Stoplights and Curly Fries

You ever have one of those Mondays that just, well, for want of a better word... bites? Waking up late for work, got a ton to get done, traffic is a nightmare, "can't do a thing with my hair", blah, blah, blah... Stress is building and not a friend to the human condition. Sometimes you just have to find little bits of happiness where you can. That's where Stoplights and Curly Fries come into play.

A 20 mile drive down Highway 400 ahead of me, an empty gas tank, gas is 30 cents more per gallon at the only station nearby, and it's nearing five p.m. Just lovely. "Splash" $11 dollars into the tank just to get the delivery done and get back to the "cheap" gas station. Remember those carefree bygone days of yesteryear when gas was actually under $2 per gallon? Ahhh... the memories...

Anywho, I get back on the road and pull up to the stoplight at the on-ramp to 400 anticipating the "lovely", "leisurely" drive ahead of me. Stomach is tight. Tension headache coming on...

Have you ever heard that dogs relieve tension? Even just watching a dog sleep can relieve tension. No! Seriously! I've actually heard that. "They" say it's a scientific fact. Who are "they" anyway? Though whoever "they" are, "they" are correct. So where am I going with this ramble about sleeping dogs? How could this possibly have anything to do with Stoplights and Curly Fries?

Stomach is tight. Tension headache is coming on. I look to my left as I sit at the stoplight. There's a woman in a gray Jeep Cherokee sitting next to me. I can't hear what she's listening to. There's no one else in the car but her. She has a box of curly fries in her hand and the most pleasant and contented smile on her face. For a few moments before getting on with my ride through hell, I take a deep breath, stomach feels better, headache eases for just a bit... and smile. Still wondering about my "sleeping dog ramble"? You have to get a little peace of mind where you can in this crazy world. Most people would have just seen a woman eating curly fries, but to a chef food is happiness and to whoever that was, you're curly fries brought TWO people a little happiness on this crazy planet hurtling through space. And I didn't even have to eat one! Bon Appetit!

New Section: A Chef's Journey: From Birth to Now

In A Chef's Journey, I will relate memories of food and fun from my earliest days (and some stories told to me). I'll be skipping around as memories come to me, so don't hold it against me if one day I write about my childhood and the next what I had for dinner last night! I hope you enjoy and check back often!

Happy New Year! Glückliches Neues Jahr! Bonne Année! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Everyone needs something fun, interesting, and exciting to look forward to in 2010. How about getting a “look forward to” 12 times a year? Form a group of your neighbors, a Sunday School class, your work colleagues, etc., and come to our Castella Room once a month, and let us serve you a “mini-vacation” of the foods of a different country each time. Everyone loves Italian food, with their pasta, gelato, and wine. But how about Germany, which Lynda and I visited? A smooth trout soup makes a delicious first course, followed by sauerbraten, kartoffelklösse (big round potato dumplings), lingonberries, which are something like cranberries, but smaller, and fabulous pastries. The meal was ended with an assortment of delicious cheeses and fruits. One interesting thing we noticed, as we walked the streets of German towns, is that the people take their dogs for walks in the afternoon – about 3 P.M. – and have a pastry and coffee, sitting at outdoor tables with umbrellas. Their were also crepe carts on the streets . I especially liked the apple crepes. Maybe that was because we were there during Octoberfest, and many different kinds of apples were ripe. On Saturday, the open-air market lined both sides of the street. German bands played, cheeses, bratwurst on buns with sauerkraut and mustard were just a few of the many tempting foods offered.

We also went to Belgium and loved their frites (french fries served in paper cones with mayonnaise (try it—you might like it). High school students got an hour lunch break, so many of them walked along eating frites. You can also get frites Americain—that means served with ketchup. Moules (mussels) are also a specialty of Belgium. Cooked with white wine, parsley, and other herbs, they are delicious with frites. Chocolate is another Belgian specialty—Leonidas and Neuhaus-- were two that we sampled. We can order Leonidas here in the U.S. Our sister-in-law likes to get some for her birthday every year. Their little boy calls it “Mama Chocolate.”Belgium also has open-air markets on Saturday. They offer fresh produce, cheeses, rotisserie chicken and potatoes, and tarts of many flavors—cherry is especially good. Flowers are everywhere and are sold for amazingly low prices. Fresh flowers on all tables is just taken for granted.

Lynda and I also went to Paris. A French meal is “magnifique!” At Christmas, there are little white lights everywhere and on everything. How about some boeuf Bourguignon, followed by wild rice l'orange and many more typically French dishes. Do you know that a traditional Christmas Eve dinner has 12 desserts? Buche de Noel (Yule Log), Croquembouche ( a tower of cream puff balls, strewn with spun sugar), and crème brulée are just 3 that are usually offered.

How about an English tea party with an assortment of fantastic teas, scones, and cucumber and watercress finger sandwiches? Spain could be represented by a Tapas party. Ireland, Sweden, China, Thailand, Cuba, Mexico, South American countries, and even some of our U.S. offerings—like Alaska, with fresh salmon and halibut or an Hawaiian luau or a New Orleans gumbo fest—and don't forget muffalettas and beignets!

Maybe you'll like some of the foods you have so much that you would like to learn how to make them. Sign up for cooking classes at the Castella Room to learn how to become a gourmet chef—at least for some fabulous recipes.

So get excited, it's a brand new year. Have something to look forward to each month, and join us at Adaire Chef Services and The Castella Room, 6535 Shiloh Road, Suite 700, Alpharetta, Georgia 30005.

Phone: 678-445-6275 for dinners that are memorable outings.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas is almost here!

Time to make all the candy, cakes, and cookies that make us smile and remember other Christmases that had the same assortment of tempting morsels year after year.

Even though maybe our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents aren't with us anymore, we are still held together as a family through food—recipes—many of them hand-written—that are passed down from generation to generation.

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Hyland had a restaurant (the American Restaurant) on Market Street in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Great Grandpa Hyland's fudge recipe is framed and hangs on the wall at my home. It is in Grandpa's handwriting and keeps him with us. His fudge is the best! It stays soft and literally melts in your mouth. He also included walnuts or black walnuts. Mom always got a box of fudge from Grandpa, and of course, it was enough to share with everybody.

Great Grandma Fankhauser's “Day after Thanksgiving Tradition” was to make three delicious fruitcakes, to be brought out for Christmas dinner and have plenty to last till New Year. Mom tried to make a dark fruitcake like Grandma's because that recipe wasn't written down. The closest she could come was a recipe from “Sphere” magazine, one of the first and best gourmet magazines ever. It was dark like Grandma's, not terribly sweet, and included tart apricot halves that she chopped. The tart apricots are getting harder to find. The “new” apricots are whole, gooey, and virtually tasteless, at least for a fruitcake. She found a good source for the “old” kind of apricots, so the fruitcake tradition can continue.

We always drove to Vienna, West Virginia, every Christmas because that's where both sets of my grandparents lived, Hylands and Phillips. It was seventeen and a half hours one-way of driving, sometimes through ice and snow. Granny's Hot Spiced Tea, made with tea, orange juice, lemon juice, cinnamon, cloves, and tinted pink warmed us on many cozy holiday afternoons. It was loving and soothing. Grandma Phillips always had a bowl of nuts, fruit, especially tangerines, peppermint candy canes, and a box of chocolate-covered cherries on the coffee table for us to nibble on.

When we got back home on the day after New Year, Lynda, who graciously took care of our big blue Doberman Wolf while we were gone, always had one of her mom and dad's (Cecile and Wallace Doss's) scrumptious stollen wreaths waiting for us. We all looked forward to getting to have some right after we got home and again for breakfast the next day.

Suzanne, my sister, said she always liked Mom's Holly Cake. Just make a white cake, cupcakes, or a red velvet cake iced in shiny white. Cut the tops off candy spearmint leaves—it looks like holly. Arrange three leaves with three red drops (to look like holly berries) around the cake or on top of each cupcake. Festive—and easy.

Adaire Chef Services has an old tradition made new in its Fudgie Scotch Ring. It's chocolate and butterscotch on a walnut base. It's YUMMY! Order a Fudgie Scotch Ring at 678-445-6275 and begin a new tradition at your house.

Need a gift that costs nothing? Write down some favorite recipes and make copies of some hand-written ones to give to friends and family. Include a personal story that goes with a couple of the recipes. That's giving from your heart.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Adaire Chef Services

Over the River and Thru the Woods...

Thanksgiving is fast approaching. Traditions are a big part of the holiday. Who can forget to watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? Or watch football games? What about food?

My family is from West Virginia on the Ohio River. Of course, turkey is the star, followed by bread dressing—half of it with oysters. Let's list the menu:

turkey

bread dressing—half with oysters

mashed potatoes

gravy

sweet potatoes with pineapple and melted marshmallows on top

cranberry sauce

succotash—creamed

tray of carrot sticks, celery, olives, pickles

pumpkin pie—Grandpa Hyland's recipe

mincemeat pie—Grandma Hyland's raisin kind

Grandma Phillips added candied yams and real home-canned meat mincemeat pie. And, of course,we had two Thanksgiving dinners—one at noon and one in the evening. Stuffed!

After moving to the deep South, we noticed different traditions. Here's a typical menu:

turkey, and some add ham

cornbread dressing (sometimes oysters are included)

asparagus casserole replaces succotash

cranberry sauce or a cranberry jello salad

the universal green bean casserole—served North or South

ambrosia

sweet potatoes with brown sugar and pecans

pecan pie

pumpkin pie

What are your traditions? Would you like to have all your traditional food but don't want to cook all day, or you don't have room in your kitchen, let alone your oven?

Call Adaire Chef Services at 678-445-6275. Let us cook Thanksgiving dinner, and we'll deliver it to your door within a 30 mile radius from our Adaire kitchen.

Herb of the Month: Sage

Sage is a perennial that is a pale dusty green-gray that has a “Thanksgiving” flavor. It tastes so good in stuffing—use it sparingly—it's strong. It's very easy to grow either in the ground or in a pot. If the plant leaves get wooly after 3 or 4 years, start some new plants. If you can't use it all in its fresh form, dry it to use later.

Cocktails in the Fall Part Deux

Holy Moly! It has been a heck of a few weeks around the office! We changed internet providers which is still wreaking havoc with our digital phone system, changed banks once found it sorely lacking and now have to change again, catered a wedding for 160, a reception for 110, and parties for 25 and 50 on the weekend with many more weddings, parties, and dinners on the horizon! This is in addition to our regular weekly corporate and private catering and chef services. It's been hectic, but we are really loving the business! Please keep it coming!

This will be the second installment of Cocktails in the Fall. Because it's been a while and I've been a bit remiss, I'll list 4 cocktails this week: 2 SEC and 2 ACC...

First the SEC: Florida V. LSU, My pick: Gators 26, Tigers 17

Green Gator: This great cocktail recipe is served at The Porch restaurant at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, California. They serve the drink with a plastic glow-stick as a swizzle stick, which gives the drink an eerie, magical radiance.

1 1/2 oz Midori Melon Liqueur 1/2 oz Coconut Rum Pineapple juice Fill a tall glass with ice, pour in alcohol, fill the rest of the way with pineapple juice, mix and enjoy!

Eye of the Tiger:
This cocktail adds a tigerish bite to what otherwise tastes like an innocent fruity mixture.

1 oz gold rum
1 oz Malibu Rum
1 oz cranberry juice
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz of orange juice
1 oz sugar syrup
1/2 oz dark rum

Shake all but the last ingredient with ice, and strain into a highball glass half-filled with ice. Drizzle the dark rum on the surface of the drink and garnish with a slice of orange. Grrrr…

Now for our ACC selection: Maryland V. Wake Forest, My pick: Wake Forest 19, Maryland 13

Turtle Punch:
Straight from Turtle Bay - St. Kitts

1 1/2 oz. Rum
1 oz. Passion Fruit Syrup
1 oz. Sweet & Sour
Pineapple Juice
Nutmeg

Fill a collins or highball glass with ice. Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into the collins glass. Sprinkle nutmeg on top.

Orange Demon:
This recipe originally called for pure grain alcohol, but I couldn't do that to you! If you're feeling brave, feel free to substitute the PGA for the vodka!

1/2 glass orange juice
2 oz vodka
2 oz Cointreau Orange Liqueur

Pour the orange juice into a cocktail glass. Mix in the vodka and the cointreau, and serve.

Give these cocktails a try and let me know what you think... just remember to have the number of a taxi service handy! Enjoy the games but don't hold me to my picks!

Cocktails in the Fall

Here it is the end of summer and Fall is in the air. 8 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes, and 24 seconds until college football kicks off the 2009 season. Not that I'm keeping track or anything. This is my favorite time of the year! In honor of this auspicious occasion, I'm embarking on a weekly adult beverage recipe blog that honors the teams of the SEC and the ACC -- the ones I'm interested in anyway.

For all of my friends in the great state of Georgia, I'm going to get UGA and Georgia Tech out of the way first thing. These are in no particular order so don't read anything into it...

Georgia: The Mocha Bulldog

1 oz. Kahlúa Mocha
1 oz. Stoli Vodka
1 oz. cola

Combine ingredients and serve over ice in a tall (Collins) glass.

Georgia Tech: Nutty Vodka Stinger

1 oz. Vodka
1 oz. Amaretto
1/2 oz. White Creme de Menthe

Combine ingredients in a shaker filled with ice, shake and strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice.

It's a long season so pace yourself! I think I'm starting with the Mocha Bulldog... it's less expensive! I won't reveal my team, but I'll leave you with this...

Roll Tide Roll!!! Okay, I lied...