A Menu for Father's Day

We invited my parents over for a quick Father's Day meal last Sunday.  Everyone was either coming from somewhere or headed somewhere afterwards, so I wanted to serve a meal I could put together quickly, and of course, was made up of foods my Dad really likes.

I started by making a pitcher of lemonade from fresh lemons, sugar and filtered water.  For the first time ever, I made a caesar salad with the dressing from scratch and toasted my own garlicky croutons from a french bread round.  We also had baby back ribs cooked slowly in the oven and then finished on the grill with a really sweet and vinegary barbecue sauce.  On the side was some buttermilk cornbread and for dessert, I made my Dad a Key Lime pie!

Of course, my Mom and I needed a cocktail, and since we had fresh lemonade, I created a spicy chili lemonade for us with Absolut Peppar, lemonade and a dash of hot sauce.  YUM.  The hot sauce sank to the bottom a bit, but it still flavored the drink nicely.

My Dad loves Key Lime Pie.  When I was a child, I fondly remember trips with my family to Sanibel and Captiva Islands in Florida.  Very recently, my local grocery store had been carrying bags of the tart little Key limes.  I was mentally prepared to squeeze a million of them to get the 3/4 cup of juice I needed for the pie recipe, just to get that authentic taste my Dad loves.  But when I did my shopping, there were none to be found.  I ended up using a bottled Key Lime juice which actually worked out pretty well.  It tasted great and ultimately my tendonitis thanked me for not doing the squeezing.  I also decided to make the crust of the pie from ground shortbread cookies mixed with a little melted butter rather than the graham cracker crust.  I like the way the sweet shortbread and the tartness of the pie go together, but a regular graham cracker crust works just as well and is more traditional.

I want to share the pie recipe with you.  It's a very basic recipe and quite delicious!  Enjoy!

Key Lime Pie

1 9-inch graham cracker crust
3 cups sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup key lime juice
1 tablespoon grated lime zest

Preheat oven to 350.  In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine condensed milk and sour cream, beating until no lumps remain.  Add the lime juice and lime rind, beating until mixture is smooth. Quickly pour into the crust.  Bake the in preheated oven for only 5 to 7 minutes, just until pie begins to set up. Do not allow the pie to brown. Chill pie well before serving, preferably overnight. Garnish with whipped cream and a slice of lime.

Feeding My Family: "Something From Nothing"

One of my biggest food influences growing up was my grandmother, who we called "Mema". She was from the South, and was raised during a time when you didn't throw anything away, you found a use or reuse for everything and there were usually a lot of mouths to feed. As a child, when my family unexpectedly stayed for dinner, I can remember her fretting that there was nothing to feed us. Yet she would flit around the kitchen, pulling out containers of this and baggies of that. A lot of times, she would send my grandpa to the basement to bring up a couple of jars of whatever she'd canned from the garden in the previous summer. From almost nothing, she could make an amazing meal.

Gathered around Mema's table, that's 1980's me to the right!

Salty cornbread baked in a cast iron pan, dripping with butter and honey, slices of her "good toast" with homemade strawberry jam -- really sweet and syrupy but with whole berries in it, soup that started with a jar of tomatoes she put up, to which she added ground beef with green beans and corn from the garden... and don't even get me started on her sandwiches! She would squirrel away her sandwich fixings way in the back of the fridge, and when it was time to make a sandwich, she'd bring out slices of country ham, really sharp cheddar cheese and crisp iceberg lettuce, and she always managed to have a ripe tomato on the counter ready for slicing. Her sandwiches were always topped of with Miracle Whip, and were always on white toast.

I am not comparing myself to her by any means! To do so would be presumptuous, as I can only hope to be half the woman she was. But what I will say is that just by watching her as a child, I took away a lot of her values and ideas about food and family. One of those values is to try not to waste anything. So when I get a chance to use up leftovers in the fridge and make something new, I get all giddy inside.

I usually clean out our fridge of anything old on Thursdays to make room for the more special weekend meals. I was wondering what to feed my family tonight since we were on our own for dinner.  In the fridge, I had some left over mac and cheese, which was made from leftover bechamel from another meal. I had about 3 or 4 cups left but no meat and really no fresh vegetables available.

So tonight, my leftover mac and cheese became an ooey-gooey tuna noodle casserole, and it only took me about 5 minutes to put it together! Gotta love that.

In a large pot, dump in 3-4 cups of leftover macaroni and cheese, and put it over medium heat. Add 1 cup milk, 1/2 a cup of shredded cheese (I used a low-fat cheddar blend), and a teaspoon of garlic powder. If you have more time (which I didn't), you can also sauté some minced onion and chopped red pepper, carrots, celery or other vegetables and add it to the pot. Then add 2 drained cans of tuna and heat everything until it's hot. Check for seasoning, and add salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from heat and stir in half a bag of frozen baby garden peas. Pour into a greased glass casserole dish or pie plate and top with a 1/2 cup of bread crumbs (I used panko). Bake for about 25 minutes until crispy and golden on the top, and serve! Your kids will love it and you won't have to spend too much time cooking.

YUM!  Dig in!

Review of Tek-Nique, Bedford, NH

You can tell when a place has a soul.  When you look around, you feel the effort and love someone put into it.  You get a sense that there is a real vision behind it, that nothing is an after-thought, that it came from someone's heart.  That's how Chris and I felt when we walked into Tek-Nique for the first time last Saturday.

The location housed several different restaurant establishments over the years, most recently being the home of Karen's Kitchen, a "home cooking" type place that did it's best business with the breakfast crowd. We'd been there for breakfast several times.  The draw for us was that it was close to our home, but each time we had breakfast there, we would leave with the feeling that they "almost" got it right and that maybe it would be better next time.  Unfortunately, it never got better.  The ideas were good (they once had a deep-fried mac and cheese "benedict" topped with bacon, poached eggs and more cheese sauce...  perfect for those post-cocktail mornings), but the dishes never really delivered what you hoped for.  That funny, let-down feeling now makes sense considering what happened last year.  His heart just wasn't in it.  I'm not judging the guy, but suffice it to say, I was worried that the next restaurant would be plagued by bad juju.

Tek-Nique's Facebook page

That fear quickly dissipated when we walked in for our 6 pm reservation.  Tek-Nique looked amazing!  Definitely a great first impression.  In fact, you would never know it was the same place inside.  It was essentially gutted and recreated, which is exactly what we were hoping for.  When you first walk in and through the breezeway, you are in front of the reception area, with the super-cool bar to the right and the main seating areas to the left.  The lighting was great, dim but not dark.  Everyone working that night looked great with their black uniforms.

We were seated immediately and our server, Heather, was really attentive and professional.  She showed off her iPod that the servers use to wirelessly transmit orders to the kitchen.  Unfortunately she was having a problem with hers, but things happen.  It didn't prevent her from getting our order 100% correct and even going a step further by splitting up the two dishes Chris and I planned to share onto separate plates.  She had some recommendations for us, but we were pretty set on trying certain things.

We were really hungry and really curious, so we ordered a lot of food.  Chris started off with a beer, and I ordered the Ketel One Cosmo.  Both came quickly and my drink was really good, ice cold, perfectly mixed.  For our appetizers, we ordered three -- Applewood Smoked Salmon Cakes, Tuna Two Ways and Marrow Risotto.  The prices were very reasonable, averaging about $8 per appetizer.

The tuna was lightly seared and rare, sliced and served over a cabbage and carrot slaw, along side a little ramekin of tuna tartare.  The tartare was fabulous, perfectly seasoned, fresh and flavorful.  I was sort of wishing there was another way of eating it besides just with a fork - little rice crackers or something maybe - but the flavor was excellent so it was a fleeting thought.  The seared tuna over the slaw was good but lacked salt (and I don't like a lot of salt), and the slaw could have used a bit more dressing.  I thought maybe the slaw was scooped from the top of the bowl in the kitchen and perhaps wasn't tossed enough before serving.  The salmon cakes appeared to be served with the same carrot and cabbage slaw as the tuna, except this time it had a bit more dressing to it which really perked it up nicely.  According to the menu, the salmon cakes come with some mustard aioli, but there was very little of it on the plate.  It would have been nice to be able to dip the salmon into the aioli.  Maybe the aioli was tossed with the slaw?  Either way, it was still very good.  The marrow risotto was presented in a nest of fried shredded potatoes reminding me of ossobuco, and was topped with micro greens.  Again, the risotto was just a bit under-seasoned, and it was also slightly undercooked, leaving some little bits of uncooked rice between our teeth.  However, it was very rich and creamy and with just a bit more time on the fire would have been perfect.  Chris really wanted more marrow in it (how often do you get bone marrow risotto?), but I thought it was good as it was.

While we were enjoying our appetizers, we were both a little irritated by one thing -- the door.  We were seated on the other side of the wall from the breezeway.  Every few minutes, one of those doors would slam hard.  When we walked in, the door slammed right away and we thought it was maybe the pressure changing in the breezeway between the two doors.  Tek-Nique needs to fix this right away!  It does really detract from the otherwise very nice atmosphere.  This restaurant deserves to have nothing pulling people away from the enjoyable experience they worked so hard to create.

After the appetizers, I wanted to try another cocktail, so I ordered a martini made with vodka and fresh cantaloupe juice and garnished with a little skewered melon ball.  Our server, Heather, had recommended it, and it was awesome.  LOVED it.

We also ordered a salad and soup which we intended to share, that came to us from the kitchen divided into individual plates and bowls, and that was a really nice touch.  The salad was an arugula salad with Great Hill blue cheese from a local farm in MA, with strawberries and candied almonds, drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette reduction.  The salad was a no-brainer, as the whole balsamic-blue cheese-strawberries combination is one of my favorite flavor profiles, and they did it very well.  The soup however, Roasted Red Pepper with Sambuca Cream, was a huge surprise for both Chris and me.  Chris suggested we order it, as he wanted to try a soup and it was the only one on the menu.  Neither of us are fans of Sambuca... black licorice is a difficult flavor to enjoy.  But my, oh, my, what a nice experience!  The puréed red pepper soup was very well-prepared, nicely seasoned and smooth.  On top of the soup was a dollop of whipped, slightly sweet cream flavored lightly with the Sambuca.  The licorice flavor was not overpowering, it was just right.  As the cool, rich cream slowly melted into the hot soup, it was quite magical.  I love it when a Chef can take something I dislike and make me love it.  Great job on that one!

At this time, the restaurant got very full (every table was full, the bar was full and people were waiting), and because it was date night and I really loved that cosmopolitan I had when we first got there, I ordered another one.  I figured I could just sip it, as our entrees were taking a bit longer to arrive given the restaurant being completely full.  It came quickly, but when I took my first sip I was taken aback.  It was super strong, too strong for me, and different than the first one.  When our server brought our entrées, I mentioned to her that I couldn't drink it and she brought me another one right away.  She said that they now had two bartenders and one of them has a heavier pour.  No big deal!  The second one was much better.

Tek-Nique's Facebook Page

Our entrées arrived after a slightly longer wait.  Chris ordered Pan Roasted Jumbo Sea Scallops with ratatouille, basil, parmesan, and beurre blanc for $22.  I got Three Cheese Ravioli with spring vegetables, pea tendrils and butter sauce for $14.  All the pasta is house-made.  The raviolis were delicate  and silky.  The emulsified butter sauce tasted delicious and complimented the raviolis well.  The seasoning was just right.  The spring vegetables consisted of haricot verts, shelled peas, pea pods and tiny asparagus.  But the thing I was most excited for and the reason I ordered the dish, the pea tendrils, were sadly missing.  I would have LOVED the pea tendrils, and I don't know why they didn't make it on the plate.  Maybe they were out, who knows.  I didn't ask about it, but I may have chosen something different had I known they weren't going to be there.  I also felt that the delicateness of such well-made pasta was a little overpowered by the butter sauce.  The sauce itself was great and worked well with the ravioli and green vegetables, but there was a bit too much on the plate, which made it heavier than I wanted.  Less of the sauce would have lightened the dish up considerably.

Chris' sea scallops and ratatouille were the stars of the evening.  He couldn't wait for the ratatouille (and not just because we love that movie, and also not because the scene where Anton Ego tries the ratatouille for the first time and is instantly transported back to his childhood is one of the greatest scenes ever).  It was delicious and cooked perfectly.  The sea scallops were sublimely fresh, and although they were ever-so-slightly overcooked, they had a great crusty sear on the top which made up for it.  Topping the whole dish was crispy fried basil -- perfection.

Finally, even as stuffed as we were, we decided to share a dessert.  We went with chocolate mousse accompanied by four little homemade beignets.  The mousse was good, light and not too sweet.  But I hate to say it, the beignets were raw.  One of the four was close to being done, but the rest were really just the warm batter and not cooked.  We think the oil may have been too hot as they were very brown on the outside.  Oh well, certainly nothing that would stop us from trying it again another time, as I bet next time it will be perfect.

Over all, Chris and I had a great experience, definitely date night-worthy and more.  We can't wait to go back.  This restaurant hadn't even been open a week, so any little "issues" we experienced were surely just kinks that they are working out.  I am so excited to see this restaurant in Bedford.  It's a wonderful and intimate little place that won't disappoint.  Someone finally got it right!

Welcome To The First Post!

Dan Doke Photography

Food has been a part of Chris' and my relationship from the beginning.  One of the first times we hung out, we made our own pizza with basil pesto and thin-sliced red potatoes, drizzled with garlic and olive oil, and sprinkled with some parmigiano reggiano on homemade dough.   We liked to go out for Asian and Indian food whenever we got the chance.  When we were married in 2006, we knew we wanted really good food at our reception.  Our wedding was on the eve of the Lantern Festival during Chinese New Year.  Everything was in shades of red and gold and our food echoed the theme.

But our first real "a-ha" food moment was during our honeymoon.  We went down to Florida for a week and decided to spend some of the time on Captiva Island and the remainder of the time at Disney World.  While at Disney, we booked a table at Victoria and Albert's in the Grand Floridian Resort.  My sister had a great experience dining there a few years before, so we decided to give it a try.  We knew it was "fancy" and that the food would be good, but we really didn't grasp how life-changing good food and wine could be.  It was that night, in Disney World of all places, that Chris and I had the single best bite of food we have ever had.

Heather and Chris at Victoria and Albert's

Fittingly, it was the amuse bouche.  It came just after we clinked our champagne glasses together to toast our new marriage.  The amuse, the one small bite that comes first before everything else, the offering from the Chef to wake up your taste buds and prepare you for the meal to come, opened our eyes to what a real food experience could be.  It was a layered bite on a spoon that exploded with the taste of fresh peas and wood smoke, with a creaminess that was as light as a feather, with flavors that danced, then disappeared on your tongue.  We just looked at each other and said, "that rocked."

After 4 or 5 glasses of perfectly paired wines and twice as many courses, Chris and I stood up from our table (trying not to stagger like amateurs) and left, changed somehow.  We didn't know much about food, even less about wine, but we realized that all we really needed to appreciate it was to pay attention.  Listen to what the chef is saying about the food.  Think about the way the flavors in the dish are enhanced by the sips of wine offered in the pairing.  It's really just a story, that when told well, changes you a little bit each time you hear it.  It's not about being stuffy, or snobby or a "foodie", it's about paying attention and allowing the chef to bring you along on the journey.