Out of the (Mail)Box

I love a good surprise.  That's not a shocking statement, but I particularly love boxes that arrive on my doorstep promising food-related goodies selected just for little ol' me.

This was my first month participating in the Foodie Penpals program put together by the lovely Lindsay over at her blog The Lean Green Bean.  The concept is that someone spends $15.00 to put together a box of goodies and mails it to you, and you put together your own box and mail it to a different person.  On the last day of the month, the penpals post what they have received.  What's amazing is that 1,300 people in the US/Canada participate each month!

I was the lucky recipient of a box from Ashley P. of Virginia Beach--Ashley doesn't have a blog, or I would plug it here, but she apparently has a sixth sense of WAW--What Alaskans Want.

WAW is a little skewed--our local daily paper, which is about the thickness of your average leaflet left on your door trying to convince you to buy lawn services or order Chinese food--periodically does a survey asking Alaskans what stores/restaurants they think should come to town.

Target was on the list for a long time, and now they're in the Alaska market like gangbusters.  Too bad that they are nowhere near my house.

The Olive Garden was the number one for years and years.  I was recently informed that Anchorage is now the proud owner of a newish Olive Garden, in which I have not set foot and plan never to do so unless a client drags me there. 

The number one now?  It has to be Trader Joe's.  I am not exaggerating when I say that people literally take an extra bag on vacation when they are venturing to a place that has a Trader Joe's, and fill it up with food.  The dried fruit is particularly popular, since it makes for great hiking/skiing/camping snacks and is wicked expensive at grocery stores here.

So imagine my delight when I opened my box and found tons of Trader Joe's goodies, including dried bananas and green mango.  David opened the latter immediately and started popping pieces in his mouth.  Ashley also sent brown rice-marshmallow treats (think a healthier version of a Rice Krispy bar), shelf-stable gnocchi (delicious with a brown butter-Swiss chard sauce a week ago), wasabi peas (spicy and delicious), a tin of green tea-flavored mints and a packet of her very own, delicious granola. 

To check out the penpal program, which is open to both bloggers and readers, go here.  Thanks to Ashley for the wonderful treats!

My box went to Sarah--you can check out her blog Sparkly Lil' Life here.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Climb Ev'ry Mountain (At Least the Easy Ones)

I love Anchorage in the summer, last post's weather gripes aside.

We had fabulous friends over for dinner on Friday (there was an ill-fated clafoutis incident that I won't bother you with here), dinner with a friend of my parents on Saturday, and then walked past a street fair to meet some other friends later that night.  On nice days in Anchorage, you run into everyone downtown--forget six degrees of separation, it's more like two.

Yesterday David and I went hiking at Falls Creek Trail, which is a very steep uphill trail through trees to a valley at the end.  The state's website says the difficulty is "moderate," which may be true if you're a mountain goat or a Dall sheep.  My pedometer said that the uphill was the equivalent of going up 141 flights of stairs, if that can be believed, and my legs are a little on the sore side today.



A view of Turnagain Arm from
further up the trail.



By the time we rolled off the mountain dirty and sweaty, I didn't want to do anything too complicated for dinner.  Halibut tacos are one of the great Alaskan summer dishes--you can find them on menus around the state while the halibut is fresh, and while some restaurants are stupid enough to deep-fry halibut chunks for the tacos, this broiled version is much tastier and healthier.

I sauteed a small red spring onion and half a jalapeno and mixed them with a can of black beans for a side.  Green tomatillo salsa is a perfect complement to the tacos.

Halibut Tacos

Adapted from A Platter of Figs by David Tanis

1 lb. halibut steak or fillet

2 small peperoncino peppers, crushed

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. dried oregano

Extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 head green cabbage, thinly shredded

1 lime, juiced

Small corn or flour tortillas

Kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper

For serving:

Guacamole

Black beans

Lowfat plain yogurt or sour cream

Salsa

Pat the fish dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides.  Preheat the broiler or, if it's a nice day, prepare your grill and cook the fish outside.

Combine the garlic, peppers and dried oregano in a ramekin, then spread on one side of the fish.  Drizzle the fish with olive oil on the same side.  If you have time to marinate the fish for an hour or so, cover it and put it in the fridge.  You'll want to let it come back up to room temperature before cooking.

In a small bowl, toss the shredded cabbage with a little salt, then add the lime juice and toss again.  Set it aside while you're cooking the fish.

Place the fish on a baking sheet and broil on high for about three minutes on each side.  The fish will be done when it flakes into large chunks and is opaque inside. 

Serve with warmed tortillas and garnish with the shredded cabbage and other fixings.

Serves 2 with leftovers.

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You

Some of you know that I had a small part in a Drew Barrymore movie that was filmed in Alaska in fall 2010.  Over the past few months, it's been a total kick to see the trailer, and then the commercial.  If you don't blink, I appear in both of them--look for the kids sitting in front of the television set and I'm the mother sitting behind them.  I literally shrieked when I saw the trailer for the first time, something along the lines of "OHMYGODTHEREIAM!"

This Friday, the movie comes out.  I'm a little scared to see it--I hate how I look in photos, much less larger than life on a movie screen.  If you see me, just remember that the camera adds ten pounds, and the mom jeans don't help either.

The studio was nice enough to do a screening this past Sunday for the Alaska-based cast and crew.  I had a matinee of Love, Loss and missed the screening, but it's a good, family-friendly film with an obvious animal rights message. 

My proud parents (I swear, they haven't been this excited since I graduated from law school) tell me they're heading to a movie theatre in St. Louis this weekend, but it's going to be a week or so before I go see it.

If you see it, let me know what you think!

Bûche de Noël: French for "Ridiculous Amount of Work"

I really don't know how people work in Starbucks.

I have schlepped my camera, camera connector, recipe and laptop all the way to Oregon, where I am working today, and I can't hear myself think over the whining of the sullen teenager sitting next to me at the counter, who apparently doesn't wish to sit with his family a few tables away but still wants to communicate from a distance.

As my friend Erika would say, le sigh.  And to think I once thought business travel was glamorous.

This month's Cake Slice Bakers pick was a challenging one:  a traditional French Bûche de Noël, or Yule log, complete with meringue mushrooms and chocolate leaves.  I set out on Saturday thinking that it would be time-consuming, but not complicated.

Boy, was I wrong.

I can't even enumerate all the things that went wrong, because it would just make me cry.  David came into the kitchen on Saturday afternoon to find me in full meltdown mode.  He then asked me to help him bring in his Christmas tree during a particularly delicate place in the French buttercream process. 

I walked away for two minutes--really!--and returned to find that my beautiful cooked meringue was not incorporating the butter and had turned into a curdled mess, which I promptly dumped down the garbage disposal.  A few minutes later, the garbage disposal started belching the mixture back up again.

Neither David nor I are particularly handy people, but he managed to fix the garbage disposal and I decided that using a cream cheese icing would make my life a lot easier at that point, which was more than two hours into the process.

Yes, the final product was pretty.  Yes, it was delicious.  In the end I posted a photo of the final result on my Facebook page and my friend Stacey, an excellent cook, reminded me that I had just spent almost four hours on the fancy version of a Hostess HoHo.

Chocolate-Almond Bûche de Noël

Adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

For the cake:

2/3 cup cake flour, sifted

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa, sifted

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs, room temperature

6 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

For the almond syrup:

1/3 cup water

2 tbsp. granulated sugar

1 tbsp. amaretto liqueur

For the frosting:

24 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. almond extract

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)

2 tbsp. soft almond marzipan paste

For the garnish:

Meringue mushrooms (may be purchased here)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line the bottom of a standard rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper, and then spray it with nonstick baking spray with flour. 

Whisk together the cake flour, cocoa, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, baking powder and salt.

In a separate, larger bowl, lightly beat together the eggs, oil and vanilla.  Add the flour mixture all at once and stir until just combined.

Using a hand mixer and a clean bowl, beat together the egg whites and cream of tartar to the soft peak stage, about 5-7 minutes.  Drizzle in the remaining 1/3 cup of granulated sugar and continue beating until the whites are stiff and glossy.

Fold a third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture until just combined, then gently fold in the remaining whites.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 12 minutes, or until the cake springs back when touched lightly.

While the cake is the oven, thoroughly dust a clean dish towel with powdered sugar and lay out on the kitchen counter.  When the cake is done, gently invert it onto the dish towel and remove the parchment paper.

Roll the cake up with the dish towel, starting at a long end.  Place the entire roll seam side down on a cooling rack.

To make the syrup, combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.  When it boils, add the amaretto, immediately remove the saucepan from the heat and allow to cool completely.

Start the frosting by melting the bittersweet chocolate in a small saucepan with two tablespoons of water, whisking until the chocolate is completely melted.  Remove the chocolate from the heat and allow it to cool completely.

Using a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese with the powdered sugar until well blended, then add the almond extract.  This will not make a terribly sweet frosting, which kept the cake from becoming too one-note in my opinion.  You may add sugar if you prefer a sweeter frosting.

Divide the frosting into two bowls.  To one, add the cooled chocolate and beat with a hand mixer until blended.  To the other, add the marzipan and beat until blended.

To assemble the cake, unroll the cake from the dish towel.  Brush the cake thoroughly with the amaretto syrup--there will be some left over.

Using a serrated knife, trim the short ends, creating a three-inch strip and a one-inch strip.  These will be using for the branches coming off the main log.  Spread the almond frosting over these strips and roll up tightly, securing them in aluminum foil.  Place these in the freezer to firm up.

Thickly spread the almond frosting over the remainder of the cake.  Carefully reroll the cake and place it seam side down on the desired serving platter.

When the "branches" are firm enough, place them in the desired position next to the cake roll and attach them using a thin coating of the chocolate frosting.  Using an offset spatula, frost the entire cake with the chocolate frosting, using the spatula to create striations to give the impression of bark.



One of my actors demonstrating how not to eat this cake. 
Do not try this at home.



Arrange the meringue mushrooms around the log, securing the bottoms with a thin layer of chocolate frosting.  Immediate refrigerate the cake, and remove it a half hour before you plan to serve.

Serves approximately 12 people. 

Queen of the Hill

Six days.

That's longer than I have been away from this blog since I started it in July.  I'm practically getting separation anxiety.

This past weekend David and I went on a long-overdue visit to see my parents in St. Louis.  We ate incredibly well and my parents were also kind enough to host our friends Scott and Kathy, who moved to Kentucky but came up to visit.  Scott and Kathy married David and I, so they have a special place in our lives.

 

Scott and Kathy outside the Anheuser Busch brewery in St. Louis, a surprisingly fun tour.



One of the highlights of the trip was walking St. Louis' "The Hill" neighborhood, which was settled by Italian immigrants in the later part of the 1800s and remains a hub of Italian culture today.  There are two good-sized grocery stores, DiGregorio's and Viviano's, as well as butcher shops, bakeries, a gelateria and of course the bocce ball club.

If you're interested in Italian culture in the Midwest, this is a must-stop destination.  Despite the city of St. Louis falling on hard times, the Hill remains vibrant and bustling.  My father stood in line outside the Missouri Baking Company to get cannoli for Saturday's dinner.  Lots of places claim to have the best cannoli in St. Louis, but the lines outside Missouri Baking Company make a strong statement that theirs really might be best.

I don't really like cannoli, and theirs are awesome.

Stop at one of the two groceries (or both) to fill up your trunk with high-quality salumi, cheese and fresh pasta, along with Italian wine.  I found varietals represented in both of their wine departments that I haven't seen in many places in the United States.  And the prices?  For the quality, dirt cheap.

I preferred Viviano's.  It feels like a relic from the 1950s, slightly dingy and crammed to the brim with products.  Fifty kinds of olive oil?  Check.  Twenty varieties of fresh ravioli?  Check.  A cheese and meat counter with a sassy counterman who knows every olive, meat and cheese in his area?  Check.  It isn't as organized or as well-lit as DiGregorio's, but I loved the chaos of it. 

After purchasing a case of wine, along with some olive oil, dried pasta and items for Saturday's dinner, I couldn't resist the gelateria.  Called Gelato di Riso, it's just a block down from Viviano's and has at least twenty flavors of both fruit-flavored and creamier gelato, and they'll let you have two flavors in a dish.  The lime gelato was to die for, creamy and tangy, and was even better next to the pomegranate gelato, which was sweeter and silkier.  My mother and Scott both flipped over the seasonal eggnog gelato, and David pretty much refused to let anyone at his blood orange gelato. 

This neighborhood makes for a great walking tour, and also claims some top-notch old-school Italian restaurants.  If you're anywhere near St. Louis, it's worth the detour.

Slaying the Food Dragon

Everyone has a food goal.  A quest.  A grail, if you will.  That thing that you want to make that you feel that you don't have the skills to do.  David calls it "slaying the food dragon."

For lovers of Italian food (me) and movies (me again), that food dragon is the timpano, the dome-shaped pasta baked in a ceramic basin and filled with layers of pasta, ragu, meatballs, chunks of cheese and salami and hard-boiled eggs that features in the long dinner party scene at the center of the terrific movie Big Night.  If you love food--and if you're reading this I have to assume that you do--then you owe it to yourself to see this movie about two Italian brothers trying and failing to run a restaurant serving traditional food in 1950s New Jersey.

Ever since I first saw this movie in 1997, I have wanted to make the legendary timpano.  For my birthday this year, David bought me a pan that he asserted was for us to finally make it.  Six weeks passed, and this past weekend we were planning a big cast and crew dinner for Inspecting Carol on Sunday night.  During the week I said, "why don't we make the timpano?"

We hemmed and hawed and looked at recipes.  There's no doubt that it is a lot of work.  You make a pasta dough for the shell, the ragu and meatballs for the filling.  Lots of cutting and slicing and precision work.  But in the end, we just went for it.



These were adapted from a recipe by Lidia Bastianich, and they were the bomb.  More on them to come.



Revelation:  it's not that hard.

Yes, it's a lot of work, and I will keep tweaking the recipe before I blog about making this.  The ragu wasn't quite right, and the dough for the shell needed to be thinner.  For those who are curious about what it entails, I found this one on the internet.  The one we used is a little different, and more closely approximates the one in the movie, which is an adaptation of actor Stanley Tucci's family recipe. 

http://www.food.com/recipe/timpano-di-maccheroni-the-mythic-pasta-dome-85372

I did love the meatball recipe I used and adapted, which I will blog about separately this week.  In the interim, what I'd love to know is this:  what is your food grail?  I look forward to hearing!

Don't Blink...

...or you'll miss me.

A friend sent me a Facebook message today telling me that I was in the trailer for the new Drew Barrymore movie Big Miracle.  Terrible name.  The previous name of the movie was Everybody Loves Whales, which wasn't much better.  Nevertheless, it was a great experience and it's a total kick to see myself, even wearing mom jeans, even for a microsecond (at the 1:23 mark), in the trailer.  I'm hopeful that means I'll make it into the finished film, which premieres in February.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/bigmiracle/

There's an astonishing amount of acting talent in Alaska.  I auditioned more or less on a dare from my friend Tamar--I'd heard about the auditions, but hadn't planned to go.  In the end, the casting agents auditioned something like two thousand actors from all over the state and cast forty speaking parts here.  We'll see if my line makes the final cut.

I'm sure that if you make a living in the film industry, this is pretty routine stuff.  For me, it was a great adventure.  I still don't know why they chose me for the movie, but I am grateful.  Here's what I can tell you:  film crew members have great senses of humor.  It is not fun to eat Swanson fried chicken for take after take.  Ken Kwapis, the director, is an incredibly nice guy.  Ted Danson doesn't look his age at all.

I'll never act for a living, but I'll also never forget the experience.