Tales from the Dining Table: Let the Entertaining Season Begin: Part II

Continued from Part I It's telling that this post has reached a two-part series. I didn't intend it that way. Not until I started writing did I realize how in-depth a night of entertaining can be. Which should serve as Rule 8: Don't underestimate the amount of time it takes to prepare a feast! You might have timed your dishes perfectly and patted yourself on the back that everything was under control when the doorbell rang, until, @#$%! you realized you forgot to get yourself ready. So as part of rule 8, make yourself pretty before perfecting the food and table. Your guests are often happy helping out, but can't help the fact that you are still in your "comfy cooking clothes."

Now, on to the main event. You may be wondering what I decided to make for the main course? Now this is very important when you cook for 10+ people: make something that won't get you in trouble later. I may be a bad example on this one, but I don't support the rule that you should never try something for the first time when company is coming over. There is far too little time in life to make the same recipes over and over again. With that being said:

Rule 9: Don't make fussy food for a huge group. It's not worth it. Make something delicious and plentiful. This is where my mantra comes in: Braising is your best friend in the kitchen. So I decided on Lamb Shanks braised in Syrah with dried figs. It was an adaptation from Hiro Sone's Terra cookbook. If you haven't worked with shanks before, I highly recommend it. They are so easy and end up tasting decadent. The plump, dried figs I found at Rainbow were saturated with syrah and lamb juice when served. Brilliant. For the finishing sauce, I just reduced down the braising liquid, but added in a little more of the Pavo Syrah- which was the wine were celebrating for Harvest Dinner. For my lovely vegetarian friend, I braised some huge portabellas in their own little vessel. (Which I tasted that night and quite seriously would have been happy eating it in place of lamb…) My preferred braising vehicle? A Staub Cocotte. I love you my grenadine red beauty. For this task I had to have a friend bring over his Le Creuset so I could fit everything in. If anyone cares, please ask why I recommend Staub over Le Creuset.

Rule 10: Always offer a salad course. Now, I don't mean to be hypocritical in what I am *about to say, because I firmly believe in this rule. People like to eat healthy. It doesn't mean that we don't indulge in braised meat and fois gras from time to time, but on a daily basis, fresh vegetables are good. For this reason, and for the French reason- salad cleanses your palate- always make a big, hearty salad. It makes the meal seem lighter and more fulfilling. Those people who are known to "eat like a rabbit" will be happy, those people who would rather eat a rabbit, don't need to take salad. It is an easy and gracious offering. My friend brought over the most beautiful salad: spinach, arugala, persimmons, pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and goat cheese. A true harvest salad. And we didn't touch it. We were so full from course 1-6 that we didn't touch it. So sad, but at least we had the option. Ok, so I am neglecting on minor detail: we didn't touch the salad because dessert was staring us in the face. We had to make the call!

Rule 11: Present your beautiful dessert for all to see through out the meal. Aka- why I love my vintage cake stand. I am known as a cake-person. I love the concept of cake. Which is funny, because I never really loved cake growing up. I liked brownies. I just love the grand presentation of cake. While the rest of the world is wooing over cupcakes, I am making full sized, triple layered master pieces. For this occasion?... A Triple Layer Pumpkin Cake with Pecan Brittle and Marscapone Cream Cheese Frosting. It sat on its perch in the pretty cake stand looking at us as we ate the rest of dinner. It might have been for this reason, that no one felt like they had room for salad. Rule 12: Offer coffee & tea after dinner, even if everyone would rather keep drinking wine. Which was our case. So here's the line up of the unveiled brown bags (as best as I can recall...)

2005 Domaine Carneros Brut 2007 La Tunella Pinot Grigio, Friuli, Italy 2008 Parallel Napa Valley Chardonnay 2005 Moulin de la Gardette "Cuvee Ventabren" Gigondas 2007 Pavo Estate Syrah, Bennett Valley 2006 Zlatan Plenkovic "Zlatan Otok", Island of Hvar, Croatia 2004 Vall Llach "Idus" Priorat Quady Elysium Black Muscat

Rule 13: Always, always, sit down and enjoy the meal with your guests. If you can't, you've made too fussy a meal. Believe me, it took me many dinner parties to get that part down. Born hosts and hostesses have a hard time sitting down, but do it. You'll end up loving it and feeling a sense of victory. rah!

Cheers my friends. To a happy and successful entertaining season.

Oakland Fires Up the Burners

Being a Bay Area resident, one learns quickly that more than any other cultural obsession be it music, fashion, politics, San Francisco is a food town first and foremost. And while San Francisco certainly can claim the title of one of the leading culinary towns in the country, nearby Oakland across the bay has recently come on the scene with exciting restaurants popping up like porcini after a fall rain. Ever since my New York days when I'd take a subway two hours out of Manhattan for killer Moroccan food, or my college days in Washington DC when I got to know all four quadrants of the city in my culinary quests, I've always been eager to venture afar in the name of gastronomy. Recently, I met up with my friend super star (literally) chef Rick Corbo who is laying out plans for his restaurant Pizzeria Zanna Bianca in Jack London Square, opening next year, and decided that it was time to see for myself what all the fuss is about. Like movie reviews, if enough friends tell me to see a certain flick, then it's a go. In the case of Oaktown, which is its local nickname, there were far too many signs telling me to head east young woman.

One Friday recently I rounded up the food-obsessed team at Charles Communications and after taking polls with my foodie friends, we drew up a short list. Ably guided by Oakland resident expert and green guru Anna Hartman, we set off for a culinary treasure hunt. First on the list was Bocanova, a pan Latin restaurant right on Jack London Square that serves a menu inspired by the heritage of the kitchen crew featuring dishes from Mexico to Argentina, infused with California accents. Although the interior beckoned with its warm colors and rustically elegant decor, we opted to sit outside on a cloudless day, and enjoyed halibut ceviche, roasted sunchokes, plantains stuffed with queso fresco, and Huarache with pumpkin, bacon and sage. Huaraches have become one of my favorite Mexican dishes since I moved to San Francisco, it's a fried masa base with a variety of toppings and is so called as it resembles the shape of a sandal aka huarache in Mexico. The fairly priced wine list with mainly Spanish and South American offerings gave us tempting choices to pair.

Flora was our next stop, formerly the Oakland Floral Depot building, an Art Deco landmark located on Broadway across the street from the newly renovated Fox Theater, another great Deco building in its own right, another of my favorite features about this town. There's an old world glamour about Oakland which has a more human scale with its architecture, and the spirit of creativity is alive and vibrant. It reminds me of the way New York was in the mid 80s when the restaurants were packed with creative people of diverse backgrounds all sharing great food in a convivial way. Flora in particular reminds me of New York's Odeon back in the day, both design and vibe wise. We tried the Yellow Tailed sashimi with hot chili oil, seabeans, sesame seeds, scallions and radishes, the arugula, dried Calimyrna figs, fennel, and toasted almond salad, a killer sandwich of seasonal grilled persimmon, Explorateur brie, swiss cheese on a French baguette and a glass of Bandol rose, pretty heavenly.

The next stop given the gorgeous weather, and our need for a break from sampling so much good eats, was a stop at the newly renovated Lake Chalet, right on Lake Merritt which is a unique given that it is the largest lake within an urban area in the U.S., 3.4 miles around, covering 155 acres in downtown Oakland. It's ringed with lights giving it a holiday and European atmosphere year round. The same folks who renovated the Park and Beach Chalets in San Francisco are behind this project housed in the old municipal boathouse and there are a number of choices from casual to fine dining within the complex. Much like the other Chalets in the group, they brew their own beers on premise and have a solid but unadventurous menu. I wasn't overly impressed with our service which was less than attentive, as the outside bar area was geared to those who wanted to see and be seen, but it's probably a fun place for big groups.

Our last stop was Zza's Trattoria also on Lake Merritt, right on Bellevue Avenue. Zza's is a nickname for Morezza's and to my surprise, it's been around for 20 years: ¦it looks like it's new and hip to me. We knew we'd love it right away when the waiter brought over a margherita pizza, put it on the table and said, it was a mistaken order at another table and it was on the house, nice! I was duly impressed by the wines by the glass list which was truly global, Hungarian, Slovenian, Italian, you name it, very well chosen and fascinating wines. I enjoyed a dry Furmint from Hungary and couldn't have been happier. We tried the Sputini Tre olives/almonds/pickled vegetables, the salumi plate and several pizzas that truly satisfied. Hard to believe we still had room after all day dining but as they say, we have only one stomach to give!

So many other places are on the short list for Oakland, Commis, Pican, Dona Tomas, Cafe Van Cleef, Mua and one place that intrigued which was truly an old Oakland landmark would be a stop by Heinold's First and Last Chance bar at Jack London Square built there in 1883 from the timbers of a whaling ship. Appetite whetted!

Raw, Local & Organic Eggnog: Delicious and Easy to Make!

Once Thanksgiving Day is over, I always get excited about two things, holiday decorations and eggnog. Normally I would buy a carton of eggnog from the market, but this year as I reached for the store bought brand it occurred to me... I have never had homemade eggnog! I started to look up recipes and was disappointed with what I found. I wanted eggnog that would be remarkably different from processed store brands.

What I found was that many recipes use raw eggs but that is as far as they go. With this in mind I decided to make my eggnog as raw, fresh and local as it could get. I used raw eggs of course, but I also used raw sweetener, and my favorite ingredients of all raw dairy products (milk and cream). The only thing that could not be raw was the bourbon. After researching a number of recipes, I decided to make my own concoction. In the end, my eggnog turned out just as I had hoped and was a big hit with my family.

My ingredient list was as follows:

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites (make sure there is absolutely no egg yolks in the whites)

2 cups whole raw milk

1 cup heavy raw cream

6 oz bourbon

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/3 cup agave plus 1 tablespoon agave

For the eggs, I choose a local and organic brand. The more locally produced the eggs are, the fresher the eggs will probably be, which will most likely result in better tasting eggnog. I would also like to add that the safety of consuming raw eggs is highly debatable. I don't claim that they wont give you salmonella, but I was raised in a family that consumes raw eggs occasionally and has never had a problem. If you have a compromised immune system, or you are a very young or very elderly person, you should not eat raw eggs. I am not a scientist, so I won't claim that they wont make you sick, but for many others and myself, eating raw eggs works fine.

When it comes to dairy ingredients, I absolutely love raw organic dairy products. They taste amazing and also maintain a high amount of the good bacteria your body needs to absorb the protein and lactose. Lucky for us living in the Bay Area, it is easy to find raw organic dairy products in many natural food stores in Northern California.

For a sweetener, I used Agave nectar. Unlike honey, agave nectar is flavorless, which makes it great to add to your drinks when you don't want that honey taste to overpower the other ingredients. Agave also absorbs in cold liquids and is a low-glycemic sweetener. Currently there are no regulations for labeling sweeteners as raw, which causes all kinds of debates. Most agave nectar brands are labeled as raw, but some people consider agave nectar to be a processed sweetener since it is brought up to a temperature of anywhere between 118-140 degrees. As far as options for sweetening your eggnog go, agave is pretty minimally processed compared to most sweeteners.

My eggnog preparation went something like this:

Whisk the egg yolks until they start to thicken and lighten in color. Then gradually add in the 1/3 cups of agave while still whisking. Once the sugar is completely dissolved gradually add the milk, cream, bourbon and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl and with a different whisk start by whipping the egg whites slowly for a minute and then gradually work up to a faster speed until you start to see soft peaks. Then slowly add the tablespoon of agave and whisk at a high speed until the consistency produces stiff peaks.

Then whisk the egg whites into the mixture.

Chill and serve!

Tales from the Dining Table: Let the Entertaining Season Begin!

I've always loved entertaining, regardless of the time of year. However, late fall and the Holiday season inevitably brings out the party spirit in everyone. For about four (long) years now, I've wanted to host a "Harvest Party". After pouring over the glossy food and wine magazines portraying great friends gathered around a 20 person table in the middle of a vineyard, toasting the good life, I thought: "I want one!" I like to think we all deserve to celebrate harvest, whether our fingernails are stained purple or not. Lucky for my conscience, I had a winemaker friend who had just finished harvest. So I decided instead of Thanksgiving this year, I would host a harvest dinner. That way, I could braise lamb instead of roast a turkey. I invited 10 friends and told them we would celebrate by eating a grandiose, food magazine-enviable meal, while drinking the bounty of the season. Plus, I always like a good kitchen challenge.

The problem was, I didn't know where to start and I had very little guidance besides my imagination. I envisioned an absurdly long, beautiful wooden table filled with fresh cut flowers. And not just any flowers, but the rustic, charming ones that you feel horrible cutting from the garden but look so good. Another problem was, I didn't have a proper dining room, let alone a 30 foot wooden dining table and November is not wild flower season. So I went back to basics. I used the Rules of Entertaining 101- which I am excited to share with you in hopes that your next big dinner party is seamless.

I created a menu that was both comforting and autumnal, including ingredients of the season, but avoided Thanksgiving classics. I chose both local and exotic ingredients to keep it interesting and made a braising sauce with my friend's Syrah. I wanted to take advantage of our perfect little place on Earth called San Francisco, where persimmons and fresh goat cheese are readily available. I went in blindly with a ton of enthusiasm, and I came out with a huge ego and a stuffed belly. The very least I can do now, is offer you some tips I learned:

Part 1: Cocktails, Cheese, Appetizers and First Course.

Rule 1: Have a signature drink ready when guests arrive.

Not only does this ensure guests are immediately happy, but allows you, as a host to finish your last minute preparations in peace. It gives the illusion that everything is under control and you're 'thrilled' they were on time. (Which, as a side note, never happens with my friends, thankfully.) Plus, people feel sexy holding a classic cocktail. I went with a Blackberry & Cabernet Mojito. This drink was inspired by a cocktail that is on Cantina's drink menu made with cachasa. I happened to have a bottle of Bacardi (why does Bacardi always appear in my liquor cabinet, but I never buy it?) and a ton of mint left over from another dish- so Rule 1.5: use what you have in the house! The cocktail has a dramatic purple-red color that is festive without being a "pink drink" AND you can make it ahead of time and not have to worry about shaking each drink separately.

Rule 2: Put out cold appetizers to keep guests busy and happy while you're fretting over the fact that the main dish is still two hours away from being done.

Remember, appetizers don't have to be elaborate, they just have to taste good. I love cheese (perhaps this diatribe should be a separate post.) I like to serve it before the meal because, although I love the French, I never have room for cheese at the end of a meal. We are so lucky in San Francisco to have a truly amazing selection of artisanal cheeses. For this meal I went to Rainbow Grocery. Ahhh Rainbow, such a happy, happy place. I personally like to select three choices, each varying in texture and flavor. I went with a goat's milk aged gouda that was bright white and firm textured, a medium creamy, salty, local blue from Pt. Reyes and a very creamy, cow's milk triple cream from Australia. The triple cream was hands down, the favorite (and the one that is not in the picture...) It was a Seal Bay Triple Cream from King Island Dairy and it was sooo rich and gooey and true to its triple cream name. I am drooling. It tasted so good that you kind of felt you shouldn't be eating it.

Rule 3: Offer something unique, rare or out-of-the-ordinary to your guests. If people feel like they are getting something special, they'll inevitably be drawn to the dinner. The first time I had Chez Panisse's nettle souffle I was hooked. I had never had anything like it, and to this day, haven't been able to reproduce it at my house. My great French friends Pascal & Lilie, brought a "jar" of foie gras from their recent trip back to Paris to see the family. The darling little jar had one of those rustic pop tops like the old sealing bottles. There is simply no time for moral discussion when it is sitting on your table staring at you in all its creamy goodness. Some guests had never had foie gras at home. It was really special, and really delicious. It was paired with a perfect sweet wine from the Loire. This was the first wine to stump the group in its brown bag. It had beautiful acidity like a great Sauternes, but we were assured it was not. It had apricot and orange blossom bursting out of the glass, like a Muscat or Tokaji, but to no avail. The rich, oily texture belied the mineral backbone... of course, the Loire. How could I be so daft? It was a really pretty Coteaux du Layon made from botrytised Chenin Blanc.

Rule 4: Serve GREAT BREAD. There are plenty of bakeries that sell good fresh baguettes. Ask one of your guests to bring a couple over if you can't run out to get some. It is so worth it.

Rule 5: Make something that smells really good while guests are grazing.

After the cheese and foie gras course, I served bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with chorizo. This is a classic tapa in Spain and a perfect hot appetizer course. It makes your house smell like bacon, and you know how people are with bacon. You can stuff and roll them ahead of time and they look so irresistible on the plate. I've found in my trials that it can be tricky to get all sides crispy when you have long toothpicks holding them together. My brilliant sous chef came up with a great idea: use long kebab sticks to hold about 5 together and then just snip the wood in between each one... voila- perfect sized toothpicks.

Rule 6: If you are going to attempt to do a soup course, make the soup the night before. The soup will not only have better flavor, but you'll save yourself two hours prep time and a ton of dishes that day. I chose to make a carrot and roasted red pepper soup. Go the distance and pour the soup through the sieve. Yes, it takes extra time and it is messy, but the velvety, silky texture is what differentiates your dinner party soup from the hearty, chunky lunch version. Add a bit of creme fraiche or whipped heavy cream with cilantro on top for the final touch. I found these really cute edible flowers that I was so excited to add to the presentation. In the end, I forgot of course. I found the bright flavors of carrot and red pepper to be a really nice starter course.

Rule 7: This is just a personal rule, but I ask everyone to bring one fascinating or delicious bottle of wine, but they must bring it in a brown bag. I love brown-bagging. To taste a wine without already having a preconceived notion or bias really allows you and your guests to enjoy it. It's fun and playful to guess the wines. I asked each person to recommend which course their bottle be paired with. It was a smashing success. I couldn't have arranged a better pairing. Note the brown bag in the photo to the right ---> that was a Priorat. More details on the pairing in Part 2. And as for the beautiful gardenia in my hair? That was a gift from the nice flower shop man who said a hostess needed a flower in her hair if she was going to have such a big party. I wouldn't say I needed it, but it definitely made my night. I blamed any wrong brown-bag guesses on the fragrance from my flower...

Read Part 2: The main course, the wine pairings, the battles of the brown bag, the abandoned salad and the dessert.

- Kendall

Feeding the Parents (when they happen to be restaurateurs...)

My parents recently visited me in San Francisco. Of course this was happy news to me. We've always been close, and the distance from my family has been the single downside to picking up and moving 1000 miles to be by the ocean, the mountains, Wine Country and fresh Dungeness crab. So naturally, I am always thrilled when they get to come see my home by the bay (oddly though, I grew up on bay, so it is not quite as unique, BUT, my bay was on Lake Michigan!)

So I was stoked (a word I did not always say) that they were coming. However, this inevitably meant that I had to do some planning. The most difficult and stressful task when they visit is not to figure out what we are going to see, where they are going to stay or what we are going to do, but rather where are we going to eat?? You have no idea the pressure. My family owns restaurants, so I grew up in a food and dining environment. My dad is a born culinarian and has always cooked big meals for us, my brother is a chef and my mom is the ultimate critic of efficiency and service in a restaurant. For these reasons alone, I cringe at inviting unsuspecting guests along to dine out with us. Let’s just say the phrase “We could have had a much better meal at home” comes up often.

Granted, San Francisco is a food-lovers city. It’s one of the reasons I moved here. But, I can’t pull anything on this crew. I knew it had to be something: new (they’ve visited many times before and we’ve had both great and really disappointing meals), something with character (stuffy and pretentious is the opposite of their idea of a great time) but ultimately something that has all the above AND great food. What did I come up with? Is there anything that fits this bill?

Here are the winners:

Happy Hour at Hog Island

This is a win-win situation. $1 local oysters taste like the ocean, your view is the San Francisco Bay and the ambiance and bustling crowd is always fun to be part of (if you have to wait forever, they let you drink while you're waiting.) Plus, my dad loves oysters… not something you often get in the Midwest.

Il Pollaio

I love this place. Nothing fussy, nothing fancy, just really good char-broiled, roasted chicken. Order some Peronis to drink, a large mixed salad (with the garbanzo beans) and a couple half chickens to share. Don't forget to squeeze all the lemons over the chicken. Did I mention I love this place? I knew my parents would too. It is our kind of place.

Canteen

Even though I knew I was doing well so far with the fun, casual and often dive-y spots, I felt like I should take the parents out for a nice dinner. (And by 'take them out' I mean: 'let them pay for me'.) Canteen was my refuge. The decor is kind of retro, cool so you don't have the schmancy dining room aura, but the food is always on par with this city's fine dining. Everything that was brought to the table was fantastic. And that is a statement that rarely comes out of my family's mouths. Yeah for me!! Success again!

So, I was on a roll and only had one full day and night left. What followed was probably our best meal-day of all, but then again, it is the experience that counts:

Farmers Market Brunch & Dinner

Primavera's Chilaquiles, with a strong Blue Bottle drip coffee, and a home cooked meal from the morning's farmers market ingredients for dinner (we made Pazole out of Rancho Gordo's amazing hominy!) There is something so San Franciscan about going to the market, buying ingredients for dinner that night, and spending that really sweet, golden hour before the sun goes down, eating cheese and drinking wine. And we had the comfort and ambiance of my new, darling apartment (with a dishwasher)...

Value and Values in Wine

We’re living in interesting times where there is much discussion of the ideas of both green and value, green-sizing and downsizing. With green, it may be the concept of environmental consciousness or greenbacks aka money. With value, it may encompass the monetary term related to the economic conditions and therefore discounted products. Or, it may be of values, as in company values, social values, environmental conservation and quality of life and quality of products. Both definitions are of equal importance to today’s consumer with stories reporting that they are reducing their expenditures, choosing quality over quantity and seeking to support companies with like values. This goes for wine purchases as well.

Below are a few recommendations for Value(s) wine purchasing during down times: - Continue to drink what you like to support your favorite winemaker.
- Every wine has a story so support wineries whose values reflect yours.

- If you are environmentally minded, look for those that promote organic and biodynamic growing practices, or those offering green packaging.

- Find a wine that supports your favorite cause, and particularly wineries who support the communities in which they live and work.

- Seek out new wines at lower price points, as nothing feels better than discovering a great new wine, a $50 Napa Cab, a $10 pinot noir, a $20 bubbly, or a Beaujolais in a reusable aluminum bottle!

- Drink wines from local wineries if you are so lucky to be in a winegrowing region, as it helps support your local economy and leaves a smaller carbon footprint.

For how other wine lovers are reacting, check out he story on NPR this week - Economy Forces Some To Buy Less Expensive Wine - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php\?storyId=99235468