Bad Habits

By now the intrepid reader has found that I'm all about the taste. The taste habit has grown from loving food, evidenced by my ongoing battle to keep the weight down below the big 220 number, to the enjoyment of cigars. There is a lot of psycho babble that goes along with the cigar habit. When I was growing up Dad was a cigar smoker. Back in the day when it wasn't illegal for minors to buy cigars or cigarettes for their parents Dad would send me to "the corner store" to buy cigars. The corner store was officially titled Miners Grocery but everyone in the neighborhood knew it as either the corner store or Miner's. This place was a classic of the fifties and sixties inner city life. It was located in the basement of a three decker at the corner of Clifton and Oberlin Streets in Worcester, the city I grew up in. Worcester was a very ethnic city back then, with clearly defined neighborhoods. There were Irish, French, Italian and Jewish sections of town. Worcester was primarily an Irish city, but Clifton Street bordered the French section of the city, so there was a mix of Irish and French that lived there. Having DeLisle's and Caissie's on both sides of the family, we were clearly French interlopers.

I went to Downing Street School for grammar school (1 to 6). It was a 100 year old building, run down and pretty dingy at the time. It now houses part of the music school for Clark University where my daughter Sarah occasionally teaches. It was about four blocks from home, an easy walk to and from school each day. Miner's was at the corner of our block and we had to pass it each day on our walk to school. Back then we went home every day for lunch (there was no place to eat lunch at school even if you wanted to). On a fairly regular basis after lunch Mom would give me either a few cents for penny candy or a nickle for one of the big bars. These big bars now cost a dollar or more. Ring Dings, Devil Dogs and Sno Balls were a dime on special occasions. Today you can't even find the big Ring Dings any more. I think Miners made most of their money on the neighborhood kids that stopped to but sweets or bread and milk for the house.

Dad loved his cigars when I was little. Unfortunately he liked Phillies, a mild tasting nickle cigar. He would send me to the store to pick up a five pack (25 cents) and give me a few pennies for candy. I remember this vividly, as if it really meant something to me back then. If you have to smoke, cigars are fairly benign since you aren't supposed to inhale. It's all about the taste in the mouth. Dad would inhale (Whew). I started on cigars a few years ago and now smoke about one a week. My favorite is the Arturo Fuente Don Carlos, but the Ashton VSG and CAO Cameroon aren't very far behind. Today I tried a Kristoff Maduro and really enjoyed it, a surprise since I don't usually like the Maduro wrappers.

Every time I light one up, I think of my father. Maybe it's not such a bad habit.

Just Loafing Around

I've been on a comfort food kick for a while now, trying to remember all those foods that have made me feel better over the years. One of the recipes that Mom and Nancy's Mom have handed down is meat loaf. I've tweaked it over the years by adding a few spices and using multiple types of meat. Here it is:

Meat Loaf

1 lb ground beef, preferably 85% beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground veal (if available; use another 1/2 lb pork if not)
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste (for me it's 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper)
Barbecue sauce

1. There's no fine art here. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the ingredients with your fingers. It's the only way. Get in there and mush it up.

2. Do not use a loaf or bread pan. Form the loaf by hand on either a high sided baking sheet or a ceramic or glass cooking container.

3. Spread a thin strip of barbecue sauce down the center of the loaf. Bake at 350F for 1 1/4 hour.

4. Serve with real mashed potatoes (not boxed) and home made gravy (see below).

Gravy

32 ounces beef stock
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste

1. Make a roulx with the butter and flour cooking on a medium low heat for 5 minutes or until the butter smells nutty.

2. Add the beef stock stirring rapidly to blend the stock smoothly into the roulx. Bring to a low boil. Add the thyme.

3. Cook approximately 10 minutes to concentrate the gravy. Salt and pepper.

The Restaurant that can't count

I know I'm being picky, but at least they could have called it Fourteen Tables since that was the number of tables in the restaurant. For my birthday the kids made reservations at a restaurant in Cambridge called "Ten Tables" (http://www.tentables.net/). The original restaurant is located in Jamaica Plain and supposedly has only ten tables, hence the name. The Cambridge location is also called Ten Tables but according to Josh has fourteen tables. If that is the only thing wrong with the place then they are doing pretty well.



The menu was nicely varied with a good mix of meat, fowl and fish dishes. The waiter informed us we could also get the tasting menu for $40 per person. The tasting menu would be several courses chosen by the chef. The catch was we all had to order the tasting menu to get it. A vegetarian version was available for Sarah. Since it was my B-Day, everyone allowed me to pick. I chose the tasting menu for all and it was very good. Here is a rundown of the courses:



The first course was an amuse bouche consisting of a shot glass with a cold potato and leek soup. It was different and tasted mildly of the leeks. Sarah didn't like it, I did, and the rest of the table thought it was "OK". Second course was a fish broth with a nice pile of sauteed spinach topped with mussels. It may have been the best item on the menu. The broth was very tasty and the mussels added just the right hit of seafood to the taste. The third course was two diver scallops on a bed of farrow and beets. The farrow added a nice nutty offset to the soft sweet scallops. The fourth course was rare sliced steak on a bed of field greens. The steak had been marinated with a nicely acidic herb and juice blend. Very tasty. The finale was a grapefruit gratin and then a chocolate tureen with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.



The restaurant would be difficult to find without very specific directions. It is housed in the basement of an apartment complex. The decor is traditional black and white and could be a very romantic destination for a party of two. Highly recommended.

Slacker

I admit it. I'm a blogging slacker. I haven't been keeping up with this thing.

It was my B-day this weekend. We went to Fratello's Restaurant (http://fratellos.com/) in Manchester on Friday night. The atmosphere there is always friendly, the room can be noisy so you don't have to worry a lot about making your own noise. The food is good but not special. They have a nice mix of Italian and traditional dishes. I had the calamari Fratello, a nice combination of linguine in a butter and garlic sauce with fried calamari and chopped hot cherry peppers. The recipe had changed a little with the breading on the calamari being a little heavier now, but it was still good. Afterwards we went to Fran and Dave's for a warm fire, hot tub and cigars. I opened a bottle of wine from the wine club. It was the 2005 Zinfandel. I'm not usually a big fan of Zin's, but this was very different. Deep tasting while sipping with no after taste, and not dry at all. I usually like dry wines but this was different and good. I also had a Rocky Patel 10th anniversary cigar, one of my favorites.

Saturday night was pizza and guitar tunes with the Mulcahy's, always an enjoyable evening. My fingers are in bad shape so it gave me a great opportunity to build some calluses. I'm noticing some scratches around the sound hole so it might be time for a repair job. Sunday we drove to the beach and had lunch at the Lobster Cove restaurant on Long Sands at York beach. Nancy was having a problem walking with her new glasses. She said they made her feel like she was on stilts when she walked with them. I tried them on and could see what she meant. So I walked her around the beach walk holding her by the arm while she had her new prescription sunglasses on. It looked like I was leading a blind women around by the arm. Every time I had to let her go to let someone pass she had to take the glasses off to walk. Very strange.

In a few days I'll write about dinner witjh the kids at Ten Tables in Cambridge.

A Few Foodie Tidbits

It's a new week and there are a few new items to note on the food frontier. I received this quarters shipment from the Jessup Cellars wine club. This shipment includes a Petite Syrah (2006), a Merlot (2005) and a Zinfindel (2003). The plan right now is to store these for a few years to let them mature. It should be interesting to see if I can resist opening those bottles for five or so years. My inclination is to open whatever is around rather than going to the store to buy a new bottle. May be for once I can resist the temptation.

I tried a new recipe tonight for dinner. This was one I came up with on my own, but it was influenced by the multitude of cooking shows I watch on a regular basis. It was very tasty and subtle in it's flavors. Here it is:

Baked Cod with Miso and Shitakes (serves four)

Four Cod fillets (approximately 2 lbs)
Two Fennel bulbs
16 ounces of chicken broth
1/8 tsp Ground Coriander
Salt and pepper to taste
1 packet of miso soup mix
1 cup water
Scallion garnish
3 fresh Dill sprigs
8 fresh shitake mushrooms
2 tsp olive oil
1 fresh lime
Sea salt

1. Sprinkle a ceramic baking dish with the olive oil. Place the cod fillets in the baking dish. Salt and pepper the fillets to taste (a small pinch on each fillet). Sprinkle the coriander on top of the fillets. Bake at 425 F for 25 minutes.

2. Remove the green parts of the fennel from each bulb. Quarter the fennel bulbs. Bring the fennel and chicken broth to a fast simmer over a medium high heat. Cook for approximately 20 minutes.

3. Slice the mushrooms thinly.

4. Bring 1 cup water to a boil. Add miso soup mix and stir. Take off heat.

5. Divide the miso soup among four large bowls. Spread the sliced mushrooms along the bottom of the bowls. Add one cod fillet to each bowl. Add two fennel quarters to each bowl. Sprinkle chopped dill and scallions over dish. Squeeze fresh lime over fish. Sprinkle a small amount of sea salt over the fish.

Enjoy!

Winter Blahs

It's now the last week in February and the snow just keeps coming. Just when you thought you might be able to see the ground again, another four inches of the white stuff drops on our heads. The only redeeming quality by now is that it helps to cover up the dirty snow that has been building up over the winter. I love the snow blower but there's a limit to how much enjoyment I can get from power tools.

There are three very large piles of fallen branches in the back yard just waiting to be incinerated in a ball of fire. The branches are a direct result of the tree harvesting fiasco from last spring and the ice storm in December. I'm picturing next weekend to be spent with a lawn chair, a water hose, two fire extinguishers and a few cigars. This is the perfect time of year to burn all that stuff and prevent the rest of the neighborhood from burning down along with it. I'm still wondering how big a fire I could actually get going back there. If you can see the smoke from Boston call me.

life (Not) On Caffein

I confess to be an addict sort of person. I get hooked on things and then can't seem to break the habit. It's a little bit of the obsessive / compulsive that comes out in me all the time. One of my earliest addictions has been coffee.

I didn't start drinking coffee until around 1978, when I started working at my first job at Raytheon. I was an expediter, which meant I went around pushing people to do my product first before any other product was done. It was probably one of the worst jobs I ever held and I worked for one of the truly insane people in the world. Ed was a maniac. He would scream at people in the middle of the hall and have no qualms at all in making you look like you were an idiot. He would call you into his office and start throwing things against the walls. I learned early on to bring bad news to him in his office rather than in the hall and to make sure I brought him the bad news before he heard it from anyone else. It turned in to a good strategy because I was rarely embarrassed with the hallway beatings. In short order I needed a drug to help me through the day and that drug turned in to coffee.

It didn't help very much when my office was literally adjacent to the cafeteria. Any time I needed that little lift, I would step out approximately 50 paces and there would be the fresh coffee. For about two weeks I took it with cream and sugar, but that stopped when I realized I didn't really need the calories. Since then I have ranged between 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day for over thirty years. Let's leave my love for espresso out of this particular tome.

As the years have passed I find myself sleeping less soundly at night. I'm not the most easy going person in the world and I also tend be a little high strung. Last Thursday I finally switched to decaf. I found a decent bold blend from Starbucks (Veronna) and have been using it for the last week. The taste is reasonable and doesn't taste at all like decaf. I do notice a difference in the coffee jitters. I don't know if my sleeping has improved but I'm told it should also be good for my heart. Now if I could just stay awake at 3:00 in the afternoon.