Hounds Abound


So how did last Saturday’s Greyhound event go? For starters, read the following post if you haven’t yet, to find out what I’m talking (writing?) about.

The event went well. Karen and Thomas ran the successful raffle and silent auction stuff. Which I missed completely, as I was in the burger hut. In 3 1/2 hours, I cooked 60 hamburgers, 20+ veggie Boca burgers, and 48 hot dogs. Plus lots of drinks and chips. At $3.00 for burgers, and $2.00 for hot dogs (priced to move!), we made somewhere around $375-$400. And all of the proceeds, even the tips, went to the dogs.

So, what was so fun about it? I mean really, I have a blast doing it. Burgers and dogs. Me and two flat top griddles. And people happy to see me, and me happy to see them and their dogs. The four legged kind, not to be confused with the kind with rolls, mustard, relish, and onions. Plus, I was able to spend the day yakking with two helpers, Liz and Chris. It was a sunny, breezy day (not like the monsoon we had two years ago), And Karen and I finished the day spending the night with our friends of 20 years, Thomas and Larry. And a killer martini.

A perfect day.

Dogs and Hot Dogs

It’s been a busy food week, and I’ll be cooking A LOT between now and Memorial Day. But tomorrow, I’ll be utilizing all of my culinary skills as I run the hot dog and hamburger stand at the Greyhound Adoption Service’s 14th annual reunion. It’s at the 4H campground in Westford, MA. And truly, I love to do it. Sure, there’s the glamour of being in a hut with two flat-top griddles and propane tanks the size of a small rocket. And I get to make sure we ask that important question: do you want a drink and chips with that? But there’s more than that. I get to see people and their greyhounds, and we get to raise money for the care and feeding of the hounds. It’s at least my fifth year flipping burgers. My wife Karen and a friend of ours, Thomas Cowern, are running the raffle and silent auction. And did I mention that ALL proceeds from the food goes to the hounds. Not a penny goes to the chef.

Why do we do it? Well, we’re on greyhounds #6 & 7. Sure, we’ve had them for a while. I think a big part of their charm is that we have to wake them up in the morning. We have friends with goldens, labs, etc. And they’re all up at 5:30, when the dogs are ready to go. A greyhound? They’re like teenagers. Given the chance, they’d sleep ‘til noon, hit the bathroom, have breakfast, and go back to bed. It’s a charmed life.

So yes, this is about food. Come grab some burgers and dogs, and check out the hounds.

The details are:

http://greycanine.com/
http://greycanine.com/Web%20poster%20revised.pdf
http://greycanine.com/greycanine/RaffleSilentAuction.htm

A Sauce Explosion

Last week, I was doing a dinner for some regular clients. I’ve been cooking for them for more than a few years, and enjoy being there. And for many of their dinners, I bring an assistant with me. Let’s call her Karen T, who is actually no relation to my wife, Karen Dz.

So, this dinner was a special one. It was the hostess’ birthday, and they had 15 guests. I decided to experiment a bit, and with the beef tenderloin entrée, I decided to make a beef stock-based sauce, with caramelized onions.

So, Karen T. and I are zipping along on the evening. The appetizers were served in the living room, and the salads were almost ready. And I had the brainstorm to get flashy with the sauce. Not that I always hear voices, but a voice somewhere in my head suggested that I puree the sauce. I thought that would be a niftier way of presenting the dinner. So I went to their regular household blender (this is what we call foreshadowing), and poured in most of the sauce. I think it’s important to mention here that I’m used to using a Vita Mix, which is a nuclear powered, industrial strength blender. A Vita Mix can puree a Buick. On its slowest speed.

So, I put in the sauce, put on the lid, and hit the on switch. A nanosecond later (if it even took that long), there was sauce everywhere, except, perhaps, in the blender. And no, as luck would have it, it couldn’t just end up on the counter. No, it splattered. Everywhere. I’d also cleverly positioned the blender next to two windows. And a window sill filled with tea canisters.

How bad was it? I think, when they make the movie of this dinner (to be directed by Brian DePalma, apparently), they’ll be calling it the Beef Sauce Chain Saw and Blender Massacre. I travel with many kitchen tools. One of them isn’t a squeegee. So I started cleaning up the window. One swipe with the paper towel made it worse, which I didn’t think was possible. And I had to serve the salads in a few minutes. Which is when the host walked into the kitchen. I was mortified. And I don’t mortify easily. He was gracious, which I think he does do easily.

That’s when Karen T. swooped in with paper towel and cider vinegar. Yes, I travel with cider vinegar. But not Windex (memo to Chef: travel with Windex).

The dinner went just fine. Everything went out on time. And I had enough sauce to make everyone happy.

The moral of the story? Duh, that’s easy. Don’t puree a lot of sauce with caramelized onions in a household blender next to two windows. Or, if you really feel compelled to do it, then do it in a stainless steel room with a hose and a drain in the middle of the floor…

Macaroons, videos, etc.

Three weeks ago, Pat Cahill, a reporter for the Springfield Republican (that’s a newspaper, not a politician) came to our house to interview me for an article for Passover and macaroons. She was also working with Bob Stern, a Republican news photographer. And since the world of newspapers is changing a wee bit, Bob didn’t just take a few photos for the article. He also shot a metric ton of video for their website, too. It was fun making macaroons, talking non-stop, and generally having a good time.

And how did the 3 minute and 47 second video turn out? Personally, I think Bob did a great job. But what happened to the article? Well, Pat did a terrific job, too. However, the article hasn’t appeared on their website yet, so I can’t link to it. But when it does, I’ll post it.

Meanwhile, here’s the link to the video:

http://videos.masslive.com/republican/2008/04/passover_cooking.html

Now, one question I’ve heard is, “What’s with separating the eggs in your hands? Isn’t that (pick one) gross, unsanitary, and/or generally repulsive? Shouldn’t you just pour and/or toss the yolk between the eggshell halves?” The answers are:
No, no, no, and no.

This is actually the best way to do it. If you use the shells, you risk tearing and breaking the yolks, making it impossible to separate them from the whites. And, if there’s anything gross on the egg shells (do we want to know where the eggs come from? Oy.), it’s got a good chance of communing with your yolks and whites.

So, try it once. Yes, it’ll feel funny at first. But it’s fast and clean.

And now, a heads up. This Weds, April 23, at 8:00 pm, I’ll be on WGBY (channel 57) in Springfield. It’s our local PBS station. I’ll be on the air, promoting ChefBill (that’s the biz, not me talking about myself in the third person) with a gift certificate for a dinner for eight, including a full cooking lesson for the meal. It’s all a part of their annual wine auction fundraiser. Now, if you don’t get channel 57, call your local cable company and DEMAND that they carry it. Sure, you may live in Colorado, Georgia, or maybe even Boston. That’s okay. Just call up Comcast. They’re a nice, friendly company. I’m sure they’ll connect it for you…

So, please let me know what you think of the video. Maybe this’ll be the start of a long and wild YouTube career.

A Culinary Iditarod

I’m a wee bit stunned that three weeks have gone by since my last blog post. When I read other peoples’ blogs, I always cringe when they say something like, “Gee, have three weeks gone by since I last blogged?”, or words to that effect. All I can say is, “oops.”

Anyway, these last few weeks, especially the last eight days, have been nothing short of a culinary Iditarod. Without the dogs, of course. It’s been a crazed busy time for cooking. Starting last weekend, Karen and I did a dinner for eight in the nifty Springfield neighborhood of Forest Park. It’s a very cool old neighborhood, and the host and hostess were very nice. I did a combined surf and turf. That is, scallops in an orange/grapefruit sauce, and beef tenderloin. And I finished it up with bananas Foster. I didn’t flame the rum-soaked bananas, as I thought setting the curtains on fire would pretty much ruin the evening. And for some reason, bananas Foster has been the dessert of choice for the last few months. At the very least, it is a fun way to finish a relaxing meal.

In the middle of the week, I had an enjoyable day that was a variation on a personal chef day. I was given as a gift(!!) to a woman recently diagnosed with breast cancer, by a group of her friends. And instead of “just” a day of making meals for her fridge and freezer, four of her friends came by, and the day turned into a cooking lesson too. They all had fun, and so did I. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

And the Iditarod finished with a family party in Manchester, NH last night. I had a full day, and my body is still recovering. I hit the supermarket and Costco yesterday morning, and was at the stove by noon. The guests showed up at 6:30, just as I was finishing the prep. And then the food started to fly out of the kitchen. It was a surprise 80th birthday party. I always get nervous with surprises for anyone over 75, but no one keeled over, which is always a bonus. They all loved the food, and were super-friendly. So it worked out well all around.

And so we begin a new week. Nothing that a good night’s sleep and an on-call chiropractor won’t help.

Snow and Public Television

So there we were. For the 2nd Friday in a row, we had snow. Lots of it. Last Friday, I had a Romantic Dinner for Two. Ordinarily, I’d have cancelled. In addition to trying to get there, or back, in a snowy monsoon, I’m also particularly inept at driving up my steep driveway after we get a wee bit of frozen precipitation. So, last week, for the first time ever, I walked to a Romantic Dinner for Two. Yup. Right up the street. I dropped the food, pots and pans, and other goodies off before it snowed. I trudged over there in the snow for the dinner, and and then trudged home. It was not only a fun trudge (a fun trudge?), but a fun dinner, too.

But last night, the snow actually held off until the drive home. Karen and I were at the Springfield Marriott for the WGBY wine tasting. No, sadly, I tasted no wine. But we did give out lots of our own samples. I was sautéing barramundi, a really cool fish from Turners Falls. Okay, it’s really from Australia. It’s an Australian sea bass. But it’s farm raised in Turners Falls, and has no mercury, PCBs, hormones, etc. And, even better than that, it tastes really good, too. So for three hours, we did sampling with my own new recipe, which I called Barramundi Piccata. Carol Devine, the VP of marketing at Australis, the barramundi company (www.australis.com), joined us for the festivities as we gave out samples and chatted with most of the 400+ people who were there.

And what was the fee to WGBY to participate? They asked for a bottle of wine. So I gave them one of the bottles that I made with friends last year. It was a cabernet sauvignon. And it really came out well, too. I called it “Chateau LaFeet Greyhound.” I wonder how much they got for it at the auction? Coming up next is the WGBY wine auction in April. It’s their big fund raiser. And I’ll be donating a dinner party for 8 (10?) with a cooking lesson thrown in.

Stay tuned…

Fishies

Maybe because it’s February and I'm a bit tired of beef stew. Or maybe because I had some cooking back on Boston’s scenic North Shore this week (Valentine’s Day, of course). But I’ve cooked quite a bit of seafood this week. And while there are all kinds of great places to buy seafood along the coast, my favorite, for almost 20 years (gasp!!) is Rowand Fisheries, in Beverly, MA. They’re right on the waterfront , at the base of the Beverly-Salem bridge. Sure, you can get good seafood at Whole Foods and other places. But Rowands goes way beyond good.

For the Valentine’s Romantic Dinner for Two, I made a variation of scallops piccata, as well as a fresh crab appetizer. The scallops were so flavorful that all I used with them were olive oil, dry vermouth, and capers. It was easy: I heated the pan over a medium-high heat, added the olive oil, and added the scallops. After a couple of minutes, when the scallops were browned on the bottom, I flipped them over, added the vermouth and capers, and finished cooking them for a few more minutes, I served them with rice pilaf and roasted vegetables. It was a simple, and elegant meal.

The next night was even simpler. The entrée was organically-fed salmon, from Rowands. All I did was put a light schmear (coating?) of olive oil on the fish. Added a bit of salt and pepper. And broiled it. Oh my. It was spectacular.

So, wherever you are, jump in your car and get to Rowands. It’s open seven days per week. And tell them I sent you. You’ll love their fish.