Wine dinner: Piper-Heidsieck

The last Hilton Winemaker Dinner of the season will be Friday night, featuring Piper-Heidsieck Champagne and Renwood Zinfandel.

Reception is at 6:30, dinner at 7:30, cost is $125. For reservations, call 237-6400.

Here’s the menu and the wine list.

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m working today, but not that hard: I get to watch Hilton executive chef John Reis and his crew work up their annual Thanksgiving feast for hotel guests and other people who’d rather take a seat and let someone else cook.

If you’re having trouble feeling thankful today, try my E-Z-B Happy recipe from last Sunday.

For dessert, here’s a sweet roundup of Thanksgiving disasters … like “The Dog Ate My Turkey.”

 

Have a Happy.

Pat Carroll 

Thanksgiving with soul

 

Delilah Winder (Delilah’s Everyday Soul) shows  the Inqy’s Dianna Marder how our favorite Eating Holiday is done down South.

“The menu begins with a simple, refreshing Broiled Grapefruit and goes uphill from there: from the turkey with gravy and stuffing to collard greens, candied yams and creamed onions. And, of course, the macaroni-and-cheese that put Delilah on the national map when Oprah Winfrey proclaimed it the best mac-and-cheese in the country.”

Yeah, baby.

Life in the grocery line

I stopped at the Giant in New Cumberland on the way home the other night to get a couple things. Got in line behind a couple buying ground beef and hamburger buns, and a few other items.

Then the wife remembers something else, and she takes off, back into the bowels of the store.

The guy stands there, watching the customer ahead of him go through the paying ritual. Then the clerk starts running his stuff through the checkout. He doesn’t have a lot. He looks around for his wife. He can’t see her.

Then he looks at me.

It’s late, I’m tired, I’m hungry, I want to get home, but beyond that, no big deal. I use the universal signal assigned to those whose spouses tend to wander off at crucial times: I shrug. Been there.

Cha-ching. Cha-ching, item after item goes by the price scanner.

He’s still looking, hoping, waiting. This is a big guy in a Red Land jacket, taller than me, and he can see over most people’s heads. But as far as he can see, she’s not coming anytime soon.

Just as the clerk picks up the last can of whatever, he sees her. Far away.

He looks at me as if to say, “See? No problem.”

The clerk is done and looking at him. So is the woman in line behind me.

At this point, I know, he wants to pay for his stuff and then get back in line with whatever she’s bringing. But I sense he doesn’t want to have to answer the rebuke-phrased-as-a-question: “Why didn’t you just wait for me?”

Now he’s waving at her to get a move on. She doesn’t.

A minute later, she’s there, at our line, but seems reluctant to commit. I move aside so she can get by. The husband is now motioning pointedly. She just looks at him.

Finally, he says something like, “Come on!”

She rolls her eyes, lets out a big sigh and puts her forgotten item on the counter, then walks past him.

Under his breath, he says, “I’ll pay for that.”

Wine dinner: Piedmont

Wines of the Piedmont Region will accompany the classic cuisine of Northern Italy Friday night at The Golden Sheaf. Jim Hutton, regional manager of Vias Imports Ltd., will host.

The reception starts at 6:30 p.m., dinner is at 7:30 pm. The price is $125 per person, plus tax and gratuity. For reservations, call 237-6400

Here’s the menu and the wine list for “An Elegant Evening of Piedmont Wines.”

The Grill King’s Guide

What will make this blog useful is you — not to put too fine a point on it.

When you let me know what you think about a new restaurant, send me a review or share your expertise about food and drink, our community of knowledge improves.

So it is with The Grill King, who is sharing his guide to food and wine pairings. I can’t tell you who he is or how I know him — huge secret — but he knows what he’s talking about.

New Food Books

‘April Hassun,’ featured in ‘Kaiseki’ 

“For the first time in years, there’s reason to celebrate the food books of fall. The mindless (and presumably profitless) trend of chef’s ego books has slackened in favor of more thoughtful reads. Finest among them … “

Dorothy Kalins surveys the season’s best new food books in this week’s Newsweek.

Licensing fees for recipes

Rule #1 for food writers: You can’t copyright a recipe.

Until now. There’s a chef in Chicago who has already filed 12 applications for patents, including one for making cotton-candy paper. Others in the culinary world are looking at copyright, and their lawyers are writing proposals to let chefs own their new dishes the way composers own their songs. Will we be paying licensing fees for recipes?

Go read the column in Food & Wine.

Steak, a guide

Does the USDA have the last word on beef, or is there more to good taste than marbling? Does it matter what a cow eats?

Mark Schatzker at Slate endured way too many steak dinners to bring you this report on ranking the porterloins.

Comfort food

Most questions of food authenticity — am I eating/fixing the real deal? — fall away when the topic is comfort food.

So it is with me and Mexican food. I don’t care if it’s “really” Tex-Mex, or “really” Mexican American. I like an easy BYOB dinner at El Rodeo in Lemoyne, like enchiladas poblano with a bottle of Red Bicyclette. At home, when we’re stuck for a quick dinner, we make do with huevos rancheros … red-leaf lettuce and chopped scallion on a flour tortilla, an egg fried over-easy and gently laid on top with salsa.

For a cozy Saturday night, we settle in with Black Bean Torte:

2-4 cups of cooked black beans
1-2 jalapenos, minced

Puree together in a food processor, then saute in a large pan for 5 minutes. Turn the oven on to 400.

On a greased cookie sheet, place a tortilla. Spoon the bean mixture on top to cover, then lay down another tortilla. Repeat until mixture is gone, usually about 4-6 tortillas. Bake for 20 minutes, or until top is golden with a few brown spots.

Remove the torte from the oven and let it rest for five minutes. Cut into wedges, top with sour cream and salsa, and serve.

Yeah, I know it’s not “really” a torte.

I love it anyway.