchovies. All delicious.

The entire party was complemented by six bottles of champagne - Schramsberg and White Star, and then Gloria Ferrar and a bottle of Cava as the day progressed. The Schramsberg was incredible, extremely silky and full-bodied. I really enjoyed the White Star, a wonderful toasted almost flavor that played around on my tongue. It must be stated that seven people in total were present. And I woke up this morning with a hangover. Well worth it, I think.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cal won the Big Game yesterday. Wait, let me repeat that: CAL WON THE BIG GAME YESTERDAY!!!!

The first half of the game sucked...but the second half was oh so good as Cal dominated the play, only letting the poor stanfurdites slip through with a touchdown in the final seconds. I might seem a bit excited. That's because since I've been following Cal football, starting in 1991, this is only the FOURTH time that they've won the Big Game. Cal has a rich tradition of flashes of brilliance for a season, only to blow it big time at the Big Game (1991, 1996 come to mind, thanks Mooch for that second one). It feels good to keep the Axe for another year. Go Bears!

My friends and I have a tradition surrounding the Big Game that we follow somewhat loosely. I always supply the Big Game cake, Kanaka brings golden bears, blue bears and special jello shots, and then others supply the rest. Since Suzette lives in Menlo Park, alarmingly close to the farm, she hosted a post-game party, where cake and jello shots and too much beer and wine were consumed. Prior to the game, we hit a tailgate, saw some old friends and then went to the alumni pre-game lunch and rally. Compadres served...and we scarfed. Lunch was also accompanied by Kanaka's golden bears.

For those unfamiliar with a golden bear, it's basically a long island iced tea with the addition of champagne and orange juice. Kanaka also sometimes makes blue bears, which are another alcohol laden drink with blue curacao to give it the appropriat "blue" color. Jello shots are always, always, always blue and gold.

(Cal's colors are blue and gold, not baby blue and yellow, like a certain rival whose name i won't mention but contains the letters U, C, L and A, but real blue, like the patriotic blue and real gold. True blues do not wear red. Thus, there is no red in my wardrobe, and the current color of my hair doesn't count).

If possible, I try to make the cake in Cal colors. Usually, this involves dying the frosting blue or gold, or one year, I put drops of blue and gold food coloring on the cake and ran the tines of a fork through the color, very Gaudiesque or Van Goghesque or something like that. No coloring this year...but the cupcakes were kick-ass (from Cooks Illustrated).

Go Bears!

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lunch on Friday at the Left Bank with a business colleague. Started off with a beet salad, comprised of about five different types of beets (who knew?), some greens and a mustard based creamy vinaigrette. Salmon with sauteed cabbage and lardons (or bacon, as all of us mere mortals call it) and a reduced brown sauce. The salmon was perfect - bordering on the rare side. My colleague had mushroom risotto with scallops; she said it was amazing.

She also ordered a side of green beans. These weren't too bad, although i couldn't see myself eating more than a few. The French ones are definitely better...and I'm not sure if it's because they're different or just the copious amounts of butter and scallions that the beans were served with.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A very nice vendor delivered giant cans of popcorn to three of us the other day. Manufactured by the Popcorn Palace (www.popcornpalace.com), it contained three types: caramel, white cheddar and butter flavor.

First of all, I have to point out that I absolutely love popcorn. I think it's one of the greatest foods ever. It's hard to mess up, although, another batch of popcorn from another company that arrived several months ago was absolutely disgusting.

I didn't really care for the caramel popcorn - my mom makes great caramel corn. But the other two favors were fabulous...and I just couldn't stop myself. I ate most of mine, plus a good portion of my manager's stash. Franky, I don't know how she resisted eating hers. I'm still trying to figure out if I should be angry with myself for eating what was probably several servings of the popcorn, or just chalk it up as one of those things that's been done, and no use feeling guilty. Besides, isn't popcorn healthy for you sans butter/flavorings/sugar?

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Welcome to my blog, musings about food and wine and life in general...here goes...

Nothing too particularly interesting in terms of food or wine, although the night is not yet over. Lunch at one of my favorite places, Fiesta del Mar - steak burrito.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 7:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Due to a long meeting that stretched over lunch today, we were fed. Luckily, IDC has found a new caterer that provides what I consider to be fairly high quality food for 1) catered food and 2) pricing low enough that IDC can afford. Lunch consisted of mixed greens with caramelized pears and candied pecans accompanied by a balsamic dressing, lemon-herb chicken, rice pilaf, green beans with sesame seeds and herbed rolls. All quite tasty...

Although, I do have to admit, I can't handle any more chicken. Someday, I'm going to have to do an estimate of the total pounds of chicken that I've consumed over the course of my life. The thought of how much in pounds is kind of depressing - bring on the beef!

I've never liked green beans, and every once in a while, force myself to try one just to make sure that I still don't like them. I ate a few today, and still don't like green beans.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)