A Culinary Iditarod

I’m a wee bit stunned that three weeks have gone by since my last blog post. When I read other peoples’ blogs, I always cringe when they say something like, “Gee, have three weeks gone by since I last blogged?”, or words to that effect. All I can say is, “oops.”

Anyway, these last few weeks, especially the last eight days, have been nothing short of a culinary Iditarod. Without the dogs, of course. It’s been a crazed busy time for cooking. Starting last weekend, Karen and I did a dinner for eight in the nifty Springfield neighborhood of Forest Park. It’s a very cool old neighborhood, and the host and hostess were very nice. I did a combined surf and turf. That is, scallops in an orange/grapefruit sauce, and beef tenderloin. And I finished it up with bananas Foster. I didn’t flame the rum-soaked bananas, as I thought setting the curtains on fire would pretty much ruin the evening. And for some reason, bananas Foster has been the dessert of choice for the last few months. At the very least, it is a fun way to finish a relaxing meal.

In the middle of the week, I had an enjoyable day that was a variation on a personal chef day. I was given as a gift(!!) to a woman recently diagnosed with breast cancer, by a group of her friends. And instead of “just” a day of making meals for her fridge and freezer, four of her friends came by, and the day turned into a cooking lesson too. They all had fun, and so did I. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

And the Iditarod finished with a family party in Manchester, NH last night. I had a full day, and my body is still recovering. I hit the supermarket and Costco yesterday morning, and was at the stove by noon. The guests showed up at 6:30, just as I was finishing the prep. And then the food started to fly out of the kitchen. It was a surprise 80th birthday party. I always get nervous with surprises for anyone over 75, but no one keeled over, which is always a bonus. They all loved the food, and were super-friendly. So it worked out well all around.

And so we begin a new week. Nothing that a good night’s sleep and an on-call chiropractor won’t help.

Snow and Public Television

So there we were. For the 2nd Friday in a row, we had snow. Lots of it. Last Friday, I had a Romantic Dinner for Two. Ordinarily, I’d have cancelled. In addition to trying to get there, or back, in a snowy monsoon, I’m also particularly inept at driving up my steep driveway after we get a wee bit of frozen precipitation. So, last week, for the first time ever, I walked to a Romantic Dinner for Two. Yup. Right up the street. I dropped the food, pots and pans, and other goodies off before it snowed. I trudged over there in the snow for the dinner, and and then trudged home. It was not only a fun trudge (a fun trudge?), but a fun dinner, too.

But last night, the snow actually held off until the drive home. Karen and I were at the Springfield Marriott for the WGBY wine tasting. No, sadly, I tasted no wine. But we did give out lots of our own samples. I was sautéing barramundi, a really cool fish from Turners Falls. Okay, it’s really from Australia. It’s an Australian sea bass. But it’s farm raised in Turners Falls, and has no mercury, PCBs, hormones, etc. And, even better than that, it tastes really good, too. So for three hours, we did sampling with my own new recipe, which I called Barramundi Piccata. Carol Devine, the VP of marketing at Australis, the barramundi company (www.australis.com), joined us for the festivities as we gave out samples and chatted with most of the 400+ people who were there.

And what was the fee to WGBY to participate? They asked for a bottle of wine. So I gave them one of the bottles that I made with friends last year. It was a cabernet sauvignon. And it really came out well, too. I called it “Chateau LaFeet Greyhound.” I wonder how much they got for it at the auction? Coming up next is the WGBY wine auction in April. It’s their big fund raiser. And I’ll be donating a dinner party for 8 (10?) with a cooking lesson thrown in.

Stay tuned…