Mango & Tomato

6/8/09

Share Our Strength Dinner: Thanks, Foodbuzz!

Back in February, Foodbuzz had an essay contest to win a ticket to A Tastesful Pursuit Dinner hosted by Share Our Strength. I actually won and have been waiting ever since to come to this fabulous event: dinner cooked by well known chefs with proceeds going to finance programs that eradicate child hunger! The dinner took place at Charlie Palmer last Wednesday.

Here are a few shots of the gorgeous views from the Penthouse rooftop!

And then the weather turned and it began pouring!

While on the rooftop, we enjoyed fabulous appetizers, wine, and beer. I especially liked melon cubes with red caviar and beet merengues!

The dinner consisted of 5 courses, each paired with wine. I was a bit tipsy when everything was said and done. The room was gorgeous!

Course #1: Duck Foie Gras Parfait (Peaches, vidalia onion marmalade, brioche melba, bliss vinegar) with 2007 Lemelson Vienyards Dry Riesling

Course #2: Pan Fried North Carolina Soft Shell Crab (Pickled ramps and mango brown butter) with 2006 Ramey Cellars Chardonay

Course #3: Roasted Guinea Hen Roulade (Israeli cous cous "risotto," spring garlic and wild nettles) with 2006 T.R. Elliott Pinot Noir

Course #4: Roasted Loin of Spring Lamb and Foraged Mushroom Pave (Tomato-rosemary pudding and devil's club root sauce) with 2005 Parry Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon

Course #5: Roasted Peanut and Chocolate Gateau (Caramelized banana and sweet cream) with Leffe Blonde Belgium Pale Ale

The food was really good, but my favorite was the dessert. It was so rich and sweet that I could not even finish the whole thing...and that's something that doesn't happen too often.

There were powerful speeches by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and MD Governor Martin O'Malley. This was a fabulous evening.

Marx Foods Challenge: Duck Sausage

UPDATE: Hi, everyone. Re-posting this write up because the time to vote is now! Please give me your vote if you like my recipe :) Thank you! The polls will be open till Friday.

I've had a lovely relationship with Marx Foods (a food company based in Seattle). A while ago they sent me a variety of dried peppers to try and I quite enjoyed experimenting with them.

Last week I received an email from Justin Marx encouraging me to participate in testing their new game sausage. I was intrigued and willing to play.

There were a few snafus with FedEx, but I received my package from Marx Foods last Thursday and although completely defrosted, it was still safe to consume. I found out that the sausage comes fully cooked, and not raw as I expected. That made me change my mind regarding what I was planning to cook with the sausage. Plus, the variety that I received was smoked duck. I'm not a huge duck fan because of its strong flavor, and wanted to come up with a dish that would let the sausage shine but at the same time make it less pungent.

After a long deliberation, I decided to make a salad! This might seem like a simple idea, but you don't need to spend hours in the kitchen in order to come up with a great meal. The sweetness of oranges and cranberries goes well with the strong taste of duck sausage and is yet offset by the tartness of Granny Smith apples and the spiciness of mustard.

Plus, you can make this salad year round!

Ingredients
salad
1 orange, segmented
1/2 Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons cranberries
1 duck sausage, cut diagonally and grilled on both sides (I used my George Foreman grill, but feel free to use your outdoor grills)
2 cups young lettuce leaves

dressing
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
1. Whisk together dressing ingredients. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Either combine all the salad ingredients and drizzle with the dressing or
3. Make a layered salad (see below).

There will be voting on Marx Foods website starting with June 8th. There will be one winner out of 11 people who will receive an entire game sausage sampler!!! Please mark your calendars to vote for me :) I'll also remind you of this next week!

6/6/09

Potato, Egg, Cucumber & Dill Salad

Even though I don't understand it, I know that many people are not fans of mayonnaise. How is that possible?

I love mayonnaise. On sandwiches, in salads, added to cold mashed potatoes, etc.

Here's a recipe for potato salad that doesn't have mayonnaise, and instead uses sunflower oil. This will be great for your summer picnics. Enjoy.

Potato, Egg, Cucumber & Dill Salad

Ingredients (use equal amount of potatoes and cucumbers and about 1 egg/person)

potatoes, peeled, cubed and boiled in salted water

cucumbers, cubed

eggs, boiled, peeled, cubed

dill, chopped

salt/pepper

sunflower oil

Directions
1. Combine the first four ingredients in a bowl.
2. Drizzle sunflower oil on top, season with salt and pepper and mix.
3. Let the salad sit in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can eat it warm.

6/4/09

Chicago: Hot Dogs at Portillo's

There hasn't been too much cooking lately in my kitchen, other than making a tomato/mayonnaise/basil sandwich this morning.

I do have a few posts in the works from the previous week that actually include recipes (I know! shocking!), but in the meantime, I'll post a few more things from my Chicago trip.

I really, really, really wanted to try a Chicago hot dog and had Portillo's recommended to me by several people. I had to wait till our last day in Chicago to make this little dream come true. And it was definitely worth the wait.

Portillo's offers a fun and casual atmosphere, outside seating, truly friendly staff and oh so many choices! You can get hot dogs, pizzas, sandwiches, fries, dessert, etc! And the prices are very reasonable, and they take credit cards!

I knew what I wanted: Portillo's Beef Hot Dog! I liked the poppy seed bun, and the fun bag the hot dog came in. This was one great late breakfast!

And then I decided to order dessert: strawberry shortcake! Can't remember the last time I had this. It was so good and quite big! The cake was moist and sweet, the strawberries were fresh and there was plenty of whipped cream. I took an extra spoon to share with Wendy and Anna.

If you were to design your hot dog, what toppings would you use?

6/3/09

Stouffer's Anytime Gourmet Night

A few weeks ago I received an email inviting me to attend a dinner/event hosted by Stouffer's to introduce their new line of frozen meals: Anytime Gourmet. At first I thought it was a SPAM email, but after talking to Jenna (in charge of public relations), I found out this was a legitimate invitation and was happy to accept it!

The formal invitation arrived last week. I was floored! I seriously expected just a card in the mail; instead, I received a white ceramic jar with 3 wooden utensils: and everything was so prettily packed! (Yes, I'm easily impressed, despite what many might think).

I was allowed to bring one guest with me and chose my friend Annie from work. We had a great time! The event took place in a relatively new cooking school in DC called CulinAerie. As some of you may know, I work part time at Sur La Table, so I was eager to check out the competition :)

The school is beyond gorgeous! And everything was really nicely set up: beautiful flower arrangements, glasses of wine, purple aprons, etc.

But back to the food. We had a chance to try out all 7 different frozen meals in the Anytime Gourmet line and even cooked one of the entrees (Annie and I got to prepare Tuscan Style Chicken).

Keep in mind that I rarely, if ever, purchase frozen food: so it was going to take a lot to impress me. Also, keep in mind that most of the food was prepared for at least 20 people and slightly ahead of time...so these were not the same conditions as you would have at home when cooking a meal for yourself.

My favorite entrees were Chicken & Asparagus Carbonara, Peppercorn-crusted Steak (pictured below), Wild Salmon Dijon in Puff Pastry (pictured below) and Tuscan-style Herb-Crusted Chicken. Please notice that 3 out of my favorite dishes are in the more expensive line: go figure!

Here is the Tuscan-style chicken Annie and I made:

And not to show off, but my plate was chosen as the prettiest :)

The event was hosted by Canadian food star Trish Magwood, who could not have been friendlier, more approachable or more fun. We got to take a copy of her cookbook home along with a bottle of wine and that pretty purple apron I mentioned earlier.

But before we left, we tried out two awesome desserts from Trish's cookbook. As you can see, I ate every last crumb!

This was a fun night! I was a bit tipsy from the wine by the time we left :)

Thank you Stouffer's!!!

6/1/09

Chicago: Pizza at Marcello's

Chicago is known for its deep-dish pizza. But I'm really not a fan of that style. I prefer thin crust! Plus, I already had deep-dish the first time I was in Chicago years ago.

This time around, Anna, Amy, Wendy and I met one of Anna's friends, Kate, from the CIA (Culinary Institute) for pizza at Marcello's. This place was recommended my multiple people, and we were looking forward to a fun experience and good food.

Because the restaurant did not offer pizza by a slice and Wendy was the only one who wanted deep-dish pizza, we decided to order two salads and one extra large thin pizza. It was the fastest that 5 people ever came to an agreement when it came to food. That gave us time to chat and learn about Kate's future catering business endeavours!

The service was sort of mediocre, but the food was definitely great!

We started with Marcello's Chopped Antipasto Salad (mixed greens, roasted red & yellow peppers, tomatoes, artichokes, red onion, Italian meats, fontinella & Gorgonzola cheese served with our homemade Italian dressing): the ingredients were fresh and there were plenty of them! We also had a Caesar salad.

When it came to pizza, we decided to be rather simple and ordered Artichoke & Plum Tomato pizza (a sprinkle of fontinella, Parmesan, Romano & mozzarella cheese with garlic and olive oil sauce topped with artichokes & plum tomatoes). The crust was perfection! It was thin and tasted like it was fried in olive oil (a good thing). I was surprised that tomatoes were not fresh, but they still tasted delicious. We had so many leftovers (snacked on them throughout the day).

ooh!!!

P.S. Wendy did end up getting a taste of deep-dish pizza on our last day in Chicago at Gino's. Everyone was happy!

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