Green Bay, WI

My work travels bring me to Green Bay.  The only two people I know who live near there warn me that its a real small town and there isnt much to do, but there are some gems to be found if you look hard enough.  as i look out my airplane window of the puddle jumper, i find they are right... all i see are farms.

  I decided to stay at Aloft Hotel, which is n offshoot of W hotels and im stoked that the place is pretty hip and fun.  My first night i ate at the restaurant next door to the hotel, which was satisfactory, but not anything to brag about.  But what i am finding is that drinks in green bay are VERY inexpensive!  the rest of my night i spend being entertained by random weirdo business traveling men who have yet to learn how to behavein a bar atmoshpere. 

Night two and im in the mood for some good food as ive been cooking convenience store food all day for work. I arrive at a place that a local chef reccomended to me only to find that it is closed for a private event for the night.  i have a beer at Titletown, for $2.50 if you can believe that!  After a quick internet research i cross the street to Chefusion.  I am very reluctant to eat at places with the name "fusion"  but am very suprised at the 1920's style of the dining room and attire of the servers.  The Bartender informs me that majority of the lounge menu items are also availabe in $3 tasting sizes and states "i dont know who you are, but youre somebody... this drink is on me"!  i am liking this solo dining experience so far.  So check it out... i ate:

Bone Marrow

A Kobe Hot Dog, covered in Pot Roast, on top of truffle fries

Mussels

Volcano Shrimp

Mac N Cheese covered in Fried Onions

all for 28 bucks!  And the mac n cheese was the best i've had in a while!

Very stuffed and happy, i head back to watch business men make fools of themselves.

Hinterland Brewery has a dope menu and im excited it is not closed again for a private party.  With great company i am set to stuff my face after another day being surrounded by fried chicken and calzones.  The meal starts off with west coast oysters, fried boudin balls, and fried brussels sprouts.  So excited by the food, i forget to take pictures of the beef carpaccio and Braised Pork, but i did not forget to take a shot of the Seared Foie Gras that is so good you gotta go change yo drawers!  I'm informed that the two large men at the table next to us are two of the Green Bay Packers.  I refrain from causing any trouble.

Thanks Green Bay!  Had a blast, and maybe one day we can do it all over again!

Chef Eliana's Ricotta Gnocchi

At the same time Eliana made us all Mussels, she also banged out a massive pan of Ricotta Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage, with pancetta, peas, and shimeji mushrooms.  If you think the Gnocchi is difficult to make- check out this 8 year old doing it on her own!

for the Gnocchi dough-

15-16 oz ricotta cheese

2 eggs

3/4 cup grated parmesan

2 cups flour

zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp/ ea- grated nutmeg, salt, pepper

- Drain the ricotta and mix all the ingredients except the flour until blended- then fold in the flour until it is all combined

rest the dough for a half hour or longer

Then cut the dough into 4-6 pieces and roll each piece into a snake log on a floured surface and cut with a bench knife into little nuggets

When your ready to cook this off, begin your pot of boiling water and in a large saute pan, start browning off your pancetta (cut into lardons).  Once your water is boiling, boil the gnocchi until they all start to float-should just take like 2-3 minutes.  Drain the gnocchi and hold on to them until its time to add them to the other pan

once the pancetta is almost brwoned and crispy, add mushrooms so they start to brown

Then add a stick of butter and wait til the butter starts to foam.  Once the butter foam starts to smell nutty and a little browned, add sage leaves, peas, and start tossing in the gnocchi. Let the gnocchi heat up and start to brown, turn off the heat, and season with salt an pepper.  Grate some Fresh Parmesan on top of each plate- this will make about 6 servings.

Im so proud and amazed at how well Eliana handled making both this Gnocchi dish, and mussels for all of us, pretty much all by herself!

Moules Mariniere by Chef Eliana

Chef Eliana is making mussels tonight

Small dice a bunch of carrots, celery, and fennel (garlic and onion would be good too, but mama Truby's allergies say no for us)

Start heating some oil in a good, big pot. Sweat the veggies

Dump in 3 pounds of mussels (you should probably rinse and de-beard these suckers first)

Add half a bottle of white wine, cover until you see steam coming out from under the lid

They should all be open now. Add half a stick of butter, chopped thyme and tarragon, salt and pepper, mix it all up

Serve with crusty bread- we made thick crostini with Parmesan baked onto it.

Was'nt that easy?  So easy that this 8 year old made Gnocchi at the same time- see next post! Thanks Chef!!

24 Hours in Austin, Texas

I get a call asking me to be in Austin in a few days. I'm on a plane to Austin for the first time, I have no idea where to stay, eat, drink, and nobody to wander the streets with. So my flight entertainment consisted of researching restaurants, and bars. I make a very poor decision to stay at the airport hotel... I now know better and if back in Austin, will make then correct decision to stay downtown. So I screwed up the hotel, but I did not do that with the food and drink.
I land and immediately am met with an overwhelming heat that we are not lucky enough to experience in Seattle... Ever. I have 24 hours until my plane leaves. My research lands my ass in a seat at the kitchen bar in front of the chefs directly next to the Chef/owner, Bryce Gilmore at Barley Swine  Although by myself in a restaurant, which I don't do often, this was one of the most memorable meals i have had in a long time. The staff were all so friendly and conversed with me as if I was eating dinner WITH them! Shout out to my server, Kristie (sp?) she is hella cool and helped me make my menu and beverage decisions, as I truly wanted to eat everything on the menu, as well as the off the menu nightly specials.
So what did I eat? Check this shit out, the food is as delicious as the pictures. Roasted Brussels Sprouts with fried balls of Boudin, duck egg aioli, and brûlée grapefruit.  I need not come up with words of description of how it tasted, felt, or smelled... Just look at that effing dish! Amazeballz.
Next I'm going to eat "Pig", a collection of smoky pork loin, foie gras stuffed and fried trotter, and a grilled block of pig face, with lentils, dates, citrus foamy substance, and garnished with some sort of grassy stuff. Everyone must eat this.
If you have ever been to eat with me, you know it is very hard for me to turn down foie gras on a menu. This time the piles of foie paste were alongside various parts of quackers, strawberries, black trumpet mushrooms, pistachios, and more plant-y leavery.  Dude... I'm full, and happy. I've only been to one restaurant in Austin, but I'm pretty sure I went to the best one.
I told you I researched restaurants and bars... So now I can go to one bar before I must get my ass back to the damn airport hotel. I made a reservation on the website of Midnight Cowboy, found this button pushed the one that said Harry Coddock, and they welcomed me in to a 1920's era speakeasy of craft cocktails. Love it. Outside in other bars, the great music blared. In here, very friendly and attentive staff took care of me. I order a vieux carre, and one of the bartenders rolled up to my table an mixed it table side.  There are private rooms here, and rules. But I like it. Note: there are NO massages here, and NO Modeling.
I spend the next day enjoying my job and then "Poof... Gone"
I like Austin

Eliana's Incredible Turkey Sliders

Eliana wants to make turkey burger sliders so we both put our kamikaze headbands and aprons on and get to work. If you want to make em too, here's what we did:
Chop a bunch of mushrooms in a food processor until nice and chopped up. Then brown the ground shrooms in a pan with oil, salt, and pepper until they are nice and brown and no moisture is left- real foodies would call this a duxelle... Dump the browned shrooms into a large mixing bowl in the fridge
Clean the food processor and chop up a bunch of bacon, we did like 6 thick cut slices. Brown the bacon in the pan and then dump into the mixing bowl with the shrooms.
Clean the food processor and chop up some carrots and sweat them for a few minutes in the sauté pan, add to the mixing bowl
Chop up sage and thyme and add to the bowl
Add a package of ground turkey meat, 2 eggs, and salt and pepper
Mix and form into meatball sized patties
Cook the sliders in a pan, toast the buns (we used Kings Hawaiian Wheat Rolls)
We added a cherry preserve, pickle chips, cheddar, mayo, and lettuce.
Boom... Dinner time