Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Stringers, tomatoes, and a virtual trip to Florence



Nobody ever accused the Feeder of not being diverse.     Where are you going to find a combo like this??

Stringer Report: (sic) hazelnut kitchen

Normally, the Feeder doesn’t relate stringer reports but got one the other day worth passing along since it has kind of a “local” hook, and is from a trusted source!.   Probably a little known (and useless, as they say) fact is that MFO was NOT born in Michigan (like me), but is in fact from the Empire State, specifically Ithaca in the Finger Lake region.  She came along while her father was earning his MS Degree (in automotive engineering) at Cornell University.  At the time, they didn’t offer a Doctorate in that field, which motivated him to migrate to the Wolverine State and Michigan State University (or Michigan State College then – aka Cow College) where he did get his PhD, and eventually became dean of the department of Mechanical Engineering.

A mildly amusing side note: her Father, being an automotive guy, could take apart a transmission blindfolded behind his back and reassemble it with one hand.   So his daughter marries this guy who could only change a tire with lots of help.  Take apart a generator, rewind it and put it back together?   Piece of cake for him, beyond the reach here. 10WF40 Beam?  I'm all over that!

But, I digress as I often do.  We have some good friends here in Pax with whom we often enjoy dinner, and they have educated palates so we commiserate on the state of dining here in SOMD.  Anyway, they took a little vacation and were going to Ithaca so we related above and they said they would report on their travels.   Well, last Friday a few food pictures pop into my phone from a storefront restaurant: “hazelnut kitchen” which was rated by the New York Times,  in Trumansburg, a little hike northwest of Ithaca.




It’s run by a young couple and is of course on the trendy bandwagon of:

we have been using locally sourced farm ingredients in a casually elegant open kitchen dining atmosphere…Our menu changes frequently, inspired by what’s in season and reflects our commitment to utilize goods obtained from local farmers and producers”; 

which of course is fine and proper, you just kind of tire of hearing about it.

At any rate they turned out very good food, beginning with a lovely cheese board 
(is that a Laguiole (la -yol) knife?)

They settled on main courses of Halibut on Spinach for her, 


 See any drips or smears?  Nope - pretty

And for him, the choice was the entrée selection of “Surprise me” or as they say more formally on the menu: “enjoy a thoughtfully designed entrée by our chef”, an interesting concept, which in this case resulted in a delicious cherry encrusted chicken over summer vegetables



The restaurant also features an “open kitchen”




Thanks to our friends for sharing their experience (and the images), and we’ll keep it on our list in case MFO ever wants to return to her roots.

Speaking of local…

One of our neighbors is an avid gardener, producing loads (and loads) of fresh produce which she is happy to share with us.  Over the years, we have stemmed the tide of zucchini’s and eggplants (we’re weird) but gratefully accept cukes (to a point), spring onions, and of course love apples.



MFO made tuna salad last night, and served it with the sliced fresh “maters” and lettuce, with a dusting of smoked paprika and sprinkling of Panko crumbs.  Very nice



Isn’t it amazing that the rich red (or yellow) color is all the way to the core instead of tough, thick white stuff just inside the gas ripened exterior of the food chains?

Share locally!

The Project

“Project Negroni” is moving along.   As you recall I was intrigued by a recipe for a "white Negroni" from the WashPost (which I included in the last posting: Docs and Drinks), but had zero of the ingredients.   Well, a trip to my trusty purveyor of spirits, and a visit to Amazon (Prime) for the bitters, resulted in the assemblage of the necessary “stuff”.



My only holdup at this point is that the Junipero Gin weighs in at an eye watering 98.6 proof!  One drink and you’re done!  So I have asked my contact at the liquor store if there is a lower proof edition.  I swear I had one once, but it was a while ago.  

That question led me to go to the world wide web and try to figure it out.  Appears Anchor Distillery (producer) may have changed the options recently.  So I’m on hold…

While I was researching the issue I ran across the site: ginfoundry dot com, and clicked on the “Gin” link.  You can too!  Alert readers will recall that I have taken to asking servers “what gins do you have?” and occasionally finding some variation from the (borrowed from the culinary) holy trinity: Tanqueray, Bombay, and Beefeater.  Green hat, Bluecoat, and occasionally others show up, and pretty routinely Hendrick’s (not my fav) is finding its way on the shelf.   Anyway, if you click on the link above you will be (as I was) astounded at the two hundred eight! (count ‘em, 208) varieties of gin.   Wowsers!  An Around the World effort would take you the rest of your life.  Not to mention putting you on your butt every night.

Anyway once I solve the proof issue we’ll make the drink.  Incidentally, it ain’t going to be cheap.   The higher proof variety of Junipero is $32; the Luxardo Bitter Bianco is $27 the (everyday) Vermouth is about 14 bucks and the Fee Bros. Celery Bitters (which will be a lifetime supply) was 15 dollars American, so we’re nearing ninety dollars’ worth of ingredients.    And what if after using about 4 % of each bottle for one drink you say:  Ptooie!

Stay tuned and

DFD





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