third time's a charm

Beretta was fabulous, as usual. The only fault I can find with the place is that the drinks are so good, it's very challenging to leave without having at least two. And really, is that a fault?

I'd say no, considering how delicious the drinks are. One of them, the Lonsdale, is so wonderful that we are trying to steal the recipe. Our server was going to ferret it out for us, until she realized that might not be good for business. Next time we go, we'll sit at the bar and order Lonsdales until we've figured it out. It includes apple, gin, lemon, honey, and basil, but it's the proportions I'm after. And is the apple in juice form? Fresh squeezed (I'm sure)?

The food is not too shabby, either. Burrata on pizza? Yes, please. Pork wrapped in pancetta sitting atop green beans (which were swimming in butter and wine)? Don't mind if I do. And grilled asparagus. I'm trying to avoid saying something silly here, like "Finger lickin' good," but it seems I cannot help myself.

See, Beretta drives me to distraction. I think I'll have to make it a regular habit.

Where does your food come from?

So, a bunch of people recently had salmonellosis. The FDA thinks that the bugs are from tomatoes, although they are starting to change their minds a little. Problem is, no-one knows where the tomatoes came from. Why? Because tomatoes are imported from god-knows-where to US distribution centers, where they're repacked and sent to stores, etc. And what does the FDA say about this? Let's track the tomatoes better. What do I say about this? Let's get our tomatoes from a farm. Let's have them picked ripe, not green, let's have them go from the vine, to the picker's hands, to a box, to my doorstep.

Now, before you suggest that I get off (or fall off) my high horse, know that I buy fast food and don't always eat at restaurants that grow their own veggies in the backyard. But, in an ideal world, I wouldn't (eat fast food) and would (eat as locally as possible). Why does the government's answer to all of these food contamination problems involve even more money, oversight, and centralization, when so many problems can be solved by going smaller?

Coco500 has fried green beans

And truffled zucchini flower flatbread. They are awesome. Also good but not awesome was the duck liver terrine and the tomato braised pork shoulder.

Nate and I had eyes bigger than our stomachs last night and ordered two small plates, a large plate and one flatbread (after consuming lots of wine and white cheddar Cheezits at home). We finished about half of the food. Our waiter chastised us. When we ordered dessert (!?) he said that he wouldn't bring it to us unless we promised to finish it. Well, it was hard not to, given its deliciousness. Cherry gelee with buttermilk panna cotta and nice little shortbreads on the side. A fifty-fifty, it was called. And really, just the perfect mix.

Now I'm enjoying a fancy lunch of leftover truffled flat bread and cottage cheese (eaten separately) while I type a report and try not to think about wedding dresses.

Eat your veggies!

Nate doesn't like green things, except for salad. He especially doesn't like greens that verge towards bitter, like collards and kale. Unfortunately, it's that time of year when the grocery box is full of these things. And I like them, having a penchant for bitter tastes (Campari and tonic water being my favorite examples).

My not-so-sneaky plan is to just make them, regardless of Nate's preference. He seldom eats them, but it means more lunch for me the next day. The grocery box people are nice enough to include a letter with recipes specific to each week's box. A few weeks ago, they had a recipe for collard greens, which I made to great effect for the Southern BBQ cookoff. It involves a little garlic, raisins, and orange juice, which soften the bitter edge of the greens (I think).

It goes something like this:

Blanch the greens (which you've washed and torn/sliced into bite sized pieces)
Shock them in ice water
Soften some garlic in a bit of olive oil in a saute pan
Put the drained greens in the garlic-y pan, along with some raisins
Squeeze half an orange in with the greens (drink the other half's juice, if it's nice and ripe)
Cover the pan for a few minutes to braise the greens
Voila!

I mixed this with some brown rice for what turned out to be a ridiculously healthy meal. Tonight, to repent, I'll have something cheesy or meaty.

Please forgive me, gluten-free cobbler.

Eagle-eyed reader Kara spotted a grave omission from my cookoff post. Although I listed apricot cobbler in the list of delicious dishes on offer at the barbecue, I forgot two very important points about it.

1. It was awesome. Despite (or perhaps due to) being made with gluten-free flour, it was crunchy and sweet and gooey, just like cobbler should be.

2. It tied for first place!

So, gluten-free cobbler of Kara's, I beg your forgiveness.

Range is good.

Very, very good. Too good to write about.

Just know that we are so happy to have it in our neighborhood.

You should be jealous.

Just kidding - we started out with a selection from Range's nicely composed cocktail list. Actually, I had the special cocktail of the evening, a cherry margarita, up. And Nate had the Envy, which he described as a cucumber mojito. As aperitifs, I think his won, as it whet the appetite a bit better than mine. We had the goat cheese ravioli and marinated leeks (two separate dishes) to begin. No clear winners here. The ravioli had a nice bite, provided by both the filling and the pasta. And the leeks were topped with a poached egg that released its eggy goodness with each forkful.

I was very excited to try the Tokaji Furmint that was on the wine list. I read about this wine several years ago and have never gotten around to having a glass. Luckily, our server felt that it would go perfectly with the roasted chicken, my main. And it did - a little flower and minerals to balance the oil in my bread salad. Nate had a Temperanillo (as is his way) with his pan roasted hangar steak.

To finish, I cheese and a glass of Madeira. The kind of cheese escapes me, something sheepy, but it was exactly what I was looking for. A little sharp and very creamy. I had to have a a bit of Nate's dessert, of course. Who could say no to chocolate crepes with grapefruit and pepper ice cream? No one sane, I think.

And the winner is...

Audrey's pulled pork and beans. With homemade barbecue sauce. Sooooooooo tasty, especially on the Wonder Bread she brought.

Yesterday was the occasion of our third cookoff - the theme this time was a Southern barbecue. We had the aforementioned pork and beans, black eyed pea and ham soup, biscuits, red velvet cupcakes, apricot cobbler, cole slaw, collard greens, bacon wrapped shrimp, corn, mashed sweet potatoes and cheese, and Rice Krispie treats. A great spread, considering it was potluck and not planned at all.


Sadly missing from that list was the pork butt that I started a little too late in the day to enter the competition. I rubbed the porks with brown sugar, cumin, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. They went down on the grill at noon, along with our little smoker box. I kept them on indirect heat with the grill around 260 F all afternoon. I was mistakenly thinking that two smaller pieces would need less time than one larger piece, but they held out for eight hours on the grill (and another hour in the oven). Oops. Most of the cookoff participants had left by the time the pork was ready to eat, so Lindsay, Kara, Ben, Nate and I were able to throw manners out the window and stuff shreds into our mouth with our hands. So greasy, greasy good.

Perhaps a picture is in order.