Fresh Tart

I've written this before, but I feel I should give another plug for lovely souffles.  They seem so intimidating, especially given all the fallen versions we've seen on TV comedies, mocking some poor cook for daring to try one.  But seriously, they're ridiculously easy, and cheap, and stunningly delicious (even if they fall), and not at all overly rich.  When John and I are alone for dinner, I'll often whip one up for a simple dinner.  Separated eggs are the heart of the dish - the yolks are cooked into a quick custard, with cheese whisked in (and sauteed mushrooms, my personal favorite; but I've also added small blanched broccoli florets or crab meat).  Then the whites are beaten to soft peaks, folded quickly into the custard, the whole mess is poured into a round, deep casserole (or hollowed out tomatoes, salted and drained a bit), baked until puffy and browned, et voila, souffle.  Serve immediately, alongside a simple salad - cheesy, eggy heaven.  (Recipe here.)

Souffles are wonderful for dessert as well, of course.  The lemon souffle I've made for the past couple of Christmas Eves is my family's favorite all-time dessert.  Served warm, with a dollop of softly whipped cream - unbeatably delicious.  I make the custard right before the guests arrive, hold the custard at room temperature, then beat the eggs whites (takes approximately 3 minutes with a stand mixer), fold them in, and pop the souffle into the oven right as we sit down for dinner.  Try it, I swear you'll love it.

Note: John and I had dinner with Debbie and Stu the Wine Genius Williams last night, at Heartland in St. Paul (home of our Bizarre Foods appearance).  Chef Lenny Russo is a local-ingredient pioneer, so his menu is always studded with local game, fish, eggs, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables.  He and his staff even preserve the bounty of end-of-summer produce, pulling jars of this and that out for delicious mid-winter menu items like preserved tomato and smoked freshwater fish stew, and a homemade ketchup that was so spicy-rich-good, I could have licked my husband's plate (he had it alongside a bison ribeye steak, serious).   My favorite dish of the evening was the housemade (of course) chicken-liver pate, plated with kohlrabi slaw and toasted bread.  Give me that for dinner, and the beautiful wine that we drank (specifics forthcoming, I had to email Stu...), and I'd be a happy chick.  Must be the reason that I am a happy chick.  And oh!  Almost forgot, we had a little taste of cassoulet as well, which convinced me that I must make some soon.  I've not made it before, although I came home and immediately googled a Julia Child recipe and plan to give it a go in the next few weeks.  Need to put my hands on goose (or duck) fat, preserved goose (or duck) with cracklings (that might be impossible if I don't make it myself), although the rest looks doable, if time-consuming.  I can only hope it will be half as fabulous as the cassoulet Debbie, Stu, and I enjoyed at Bistro Jeanty in Yountville (Napa Valley) a few years ago.  Stay tuned for the details...

Over this past Date Weekend, great biking (a correctly tuned bike! I'm so into it!) with John and a couple of lovely meals out to boot. As I mentioned below, we kicked off a long weekend together last Thursday, in the uber-romantic bar at Cafe Lurcat (twinkly chandeliers everywhere, pic from their website). No frites this trip - moderation, natch - but when I head back next Thursday, with my minxes, we're all over the frites, oh yeah. Can't wait!

Then Sunday night, pre-Neil Diamond (we were invited by John's client Frank and his wife Christine, total blast, thank you), we had a fabulous dinner at Heartland - yes, the Heartland of our Bizarre Foods Minnesota adventure - in St. Paul. I love everything about Heartland, from Chef Lenny Russo to the Mission-style dining room to the genius wine list to the beautiful, fresh, locally-sourced food. I had two appetizers - the house-smoked bacon-pinto bean soup with tomato concassee and fresh summer herbs, followed by the fried zucchini blossoms with fava bean mousse filling, kohlrabi-dill slaw, and cucumber-walnut vinaigrette. I just...lurved them both, especially the squash blossoms, so crispy and salty, perfectly set off by the tangy slaw and vinaigrette. I kept saying, this is my kind of dish, oh yeah, I love this food, it's all about the contrast, this is so me...blah, blah, blah. John was too polite to not listen, but I realize (um, in retrospect) that I was perhaps a bit monotonous. What can I say? I completely enjoyed every bite, and yes, it was my kind of dish. (No pic, damn it, forgot my camera. Needless to say, pretty, pretty.)

This week I'm mining the riches of my LaFinca veggie share - salad greens, broccoli (to be stir-fried with sugar snap peas tomorrow night), kohlrabi (great sliced thin for dipping in yummy things like olive tapenade), strawberries (which I finished, en pint, after a long bike ride last Friday, OMG good), and kale, which I'll saute for lunch tomorrow for myself and my sis, Stacey. I'm pretty much obsessed with kale sauteed with garlic and finished with lots of salt and lemon or balsamic. Crave-worthy, even in the summer.

This Thursday night, a beefy din at Morton's with the Mack's and Zimmern's, coming right up (pedal, pedal, pedal). Friday, dinner here with the Lynch's (more pedaling or walking or something, Lord help my butt). Not sure how we're fitting in a little post-season baseball tourney as well, but you know, somehow it all works. Nathan's playing tennis, golf, basketball, and now baseball again for a few days, but it's summer in Minnesota, baby, we'll take whatever comes our way. How pretty has this weather been? Ah, these are the days to remember in the depths of winter, as rockin' as those fried squash blossoms filled with fava puree... Just beautiful (the pic is of lovely Maud arranging flowers in Sag Harbor, summer in a pic, as it were). Splash!

Moderate it: it's worth filling out restaurant meals with vegetables. Certainly no guarantee for low calories - restaurants use fat liberally to make veggies tasty, even the steamed, roasted, and grilled versions - but better than starch dishes (like, oh, frites, mashed potatoes, risotto, pasta, bread stuffings), which were practically invented to absorb an insane amount of oil and cream.

Well, tonight's the big night, Bizarre Foods - Minnesota! I'm very curious to see how our meal at Heartland, with Andrew and our friend Aaron Mack, plays! Yeah, we ate various and sundry parts, but it was all so deliciously and attractively prepared that it was easy to dig in. Chef Lenny Russo certainly deserves the attention - he's a nice man, terrific chef, and has been preparing locally-sourced, best-quality ingredients for years. And Zim and Aaron are charming dinner guests, even off camera (ha). So here we go, wheeeee! Tune in and let me know what you think - Travel Channel 9 pm CST/10 pm EST. For Andrew's thoughts on the episode, check out his Bizzare Foods blog.

Pretty low-key on the food front since my return from San Fran. My usual post-trip, post-indulgence, de-puff plan - lots of hot tea and plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit. That means no brains, tongue, or wild boar balls, just a simple souffle for dinner last night (a peek in the pre-grocery-shop fridge revealed a few eggs and a small piece of gruyere), to which I added plenty of tender-crisp broccoli and mushrooms (luckily in pretty good shape in the crisper; funny how John hadn't dug into them while I was away...). I'm also still enjoying the pot of navy beans I simmered yesterday - tonight I made a simple "white" chili with chicken to ladle over them. Spicy, with a hint of cream, nicely hit the spot on yes, another cold day in Minnesota.

Yeah, yeah, dullsville, sorry - but even Andrew has to come home from trips and just eat a salad once in awhile, you know?

Holy Storm, Batman! Whoa, whoa, whoa. What a night! First, let me explain why I was foolishly driving around in what basically amounted to a pre-tornado. My Bizarre (Foods) friend Andrew Zimmern invited John and me, as well as our friends Aaron and Carol Mack (although only Aaron could make it), to join him this evening at Chef Lenny Russo's Heartland Contemporary Midwestern Restaurant to tape a segment for his Travel Channel series, Bizarre Foods. Zim's been taping all around Minnesota recently, landing at Heartland this evening, and I was (am!) so excited to be a part of his amazing show! (Won't air until April - but believe me, I'll be pushing the date when the time comes!)

Let me back up a bit. Not being an experienced TV personality (HA), I was a bit nervous about the whole thing (those of you who heard me horrifically giggle my way through a brief interview on Andrew's Chowhounds radio show a few years back will not be surprised). I watched the weather anxiously, not worried about whether it would hamper my ability to get over to St. Paul (which is what I should have been worrying about), but whether the foretold rain would cause my hair to frizz/over-curl. (Good to know I had/have my priorities straight, urgh...) But as the storm forecasts rolled in, I did start to worry about leaving Nathan home alone for even a minute, given how the weather could hold up his dad (who was picking him up) in traffic.

So, after much weather-monitoring, hair-fixing, and consultation, Nathan and I set out to meet his dad part-way between our house and his, to hopefully pare their travel time a bit, eliminate any time alone time for Nathan, and to put me on a less congested route over to St. Paul. We ended up sitting on Highway 100 near 394 witnessing one of the more spectacular - and truly scary - storms I have ever seen in my life. I was actually grateful that we were in parking-lot traffic...no pressure to try to drive in blinding lightning, rain, and hail. We watched black wall-clouds move in, and road-litter begin to swirl eerily around us (shiver), before the heavens broke open and wind rocked over us, gusting rain and hail over the cars like a car-commercial demonstration of aerodynamic engineering. Whoooooooooosh. It was more-than-slightly unreal. Eeek.

We finally made our way to meeting up with Nathan's dad, and when they were safely off, I turned toward St. Paul, already almost-late for our filming at Heartland. I wound my way through downtown Minneapolis, then across I-94 and into the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, all the while feeling my way through torrential downpours and flooded streets. I pulled up across from Heartland, scoped the street-turned-river, and realized I was going in barefoot, baby, no reason to put shoes into that current. So, handbag, camera, and shoes in hand, as well as umbrella overhead, I made a barefoot run for it. And heaved into the restaurant to find a camera waiting for me in the entryway, as well as John, Andrew, and Aaron already merrily eating, a delicious glass of crispy white wine at my place, and pats of Hope Creamerysweet- and snowy-white goat-butters, just calling my name (into which I immediately stuck my finger - oh, how I love Hope Creamery butter!). Ahhhh, and just like that, I was fine, happy, happy.

From there, all I can say is that I had an amazing meal. Wow. Andrew did his thing (very fun to watch), we all ate lots of bizarre (!), delicious tasties (tune into the show, in April, to see/hear the specifics), had our usual lively chat, I strangely didn't feel nervous at all, and it was an absolute blast. Chef Lenny Russo is a lovely and talented man, deeply committed to his mission of serving the best of locally sourced ingredients, beautifully prepared. And what a result, truly scrumptious. Quite a meal, my friends, unforgettable! What a crazy night! Whew! I'm glad to be home, pleasantly (but not overly) full, gratefully dry, and SAFE. Thanks to the Chef and his talented staff, and to his wife for the lovely wine...bon nuit!