You Who?

Damn that Al Gore...

...going around and getting the media all worked up! Now we have a Liberal Weather Bias. Early this spring it was all about the floods all the time. Do they report on the good weather that's happening? Nooooo, of course not. Today it's all "tornadoes" and "golf ball sized hail" and "flash flooding" and "Walgreen's roof collapses." And they keep harping on this global warming even though it's clear to everyone that we're never going to find evidence of Warming of Mass Destruction -- if it ever really existed at all.

Meanwhile, on the homefront, our house was fine, although my tomatoes took a beating. Out of seven budding green fruits, I lost four, and many many branches. I hope there is enough time left in the season for the plants to rebound.

Eating Out

Last Saturday: We've only been to Cafe Mirabelle once, many years ago, and thought it was time to try again (with the parents-in-law). The food was very good, almost as good as our fond memories of La Provencal in N Hampton before they closed. I tried Vichyssoise just to see if it was more exciting when made by a real French chef. Nope. It was good, but nothing exciting. I actually liked mine from a couple weeks ago better. The standouts of the night for me were the Mushroom Crepe appetizer and either of the Filet Mignon entrees. While the food is great, the atmosphere doesn't really do it for me... I like a little more hubbub (or at least a hipster vibe, collector flatware and expensive chairs).

Sunday we tried Sylvan Street Grille in Peabody. The portion sizes were large -- that's about the best I can say for this place. It's sort of like an Applebee's but bigger and not as clean. It had that faintly sour smell that your high school cafeteria had and everything was slightly tacky to the touch. My salad was the worst part: After picking off the two brown, blotchy cucumber slices and the one wedge of mealy, bruised tomato, I was left with a pile of questionable greens. Those that weren't brown were speckled with decaying bits of other greens. (Last month's North Shore pick was much better: Red Sauce, which is apparently by the Naked Fish people.)

Monday, for my wife's birthday, we went to Food and Wine's Best New Chefs of 2006 award winner The Dunaway at Strawberry Banke, again with the in-laws. It was really terrific. Things started off on the right foot at the bar where the waitress introduced us to tomolives -- tiny pickled green tomatoes. Once seated at our table, we were treated to an amuse bouche of salmon tartare which I'm sure everyone else at the table enjoyed. I tried the Cold Fennel Soup "small bite" (served in a shot glass) and everyone agreed it was excellent -- even my wife who does not like fennel. I'd love to figure out that recipe. My wife and I both had the Duo of Beef which was grilled rib-eye over "potato risotto" and steak tartare. The "potato risotto" was really just a small dice of potatoes in a creamy sauce, but amazingly good. I had several bites of the steak tatare and could appreciate the flavors, but couldn't get over the raw meat idea enough to eat the whole thing (even though the latest issue of Bon Appetit says steak tartare is the new "in" thing again). For dessert I tried the Lemon Verbena Tart with Cape Gooseberry Compote which happens to be the chef's featured recipe in Food and Wine. This had a more complex flavor than a regular lemon tart, and there was something especially interesting about the cape gooseberry compote. I'd love to try making this, but where the heck do you find lemon verbena (a kind of shrub apparently) leaves and cape gooseberries (miniature cousins of the tomatillos) around here? "Mary Dumont picks the lemon verbena for this fabulous, puckery tart from her kitchen garden, just outside her restaurant's back door. The cape gooseberries grow in the yard all summer long. OK, where besides the historic gardens in Stawberry Banke?

Quick Hits

Wednesday night, just the two of us: Penne with Chicken, Pancetta, Asparagus and Sundried Tomatoes, essentially this recipe, which again turned out well. Bonus: The asparagus were pencil thin so I didn't have to par-boil them. I like this dish a lot for weeknights -- not too hard, and doesn't dirty too many dishes.

Thursday night, with the in-laws: Chicken Saltibocca with asparagus and rice pilaf. Note to self: Do not put chicken back in fridge after pounding, stuffing and dredging in flour or it will get all gummy, wax paper or not.

Mushroom and spinach stuffed pork loin

The parents-in-law are in town. For dinner on July 4th (not very patriotic):

Caprese salad with local tomatoes from Barker's Farm Stand.

Mushroom and spinach stuffed pork loin with sherry cream sauce from Fine Cooking. The recipe calls for pork tenderloin, but I wanted more servings, so I used a pork loin. After butterflying it and pounding it thin, I also brined it for about an hour. It was moist, but salty. My understanding of the science of bringning is that the food shouldn't taste saltier, so maybe I did something wrong.

Bulgarian potatoes from a Gourmet recipe originally published in 1959 and recently selected by the magazine as one of their favorites. Think scalloped potatoes, but rather than a white sauce use cottage cheese, and then top the whole thing with a yogurt and egg mixture. Sounds weird but its not bad. I had tried this before and it was a little bland, so this time I added diced shallots and herbs to each layer of potatoes. It made a huge difference in flavor.

Corn on the cobb from Mass.

Strawberry Parfaits with Normandy Cream again, this time with store-bought strawberries since they are out of season locally. There was no comparison to last week's batch!

Yes it's true...

...I went fishing. Fishing -- as with most activities that might be classified as "outdoorsman-like" -- is not something I'm usually anxious to do. I don't even eat fish. But, this was a special trip with family (step-father, father-in-law, uncle, cousin) out into Cape Cod Bay on a good sized boat ("with a big cabin," as my mother kept telling me), plus beer and food, so I figured it would be fun at least for the socializing.

So we drove down to the Cape Sunday morning (July 2, avoiding the worst of the traffic), the entire time my father-in-law pointing at every tree blowing in the wind. He kept talking about dramamine. I wasn't too concerned; I've never been seasick in my life and I figured the charter fishing guys know what they were doing.

They do. However, it was still the roughest boat ride I've ever been on. Wind gusts up to 48mph. With all the bouncing, there was no way I was adding any beer to the mix, especially since my father-in-law had planted the seasickness seed.

I found focussing on jigging and reeling was a good way to keep my mind off rocking and rolling. And so, I reeled in the first catch of the day, a small bluefish. Later, I caught a striped bass, but it was under the limit and had to be tossed back. My uncle was the big winner, landing an impressive 42.5" striper.

Thankfully the wind died down while we were out, making the trip back to Rock Harbor more enjoyable. The best part: They clean the fish for you on the boat, and I didn't have to eat nor smell any of it.