TURIN: Day Two and a Half

The Albergo San Carlo entrance in the heart of Turin's second largest piazaa.  Don't let the imposing facade fool you.  It is barely a three star hotel. 

Two cathedrals anchor one end of the Piazza San Carlo

My hotel is on the right side of this arcaded facade of the Piazza San Carlo

A wide view of the Piazza San Carlo

By the time I got to the hotel in Turin, it was 6:30 PM, nearly seven hours past my original arrival time.  My travel karma seems to be terrible these days. In more than 45 years of air travel, I’ve never lost a bag. I’ve heard horror stories from friends about this happening, but the worst suitcase issue was a late arriving bag, which was resolved in a few hours.  This time I think the bag is gone forever, and I have to buy clothing and a new suitcase while I’m here.

My hotel, the Alburgo San Carlo is located right in the heart of Turin’s historical center, in a large and imposing piazza, brilliantly lit at night.  It’s on the fourth four of a square of identical multi-story eighteenth century multi-purpose buildings that combine a large square of arcaded restaurants, coffee bars (very popular here), and retail shops on the main level with offices, hotels, and other businesses.  It’s a modest three-star hotel with few amenities, but it’s spotless.  My room is typical of the type.  It’s fairly large, with a big double-window that opens into the courtyard side of the building.  A massive, handsome antique armoire dominates one wall with an old fashioned walnut and antiqued brass embroidered twin beds and matching night stands with marble tops,  a tiny desk and a wood and upholstered arm-chair in one corner and a small mini-fridge to complete the décor. There’s wifi here, but I have to go to the lobby to use it!

The owner, who also lives here with his family (an adorable little boy, and a teenage son) has been most helpful in getting me settled, not an easy task with an exhausted hotel guest without luggage, lacking sleep, and new to a strange town.  In the midst of trying to send my friend Christine, a note telling her I was here, I had a honking nose-bleed!  I was terrified of bleeding over the last of my existing clothing.  The quick thinking of the owning saved me (there was a funny and touching moment, when his youngest son handed me his used tissue!).  He sent he to a local grocery store where I could stock up on the missing toiletries and some water.  And then he sent me to a local trattoria for a restorative Italian dinner.

Da Mauro, is a pleasantly old-fashioned, family-run restaurant a few blocks from the hotel. It’ one of those sprawling, overly-bright restaurants, with all three large dining rooms busy and bustling with weeknight diners (always a good sign).  The large menu offered familiar dishes from all over the country’s cuilinary map. I was starving.  I hadn’t eaten since ten this morning, and I quickly stumbled my way through the menu with my inept command of Italian with a pretty and efficient young waitress, who quickly figured out my requests with humor and warmth.  I would start with a dish of gnocchi Valdostano, braised rabbit and a mixed salad and a half battle of Barolo.  The restaurant was filled with locals, businessmen, couples, and a few lone diners such as myself. I brought along Ken Follett’s latest novel (more about that later) to keep me entertained and settled in anticipating a good dinner.  I wasn’t disappointed.  The gnocchi were tender and perfectly cooked and the sauced with rich heavy cream, Parmesan, thin strips of ham and freshly ground black pepper.  It was a lovely beginning, a nose-thumbing indulgence that made me laugh as I contemplated at least three days of being without my cholesterol medications, now lost with that missing suitcase!).  Next came a generous portion of tender, braised rabbit.  I still don’t understand Americans squeemishness about this wonderful meat.  Its mild taste is certainly reminiscent of chicken and it’s one of those lean meats you would think fat-obsessesed Americans would take to their hearts.  But no—visions of Thumper and Bugs Bunny keep intruding.  Their loss I’m afraid.  This dish was tasted of onion, carrot and celery and bay leaf.  It was served by itself on a plate (I rejected the roasted potatoes after the gnocchi), and it was just what the doctor ordered.  A mixed salad followed with escarole, Roma tomatoes, shredded carrot and thinly sliced fennel, all dressed with carafes of olive oil and happily, red wine vinegar (instead of the wearily familiar and, to those who know me well, unpleasantly sweet and pungent balsamic vinegar (which I prefer cooked in sauces, rather than raw on salads). The food, wine, finished with an aromatic espresso restored my good mood. It was a terrifically restorative meal for about $42. I headed out the door promising to return before my trip was over. 

Walking back to the hotel I noted many of the usual retails giants you fine in every city.  Hermes, Prada, Max Mara, Calvin Klein, Stuart Weitzman (yes, Maryann, you can buy his shoes here too). The old buildings are imposing.  I made a mental note to visit two churches, one truly massive, the next day.  I’ll go to see the Shroud of Turin and stop by the Egyptian museum as well. 

Back in the hotel, I found Christine has received my email, but I was really only interested in collapsing into bed.  Not even Ken Follet could keep me awake. I said a mental prayer for the return of my suitcase, and with the lights out, fell immediately and gratefully to sleep.

Ken Follett has often been a comfort to me in a crisis.  I was privileged to work with this talented and prolific popular writer through six of his novels beginning with his magnificent Pillars of the Earth.  I remember riding home on a Greyhound bus after a visit for my mother’s 70^th birthday in the wake of 9/11.  The only thing that made that 19-hour ordeal bearable was the entertaining distraction of reading Code to Zero.  I bought his latest, Fall of Giants last fall, read about 100 pages, and because of work and a hectic holiday season, put it down.  This trip offered the ideal time to finish this huge novel (nearly 1000 pages) and so far it’s been a grandly entertaining read.  The first in a projected three-volume work set against the epic events of the 20^th century, Follett ambitiously recreates the lives of several American and European families caught up the tumultuous months leading up to the onset of the First World War.  In short order, I’m about a third of the way through the book, and expect to be finished before I fly home.  But its hefty weight has led me to the decision to buy a Kindle when I return home! 

CHICKEN WINGS, ITALY AND THE PRESIDENT'S STATE OF THE UNION

Tailored Laurel Hedges

My heather has been obscured by Kyle's truck and my driveway is a wind-tunnel that gets clogged with leaves from everyone else's yard surrounding my house.  Here it looks relatively clean. 

This rosemary was a small pot last summer. It weathers our wet winters very well here.  

On the landing at the top of my stairs, the smells from my kitchen are at their most intense.  If I were to sell my house, I'd bake a loaf of bread and a batch of cookies just before an open house.  I would have multiple offers on the first day.  That is how intense the aroma can be and it is at its most intense when I'm cooking something Spanish or Indian.  On Thursday night, I made Susan Loomis' Curried Chicken Wings.  I found this wonderful recipe in her memoir, Cooking at Home on the Rue Tatin (Wm. Morrow), and a simpler recipe cannot be imagined.  For four servings, you place four pounds of chicken wings on a single layer on a baking sheet (lined with foil and then misted with cooking spray).  Season the wings with salt on both sides. In another bowl, you'll need one cup of full-fat plan yogurt, 2 tablespoons curry powder (she recommends Madras, which is my preferred mixture), and a good pinch of hot paprika.  You pour the mixture over the wings and with your hands make sure they wings are entirely coated.  Then bake them in a 375 degree oven for 50-60 minutes.  Loomis recipe calls for a hotter oven (475 degrees F), but it always burns the wings and I've turned the heat way down.  Maybe it is because I use Greek Yogurt.  In any event, the wings turn a heavenly shade of yellow/brown, and are intoxicatingly aromatic with the curry spice.  I serve them with tater tots from Trader Joe's and a big green salad. I never have leftovers, but the smell of the curry is in my house for at least a day afterwards, and as reported, most intense at the top of the stairs.

Lots of chores were on my list of things to get accomplished this weekend in preparation for my trip to Turin this coming Tuesday.  It's been three years since my last visit to Italy, and I'm very excited to hear my buddy Christine Goerke, who is in the midst of a five-performance run singing the leading soprano role of Kundry in Wagner's PARSIFAL.  It will also be my first trip to Turin and I'm going to spend a day in Genoa too.  So my plate was full:  a haircut, to the bank for Euros, shopping for groceries, drugstore for travel needs, and back in time for the gardening service to trim my enormous laurel hedges, which have grown more than two feet in the fourteen months since their last trim.  I've been putting out things to take with me for a week.  I'm determined to bring one small rolling bag and a backpack and that's it.

I really liked the President's State of the Union speech, which may not have pleased the pundits (head's up ladies and gentlemen of the blogosphere--it wasn't written for you), but it think it went a long way towards telling Americans that we need to get back to innovating, educating, and investing in our future. Not that Republicans would have it that way.  They are too busy being disrespectful as they attempt to repeal every Obama initiative coming out of the White House.  I didn't realize afterwards that CNN was the only network that ran Michelle Bachmann's insane response to the State of the Union.  With her graphs and her mashed truths, she looked more zombie-like than she did the night she won her election. If that's the future of America, INCLUDE ME OUT. I've had a belly-full of mouthy know-it-alls like the Tea Party and their Republican counterparts.  I'm just happy that the insanity at the heart of the Tea Party message will give the Republicans major headaches.  They deserve it.  

Saw Secretariat, the Disney biopic about this amazing Triple Crown winning thoroughbred--the last horse to win it nearly forty years ago.  It's a thrilling movie with a sensational cast, headed by the emotionally compelling Diane Lane, one of the most underrated actresses in films today.  James Cromwell, John Malkovich, Scott Glenn and others all contribute to this emotionally satisfying movie.  Old fashioned--yes, but this was a horse to root for and a story worth telling. It's a far better movie than Seabiscuit.

Will write more from the road.  Planning on taking lots of pictures to download this trip.

MY TREE IS STILL UP

Bay scallops, rice, and romaine and avocado salad

Bay scallops with grape tomatoes, artichoke hearts, garlic, leeks and scallions, thyme, 

red pepper flakes, salt and pepper

Week three of 2011 and my tree is still up.  So are the outdoor lights and all the decorations except the wreath on my door which was trashed yesterday.  I'm kinda drowning in this exciting new year.  I've got a second cookbook bestseller in less than two months that's taking up a lot of time, as well as working on several other cookbook promotions, new business proposals and planning a quick week's getaway on February 1st.  I'm off to Italy for a week. My buddy Christine is singing her first Kundry in Richard Wagner's epic opera, PARSIFAL. She'll be performing the role in Turin, an Italian city I've longed to see. I'll also get a day's trip to Genoa, another city on my must-see list.

Work on the basement has begun again.  Kyle has been filling cracks, framing out a closet, while a young laborer is helping with digging holes on the side of the house whenever it's not raining, and insulating the basement ceiling.  While the snow has been burying much of the country, we've had nothing but rain. There's hardly a day in the past three weeks that we haven't been rained on.  Beau has been missing his daily walks, and while he's always hated rain, he's learned that a quick visit to the back yard is often the only outing he'll get.  We got a walk in yesterday, and already you can see shoots coming out in the neighborhood gardens.  Crocus and daffodils will be out in a few weeks.  It's not cold.

A Pam Anderson recipe:  Italian sausages, cherry tomatoes, onions garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and cannellini beans

But it does feel gray and still wintry, and I've been cooking food that makes us feel good.  On Saturday, I made a recipe from Pam Anderson's fine new cookbook, PERFECT ONE-DISH DINNERS.  Cassoulet-Style Italian Sausages and White Beans is a recipe guaranteed to keep winter at bay.  Cherry tomatoes, garlic, onions, thyme, salt and pepper are combined in one large roasting pan with the sausages and beans.  All it needed was a nice green salad.  The leftovers made a spectacular lunch. After all the beef and lamb of the holidays, it was a pleasure to tuck into a steaming dish of shrimp risotto.  I had some tomato sauce in the fridge and stirred a few tablespoons-full into the risotto which also had scallions, a few anchovies and lemon zest to brighten it's flavors.  Tonight I made my friend Sherri's fresh scallops with grape tomatoes, garlic, onions, white wine, vermouth and parsley.  I had some frozen artichoke hearts and a big leek, so they went in with some red pepper flakes.  You put it in a roasting pan and put it all in a very hot oven for about 12 minutes.  The recipe makes a wonderful sauce, perfect for dipping bread into. Another night of grilled salmon with a brush of Hoison sauce to glaze its surface, baked sweet potatoes, and a saute of zucchini, scallions and smoked hot paprika, made a trifecta of seafood dinners in one week.  


The news today that John Boehner had led the charge to repeal President Obama's healthcare bill which the Senate and the president supported was very dispiriting.  I don't subscribe to Washington's spineless retreat from in-yer-face politics to pious civility.  It's phony.  The whole republican congressional contingent is a disgrace.  Tea Party sympathizers, right wing nut jobs, so-called fiscal conservatives who waste money on wasteful expensive foreign wars, and legitimize their district's entitlements over healthcare for all Americans are liars and criminals. The can all shake their heads when one of their own takes a bullet from some nut job and try like hell to avoid the fact that they haven't done a think about our country porous borders. Why should they do anything?  I just don't understand why conservative republicans refuse to do anything for working Americans and worse, I don't understand why working Americans cannot see through their manipulative behavior.  Shame on Congress.  They grant themselves excellent health benefits and the hell with anyone else!  Time to hit the veto button, Mr. President.  an I hope he will continue to exercise his veto power as long as Republicans continue their insane policies while corporate America abandons pensions, and fires anyone over the age of 40 because they can, Wall Street wipes out American's 401K plans.  


I saw Condoleeza Rice say that our politicians are grappling with serious issues on TV tonight.  No they are not.  They are wasting our taxes and giving us virtually nothing in return.  Shame, shame, shame.

NEW YEAR MUSINGS

We were all well into our plates before I remembered to get this photo.  I never got one of of the gnocchi. 

But here is the other half that I froze for a future use.

A mixed berry Clfaoutis with raspberries, blueberries, cherries and strawberries

John's New Year's Git--a Red Anthirium

New Year's Eve is an evening I prefer to spend at home.  And home is where I stayed.  I invited John Baker and his friend Darren over for dinner.  John, who is a generous friend brought me a gorgeous anthirium plant.  I had gone to Gartner's, the famous Portland butcher (where I also purchased a whole, boneless smoked ham which was originally priced at $60 for nearly 10 pounds to $20.  I cut the ham in thirds, and froze two segments for entertaining later this winter. The other third had provided us with fillings for omelets, sandwiches and tonight's mac and cheese--see below),  and found a large thickly cut boneless chuck blade roast.  I decided to braise it from a recipe by Michele Scicolone, an Italian cookbook writer that I really admire.  The recipe, Beef in Barolo, is a simple, but deeply satisfying braise of wine, pancetta, carrots, celery, and onions. and long simmered on top of the stove.  The sauce is surprisingly fat-free, and makes a fine delicious on homemade gnocchi, which I served as a first course.  The meat was served with frozen peas that I sauteed in butter and added finely chopped scallions,  a mixed salad and a mixed berry clafoutis for dessert.  We washed it down with a bottle of sparkling rose brut from France.  A delicious way to usher in the new year, we enjoyed more wine and slept in the next day.

Marion Cunningham's fabulous Nutmeg Muffins

The next day I decided to bake nutmeg muffins--a wonderfully fragrant muffin from Marion Cunningham from her fabulous The Breakfast Book.  These muffins are the best I've ever eaten--they require one and a half whole nutmegs that you hand grate.  Kyle is not much for sweets for baked goods, and I had twelve of them.  Kent who came over to go to lunch later that week, was happy to take some of them from me.

The New Year started off slowly, but as of Monday, I was at my desk with requests pouring in for various things related to work projects, and a nagging problem begging for a solution was tugging at the back of my brain.  After the third hole was dug in the side of my house to be patched, I thought, well, that's three big patches, and no guarantee that the problems of leaks into the basement was solved.  What definitively was the state of my foundation?  What if it required a major repair?  And if so, why was I responsible?  Hadn't the previous owners lied about the water problems in the disclosure waiver they signed when I bought the house?  And why was the new basement foundation stripped all the way to the bare concrete if there were no water problems.  This I discovered when the woman who had built the addition to the house told me there had been a finished bedroom and bathroom in the basement.  No more.  I've been involved in the hell of getting that basement renovated since last summer and progress was at a standstill until the issue of the leaks became resolved.  I called the contractor who had installed the egress window and took the weight of the back of the house off the two wide windows that were illegally holding up the weight, installing king studs on either sides of the window as well as steel bars that would now bear the weight of the floor joists above them.  He recommended I speak to a specialist in foundations. I had already consulted with a foundation guy who specialized in vintage homes such as mine.  But this guy was an engineer, and his consultation would be a paid one.

Friday afternoon, Jay from Seismic Technologies arrived, and Kyle and I took him through the process that had taken us to this place. He startled me at once saying that my house was built in the late 20s, not in 1938, as the house was originally listed on the real estate statisics.  This will no mean that I'm going to to do a search through city records to confirm this. He based this on the quality of the cement.  He was full of praise for Kyle's solutions by digging deeply into the foundation, and repairing the cracks with cement and then hand-trowelling tar over the cement to give it a flexible and water-proof skin.  He prodded and poked the cement of the walls, checked for further leaks, found another weakness in the wall of the bathroom indicating a sink (gone before I moved in) may have contributed to the wall's weakness (moisture from continued splashing) and made recommendations for its repair.  He sourced the large crack in the walls of a closet from my side garden, and told me to find a device that could measure any changes over a year's period.  Kyle could decide the best way of dealing with any sealing of the interior walls.  He checked along the rose garden, prodding it's depths to make sure there wasn't a pipe underneath that might be causing any water problems.  In all he spent about and hour and a half evaluating the state of my foundation and I'm thrilled that he deemed it sound.  With a few more patch repairs to waterproof the side the house alongside the dog run, and some minor interior patching downstairs, and some fill-in work on the floor, my leaks would probably cease. This is fantastic news as I as becoming more and more frantic about the state of my house.  The renovation would have to be stopped.  I'd have to consider suing the previous owners, and where would that leave me in the future should I ever want to sell the house.  I couldn't pass on to future owners a mess that had been passed on to me through negligence.  Whoever buys this house from me, will certainly receive it in much better shape that I did.

Next week a water-proofing specialist is coming over to weigh in with his opinion.  I think I can finally put this behind me.  Which brings me to one of the biggest points about house renovation  Get an expert's opinion.  Everyone has an opinion and not necessarily a solution. One person who says use French drains, but they also require flushing out, not an easy task when they are buried below ground.  I've heard of drains being dug along the edge of all the basement walls to prevent water from moving in. Sump pumps, a new foundation and any number of other ideas, none of which make sense until you get the word from an expert. Be patient, and don't freak out (like I do) whenever something goes wrong.  Find the right expert to fix it.  I love Angie's List.  The guy with the most reviews, almost always gets my call. He or she has done the work the most.  Don't be afraid to ask an expert to explain something to you.  I've learned a ton about how water travels and seeks an outlet from experts.  Who knew?  Previously when the heating/air conditioning units in my apartment leaked, I called the super and yelled at him.  With a house I can only yell at myself.  My mother, who will be 80 next year, is furious with her condo management, who do nothing.  So she's decided the best thing for her is to sell her condo and buy a house.  I told her not to call me when something goes wrong.  I plan to sell this place in about eight or nine years and move back into an apartment--or assisted living, which ever comes first. I love my house, but it has caused me more than my fair share of stress and it is a money pit.

Saturday, Carol and Sara were guests for dinner.  I made marinated loin lamb chops in olive oil, lemon zest, freshly chopped rosemary, garlic squeezed through a press, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. I grilled on them on each side on top of the stove in a heavy grill pan and put them in a hot oven to finish cooking. I also made roasted potatoes, Brussells sprouts, salad and raspberry sorbet for dessert.  Sara had brought chocolate covered almonds, which went wonderfully well with the sorbet.

This may be the funniest photo of Beau ever.  He had just polished off a lamb chop bone and was in nirvana, 

licking the dregs of raspberry sorbet!

Sara has developed a special bond with Beau.  She gathered up the empty sorbet dishes, and Beau liked them clean and then fell asleep in her arms.

 Beau relaxing after his dinner treats in the arms of his buddy, Sara.

My very adult mac 'n cheese. The recipe is adapted from a recipe by Sara Moulton

I had intended on taking down the Christmas tree and all the ornaments, but got side-tracked by other things, so I suspect I'll be doing that tomorrow evening. I made a rich, adult macaroni and cheese tonight with all the odds and ends of the cheese I had in the house from the holidays.  So I made a bechamel sauce adding pieces of ham, some dry mustard, and Worcestershire sauce and and a few shots of Tiger hot sauce.  I had a mixture of Pepperjack cheese, feta, Rogue blue cheese, and some mozzarella.  When this was melted into the bechamel,  mixed it with cooked penne, scattered Panko crumbs on top with some Pecorino-Romano cheese and baked it.  The combination was exceedingly rich--the ultimate Mac'n Cheese.

The big news this week is my last-minute decision to go to Turin, Italy on February 1st to see my buddy, Chrisitine Goerke, sing her first Kundry in Wagner's PARSIFAL at the opera house there on February 6th. I had all these frequent flyer miles and had been frustrated in planning two previous trips.  I've always wanted to go to Turin and to Genoa as well, and now I'll be able to do both.  Delta found the right flights and I found an affordable hotel, and I'm off.  I can now tick off two more Italian cities that I'll explore on food, by train and bus.

GOODBYE HOLIDAYS--HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas dinner included this gorgeous potato, onion, and tomato gratin made fragrant with 

garlic, thyme, white wine and olive oil.  A leg of lamb was roasted above the gratin, its 

juices dripping into the potatoes.  Recipe courtesy of Patricia Wells. 

Gougere's puffed up and hot from the oven.  Recipe from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. 

Dave indulging in his third gougere of the afternoon!

An inspired combination of endives, apple quarters and grapes with fresh rosemary, all braised is from Dorie Greenspan's fine cookbook, Around My French Table. 

The happy chefs:  Trish and Greg

Michel Rostang's Double Chocolate Mousse Cake, courtesy Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan

Kyle making nice with Porter, Trish and David's beloved Frenchie, who terrorizes my Frenchie, Beau, with his on-stop energy and insistence that Beau play with him. 

Well I've tried to write this holiday entry four times, and each time it comes out sounding like hollow, sentimental tripe, which I loathe.  My first full year in Portland has been a gift and more than ever I'm convinced I left New York for very good reasons and that my future is here.

 I bought this Chritsmas cactus last fall and the blooms promptly dropped off the plant. It's been on the window sill all year long and two weeks ago, I got three new blooms!

 A box of Dorie Greenspan's magically easy Mustard Baton's ready to go to a party.  From Around My French Table.

My Neopolitan Christmas Angel which used to be my tree topper, but now adorns a floor lamp, where she's far more prominently on display. 

Jean-Francois & Jay's glamorous and festive Christmas Eve Table

I've always been pretty good at making friends, but the roots I've set down in Portland, have surprised even me.  All my New York friends are shocked that I've made the transition here so easily.  But it's not so surprising given the generosity of people here.


So whether it was picking up the threads of old friendships, such as Jean-Francois (35 years), or Carol and Sara (at least 30 years), or John Baker (at least a decade), there were so many more to add to those who made my life pretty terrific in Portland.  My brother, Doug sent me Kyle, who has been helping me transform my home, with a beautiful brick patio, a raised vegetable bed, and now is renovating my basement with the installation of a fourth bedroom and third bath.  I met Rod and then his three housemates--Joel, Jason and Travis--and have been going to their summer, Halloween and Christmas parties. They are generous hosts, funny and do lots of fun things, like run their small boat up and down the Columbia and Willamette Rivers with the friends in the summer.  It was at their summer soiree last year that I met Trish and Dave.  We bonded.  Trish and I made vast amounts of apple and pear butters. A master gardener, Trish has donated plants and given me lots of good advice.  Dave loves my cooking, and so Trish, no mean cook herself, and I teamed up for Christmas dinner.  Here's a photo of Dave with his third gougere in his mouth.


Lucy and Mark Yerby are the sister-in-law and brother of Lynne, another of the most enduring friends of my adult life.  Mark is a doctor.  Lucy is a nurse and Mark moved from the east coast many years ago to Portland.  They have been wonderful friends here and Beau and I spent a memorable visit at their horse farm in Bend, Oregon last summer.


Here are some photos of John Baker's annual Christmas party, featuring three fully loaded trees.

The Den Christmas tree.

The breakfast room Christmas tree. 

The living room Christmas tree. 

The swagged fireplace does look festive.  

More of John's skill with a holiday needlepoint pillow.

This is a fanciful and minutely detailed needlepoint gingerbread house that John worked on for about five years. 

Host John Baker, in his den. 

My friendship with Kent, who runs the PubWest a local publishing association I joined here last year is very special.  He has generously introduced me to the local publishing community, asked me to help judge the Pub West Book Design Awards, and guest lecture his publishing marketing course every semester at Portland State University.  We enjoy going to restaurants, or enjoying meals at our homes, or with mutual friends, such as Alan and Ruth.  With them, we will launch Ruth's compelling memoir in 2011.


I've added food friends, such as John Mitchell, who owns a local pizzeria in my neighborhood that serves just about the best pizza I've ever eaten--the crust is just amazing.  Stefania and Lawrence, are also fairly new residents to Portland, and Taste Unique, their remarkable and tiny restaurants/take-out place has captured the the attention of local food press where they are often written about.  Stefania, an Umbrian, is world-class chef, who makes the most wonderful pasta sauces, and a swooningly great tiramisu.


Nancy and Paul Frisch are old friends of friends.  They are long-time Portland residents, and have been wonderfully supportive, making sure I've got holiday invitations and always ready with a helping hand. I'm also blessed with real neighbors surrounding my home.  I can always count on a friendly hello and a good chat with Pat, Karen, and so many others.  Shari and Justin, my next door neighbors have rescued me twice when I've locked myself out of my house.


dianemorgancooks.com is a great place to find good food ideas and techniques to realize her recipes with great success.  She's a fine hostess and warm and supportive colleague.  The whole food department at the Oregonian is staffed with charming, funny, and supportive colleagues and reading that section of the paper is a highlight of my week.


I'm sure there are others that I've missed here and I hope they forgive me if I have.  Portland is a welcoming city--you just have to be open to it.


The business that evaporated with the collapse of the economy has for the most part, returned, and business as well as the quality of projects that came my way, far exceeded my most optimistic expectations.


These are food pictures from a Christmas dinner party I threw early in December for my friends, Kent, Ruth and Alan.

Roasted potatoes. The stuff in the white bowl is a horseradish sauce flavored with a little blue cheese.  I neglected 

to get a good shot of the individual Yorkshire puddings but you can see one vaguely in the top right 

hand corner of this photo.

Standing Rib Roast, carved and ready for serving.

Roasted Brussels sprouts, making this a meal that was virtually cooked in the oven.

This year, my old friend, Tom Masic passed away last fall.  This man with his partner, Joe, created one of Portland's great gardens and maintained its splendor for more than 30 years. He was always generous when I dragged visiting friends over to see the garden, showing us all the hundreds of plants, shrubs, and  trees.  He loved to knit and cook for his friends. This gentle giant of a man created this astonishing living work of art which gave so many so much pleasure.

Just about every candlestick in the house is on display.

Beau sends his best wishes of the season and a very Happy New Year! 

I can remember far worse years, so 2010 for me was a year of pure bliss.  There will be so much more to discover in 2011.


Happy New Year.

CHRISTMAS DECORATING AND LATKES FOR HANUKKAH

We finished the first platter before I realized I wanted a picture of these tasty Laktes.

Mimi Sheraton's Potato Latkes (recipe from The Essential New York Times Cookbook)

The food pages of the Oregonian and The New York Times the last two days have been full of features about latkes, in anticipation of Hanukkah, which begins today, December 1st.  I haven't made latkes in years, and because I had a bag of russet potatoes on hand, and some delicious apple butter I had made with my buddy Trish earlier in the fall, a plate of these delicious potato pancakes was long overdue.

The last time I made them must have been in New York in the early 80s. Everyone was using their food processors to make them, but since I had just finished reading THE ESSENTIAL NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK, I turned to it and found my inspiration.  Amanda Hesser's headnotes said the recipe came from a former Times restaurant critic, the fearsome Mimi Sheraton.  The potatoes and onion for the recipe required hand-grating, and while applesauce was acceptable, sour cream was dismissed as an unacceptable accompaniment.  The interesting technique in Sheraton's recipe is the draining of the potatoes.  You grate the vegetables into a strainer set over a bowl to catch the considerable moisture from the potatoes. Then you drain out the water while leaving the potato starch that sinks to the bottom of the bowl.  When you scrape this white substance into the potatoes and onions (which also include chopped fresh parsley, salt and white pepper, matzoh meal, and an egg yolk), it has the consistency of Elmer's glue!  Into this mixture you add egg whites, which are beaten until stiff and incorporated into the latke batter by hand.  The latkes are dropped by tablespoons into hot canola oil and fried until crisp and brown, then turned over and fried the same way.  They are drained on paper towel and then placed on a rack over a baking sheet in a warm oven while you finish the rest of the latkes.  Hesser says the resemble fried soft-shell crabs, which indeed they do.  They are fabulous and I even used sour cream (what does Mimi know?).  Kyle had never had them before, and we inhaled the half portion I made which was about 10 pancakes between us.  Happy Hanukkah indeed!

This eye-catching poinsettia would cost me at least $40 in New York.  

As for the Christmas side of the equation, I'm forcing narcissus, amaryllis and at Fred Meyer found two gorgeous and very inexpensive poinsettia plants for my holiday decorations and a lovely evergreen wreath for the door.  It's time to look for a new Christmas tree.  My little four-foot fake tree no longer wants to sit up straight in its base, and after decorating the tree last night, it slumped over to one side and bulbs went flying.

I love to force narcissus, but the smell drives me nuts after a few days.

The amaryllis is on the small side, but the poinsettia is huge and really a gorgeous shade of tomato red.

I brought out my old fake Christmas tree from New York and put it up last year, but it's very wobbly in its stand and I was tired of the optic fibers which were never really a good substitute for lights, so off I went in search of a new tree.  As much as I love freshly cut trees, I just can't seem to justify the fact that trees lose their lives for us and after four weeks are discarded.  They are a mess to handle and are potentially hazardous, so I like the idea of a fake tree.  I found one at Wal-Mart of all places. I swore I'd never shop there, but find myself occasionally searching for things there.  Six and a half feet tall, the tree comes already pre-lit.  Talk about lazy.  In the end it takes as much work to deal with a fake tree as it does a real one.  The results were very festive.

The new fake Christmas tree all trimmed.

The wreath comes from Trader Joe's.  I put the ribbon on it. 

Chili pepper ornament purchased in Santa Fe last month.

I can't believe I still am like a kid about the Christmas holiday season!