Up a River without a Paddle

Would be just fine with me if I was stuck in this canoe.

The boy and I have always wanted to try Canoe, but have never made it there for some reason or not. Well, after almost 10 years in Atlanta, we finally went.

Since we had early weekday opera tickets, our reservation was for 5:30. We were early for our seating, and the hostess suggested we have a cocktail or wander the gardens. We did both. The weather was cool and perfect, the sparkling white pinot we sipped was crisp and clean. The vista, charming, green and cheery. The boy's hand, soft and warm in mine. Though with all this waxing poetic I did struggle a tad in my 3 inch heels on gravel paths...c'est la vie I suppose, it meant more clinging to the boy's arm tightly...

The service was attentive and knowledgeable. The bread delicious...soft butter, always a good sign. Black napkin for my black dress, white for the boy's khakis...always appreciative of that.
Loved the view from our cozy and roomy booth, did not love as much the waiters hanging at the wait station directly next to us. There should be a law about wait stations in promximity to diners in restaurants. I remember when the boy and I worked in 5 star, we were foribben to hover and to congregate on the dining room floor. We were to "appear when needed and disappear when not"...magically. I appreciate these nuances of fine dining. Though it did not kill the expererience.
Luckily, I was for the most part distracted by the food.

We had:
Duck stuffed crispy Georgia Quail with blackberries, roasted vidalia onion puree and cilantro: This was WONDERFUL. The tart of the blackberry,. the sweet of the onion, the fresh brightness of the cilantro contrasting with the crisp light crust and the tender rich complexity of the two birds...just wonderful.

Salmon Creek Farms BBQ Pork Belly on english pea terrine and jicama vanilla slaw: I like pork belly. I think this could have been very good. But it was cold, and cold congealed fat is unsettling. Now perhaps a hot belly would pair nice with the chilly cool of the pea terrine and the crisp slaw...but it was not hot.

Whole crusted sea bass with garlic, lemon, fennel, capers and olives with fresh green beans: Cooked perfectly, tender sweet flesh was light and firm, buttery in contrast to the bite of the caper...perfect.

Slow Roasted Carolina Rabbit with swiss chard-applewood smoked bacon ravioli, candied garlic jus: I had rabbit about six months ago and was wholly disappointed. Inspired by some darlings romping about my yard this weekend, I decided to give them another chance. I am so glad I did. This was beautiful, meltingly sweet and tender. Redolent of rich dark forests bright with springs youth,heavenly and transporting, yet held to earth by the perfectly paired jus and ravioli. The boy had chosen a tempranillo for me to accompany, and it did so with grace.

I was distressed that we had no time for coffee, dessert or aperitives. I was sure there would be a fascinating cheese plate just waiting for me to discover it.

Overall, the place was lovely, romantic, the food and service top notch. I look forward to dining there again...hopefully that cheese plate will be there!

for beets' sake! or, CSA experiment #2

Okay, so... I hate beets. Or, at least I thought I did. So, I'll admit it wasn't entirely unintentional that the veggie from our CSA that I decided to experiment with for a dish I was taking to a party to share was the bunch of beets we received.

Turns out that apparently beets can be pretty good. So many people asked for the recipe that I am posting it here. I'm pretty proud of myself given that I made this for the party in hopes that at least *someone* would like it, and I wouldn't have to take the offending beets home with me. I had no idea the dish would be completely empty by that evening! It was inspired by an epicurious recipe, but is substantially different because I had different ingredients and proportions.

Beet Risotto with Goat Cheese

6 large or 8 small servings

1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 bunch baby red beets, diced (Mine were a combination of red ace and chioggia, about 1" to 1.5" in diameter. You could probably also use a couple of large beets, peeled and diced)
1 c (or so) arborio rice
3-4 c vegetable broth (low sodium if not homemade)
1 T (or so) balsamic vinegar (I used a 10 year aged O brand one. I think the more expensive aged vinegars are worth it for uses like this. I didn't really measure, so you may want to add more to taste.)
Salt & pepper
3-4 oz. soft goat cheese, crumbled

Melt butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add beets and onion and sprinkle with salt. Saute for a few minutes, until onion is soft. Mix in rice and saute for about 1 minute until rice is coated and translucent. Add 3 c. broth and vinegar. Increase heat slightly and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat slowly to keep the pan at a simmer constantly. The whole dish should be brilliantly red! If the rice starts to look dry, add more broth. Stir frequently to ward off sticking. Simmer uncovered until rice is tender and creamy and beets are still barely crunchy. This took me about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust as needed. I'll admit I skipped this part because I was scared of the beets, so it's a good thing that it turned out for the best. Serve topped with crumbled goat cheese.

My goat cheese got sort of warm in my purse while I was walking to the party where it was served, so it didn't really crumble very well, but it was just as good with a little hunk of goat cheese cut off the log on top. :)

It was really pretty--I'm kind of sad that I don't have a photo. :) I have beets again this week, so maybe we'll have beet risotto again next weekend!

CSA experiment #1

The Boy and I started receiving a weekly CSA (community-supported agriculture subscription) last week. It is clear that I'm going to have to get creative with my preparations because (to be honest) I've never cooked with a lot of these things before.

Aside from the fact that I couldn't quite identify what the rapini (a.k.a. broccoli raab) was that we recieved (even though it was delicious and had pretty yellow flowers), we have been pretty mundane with it. Salad and that sort of thing. Yesterday was my first major CSA experiment:

Orzo with Spinach and Green Garlic

serves 2

2 c. fresh spinach, chopped
1 green garlic, chopped
1/4 c. orzo
1 T. olive oil
salt
pepper

1/4 c. grated parmesan

Boil water, heavily salted. Cook orzo to package directions in salted water. Meanwhile, cook green garlic sprinkled with salt and pepper in 1/2 T. olive oil in nonstick skillet for a few minutes until soft. Add spinach and 1 t. oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and cook until done, about 4 minutes. Drain orzo, and reserve a few Tbs. of pasta water for later. Combine orzo with spinach mixture. Add remaining oil and parmesan. Add pasta water to loosen as needed.

This recipe turned out well--it was fast enough for a weeknight dinner, but tasted quite complex. I think I like green garlic.


Today, I made a midweek pizza concoction with Trader Joe's premade pizza dough, jarred sauce, pregrated light mozzarella cheese, Morningstar Farms soy sausage crumbles, chopped green garlic, chopped rapini and chopped fresh basil.

I had, as always, a little trouble with the step where you transfer the prepared pizza from your "peel" to the stone in the oven, but it ended up working out okay, and I got compliments on the topping choices!

The rapini had even begun to bloom (which I wasn't aware that it did) so we had adorable yellow flowers on our pizza. Cute cute cute!

Not a Watershed Moment

I took the mother and the boy to Watershed for dinner recently. I have mixed feelings about it. The mother and boy loved the place. I found it nice, good, pleasant, but not orgasmic. The cuisine is southern, and honestly probably some of the best, freshest of these sort of things Service was steady though not mind blowing. Space is modern, fresh, clean and kinda crowded iand noisy in the main dining room.

The chef sent over an amuse bouche of the soup of the day, an english pea with mint which was quite lovely both in delicate flavor and vibrant hue.

To begin with we had:

Special appetizer of the day: Softshell crab I am not a crab enthusiast, and my mother was not impressed with previous softshell, but this was pretty juicy and nice.

Southern Cheese plate
Three local cheeses, one from south carolina and two from Ga's sweetgrass...all three were delicious.

Main courses
Pork chop with collard greens and mac and cheese
This was one of the biggest pork chops I have ever seen. It was cooked to perfection and the greens were bright and fresh. The mac and cheese was decadent and one of the highlights of the meal.

Salmon Croquettes
These were okay. The grits that were served with them were creamy and tasty, but something lighter like pickled vegetables, salad or slaw would have been a better accompaniment to something as heavy as croquettes.

Mushrooms on toast
These were a bit bland.

Fried oysters
These were crisp, hot, plump and juicy. Perfect. They were also served with two delightfully different sauces for dipping.

Dessert
Rhubarb crisp
Tart, warm and huge. Delicious.

Cookies and Milk
Pecan sandies and an icy glass of milk were good. Cookies were very nice, but I expected the milk to be rich and creamy like my favorite organic.

It was good....but not orgasmic.This is ultimately a nice place to take the family and whatnot. A bit pricey but acceptable.

Breaking news...

Harold McGee, the food science god, reports that you actually can use metal and aluminum foil in the microwave as long as it doesn't touch the sides. Who knew?!

I'm really tempted to microwave an egg in the shell now to see it explode...but I think the Boy might disapprove.