Dear Friends,
A kitchen view, from Cindy's chair. Since the accident, I am predominately wheelchair bound. It's not permanent, so I am very fortunate and it increases my respect and sensitivity for everyone in a wheelchair. For example, I meet and great the people I encounter at their belt line! I am amazed at how I adapt and what I can accomplish from my new view.
When it comes to cooking, it's quite a bit different. Counters are too high and most cutting boards are difficult to fit on my lap between the armrests. It is impossible to look inside a pot cooking on the stove, let alone perilous. Cole, my stepson, and John are doing a great job cooking for me. I am "cooking through them" as they ask for guidance and instruction. Through sound and smell, I can tell if something is too dry, too hot or cold, but there are many things I need to see. Even after writing 5 cookbooks, I am discovering new ways to teach cooking and they are very good students!
The local strawberries in this drought year have been wonderful. I get them from a roadside stand on the Silverado Trail just north of Trancas Street, in Napa. At home we have been making strawberry ice cream using both cooked creme anglaise as a base, and an uncooked one with condensed milk, a recipe from the Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book. Recently Freddie at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen made a fantastic grilled asparagus and fresh strawberry salad with a Saba drizzle, for a friend's birthday. I'm now convinced that strawberries aren't just for breakfast and dessert!
In May, the Monterey Bay Aquarium held its annual Cooking for Solutions. Our Grilled Spanish Octopus and Don Watson Napa Valley Lamb Burgers were quite the hit. Come in and try our Grilled Spanish Octopus with preserved lemon and Rancho Gordo cranberry beans at Cindy's!
Speaking of Cindy's, Jim's "Month of the Whole Beast" will be featuring the freshest sustainable SEAFOOD. As always, the seafood on our menus is on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program. Enjoy Grilled Whole Petrale Sole with arugula, sauce vierge and chickpea fritters, Bacon-Wrapped Whole Passmore Ranch Trout with roasted figs and red wine sauce, Salt-Crusted Baked California White Sea Bass with avocado salad, guajillo salsa and warm tortillas, and Jim's "Down East" Style Grilled Maine Lobster with sweet corn, wood oven potatoes, drawn butter and lemon. Oh my. Keep up on our daily "beast" specials - follow us on Facebook!
For this month's Pair-Off Pour-Off at Mustards Grill, Michael is going BBQ crazy with adaptations from some of my favorite cookbooks such as Smokestack Lightning, Peace Love & BBQ and Serious BBQ. Dishes and desserts will be paired with tasty wines so come on in for some "Q."
One of my favorite side dishes for BBQ is cornbread. While in Minneapolis in February, I baked a
bacon upside-down cornbread that my family loved. I par-cooked the bacon a bit, made a crosshatch pattern in the bottom of a 10-inch cast iron skillet, then added the cornbread batter and baked it according to the cornbread recipe. Turn the cornbread out and you have the crispy bacon on top. Yum.
Happy Summer and I hope to see you soon at the restaurants!
