The Five Best Meals of 2010

Reflecting on the many delicious experiences we've had this year, I have a hard time choosing just five meals as being "the best." But there are a few that stick out - not only for the food, but for the company and the experience as well.

So here they are, in no particular order:

1. Anniversary brunch with Topher at Bistro 110 in Chicago - I wouldn't have guessed that the most romantic meal of the weekend would've been brunch, but it was
2. Birthday dinner for Heather and Ally at Tautog's in Virginia Beach - a fun night out with good friends
3. Dinner at A Chef's Kitchen in Williamsburg with our friends Randy & Kim - like watching a Food Network show live
4. Birthday dinner for Anne at Union Square Cafe in Manhattan - the bacon ice cream & squash bread pudding was to die for!
5. Dinner at Stove in Portsmouth with Randy & Kim and Mike & Jane - so much fun that Topher requested to go back for his birthday in December

(Honorable mention: my birthday dinner at Sushi Aka in Suffolk.)

As I wrote earlier this year, the quality of a meal depends a lot on who I share it with. Eating a gourmet meal alone can be a forgettable experience; sharing a meal with friends and loved ones can elevate the memory of that meal to something really special.

Here's to more delicious meals with good friends in 2011!

Sick People Food

I've been sick most of this week, and I finally went to the doctor yesterday. His diagnosis: mild bronchitis. At least he didn't say strep throat.

Topher has been a wonderful nurse. He's been giving me lots of tea - Yogi Throat Comfort and Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat - and he made chicken noodle soup again.

Tonight's "get well soon" meal is creamy roasted tomato & carrot soup (a Bobby Flay recipe - my new favorite) with a grilled cheese sandwich. It's not the greatest picture, but it was the perfect meal for a cold day when you're sick in bed.

Christmas Vittles

Let's just say that, despite the snow, we didn't starve over the holidays this year. We were blessed with three consecutive days of delicious meals, followed by a week of yummy leftovers.

On Christmas Eve Eve (December 23rd), my parents arrived from Georgia, and we celebrated with my dad's side of the family at my cousin's house in Norfolk.

What We Ate:

• for starters: marinated goat cheese with French bread
• beef burgundy (or "boeuf bourguignon" as Julia Child's would say)
• greens beans with garlic
• to drink:
• for dessert: cheesecake topped with cherry compote & rosemary (thanks, Topher!)

On Christmas Eve, Topher's parents drove up from North Carolina, and we had a casual, buffet-style lunch-dinner ... eat what you want, when you want, graze your way through the afternoon ... you get the idea. Afterwards we went to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at our church.

What We Ate:

• chili with a choice of topping (cilantro, scallions, corn chips, shredded cheese)
• homemade corn bread
• salmon log with crackers
• sriracha & wasabi deviled eggs (a Food & Wine recipe)
• Waldorf salad
• apple cake
• chocolate peppermint pinwheel cookies (an Alton Brown recipe, but we left out the crushed candy canes)

On Christmas Day, all six of us - my parents, Topher's parents, and the two of us - were together again to open presents and share a meal (which I forgot to photograph - oops).

Topher gave me three amazing gifts: an incredibly warm & comfortable merino wool jacket (it kinda feels like wearing a blanket, and I didn't want to take it off), all seven of the Harry Potter books on CD (for me to listen to while I'm driving back & forth to work), and bound copies of The Strand magazine from 1892 - the original publication of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories!

What We Ate:

• bourbon-ginger ham (the one that he practiced last week)
• creamed spinach
• three-cheese macaroni (with parmesan, mozzarella, & fontina)
• to drink: Shoofly viognier (Australian)
• for dessert: leftover apple cake and chocolate peppermint pinwheel cookies; creme de menthe brownies (thanks, Jinks!); sugar cookies (made by my mother-in-law); dark chocolate-covered almonds (thanks, Randy!) ... clearly we weren't short on sweets

And then it snowed, and I mean really snowed. We got 8-10 inches on the day after Christmas. Topher & I were scheduled to play on the worship team that day, so we dutifully got up early and drove the un-plowed roads to church. About two dozen people came to the first service; another two dozen showed up for the second service; and the third service was cancelled. But it was beautiful to see our church all blanketed in white.

I hope you and your family had a joyful, relaxing, and delicious Christmas as well!

Isaiah 55

1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,

come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.

2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.

3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.

...

10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it ..."

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This past week we had quite a bit of winter weather in the Hampton Roads area. The snow "storm" that came last Thursday only left 1-3 inches of powder, but it clogged up the highways and interstates for hours. My regular one-hour, 40-mile commute turned into a 3-hour saga. But when I got home, our neighborhood sure looked beautiful all covered in white.

On Saturday night, Topher & I went had dinner with a bunch of our friends to celebrate one of the guys' birthday.

Aren't we a festive-looking bunch? Even the lampshades got in on the color scheme. :)

What We Ate:

• tomato, mozzarella, basil leaf, & balsamic vinegar - I could have eaten 10 of these
• lobster risotto - creamy & delicious
• green beans with roasted walnuts & goat cheese - if this is the way I'd had green beans as a kid, there's no way I'd dislike them!
• steak with chimichurri sauce
• for dessert: chocolate swirl cheesecake

There's nothing better than sharing meals during the holidays, and I'm so thankful for our friends & their amazing skills in the kitchen!

Determined Not to Get Sick

This morning I woke up with my throat burning - not cool. It's a week before Christmas, and I'm determined not to get sick!

So today I'm sucking on Halls honey-lemon cough drops, sipping Yogi Throat Comfort Tea, and eating the most delicious homemade chicken noodle soup ever. It's chock full of carrots, celery, and mushrooms (there's some evidence that mushrooms help boost the immune system).

For a week's worth of immunity-boosting dishes, check out WebMD's "7-Day Menu for Cold and Flu Season."

Advent Meditation

Isaiah 25

6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
...
8 He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Reading List for December 6-17

1. "The Largest Black Market Fish Bust Ever?" from Forbes - in the Chesapeake Bay!

2. "Go Ahead and Think (Repeatedly) about Eating that Food You're Craving" from WSJ

“A paper just published in Science suggests that taking several minutes to actively contemplate eating our beloved macarons — one after the other — may actually make us want them less.”

3. Soda Taxes
- "Soda Taxes May Raise Money, Don't Produce Huge Weight Loss" from WSJ
- " 'Save the Children' Breaks with Soda Tax Effort" from NYTimes

4. Food in culture/politics
- "How did junk food & obesity become a red state/blue state debate?" by Marion Nestle on Civil Eats blog
- "Junking Junk Food" from NYTimes
- "Food is not a partisan issue - or one just about culture" from Grist.org

5. Just for fun: "Sprinkle Guns, Egg Washers, and Other Food Contraptions" from The Atlantic
MIT students take on the task of inventing gadgets and gizmos for the modern kitchen.

Happy reading, and have a great weekend!

Southern Comfort

After several evenings in a row of us being out or having people over, Topher suggested that we have a date night at home on Tuesday. Isn't he great? Knowing that his Georgia girl likes Southern cooking, he made a feast of comfort foods.

What We Ate:

• baked ham in a mustard-bourbon-brown sugar-ginger glaze - incredibly delicious! He used an Alton Brown recipe (this was a dress rehearsal for Christmas dinner, when both sets of parents will be in town and eating at our house!)
• collard greens
• baked macaroni & cheese
• homemade biscuits - we used the leftovers to make ham biscuits for breakfast the next morning
• Atlas Peak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - a true Cab! very oaky & dry, but with a good finish

After dinner, we watched "The Interpreter" (2005) starring Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, and Katherine Keener. Kidman plays a UN interpreter who accidentally overhears a conversation about a plot to assassinate a corrupt African leader while he's delivering a speech to the UN General Assembly later that week. Penn plays the US Secret Service agent assigned to first investigate, and then protect her.

Both Topher & I had seen it before, but I like it and wanted to see it again. Sure, there are a few holes in the plot, and some parts are a little predictable; but overall I think it's an entertaining, not-too-violent political thriller - an African conflict film set on the floor of the UN.

My Winter "To Dine" List

I did okay on my fall "to dine" list: we made it two of the four restaurants on the list - A Chef's Kitchen in Williamsburg, VA, and Union Square Cafe in Manhattan.

Here's where I'd like to eat this winter:

• I still haven't made it to the Boot (not for lack of trying!), so it stays on the list.
• Topher & I still haven't made it to One Fish Two Fish either (my fault on that one).
• I'll add Blue Talon Bistro and Fat Canary, both in Williamsburg. (I'm hoping for another weekend getaway!)
• Terrapin - New American cuisine near the Virginia Beach oceanfront (a recommendation from Lisa Has Chickens via her aunt, who's a good friend of mine)

Let's see how well we do this quarter!

Catching Up

My apologies: I haven't blogged in, oh, 10 days or so. I'm not sure where all my time went ... maybe into Christmas shopping, Christmas parties, Christmas concert rehearsals, and addressing Christmas cards? Every year I seem to blink and miss the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas!

What we've been eating
Topher has been making variations of "cream of (insert vegetable here) soup." A few weeks ago he made a creamy mushroom soup; on a chilly night last week we had grilled cheese sandwiches with Bobby Flay's roasted tomato soup (my favorite so far!); and for dinner with friends this past weekend he made a crème d'asperges (cream of asparagus) soup to go with coq au vin and risotto. Yum!

What we've been drinking
- Buena Vista Ramal Vineyard Syrah (over a bowl of chili, for dinner with friends)
- Shafer Napa Valley Merlot (at Press 626 for Topher's birthday, courtesy of our dear friend Jen)
- lots of green tea (from Yogi and Bigelow) - I haven't cut out coffee entirely, but on two out of three mornings I'm drinking green tea instead. And even if I don't drink it for breakfast, I still usually have 2-3 cups of tea per day; so I guess the green tea experiment has been a success!

What I've been reading
- Wendell Berry's Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food
- Marion Nestle's blog "Food Politics"
- "Divided We Eat: What food says about class in America" from Newsweek

Hope you're doing well and enjoying this holiday season!

Reading List for Nov 29 - Dec 3

1. Food Safety Bill (aka the Food Safety Modernization Act)
- Michael Pollan & Eric Schlosser expressed their support for the bill on Monday: "A Stale Food Fight" from NYTimes
- The Senate passed the bill on Tuesday night: "Senate Passes Overhaul of Food Safety Regulations" from NYTimes
- But the bill might be held up in the House due to a technical error by the Senate: "House May Block Food Safety Bill over Senate Error" from Roll Call
- Final passage of the bill is still uncertain: "Fingers Crossed When It Comes to Food Safety" by Marion Nestle in The Atlantic

2. Child Nutrition Bill (aka the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act)
- Mark Bittman blogged on Tuesday about ways to improve the bill: "Want Healthy Kids? Cut Soda, Not Food Stamps"
- On Thursday the House passed the bill (approved by the Senate in August): "Congress Approves Child Nutrition Bill" from NYTimes

3. Vitamin D (aka the "sunshine vitamin")
- "New vitamin D recommendations" from Washington Post's The Checkup blog
- "Extra Vitamin D and Calcium Aren’t Needed, Report Says" from NYTimes

4. "Overeating, Like Drug Use, Rewards and Alters Brain" from NPR

Researchers from Yale University have "found that, at least in animals, sweet or fatty foods can act a lot like a drug in the brain, ... And there's growing evidence that eating too much of these foods can cause long-term changes in the brain circuits that control eating behavior. ... That doesn't necessarily mean food is addictive the way cocaine is, ... [but] there is growing evidence that eating a lot of certain foods early in life can alter your brain the way drugs do."

5. "The new front in the culture wars: food" from Washington Post

"… [M]any in this country who have access to good food and can afford it simply don't think it's important. To them, food has become a front in America's culture wars, and the crusade against fast and processed food is an obsession of 'elites,' not 'real Americans.' "

"... The Golden Arches long ago replaced Mom's apple pie as a symbol of the all-American meal. Thus, 'Don't let them take away your Big Mac!' becomes a rallying cry."

"… For the good-food revolution to have a chance, people have to make finding and preparing fresh food a priority at a time when everything about our modern food system urges us not to bother. And that won't happen if people think healthy food is an elitist plot to take away their McRib."

Happy reading, and have a great weekend!

A Birthday Dinner for a Wonderful Husband

Today is my husband Topher's birthday (yay!), and last night we celebrated with our friends Randy & Kim at Stove restaurant in Portsmouth.

One thing I like about their menu: most of their dishes come in both small and large portion sizes. So, if you can't decide between two dishes, you can order one as an appetizer and one as your entrée. Which is exactly what Topher and I did last night.

What We Ate:

• artisan cheese plate: Syd's Neo-Pimento, Farmstead Fresh goat cheese (Virginia), Gorgonzola (Italy), and Bellavitano Black Pepper served with bread & house relish
• my appetizer: the "Stove-o-tarian," a mix of local, in-season vegetables including Brussels sprouts and several different squashes, topped with a fried onion ring
• Topher's appetizer: "visiting greens" salad - "different lettuces from the farms with our visiting cheese tossed with a mustard vinaigrette"
• my entrée: rockfish topped with cabbage and rutabagas - I love rockfish, but I mainly ordered this dish for the rutabagas, and they didn't disappoint
• Topher's entrée: Hereford strip steak topped with brie and "lardo," served with Brussels sprouts and smoked tomatoes
• for dessert: country apple tart - the crust on this was amazing: so light, flaky, and buttery!
• to drink: Trinitas Old Vine Petite Sirah

Randy & Kim have been to Stove at least half a dozen times, and Randy always orders the "Pork-o-rama" - "local darden farm’s pork sausage, my smoochie bear ham & black pig pork belly on visiting potato sauté with cured lardo and stove-b-que sauce."

Well, last night after our meal, chef Syd Meers came out and sat & talked with us for a while, and he ended up giving Randy and Topher the recipe for his "stove-b-que" sauce. It must have 2 dozen ingredients in it! Fresh herbs & spices, peppers, bacon, ketchup, molasses, apple cider vinegar - the list just went on and on. I know the guys are going to want to try to make it sometime, but grocery shopping for all the ingredients is going to be a genuine scavenger hunt.