Cooking With Ideas

New Leaf Kitchen Restaurant: Official Opening Coming in May

When I googled it, I thought the name was New Leaf Restaurant, so I came up with this restaurant featured in the new film, "The Adjustment Bureau".  But that was not what I was looking for, so I pulled the menu out of my jacket pocket where I had stashed it and voila -- the place is called The Leaf Kitchen, in Geneva, NY. Where is it? For some of us, the best way to answer is: where El Moro's used to be. For others, you can see where it is when you are driving down 5 and 20 along the lake front -- why? Because you'll see the sign on the back of the building that is One Franklin Square. No, there is no sign (yet?) outside on Exchange Street, but walk around and you'll find this new place to try. The phone number is 315-939-LEAF . . . And they're an "eat-in" or "take out" kind of place. Order at the bar (where eventually they will have wines and beer). They are not quite official yet, but that did not stop me from eating there officially!

I was never to El Moro, alas, but was to the Leaf Kitchen for lunch once so far because a friend is one of the people running it and we heard about it from another foodie-related person in town.  Hurrah. The bread is from Normal Bread and the foods include a Geneva variant of poutine (don't know what that is? Shame on you and click here.), meatloaf, and what I had: cajun sausage croquettes (which include chorizo and mashed potatoes served over a mushroom sauce). They were recommended and are a tasty little tidbit. I would order a salad with it next time but this time I merely accompanied it with Red Jacket Fuji Apple juice. I did not order anything in the way of Cayuga Creamery ice cream, though, gasp, they do have it on their menu. (Never had it? Yum.)

The folks running Leaf Kitchen are not really advertising yet, and the ambience could use a bit of a boost -- which can be provided by people and laughter and silliness or. . . . The space is huge, and a little hard to find -- and I can't wait to see what they do with it as they grow. The tables include some paper to crayon on, so a dandy place for kids -- not to mention the loads of space to run around in! As their website notes they're still making adjustments -- so give 'em feedback!

They're having an official opening in May -- according to their website -- and are an eat in or take out place as they work things out. They have free qireless and they seem to be open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 11-6 and Saturday 11-2:30 and 5-7:30.

Who's running it? One hint: A William Smith grad with a wonderful poetic talent and voice along with the chef!

So, help them grow? Spread the word. The more the merrier in the down town zone! And maybe, just maybe, there will be an interview here at Cooking with Ideas.

Cheese-y Tales III

Despite -- or perhaps because of -- its American flag cover, The Mammoth Cheese is an intriguing book, filled with fascinating (if a bit odd) characters and themes that really go beyond the somewhat ridiculous idea that I had of what the book would be about when I saw eleven (yes, 11) babies and a huge cheese as the book's supposed topics. I do not even know wjhat the word is for 11 babies simultaneously; twins, I get, even quadruplets or quintuplets. But 11? Anyway, yes, these appear in the tale, but in some ways the babies and even the titular cheese are merely the backdrop for fictional but thoughtful reflection on the peculiarities of America (or is that Amerika) that could conjoin the Tea Party with . . . . well, everything else. Here progressives and patriotism mingle as do man other pairs too often considered opposites. Written by Sheri Holman, I was pointed to this book by my favorite gift giver -- and then read it on my kindle. (Yep, I love it. No, I did not think I wanted one.) It is not a mystery, and thus fits here on the blog with general food fiction, but it really fits. And this despite the fact that the cheese is not as main a character as the book's title implies.

The themes raised in this novel remind me of those raised in an earlier book I reviewed on the blog: Ruth Ozecki's All Over Creation. Both books focus on farming (Holman's is a small farm in Virginia, struggling against the long term impact of debt passing from generatio to generation), include a bit of religion mixed with issues around reproductive justice, the many ways American life continues to express a deeply gendered history, and connections across generations through concerns for memory -- in one instance through heirloom seeds and the other through. . . a mammoth cheese. In The Mammoth Cheese, I also like the tension between a character who does historical re-enactments of Thomas Jefferson -- and the character's own life (his name is August; made me think of Faulkner's Light in August, though probably just one of those random links in a random brain). Also, Holman's tale looks at the place of schooling (and, not surprisingly, abuse of power in children's life, alas) in sustaining communities, the ways we are all hucksters, and much more. I particulaarly like the ambivalent hucksterism of religion in the novel. Certainly class and gender and much much more get highlighted as deeply entangled and deeply informing of what it is to be American, not ot mention Southerners and farmers and young females. And also not to mention the pretty complicated view of politicians and our own idealistic engagement therewith -- or cynical rejection thereof.

What about the cheese? Well, it enters the story about half way through. It weighs over 1,000 pounds. And, as I only discovered today while writing this, yes, there was indeed a historical mammoth cheese sent along to Thomas Jefferson form Massachusetts. (Look here or here or here for information.) Jefferson appears throughout the novel in varoious ways, often through words uttered by August dressed as him. I admit I have alway kind of liked him, slaveholder though he was.Maybe it is the profile on the nickel?  Holman does a nice job of presenting the tensions of religious liberty with slave holding, of Southern loyalty to the confederacy with racial prejudice with pride in their "favorite son," etcetera. Ironies abound. Perhaps these are illustrated in the ways the word mammoth enters our language and gets attached to Jefferson's cheese -- to make fun of a president no longer popular despite his red hair. And all due to some confusion over wooly mammoths versus. . . . well, other things.

Amnesty is also a topic that runs through the book. In particular, there is a presidential candidate who is promising amnesty from taxes for family farmers. (Yes, there is a related theme -- that agribusiness is benefiting from tax breaks while small family farms are, well, sinking under generations of tax burden. This should change. I agree. And, though taken to a bit of an extreme by the character Margaret, she does have loads of excellent points about corporate greed and the horrors around us.) In any case, the notion of amnesty seems to me an intriguing topic these days -- not exactly forgiveness, not exactly truth and reconciliation, not exactly a lot of things. But amnesty -- worth thinking of in many contexts? I think yes.

All in all I found this a surprisingly thought-provoking book where the food is not only in the form of the mammoth cheese but in the quiet meals serves by various women, the infant formula infants struggle to absorb, the food for thought of Jefferson (in idealistic repetition and distorted propaganda form), in the novel itself where food stands for more than one might imagine merely reading its back cover. I suspect some might find the book implicitly conservative -- and others wildly lefty -- and really the answer may be yes. Yes, it is.

For the Guardian's review click here and note the very different cover for Brit readers. For a review from St. John's University click here.  And for the review with the best Monty Python reference, click here. And, for a Barnes and Noble interview with Holman, try here.

Dancing Bears and More

I love the name of this place: Dancing Bears. Located in the High Peaks resort in Lake Placid, the place is right in the heart of tourista land, on the corner of Sarana and Main. And yes, it has big windows that look out on Mirror Lake -- and on shopping. But, it was a fun place to hang out, eat enormous nachos and try out Lake Placid beer (which admittedly we could have tried in Geneva, but hey, what's the point of traveling? And yes, we could have gone to the Lake Placid Brewpub, but we did not make it this trip). We had the Ubu and the IPA -- and both were quite good.

As for the nachos: let me say this: huge, loads of guacamole and sour cream, jalapenos, chili. And huge. The chips were piled high on a plate and then this was set on a somewhat-too-tall gizmo that made it above table height. A veritable muntain of nachos. Of which I ate way way way too much. And I liked it.

So: Dancing Bears. I have no idea why this little theme is so prominent in Lake Placid. (I saw postered and related things of dancing bears.) But even clueless, I enjoyed the name and the munch. Would I go again? Maybe not so much, since there are so manyplaces to try -- and I want to make it next time to the Lake Placid Brewpub. . . . But still, worth the visit.

Cheese-y Tales II

Locks and Cream Cheese sounds like it should go along with Don't Cry for Me, Hot Pastrami, reviewed here. Right? Plays on deli foods and . . . well, turns out that while I am sure they picked the title to sound like lox and cream cheese, the novel is really not quite as foodie oriented as its title implies. Yes, there's a cook -- named Mollie -- who is a combination of wonderful and crazy making. And yes, there is a murder and a chap named Paco who is the policeman (clearly tilting toward Mollie as a love interest). But the locks are actually locks, and the mystery is also about the folks living in the 1980s trying to understand the past and discovering aspects of it they might not truly have expected, including murder and mayhem in the past that explains various aspects of their present's murder and mayhem.

One of the most memorable aspects of the mystery -- well, the book, not the mystery -- is the persistent malapropisms of the character Mollie. Malapropisms are a hoot -- I even came to wonder if that is why the title is Locks and Cream Cheese. For some examples (beyond thopse in wikipedia, which you can find in the preceding link, check this out.) And, the book was actually enjoyable in part because it was not stuck in the foodie cozy mystery genre. It was longer, had more chapters and complexity to the plot, and seemed to eschew some fo the punniness of the genre in favor of the ongoing, constant flow of malapropisms from Mollie. There are moments when the writing is stiff -- and the descriptions are a bit cliched on occasion, long on others, and wonderful on occasion -- but the writing is clearly trying for a novel not merely a puzzle. There are a whole range of characters -- a New Jersey-ish gangster, a 50-something failure with a gambling problem, arts dealers and thieves, nerdy techie types and newlyweds. And the plot twists include centuries old diaries, keys and mysterious boxes, hidden rooms, and . . . more. A jumble-sale-like assortment sometimes, but on the other hand less predictable than many of the Berkeley foodie/cozy genre.This is the first of a series with lots of other punny titles out there -- including my personal favorite title in a while: Boston Scream Pie. Or wait, might that be Hot Grudge Sunday?

All in all I am glad to have stumbled upon this while looking for cheese-related mysteries!

The authors, Rosemary and Larry Mild, have a website here and they have, of course, written more than one mystery with Paco and Mollie featured. One of the best things about them is, I think, that they are late bloomers as writers. For some reviews of their work and etc click here.

Mirror Lake Dining

So, we were recently at the Adirondacks and ate several times at the Mirror Lake Inn. In addition to breakfasts each day (buffet several days and then suddenly, the mornign we were leaving -- there was at table service; by the way -- the housemade jams -- wowowowowowowow), we ate once at The View (their fine dining establishment) and once at the bistro and bar in the lodge. We did not make it to the Cottage. We enjoyed them both -- and the general ambience of the Mirror Lake Inn. Both were a bit price-y but very very tasty.

The View: We began with drinks -- a nice champagne and a "whiteface" cosmo (which involves white cranberry juice) -- and followed with shared appetizers. What did we have? A fois gras from the Hudson Valley with a fig marmalade and a lovely salad with herbs and green beans and olive oil confit tomatoes and greens. Two things were special: the taste of dill throughout the salad was very spring-like. And the dressing, which was a buttermilk ranch was actually light and tasty. (As a third wonder, I really liked the carrot ribbons. This is rarely done well and here it was as was the crunchiness of the haricort verts.)  On the other hand, the olive oil confit tomatoes were cold. Youch. (Yet, as you will see below, we had the salad again.) We followed this with, on the one hand, osso buco (which looked lovely) and diver scallops on butternut squash ravioli with broan butter and sage. Quite good. And I love crispy sage. We had glasses of wine recommended by our very skilled server who clearly knew the menu and the wine list well. This is, alas, all too rare these days. He both steered us to great pairings and steered us toward dishes we liked. Dessert, you ask? QWell, we shared one: the best dark chocolate creme brulee I have ever had served along with a glass filled with mixed berries and drizzled with creme anglais and a mint sprig. described as "mint creme anglais" it was really creme anglais with a mint sprig, which was truly for the best. A great dessert.  The cost: a bit higher than one would wish, but worth it for the combination of excellent food and the view -- which is fantastic looking over Mirror Lake to the mountains of the HIgh Peak region of the Adirondacks.)

Taste Bistro and Bar: Well, we stayed in the Inn - after one of us spa-ing and hte other skiing, for one more dinner. This one was a bit indulgent -- starting with french fries (aka pommes frites) served with a kalamata aoili, a white truffle aoili, and a house made clove catsup. (I listed htem in the order of our preference.) We then followed with the salad we had had the night before -- again swell -- and finished with half orders each of a lovely linguini bolognese (made with veal, pork and beef). I might have liked my linguini a tiny bit less al dente but otherwise, a very fun meal that I would repeat. The pommes frites were just the right balance of crunchy and soft and (gasp) tasted like. . . potatoes. I was on club soda with bitters for the evening but the kona porter served at the bar turns out to be wonderful.

And, did I mention the ambience? Looking out the window at Mirror Lake and the mountains. And the service here, as well as at the View was informed, kind, and thoughtful.

All in all, the inn, the meals, and the location were great. A teeny walk from Lake Placid shopping, a 5 minute drive (maybe 10?) to cross country skiing -- it was definitely a get away that got us away.

Cheese-y Tales I

Or is that cheesy? Yes, I have been reading books that involve cheese, atarting, of course, with Edward Trencom's Nose, reviewed here. At the time, I was searching for a whole series I had heard of but been unable to locate, focused on a cheese shop. And, then, there was a comment from the author of those -- Avery Aames, and I purchased The Long Quiche Goodbye on my kindle. The book is the first in a series (which so far has two book,s I think), and did, indeed, involve a cheese shop proprietor as the amateur detective type. Though not as cheese-information-y as Edward Trencom's Nose, this was a fun romp, in the more usual genre of cozy mystery meets foodie mystery and . . . there you have it. There are cheese caves and an occasional mention of a technique (like shaving the top of cheeses periodically to have them breath in order to not go off, and of course a wine annex. And, equally a matter of course, of course, is the somewhat uncertain romance of the main character.

Set in Ohio, the cheese shop (called Fromagerie Bessette) was begun by Charlotte's (the detective/proprietor) grandparents who left France after WWII and have an occasional french moment. despite an occasional mention of Amish, for example, the Ohio venue could be anywhere, and the cheeses are multitudious. The shop assistant, Rebecca, has left Amish life recently and is thus a foil for some critique of those who get sucked into believng television portrays detective work accurately, etcetera. I sometimes wonder how small town police feel about all these murder mysteries set in thier midst; too often the police seem like buffoons and the amateurs like geniuses (despite their frequent jumping to conclusions and etc). Here, in this book, the police do not come in for too many snide remarks; in fact, the chief of police seems like a genuinely committed person trying hard to do what's right. [SPOILER ALERT -- but not too serious] That the grandmother is the accused -- and that she is also mayor of the town running for election against a really annoying woman -- means politics gets a little bit of a send-up, though kindly at that. The book ends with a few recipes involving cheese: a cheese/apple sandwich, polenta with taleggio and basil, a ham and pineapple quiche, and a smoked salmon and marscapone risotto.

For more on this book, click here where you can learn about how the author, who had never sold one of her novels, comes to be commissioned to write a cheese shop mystery! And that she did it in 5 weeks is itself amazing. Avery Aames does Thursdays at this site -- which you should know about anyway if you like mysteries!

 

And keep watching Cooking with Ideas: I have just read Locks and Cream Cheese which, despite its title is not about lox. Written by Rosemary and Larry Mild, this is also a 30 chapter (yes, they're short) book set in the 1980s. Who remembers that decade?

Turkey Mole and More

One of this year's goals is: make mole sauce and related foods. So, I finally made a dish I have been looking at for ages in a cookbook called Starting with Ingredients that was a gift. (It is by Aliza Green. It is a cookbook that I like a lot, though there are too many errors in the recipes themselves -- e.g., listing an ingredient in the list of ingredients and then. . . it appears absolutely nowhere in the directions for making it. Even so, a great book.)

What did I make? Turkey Mole. With turkey thighs. The recipe appears in the cookbook under the category of chocolate, but it only calls for 2 ounces of chocolate (if you make the full 8 chicken thighs; I made two and used 1/2 of the ingredients for sauce and etc because. . . . well, I wanted to). In the end, the turkey was so soft and thoroughly cooked as to be falling off the bone wonderful -- and the combination of tastes was delightful. I served the turkey mole with a) white hominey warmed in the over with some chopped white onion and jalapeno and b) some refried beans. And, oh, I almost forgot, some home made salsa which involved chopping tomatillos, lime juice, jalapeno, onion, and salt. It was a delightful meal. And the leftovers (one whole turkey thigh since I was only serving two people) were even better. I think this is all due to the fact that a) first you put the thighs into some chicken broth and cook away for an hour or more; and then b) you cook the thighs for another hour and a half in teh oven (at 325 degrees) covered with the mole sauce (which involves nuts of various sorts, chilis, spices, tomatoes, chocolate. . . .and more).

What can I say about mole? Well, there are varieties of mole and I associate it with varieties of Mexican food. . And the version I am thinking of (and riting about)  really requires an accent on the e which I cannot figure out how to accomplish. Do not confuse this mole (the sauce; for more on this try here), with this one (the animal) or this one (the unit of measure) or this one (the dermatological phenomenon). Who knew there could be that many meanings of a simple four letter word. There are probably more.

I recommend the book and the recipe. I am resisting putting the recipe in -- I should, I know. But then, what would Aliza Green do for you?

Cafe Toscano -- at Ventosa

Cafe Toscana is located at Ventosa Vineyards (hence the title of this entry!) which is outside Geneva, NY. When it went up, some years ago, the building seemed like a huge weird addition to the local scene. When coming north on 96, it intrudes a bit into the view, obscuring Seneca Lake and hulking over the landscape. And yet, it fits in. How odd, I often think. But I had never been there, despite having met a woman who works there as a wine maker.despite having driven by it innumerable times. Despite. . . .

And there it was -- a Saturday afternoon in need of play -- and off we went for the free music at Cafe Toscana. It turned out that there were free wine tastings too. So, we tried 4 wines each -- in my case several whites (a blend and a reisling) and 2 reds. And then we went off to a table with a glass each we purchased. To be honest, we wanted the wines to be better than they were. The reds were each a bit sour, unbalanced, and just not exzciting. We were not sure how to say it. The white blend from the Saggio series was reasonably good and the non-vintage Cafe Rosso was pretty okay as well. One of us chose the latter for her purchased glass and the other a 2007 Pinot Noir which was also ok. But we are hoping that they get better over the years because many of their competitors are more than ok along Seneca Lake.

Along with the wine, we had a small, plain pizza called a "basic" or a "Cafe Toscana." It was pretty good - the sauce was nice and the size was perfect. It was rectangular not round, which was kind of fun. Not great, but tasty.

And the music the day we were there -- occasionally good (when it verged more country) but it too could have been better.

But still, as we sat there looking out over a beautiful landscape, we knew that if we had traveled further and been on vacation, we'd have enjoyed ourselves. So, we did -- and we hope for better music, better wine, and better food at Ventosa. Especially because all the people we know there are dandy. Really dandy.

International Women's Day

Read about International Women's Day here -- and celebrate! When is it? March 8. And March 8, 2011 is it's 100 year anniversary. Read about it -- do -- here.

Zombie Cupcakes

This may be the silliest cookbook ever to arrive, unannounced at my door via the mail: Zombie Cupcakes: from the grave to the table with 16 cupcake corpses by Zilly Rosen. And, it may be one of the most wonderful in some ways. In fact, I immediately knew who I would send it to once this entry was written. Perhaps most unexpectedly: the cookbook emerges from . . . . upstate NY . . . BUFFALO! Who would have guessed? Clearly not me.

When I think of zombies, I think of a film I first saw (and then saw a few times thereafter) lo those many years ago in college: NIght of the Living Dead. Yep, zombie mania. But zombies also conjure up culturally embedded narratives of, say, race insofar as voodoo and zombies get linked. (Or regionalism if you attach voodoo to, say, New Orleans.) I learned too that zombies are a big deal theoretically -- who knew? Like here's a zombie theory of foreign policy (or here for international relations. .  ) and here's something on the neurobiology of zombies that even references the 1968 classic film I referenced above. Zombie people -- like we all act that way sometimes and/or are all more or less socialized into zombie-like statuses by the hegemonic culture? Zombie apocalypse. Hmmm.

Because everything links to everything, this might be linked to animism, might it not? Yep. Click here.

But what about this little thin cute-ish book? It is filled with basic cupcake recipes and more, including  loads of advice on decorating, and good visuals. The flavors are varied (gingerbread and blue banana, for example) and offer ;ratings of difficulty involving little metallic-looking skulls. The decorating involves  lots of use of fondant and gum paste to make maggots and teeth and little crosses and tombstones and. . . use your imagination. Perhaps the best is called brain food and features a brain on top of the cupcake but there are loads of delights here. As I said, the visuals are quite good in this little book. Also included:  zombie trivia (including some on NIght of the Living Dead -- which I only discovered after I wrote about it above!)

So: cupcakes. As an occasional fan of Cupcake Wars, this is a delight -- though it does make me think that the folsk on the televisoion show are not all that creative, It is definitely a book for Halloween, but maybe for a lot more if you're really really into zombies -- or just want to learn how to use fondant and gum paste and make tasty cupcakes.

Zombie cupcakes. Who knew?

For an interview with Zilly Rosen, click here. And for a dandy visual of her Obama/Lincoln cupcake fest, click here.