Recipe: Pear & Walnut Salad

In an effort to eat more interesting salads than the typical lettuce, tomato, crouton and Parmesan cheese dinner salad, I created the following which was slightly inspired by the Eggplant, Pear and Pecorino Salad recipe I tore out of Food and Wine Magazine (Sept 2012, p.117).

Toss the following and serve:

• Romaine lettuce
• Asian pear slices or cubes
• Toasted walnuts
• Parmesan or thinly sliced Manchego (I use a peeler to shave the Manchego)
• Vinaigrette
• About a 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp honey
• Salt and pepper to taste

The Chefs Feeding the U.S. Ski Team

So interesting!!!!

A U.S. Team Chef Shows His Own Competitive Spirit in Sochi

By Bill Pennington

Feb 8, 2014

The New York Times

Allen Tran, the head chef for the United States ski teams, organizes the effort to keep the teams well-fed at the Olympics.

Recipe: Baked Shells with Cauliflower and Taleggio

Cauliflower with pasta.  You're probably thinking, "Really???" or "Weird!!!"

We made the Baked Shells with Cauliflower and Taleggio recipe from Food and Wine Magazine (April 2013, p. 108), and it was quite good!

The recipe is from Renato Sardo and Dario Barbone of Baia Pasta in Oakland, CA.

Honestly, I don't think the recipe would have been as good without the hot sausage that we added.  Me thinks it would be too one-dimensional and a little bland.

Here is what we changed and tips for making the dish:

• Add 3 hot spicy sausage links (cook them separately and add them to the pasta and cheese sauce)
• There is NO NEED for large shells.  In fact, penne would work nicely.
• The 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs was hardly enough.  I think I quadrupled the amount.
• When serving, sprinkle the top with fresh parsley.

Beaver Creek Food and Wine Weekend 2014: Grand Tasting

One of the primary reasons we went to Beaver Creek last week (besides to ski) was to attend the Beaver Creek Food & Wine Weekend, sponsored by Food & Wine Magazine.  We'd been to the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen which was an amazing experience and thought it'd be fun to attend one of their "satellite" events.  

The Beaver Creek event is structured completely differently where you buy a ticket for each event.  We bought tickets to the Grand Tasting on the final day, and to be honest, it was a little bit disappointing.  Perhaps it's because we've been to other Grand Tastings that were phenomenal AND cost less.

Our 2 big issues with this one:  

1. Much of the food was underseasoned, oversalted, overcooked, difficult to eat (no knife to cut a piece of lamb T-bone), or super boring (come on Tim Love - carrot home-fries???).
2. The wine and spirits vendors that participated were lacking -- the nicest wines there were Silver Oak and Twomey but that was about it . . .

To us, the standouts food-wise were:

• Naomi Pomeroy's Brussel Sprouts & Lamb Salad (My favorite!  I loved it so much that I e-mailed her at the restaurant to get the recipe, and she sent it to me!)
• Fabio Viviani's Potato Gnocchi
• David Burton Sanchez's Apple Ginger Smoked & Braised Pork Belly

I'm glad we went to the event, but we likely won't go back -- I mean, we'll go back to ski in Beaver Creek (it's awesome that they hand out chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon!) but not for the Food & Wine Weekend.  

Perhaps I can convince fellow blog contributor the grandcruman to go to the Cayman Cookout hosted by Chef Eric Ripert next January.  Everyone could use a beach vacation in Jan!

Fireworks!

Beano's Cabin

If you're in Beaver Creek and desire a unique mountain dining experience that includes a 15 min open-air sleigh ride (pulled by a snowcat) and a wonderful 5-course meal with almost impeccable service, head to Beano's Cabin. 

The 5-course meal currently runs $115 per person (not including alcohol or tip) and includes the sleigh ride and live entertainment -- the night we went, it was a one-man show, a guy who covered pop music from the 80s to songs popular today, singing and playing his acoustic guitar.

A few tips:

• Reservations are required so call or make a reservation using OpenTable.
• Request a table that's by a window or in the middle of the dining room.  Our table had a sight line to the door, so every time the door opened, we felt a slight cold draft.
• If you're going in the winter, wear your ski jacket & pants over your clothes, otherwise, you will be COLD during the sleigh ride.  There are open cubbies for you to hang/store your clothes once you get to the restaurant.  We even changed shoes so our feet wouldn't freeze in our dress shoes.  Note: The dress code is mountain casual; almost everyone was wearing jeans.
• On the sleigh, sit as close as you can to the front of the snowcat.  We sat at the very back (last row), and all the snow that the snowcat kicked up (as well as the smell of diesel) wafted our way.

The sleigh pulled by the snowcat
(you can't see the snowcat in this photo)

As a reminder to us of what we dined on (aka - our food journal):

Today’s Cabin Made Soup… 

Butternut Squash Soup

Salad

Baby Iceberg Wedge 

tender belly bacon, Maytag blue, cherry tomatoes, scallion vinaigrette 

Appetizers

Oysters 

finger limes, whiskey gelée, lemon 

Pork Belly

[don't have the description]

Entrees

Duo of Colorado Lamb 

lamb leg and loin, braised French beans, fig confit, olive lemon gremolata

Whiskey Glazed Berkshire Pork Porterhouse 

creamy Anson Mills grits, honey glazed carrots, apple preserves 

Desserts

Bourbon Roasted Pear 

crème Fraiche ice cream, chestnut lace cookie 

Caramel Apple Pie

with spruce ice cream

Recipe: Man-Whore Bars

Yes, you read that correctly.  Man-Whore Bars.  Fellow blog contributor the grandcruman (ok, he hasn't contributed in over a year!) posted this recipe on Facebook.  I saw it, and I made them to take with us on our ski trip last week (to avoid paying $4 for a mediocre cookie at the top of the mountain) -- but I tweaked the recipe.  Here's the recipe on Bakers Royale's site.

While these were good, they weren't as amazing as the Brownie-Reese's Peanut Butter Cup-Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars that I made before which were more decadent and satisfying for us chocoholics.

Next time, I may switch out the cookie layer for a brownie layer.

1st layer: chocolate chip cookie dough.
I used the Nestle Tollhouse recipe on the back
of the chocolate chip bag -- but without the nuts.

2nd layer:  16 Reese's Mini Peanut Butter Cups chopped up

3rd layer:  Oreo Cookies chopped up

4th layer:  chocolate ganache

5th layer:  Rice Krispies treats

The finished product!  Check out the layers!