Tuesday, July 6, 2010

My Happy Seafood Place

Seafood was on the menu last week. Fabulous, buttery, fresh seafood. My sister and I took our kids to the beach for a vacation-within-a-vacation. Our first stop was Longbeach, WA. May I add that while Hwy 101 from Olympia, Wa to Longbeach looks mild and harmless on the map, it is a sinister plot to do unsuspecting vacationers in! After four small mountains worth of "this must be the last mountain we have to cross to get there", we traverse a road that could only have been laid out by a drunken snake with a twitch. Finally, we got there, with plenty of new gray hairs to accompany the old ones. After passing several postage stamp sized RV parks, we finally found one with pull-through parking and a little elbow room only two blocks from the ocean.
One of our favorite things to do was try the clam chowder everywhere we went. It is amazing to me how many different versions of one thing can come out of each chef's pot. We went to a place called Hungry Harbor for lunch and found stunningly overpriced food on the menu. Their chowder wasn't too bad, but it was more of a rich potato soup with lots of bacon and clams. I am actually OK with that since bacon makes everything better! My mixed seafood platter had the softest, freshest, most buttery scallops I have ever tasted since I finally got the nerve up to try them. It was almost a crime to bury them in breading. I had no idea, either, that clam strips grew that big and fat in the ocean! They are nothing like the puny little rubber question marks on our plates at home. Beware landlubbers! Don't try them at home, come to the ocean for the real deal. I must say we seriously considered staying forever--the bakery was hiring, and there was the cutest little cottage for sale just two blocks from the beach...........
The sweetest thing about Longbeach was this little hole-in-the-wall bakery run by a husband/wife team. Brendon got an M & M cookie the size of a generous salad plate. Jared, Ethan, Kyle, and Sophia got big cupcakes piled high with colorful icing and decorated to the hilt. We had spiders, horses, boats, and smiley faces. Rebecca and I opted to try more sophisticated fare like eclairs covered in homemade chocolate frosting, lemon turnovers oozing enough tart-sweet lemon filling for a small pie, a chocolate almond bar confection that wrapped almond paste filling in decadent chocolate, then covered it with sliced almonds for a fabulous crunch, a cherry moon pie the size of Sophia's face--cherry pie filling and whipped cream stuffed between two giant soft chocolate cookies, then everything going for a bath in chocolate that left a crunchy outer layer, and last, but not least, the confection that made them famous, the Devil Dog. This is an eclair on bakery custard steroids--almost a foot of smooth, creamy custard filling wrapped in just enough flaky, tender pastry to hold it together, then topped of with just enough chocolate to make it impossible to resist. We could hardly get our mouths around it, but of course, for the sake of the blog, we persevered and were victorious. Hooray for the hometown bakery!
Oh, yes, the beach was lovely too, except for crossing the fast lane with vacationers whizzing by in SUVs and trucks only feet from the rolling ocean. Think lovely wide stretch of soft, silky, gray sand, then wet sand, then the Indy 500 with the west's version of redneck watersports, then the freezing cold beautiful rolling tides of a coastal beach. I mean, where else can you mix speeding vehicles and playing children?! I must, however, give most of them credit, since they did slow down the rushing back and forth in our vicinity after we came down to the water.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Thu 5/27 and Fri 5/28 Highlights

If ever you get to the eastern prarie/farming states, (or so I would describe them), you must try a chain burger joint called SmashBurger. I'm not much for chain restaurants, but this one is different. I don't recall seeing any outside of Ohio and Illinois. We had dinner at one in Dayton, Ohio. The burgers were huge, juicy, and dripping with flavor. I was unable to finish mine because it was so big and loaded. The sides were my favorite, however. They served a trio of asparagus, green beans, and carrot sticks--all deep fried. They were not breaded, which I was expecting, but were loaded with somewhat greasy veggie goodness. No child would turn down their vegetables if Mama served them that way! They also served breaded, deep-fried dill pickles. They are good, but I can only take them in small doses.
Ah, about Marie's Candies (mariescandies.com). They make over 80 varieties of candy in an old railroad depot in West Liberty, Ohio. If you want good chocolate without breaking the bank, this is the way to go. We ordered their 3 versions of a "turtle"-chocolate, pecans, and caramel-with pecans, almonds, and cashews for Grandma. Fabulous! Peanut Butter Fancies are a staple for the male population in our family. I went with some nut-covered truffles and chocolate-covered cherries. Heaven! Since it was fresh strawberry season, we also splurged, (for the sake of the blog, of course), on some white-, dark-, and milk-chocolate-covered strawberries. Oh, yum! In case you are wondering, yes they will ship their chocolates to your door!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The Next Chapter

When last I left you, we were in Lexington, KY headed toward the **BANG-THUD-THUD-THUMP**....... Creation Museum minus one tire! We limped into a tire store and got the rear tires on the drivers side replaced, discovering that they were original to the vehicle. God was good in that the rear tires are dually and only one blew out at highway speed, so we never lost control of the RV. The repairs took most of the day, so we only got 2 or 3 hours to enjoy the museum and planetarium. Finally, we were headed out to Auntie Anne's house in Ohio, strategically placed near the fabulous chocolate mecca known as Marie's Candies.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

This blogging thing

My apologies to those of you who have taken the time to check out my blog, only to find that I appear to have gone nowhere after the first day! We are leaving tomorrow, June 8th, to head North to WA for our final stop at Grandma's house. After handing the children over to said Grandma and sleeping for two days straight to align my brain and body up again after 3 time changes in 3 days, I will set myself to the task of expounding on our cross-country adventures so all of you can travel vicariously in your pajamas. Thank you for your patience, and yes, we are all here in one piece.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Day 1--The whirlwind begins!

May 26th, we left about 3 hours later than expected, and who knew you could stuff an RV that full of "just in case" stuff! We overnighted at a truck stop in Kentucky, a less-than-restful experience. What they don't tell you in all the RV books is that you are surrounded by the constant, dull roar of idling diesel engines, the harrowing sight of opening a curtain and seeing a truck backing up crookedly into the space next to yours, and stoppng about 8 inches from your head, or how early everyone else's day starts. Our only culinary excursion was into a McDonalds for supper in North Carolina.
We headed for the Creation Museum in the morning and had cold cereal on the run. There is definitely something to be said for bringing your kitchen and dining room with you!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Weekend in Gatlinburg

Mother's Day weekend we went to the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, Tn area to take the RV for a mini test vacation. The noteworthy places we ate were: Dixie Stampede, The Apple Barn, and the Bear Creek Grill.
The Dixie Stampede is a great place to take the family for a fun evening. They also have a location near Myrtle Beach, SC now. Where else can you eat with your hands in the dark while horses go thundering past? The best part of the meal in my opinion is the creamy vegetable soup they start with. The flavor is fabulous. A whole chicken, a slice of pork, a slice of roasted potatoe, and corn on the cob followed, with an oversized fresh warm apple turnover to finish. You can choose between sweet tea, Pepsi, or water to drink. Sophia's eyes got as big as saucers when the stage slowly dropped with the "princesses" singing in sparkly dresses. They now sell their soup mix in the gift shop, so we can recreate the most flavorful part of our experience at home. Yum!
The AppleBarn Cider Mill and General Store is an apple orchard on a hill by a river that has grown into two restaurants, a winery, an apple-themed gift shop, a Christmas shop, a homemade candy store, and an ice cream shop. I ordered the farmhouse trio which turned out to be three of their best-selling chicken dishes-fried chicken, chicken pot pie, and chicken and dumplings. Lunch was served with real, creamy mashed potatoes and fresh corn. The best thing on the menu in my opinion are the apple fritters with apple butter that are served as you wait for your entree. The apple butter was spiced with cinnamon and orange zest, which gave it a wonderful depth of flavor.
The Bear Creek Grill was an interesting place we pulled into for dinner on our way out of Gatlinburg. It is an old wooden building on stilts over a creek. Water runs off of the metal roof, creating a cascading waterfall in front of the windows. It used to be the Old Mill Trout Farm, and trout is still their specialty. Joel ordered the crab-stuffed trout, which was delicious. My fried catfish was classic, but not especially noteworthy. The coleslaw was extremely bland, tasting like sawdust flavored with a little onion and vinegar. The hush puppies were dense and heavy. The crunch on the outside was good with just a hint at sweetness. The best part of the meal was their starter salad: fresh mixed greens with green olives, julienned carrots, purple cabbage, cucumber, shredded cheese, a couple of slices of red onion, and cherry tomatoes. The restaurant was an interesting study in contrasts: high end mountain folks, shorts and jeans in a semi-formal setting, good quality service to noisy customer groups. The setting was definitely more memorable than the food.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Pasta Imperfect

Last week, I visited a new restaurant on 291 headed out toward Cherrydale. There is a new shopping center being finished that includes a Japanese hibachi grill and a "Mex-Mex" place. The eatery I visited is called Brioso Fresh Pasta, with a "next door" wine bar named Brioso Vino. They were surprisingly busy for a Monday evening dinner. They have an interesting system that has a few details to work out as they experience growing pains.
The plan is to order at the counter as you enter, then find your own seat. I waited almost 10 minutes in line to order, some of that time being spent outside and in the open doorway because there is very little waiting area around the front counter. That was fine for the balmy, breezy evening we were enjoying, but definitely won't work in wet, cold, or hot and muggy weather.
The wait time did give me a chance to look over the menu. With their system, you choose a pasta and a sauce from a generous list of each. Their pastas are hand made. Sauce and pasta are priced at $5 each, so a complete dish is $10, with appetizers and desserts priced in the same range.
When I got to the counter, I ordered the day's special ravioli, but they were out. My second choice was spinach Gemelli, a twisty pasta (pronounced jem-elli), with their Aragosta sauce, a lobster/shallot cream sauce. I also ordered a sweet tea and a fresh strawberry crepe for dessert. My total cost before tip was about $17.
When you are done ordering, they give you a fresh pepper grinder to take to your table with you. The atmosphere and decor are very Italian--rustic wood tables with red chairs, warm mustard yellow on the walls, open windows with wooden shutters looking into the wine bar area. A half wall separates the kitchen and dining room. The room does tend to get loud as conversations start humming.
I found a seat, and a waittress quickly brought me a glass of ice water, a basket of rosemary sourdough bread with butter, and a wine bottle, minus the label, full of water. When my tea got to me, it had a peach flavor and was very watered down. I found out later that the unsweet tea has a peach flavor, so either I got unsweetened tea, or they made the sweet tea in the wrong urn. Either way, the tea was very watery.
I waited for about 20 minutes for my meal. When the food arrived, it came in a generous bowl and I could smell the lobster in the steam. I have never before found lobster I liked, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I encountered the small chunks in the sauce, as they were sweet and toothsome. Unfortunately, I searched in vain for shallots, or any other flavor, in the cream sauce. The pasta was as fresh as advertised. (They do have a gluten-free version of the Gemelli.)
The best part of the meal came in the form of a folded crepe stuffed with warm strawberries and topped with creme frache......and, oh, the wonderful warm and oozing surprise when I got a mouthful of melted semisweet chocolate that was hiding behind the strawberries! Hooray for chocolate!!
I am definitely going back to try more combinations, and ravioli is at the top of my list.
Overall: fun atmosphere, family-friendly.
Cost: reasonable to moderately expensive.
Dessert: definitely!
If you go, please share your experience with me.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Smalltown Favorite

This evening, for about the 4th time in 2 months, I had dinner with my family in a little, out-of-the-way joint named the Duncan Family Restaurant @ 159 West Main Street in Duncan, SC. It is an unimposing brick building sandwiched between the railroad tracks and the miniscule office of the local law. There are no huge crowds, the decor is simple, and everything is fresh.
Tonight's special, (one of 6 or 7), was a NY strip with 3 vegetables for $7.95. I chose the corn nuggets, ranch potatoes, and coleslaw. Having eaten here before, I know that the food is prepared by a chef who knows how to put his passion into his food and cares about creativity and quality. Someday, I will meet this man! Ah, but back to the food.... The food came out hot and fresh, and the first thing I bit into was a corn nugget. A not-too-thick layer of crispy crunchy tempura batter surrounded a warm, melty sweet corn center. The whole thing was about the size of a tater-tot, so they were perfect bite size. These cover both the southern fried craving and the sweet corn flavor--perfect!
Now, I am very picky about my coleslaw. I have had it sweet, sour, fruity, vinegary, too dry, sopping wet, you name it, but I have never had coleslaw like this! It had finely chopped bits of many shades of fresh green cabbage and ?, but best of all, it had fresh herbs. The flavor of the herbs took me quite by surprise, but a pleasant one! I have never had such a well-balanced coleslaw--not too sweet or sharp. To my as yet uneducated palate, the herb tasted like cilantro, but that is just a guess. Someday, I will be able to identify them all blindfolded. (It is good to have dreams, no?!) This is the coleslaw that all others aspire to be!
Now, I am not a fan of scalloped potatoes, but tonight I became a believer, hallelujah! I have never had such perfectly cooked scalloped potatoes, but beyond that were the succulent ingredients that made these potatoes drool-worthy. A ranch cream sauce bathed them in flavor, bacon chunks gave both texture and taste, and they were topped off by a blanket of gooey, melted cheddar cheese. Oh, my goodness, this is scallop de nirvana! If I were attempting these at home, I would add a package of the powdered ranch, as I believe it will mimic the flavor of this dish better than a watered-down liquid version. I will be sure to let you know if I can experiment successfully with it at home.
Now to the steak! I have mentioned before that I prefer well-done beef, so sometimes it is a gamble finding a chef with the finesse to coax out doneness without going over the edge to dry and rubbery. There was a good chew to the meat which was very successful here, and the sear was perfect, but the flavor was completely unexpected. This flavor could only come from the kitchen of a chef who loves herbs and can make them sing in any dish. I have never put such a bite into my mouth. My guess is that he marinated the meat first, but what set it apart was what I can only guess was an herb butter bath to finish it off instead of the usual salt and pepper nod to flavor. The result was juicy goodness! Stay tuned, as I intend to learn more from this chef as time progresses.
I would add that my 5-year-old, Ethan, proclaimed the generous baked spaghetti dish "the bestest spaghetti he had ever had"!
If you go for a visit, the scallops they serve on the seafood plate melt like butter in your mouth, and the pork chops are definitely worth looking into.
Overall, my favorite small town eatery. At least once during our meals, the children were entertained by the train whizzing by outside the window.
Price: $7.95
Flavor: fresh herbs rule!
Best Bet: You can't go wrong with the daily specials
See you there soon!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

A Night In France

Tonight we went to Paris for a light repast of fruit and cheese. The streetlamps flickered on and glowed on cobblestone streets as a cool breeze blew down the Seine. The peaceful evening scene was broken only by the muted sounds of laughter and the clink of crystal and china. Shadow and light danced over the water as I waved at the Barefoot Contessa strolling over the bridge on Jeffrey's arm. I turned back to the pastry menu, trying to decide which delicate offering to succomb to....MOMMY!!!.....
O.K., so I wasn't really in Paris, I was at Whole Foods trying to collect the ingredients for a simple but satisfying supper. There is nothing better than sitting down to fresh fruit and a variety of cheese. Something about the meal slows you down for just a little while and says, "enjoy". Tonight's supper consisted of fresh strawberries, sweet pineapple, crunchy Gala apples, Pacific Rose apples, juicy cantaloupe, and perfect grapes. Don't waste your money on the Pacific Rose apples unless you like their neat rosy coloring. In my opinion, they are just glorified Red Delicious, and nothing to write home about. All of the other fruit "hit the spot". There is no comparison to fresh fruit in the spring.
I absolutely love going to a bountiful cheese counter and choosing new flavors and textures to try. You can never go wrong with a good brie. Tonight we tried the Brie Metropolitan 70%. All of the cheeses we tried tonight were cow's milk cheeses and the other offerings were: Cheddar Tintern with shallots and chives,Petit Asour, Robusto, Hirtenkase, Chimay Grand Cru, and Amadeus.
The cheddar Tintern I will buy again and use in a meat or pasta dish, as the flavor was very good, but strong. The Robust and Hirtenkase were harder cheeses with a much stronger flavor, and I really did not enjoy the Hirtenkase. The Petit Asour and Amadeus were very good choices for a cheese plate, but I doubt I will pick up the Chimay again, as the texture mirrored the brie, but I gleaned absolutely no flavor from it.
When you are in Whole Foods, pick up some dips or soup by Epiri Foods. The tzatziki dip was to die for, and the kids downed it with pita chips. The dips had been made that morning, and I have never had tzatziki so fresh--there is absolutely no other way to eat it! Mr. Epiri himself was serving samples also of his white bean soup, an absolutely delicious Latvian dish that has no gluten or several-other-nasty-things in it. Overall, we had a very fresh and satisfying meal, and one which I intend to repeat soon.
So what country shall we visit next week for dinner?

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Welcome to my blog

Today, I enter the world of blogging with some trepidation. I am setting out on a long journey soon, and wanted a place to share my gastronomic point of view as I cross the country. I gingerly stuck my toe in the water this evening by making notes on the meal I shared tonight with my family. We ventured into Longhorn Steakhouse in Greenville, SC. Surprisingly, for a Friday night in our neck of the woods, we only had a 10-minute wait. Our waittress Melissa was very attentive and helpful. My strawberry limeade was a bit watered down, but the general flavor was good. I ordered the "new" crab stuffed filet with mixed vegetable and mashed potatoes. There was a good bit of speculation among us that the crab did not originate in a shell, as the texture was odd and the flavor quite fishy. The layer of spinach and the herb cream sauce were both good. There was a fabulous sear on the well-done filet, although I suspect the use of blackening seasonings, as the crust was surprisingly spicy though not unbearable. My filet was melt-in-your-mouth delicious and not at all dry as well-done beef can sometimes be. I will die of shock if I ever actually get a side of mixed vegetables that has not had all the life cooked out of it and lies soggy on my plate. There has to be a better way to hold vegetables over for service. The mashed potatoes had a good flavor, but the texture was a bit thick and "gluey". My guess is a mix of real and packaged potatoes.
Final Observations:
Price: 21.99
Entree: Fabulous filet, but tell them to leave the crab in the kitchen
Sides: Average
Service: Very good, although I can't help wondering if she thought I was a secret shopper as I madly scribbled notes between bites!
I will very likely return, as I am very much a meat and potatoes girl and love a good steak. That was the best I have had since I can't remember when. I plan to try the ribeye next time.
Always try something new!