March 17, 2009

Tuesday with Chef T

It's Keen to be Green. Happy St. Patricks Day. What probably was going to be just an O.K. event turned out to be one of the best dinners yet. Everything, and I mean everything was great. Baseball Mike, thanks for bringing the beer. A little practice on making Black N Tans for next year so they're more Black N Tan instead of brown. :) Chef Tahya, wow, what an amazing Corned Beef. It was awesome. And the grilled Cabbage was also really good. Sandy, thanks for stepping up and making the Butterscotch Pie again. The salt amount was right however the amount of filling did seem a bit low. Did you happen to burn some of the filling to the pan? Just a thought. Everyone brought their "A" game and the event was awesome. Our menu;



Sauteed Salmon w/ Raisin Caper butter
Corned Beef Brisket w/ sweet mustard glaze
Guinness spicy mustard sauce
Grilled Cabbage
Smashed Potatoes

Butterscotch Pie

Cigars on the patio. (thanks Baseball Mike)

Thanks to everyone for participating.

March 3, 2009

Tuesday with Chef T



Happy Birthday Schaweetie. So it's Karen's big "4 - 2". Yaaahoooo. I decided to use the number "4" and "2" candle's instead of 42 small candles. That way the fire department didn't have to be on stand-by. Everything was great, and I mean EVERYTHING. First, Baseball Mike. Thank you for making a Chocolate Milk run. Couldn't have tasted the great chocolate martini's without it. We all appreciate your speedy driving. Also, thanks for the wine. In addition to what Movie-man brought, I'm sure we all had enough to keep us happy. Next, Tracy, thank you very much for the awesome Bruschetta. I can still taste the tomatoes. Yum. The stuffed mushroom caps were also amazing. I think at that point I had already eaten too much. Yummy. I know that stuffed mushroom are a pain in the *%$@*. I used to have those and stuffed shells on my catering menu and decided to remove them after I did a graduation party and had to stuff 200 shells. NEVER AGAIN I promised myself. So, I can empathize with your experience. Lots of work but I think everyone appreciated them, they really were great. Movie-man, nice job on the shrimp and a big THANK YOU for stepping up and doing them in the first place. Karen appreciated it and I'm sure the rest of the guests did as well. Also, thanks for most of the wine we all enjoyed. Chef Tahya, thank you for the vegetable medley, shredding the Brussel Sprouts (about as much fun as stuffing shells), and helping with the dishes. Not that I'm one to pat myself on the back, but I will say the birthday cake was pretty darn good. Oh, sorry, before that we had the Beef Tenderloin w/ mushroom ragout and the Brussel Sprouts with parmesan cheese. Yummy. The menu was sort of built around Karens' wishes and I know she very much appreciated everybody's efforts.
Our Birthday Menu for Chef T's lovely wife Karen;

Chocolate Martini

Bruschetta
Stuffed Mushroom Caps
Shrimp Cocktail

Herb crusted Beef Tenderloin
Mixed vegetable medley with home grown pumpkin
Shredded Brussel Sprouts w/ Parmesan cheese

Red Velvet Cake








Our wines:
Marc Kreydenweiss Andlau Riesling 2001
Marc Kreydenweiss Kritt Gewurztraminer "Les Charmes" 2002
Torbreck "The Steading" 2002
Still Water Vyds Syrah 2005
Clarendon Hills Moritz Vyd Shiraz 1.75ML 1999
Stonestreet Legacy 1995






Thanks to everyone. Another stellar event. The friends, the food, the wine... it was all great and I know Karen had a great birthday.

Ciao

February 10, 2009

Tuesday with Chef T

Thank you Chef Tahya, Baseball Mike and Baseball Mikes significant other Tracy for joining me for another Tuesday with Chef T. Originally, I had set out a rather interesting menu to help celebrate the upcomming Cupid's Day (Valentines Day). This original menu was for our theme Hearts Aflame:
Braised Rhubarb
Roasted Red Potatoes
Sauteed Chicken Hearts
Butterscotch Pie (Movie-man Sandy ReDoo)

Unfortunately, the joke was that most everyone took it seriously and bowed out of attending. Too bad, so sad because the actual menu and one of the best dinners yet consisted of;

Tuscan White Bean Dip with toasted French Bread
Roasted Asparagus, Cherry Tomatoes and Black Olives
Bucati Pasta with Meatballs and creamy tomatoe sauce
Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

We enjoyed many good wines and one not so good (noted by *)thanks to Baseball Mike. Our wine list was:

Cougar Crest Viognier 2006
Masi Masianco 2005 *
Amavi Semillon 2005
Cougar Crest Dedication One NV
Cougar Crest Merlot 2005
Cougar Crest Cabernet Franc 2006
Cougar Crest Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Cougar Crest Syrah 2004
Michele Chiarlo Barbera D'Asti "La Court" 2001
Donna Fusata Passito Di Pantelleria "Ben Rye" 2005

Thank you Chef Tahya for making the meatballs and sauce. Wow, it was some Good Eats. Tracy, thanks for bringing the dessert and joining our little foodie gang for yet another dining adventure. And a big thanks to everyone for a wonderful evening of great food and friendship. See you on the 3rd.

January 13, 2009

Tuesday @ Chef T's

Thanks to Chef Tahya for hosting the event. Warming winters chill was our theme and Cassoulet was the entree of choice. So, our menu was;
Winter Salad w/ Vinegarette
Cassoulet
Butterscotch Pie

Collection of French Wine from Baseball Mike

Everything was great. Well, except for the pie. Movie-man Sandy brought the pie. O.K., I realize that you're not a cook Sandy. You did a great job with the shrimp and other items you brought to the holiday party, but this dish, YUK. Here are some cooking tips for you:
#1. Salt will NOT "burn off" when it bakes. What would be the point of seasoning something then?
#2. When you're transcribing something, make sure you write down the right amount. 1/4 teaspoon is not in any way comparable to 1/4 CUP. In fact, why not just use your computer printer?
#3. If you've over salted something, adding additional sugar isn't going to help. Lemon juice can fix some MINOR issues when braising or stewing something, but NOT when baking. A potato can work as well to draw out some of the seasoning but again, NOT when baking.
#4. Just for your future reference. C = Cup, T or Tbs = Tablespoon and t or tsp = teaspoon.
All of this of course, begs the question. Once you knew you'ld made the mistake of adding too much salt, why didn't you just throw out the filling and make another batch? Once you decided to "doctor" up the batch with too much salt and then decided to go ahead and bake it, why wouldn't you taste it after it was done to decide if it was worth bringing? There will always be the possibility that something someone makes won't taste great, but that won't be from making an error in measuring. After all, the whole idea of Butterscotch Pie was to see how it tasted. But that is on the theory that it was made per the recipe, not with mistakes or doctored up to try and fix said mistakes. Another question would be that once you knew it was bad, why did you bring it? Is bad food something you like to give to your friends? You simply could have tossed the filling and picked up a pie at Coco's or Denny's and called it good. But you didn't and you didn't bring a back-up. Even Baseball Mike brought back-up wine in case some of his bottles were bad. All of this is just Food for Thought.
Enough Movie-man Sandy bashing. We'll be looking forward to tasting a perfected version on Tuesday, January 27th.