Breakfast Cookery Day 2!

Day Two of Breakfast Cookery! Everyone was looking a little bit more tired today, but the food came out as peppy as ever. The menu today reads...............

........................Yogurt Parfait.

...............French-Rolled Omelet topped with Micro Green Salad.

...................Classic Egg's Benedict. A Poached Egg served on top of Canadian Bacon resting on an English Muffin. .........................Salmon Paillard with a Poached Egg, MicroGreen Salad and a Walnut Vinaigrette.

................................Asparagus Frittata.
.............................Potato Rosti. Potato Hashbrown with Sauteed Mushrooms baked in Puff Pastry Dough.

..................Apple-Pie Pancakes with Calvados Chantilly, Glazed Apples, and Steel-cut Oats with Candied Walnuts, Thyme-Infused Honey, and Maple Syrup.
Team NWA was back at it again. Flipping eggs and serving em to order. Maybe we can both get jobs at Uncle Gaylord's serving brunch if we ever make it back to Arkansas. Notice Tyson, former UCA Golden Bears college Linebacker, and Scott, 8th grade all-conference honorable mention basketball point guard. A formidable duo in the kitchen none-the-less! Tomorrow, the omelet station.

Fruit Platters: Sexy!

Day One of Breakfast Cookery has begun. Many teams were met with the challenge of poaching eggs, rolling omelets, or baking quiche at 3:30a.m., but my team got lucky! Fruit Platters! Not only is fruit cool, but the fact that my other teammate just so happens to also be from Northwest Arkansas is also cool. Speaking of teammate, Tyson busted out this intricate watermelon rose carving to go along with our sliced watermelon. Apparently this technique can be found on YouTube. Search "Freakin Sweet" and it should come up.

My claim to fame is the honeydew buzzsaw. Notice the sharp lines and the aggressive circular pattern. Okay, it isn't as cool as Tyson's, but not bad for about 5:45a.m. at this point.

Kiwi anyone?

How about an assorted fruit platter for one?

Or an assorted fruit platter for 20?
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Tomorrow is the Eggs-to-Order station. Get em fried, poached, over-easy, or any other way you like em. Compliments of Tyson and Scott......................from Arkansas.

Chili Tasting!

We had the opportunity to taste a few chili's in Cuisines of the America's. It is quite astounding how diverse the chili world can be when most people only know of the chili flakes that come with their box of pizza. We have from top left to bottom, Amarillo, Arbol, Chipotle (not a just a Burrito chain), Piloncillo (actually Mexican sugar), Sun-dried tomato, Habanero, Moreno, Ancho, and Cascabel. Even a few mushrooms were up for ID-ing. A Royal King Trumpet, Brown-Clamshell, Forest Clamshell, Forest Maetake, and Flores de Jamaica.

What good is it to know what chili's look like if you don't know what they taste like? From 1-15 in order of heat! 1 being a sweet pepper or green pepper and 15 being "I think I am going to pass out after my tongue falls off!"

What you can't see, is the sweat, the tears, and the kid running to the refrigerator for a carton of milk. I was able to get up to about #11 before I had to shut down the Olfactory and shout out a cry for my momma. After a little capsaicin suppression, I bit the bullet and had #15 to prevent the guys in the group from calling me a girly man. Two days later I woke up after a successful tongue replacement surgery. Ouch!

Wall Street Journal: Open That Bottle Night!

This Saturday night was "Open That Bottle Night" as instructed by the Wall Street Journal. Our friends up the hill, the Martini's, invited us up for dinner to celebrate this special occasion. Unfamiliar with the concept, we were curious what wines we would be tasting. Why did we have to tell them our birth year...........

..............because everyone at the dinner was represented by a bottle vintage in honor of their birth year.

Wowsa! I haven't used that expression since I saw my wife walk towards me down the aisle! A 1949 Louis Martini Barbera (Mike Martini), 1955 Louis Martini Cab (Jacque), 1962 Louis Martini Zin (Marty), and a 1969 Louis Martini Pinot (Robin). Surprisingly, a couple of the bottles had been recorked by Mike's grandfather somewhere along the way and all of the corks popped out fresh with no breakage.

What about the Walnofer's? Our hosts made sure that we were accounted for and pulled out two Cabernet Sauvignon's for us from their library. A 1982 Johnson Turnbull Napa Valley Cab for me, and a 1984 Louis Martini Los Ninos Cab for the Mrs. Oh yeah, and an unbottled 2005 M-Squared from the tanks down at the Louis Martini winery, but who is counting at this point.
Even our Lamb Shanks and Parmesan and Mushroom Risotto for the evening was made with a 1949 Louis Martini Muscat.
No matter how great the wine is, the experience is only as good as the company. Is that my wife through the sea of wine glasses? The night was also an Arkansas Alumni reunion of sorts. Mike and Jacque had a fellow MBA classmate in town, Marty, along with a former Arkansan now turned Napa-ite, Robin. Good company, good conversation, and good food...........oh yeah, the food.

Mike made some incredible Braised Lamb Shanks and Jacque added some delicate and creamy Parmesan and Mushroom Risotto. We also had a Folie a Deux 1994 Sparkling Wine with our appetizers, hence the shaky hand when setting the food :)

You can't ruin the taste of great wine with an overly sweet dessert, so cheese was the obvious end of the meal course to promote sipping down that little bit of remaining 1952 Cabernet. From Top left: Roquefort, P'tit Pyrenees (50% Sheep, 50% Cows), Montbriac Blue Cheese, and Etivaz Gruyere from Switzerland (according to Patti, the self-proclaimed CheeseLady at Calmart, a favorite of Chef/Dean Charles Henning from the CIA). Add some sliced apples and some toasted nuts! Voilla! But as always, don't forget the baguette! Thanks to my current employment at Bouchon, I get 20% off bakery items at Bouchon Bakery.
What a night! Food, friends, and a once in a lifetime wine tasting experience. Thanks to our neighbors Mike and Jacque Martini for the invite up the hill and safe travels for all those heading back to Arkansas. Tell the Natural-state we said hello.

Some-What Homemade with the Walnofer's #4

Us Walnofer's have still been eating these past few months at home, but just forgetting to report all the goodies that are making their way to our table. This episode is titled winter comfort foods.I cannot take all the credit for this soup. It actually came out of a pre-made soup bag, but I did have to rehydrate it! Thanks to Mom-n-Law for the Bisque in a Bag at Christmas. With the addition of the crystal clear spring water of Calistoga, this dish went from bag to bam! Throw in a few large gulf shrimp, a little bit of Creole seasoning for flavor and garnish, and you have a hearty winter soup with a little taste of the South.
A recent winery excursion a few weekends back took us to St. Supéry where we found this very nice 2006 Napa Valley White Wine Virtú. It is a meritage Bordeaux blend of Semillion and Sauvignon Blanc and the crisp, acidity balanced very nicely with the creaminess and spicyness of our soup.

The Mrs. got the baking bug and went all out with a made-from-scratch apple pie for dessert. Nothing like warm apple pie when its a chilly 48 degrees and sunny out here in Northern California :) When will we master the art of homemade vanilla ice cream to compliment this wonderful pie? For now, its a scoop of Safeway Select Homemade-Vanilla Ice Cream. Close enough.