I forgot to mention this is yesterday's post:
Saturday evening my Sweet Lady Wife and I went to our friends Michelle and Charlie's house for dinner. Michelle's garden is looking really nice. She gave us a bunch of herbs she had picked. One of them was lemon balm and I used it in the pan sauce for the salmon. It was excellent (I used the thyme too, Michelle)
Michelle has a really nice garden, but she needs to keep her blog more up-to date ;-)
I read an interesting post over on Opinionated Markets today titled 'Will Spam Kill Twitter?'.
I've noticed a recent tactic - which I deplore - that works like this:
1. Let's say you make widgets.
2. You do a Tweetscan for 'widget'
3. You follow anyone who uses that term, hoping they follow you back.
4. You can then send them your marketing messages via Twitter.
I'm sorry, but you'll never find me engaging in such a tactic, and you can't hire me to do it for you.
I do think that Tweetscan is a legitimate tool. It allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of your market and reputation. I also think it is legitimate to reach out to a Twitter user who has twittered about a bad experience with your product or service.
I also think it's very legitimate to set up a Twitter account that your customers can subscribe to and get your updates. Then it's THEIR choice.
Thank you all for your kind words, support, and your prayers. you have noidea how much I've appreciated them.
Dad is doing much better. Monday night, when they wheeled him off to the hospital I seriously doubted he would make it until the next morning. I underestimated the crusty old dude. He's been up out of the hospital bed sitting in the chair these past few evenings. He needs a little help walking but his walking is MUCH better than we'd feared.
Mom and I think that if we can get her some full-time help, there should be no reason Dad can't come back home soon, which will be so much better for him than a care home.
I spend a lot of time here talking about Plate It Up!, my favorite gourmet kitchen tools store in Glendale, AZ. I was reminded again this week why I am such a loyal raving enthusiatic fan of Plate It Up! and the owner, Heather.
Somehow, I had damaged my big Viking saute pan. When I set it in the new smoothtop stove here in my new house, I noticed the bottom was not flat. Somewhere along the line I must have gotten it too hot. I decided to replace it. After all, it is my Number 1 pan here in the Fumbling Foodie kitchen.
I went to Plate It Up to get a new one and Heather was out of them. I asked her when she expected her next shipment from Viking and she said, "Not for a while". I explained what had happened and what I needed. Knowing that is my favorite pan, she said, "Let me see what I can do." A few days later I received an email from here saying that my replacement had arrived.
Now THAT's service.
Thank you, Heather!
I don't visit Williams-Sonoma very much. The main reason is that I have a local gourmet kitchen tools store near me. The owner greets me by name when I walk in, She knows my likes and dislikes, and she carries - and is knowledgeable about - almost everything I could want or need in the kitchen. So if Heather carries it, I buy it from her.
I was in the Apple Store last night - I'm finally breaking down and upgrading to Leopard. The Williams-Sonoma store is right next door so my Sweet Lady Wife and I decided to drop in and browse.
We spent several minutes there and as usual I was drawn to the cookbook section. I don't know what it is about cookbooks but if there is a display of them I seem to be magnetically drawn to it. I ended up picking out two cookbooks to the tune of about seventy five bucks. We took them to the cash register and waited. and waited. and waited. and waited.
We spent several minutes standing there at the counter while the three clerks all seem to find almost anything to do but wait on us.
Then we spent several minutes standing there at the counter while one of the clerks waited on someone else.
Then we spent a minute or so standing there in disbelief as the clerk finished with that customer, turned and found something else to do.
My wife and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, abandoned our prospective purchases there on the counter and walked away.
Guys, here's the perfect Valentines Day gift for your Lady: M&M candies custom-imprinted with her name.
You can select two colors and up to two messages. They have multiple packaging options including Silver TIn box and min-glass box. Unfortunately, you cannot get just ONE tin or ONE glass box. If you want the Glass Box option, you have to get a package of twelve.
My advice is to just get the four 7oz bags and go buy your own larger container.
I really like this new kitchen. Tonight as I was preparing dinner, both my wife and son were in the kitchen and we weren't in each other's way. The kitchen in the old house was strictly a one-person-kitchen.
Me and the new stove are getting along famously. I had all four burners going at once tonight. And now that I have a stove that can doo better than just ON or OFF, I was able to prefect the Chicken Legs with Raspberry Vinaigrette recipe that I learned from Chef Bernard Chirant a few weeks ago.
Man, I love this recipe. What could be more plebeian than a chicken drumstick? Yet with the addition of two simple ingredients - raspberry vinegar and veal stock (I used demi-glace) the lowly chick drumstick is turned into something that will elicit a WOW in response to your guest's first bite. In fact, I think part of the attraction of this recipe is that it allows you to eat very well and cheaply at the same time: I checked Safeway today and you can get big packages of drumsticks for $1.16/pound.
I made this a couple of weeks ago, but here is the refined recipe:
Chick Drumsticks with Raspberry Vinaigrette
Whack off the foot end of each drumstick. You could leave them on, but if you want to impress with this bistro-style dish then whack 'em off. It's easier than you think: all it takes is a quick chop with a chef's knife. Put about two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of olive oil into the sauté pan over medium-high heat. Put the drumsticks into the pan. Turn them every few minutes. Your objective is to get them nicely browned all over. When they are nicely browned then put them on a plate and tent with foil.
Pour off most of the oil/fat. Deglaze the pan with about 6oz of raspberry vinegar (I get it at Safeway). Let the vinegar reduce or 1-2 minutes. Add a cup of veal stock or demi glace. Put the drumsticks back in the pan and turn the heat to medium low. Cover the pan.
Let them babies cook for at least 30 minutes, turning several times so that they are evenly coated with the sauce. When the meat starts to fall off the bone you know they are done.
Remove from the pan and serve, pouring a little of the sauce over each one.
OK, I can't find the camera. It's in one of these boxes around here somewhere. So no pictures, I'm sorry.
For the first meal in the new kitchen, I needed to play it safe. Me and the new range have barely been introduced. How responsive would it be when I turned the temperature up or down? What setting on the dial will 'medium-high' translate to? How accurate would the oven temperature be?
Everything turned out fine. The burners get hotter, and they are more responsive. Settings below about 4 still actually put out some heat. That caused me some trouble while making the Hollandaise sauce: I had the burner WAY to high the first time and I ended up with scrambled egg yolks. The second attempt was better but I still need to turn the temperature down some more.
First Course
An Asparagus Tower with Holladaise sauce, just like the one in this post..
Second Course
A Roast Chicken. My roasting pan has been packed away for months and so have been unable to prepare this nice roast chicken recipe again since I made it the first time way back in July. This is definitely the tastiest roast chicken recipe I have ever made.
THe chicken was accompanied by a rice pilaf recipe of my own concoction involving orzo, rice, oyster mushrooms, and thyme. A lot of rice pilafs I've eaten were kinda bland. This one is pretty good. I'll post separately about it when I can find my camera.
As I was preparing Sunday dinner today, it occured to me that this would be the last time this kitchen and I did battle together.
The house has been sold. Next weekend my Sweet Lady Wife and I will be on a long-deserved (particularly for her) vacation in Reno, NV. Closing will be the Tuesday after that. So today is IT.
Don't get me wrong. In five or six weeks we'll be in the new house with the new kitchen: Lots of cabinets. Corian countertops. A real pantry right off the kitchen. Lots of electrical outlets. Room to store my mixer and food processor and condiments someplace other than my Den. I am looking forward to that more than you know.
THIS kitchen however, is where I learned to cook. Learned to saute. Learned to make Beurre Blanc. The kitchen that made Coq au Vin for five generations of women in my family on Mother's Day last year. The kitchen where I made my first Thanksgiving dinner -- solo. The kitchen where I learned my knife skills.
I remember when Adam challenged everyone to send him pictures of their kitchens and I was the only one to respond and he wrote a rather flattering post about me and my kitchen.
It is a kitchen right out of the 1970's, isn't it? My Sweet Lady Wife and I picked out that wallpaper shortly after we moved in 31 years ago. We went to a wallpaper class and then I hung that wallpaper myself. There are lots of other memories in this kitchen too. Down low (about eye-level for a five-year-old boy) near the refrigerator are two small 1/4-inch diamter holes in the drywall. I was fixing something somewhere in the house with a hammer one day long ago. I heard 'I'm fixing too, Daddy" - accompanied by a tap-tap-tap eminating from the kitchen. It wasn't until hours later that we found my son's handiwork :-)
And of course we'll always laugh about that small grease fire in the oven.
So there is some sadness in saying godbye to this kitchen.
