It's Mississippi Belle good

Ah, the simple pleasures in life.

Thankfully despite an initial miscue due to Mississippi Belle being closed last Monday, we finally made it in to the Mecca of Indy soul food last. Of course, Jamie was in tow - along with Phil, Mike, Patty, and Mike's boss from Pepsico. And after a year of buildup, I'm proud to report that Jamie was not disappointed - although when the food was brought to the table, he scooped it all up and ran to the farthest corner table all by himself. Those crazy English.

Cutting the Cheese

 

So the continuing story of the Irish cheese continues. After having this farmstead cheese age in the frig for a couple of months, it was time to divvy it up. I know the picture looks a little small, but this is a 10 kilo (or 22 pound) wheel of cheese goodness.

This is one of the Swiss styles cheeses (without the holes), so it's working best on some roasted potatoes.

Thanks Santa

 

You can always distinguish one Xmas from the next based on the presents you receive and give.

This year was the year of the rice cooker. Perhaps a strange gift I know, but this one actually makes my porridge every morning automatically. It also doesn't make a bad batch of properly cooked rice. Seriously, if you haven't been to Asia or used a rice cooker, you have no idea how that stuff is supposed to taste.

Thanksgiving

That time of year again to kick of the holiday season - which means Thanksgiving.

I think we have the holiday down to a science now, where we have it at my sister's house, and then head over to Patrick's sister's later in the night. Besides the usual stuff, I did make this simple pureed broccoli dish with mint leaves (had to do something to get rid of them). Other than that it was a pretty mellow day . . . thankfully.

Wine Tasting in Southern Indiana

I realize that wine tasting and Southern Indiana is a bit of an oxymoron, but hey, any excuse to drink and spend time with friends.

Patrick and I headed down to Nashville, Indiana with the Hagans, Webers, and Whittakers. The premise was to do the wine tasting thing, but after the third stop, we were over it. The wines themselves weren't that bad, what was funny was what they were trying to sell them for. At one place, they were trying to sell a red for 65 smacks - and this is a wine that they don't even buy the grapes for, they supposedly just ferment.

The best part was hanging out in the cabin and drinking to excess. Food wasn't too bad either - first night was Fondue, second was baeckhoffe. It's a 'do again next year'.

French Dinner

Yep, the french were back in town for work - which means dinner at the Smith abode. Bonus points this time around, since Patrick Emanuel's wife, Virginie, was in town to visit as well.

Dinner menu was the usual:

Soup: Pumpkin (was going to serve it in a pumpkin, but it was losing structural integrity)
Appetizer: Poached egg (the real way) with wild mushrooms and toasted cumin
Main: Grilled Aged Ribeye
Cheese and Salad: Mostly from Capriole
Dessert: Standard Chocolate Coulant (too easy not to make)

And in case you don't recognize everyone . . . (seated from the left) Laurence Galocha, Theresa Weber, Patrick, Virginie Emanuel (standing from the left) Jim Weber, Philippe Duhau, Yours Truly, and Patrick Emanuel

Cider

Cider is done.

Frequent readers of the blog will remember that back in October, the gang all made some pressed cider and started fermenting it. Right before I returned to Ireland I bottled it up, and now it's all done for drinking.

Actually it's not too bad - a bit on the dry side. So I think next year we won't use the champagne yeast and find the proper apple cider yeast. The nice bit is that if I'm in the mood for a little carbonation, but not wanting the Sahara dry feeling of the cider - a little Cassis sweetens it up nicely.

Yo something Taco Bell

The rumors are true.

Despite trying to be a foodie, I still have my weaknesses - namely, Taco Bell. So on the way from the airport back to the house, we did stop at the Mecca of "All things Mexican food, but not really having anything to do with Mexican food at all". Had the typical grilled stuffed burrito without the meat product.

Come to Daddy

OK, so several weeks back, I go visit a cheese farm in Ireland and decide to try to import them into the US.

So I pick up two 10kg (44 pounds total) of cheese from them and shove them into my suitcases (minus the writing that said made with raw milk). Needless to say, I was a bit overweight on my luggage flying home, but I digress. I did try to figure out from my government whether the importation of said cheese was legal or not. Of course, the bureaucratic web site, "customer service representative", and general Googling yielded nothing definitive.

So I arrive in Chicago, fill out my entry form to say that I had "cheese". The first guy before getting my luggage, doesn't even ask about it. I grab my bags and fight the urge to play with the cheese sniffing beagles. And then I walk to the final checkpoint. The woman says, "You have cheese? What kind?" I was tempted to go into something about "Irish farmhouse cheese made in the Swiss Gruyere style", but I thought it better to just go with 'cheddar' no matter how inaccurate.

I'm sure she was thinking a couple of slices leftover from lunch in Dublin, and would have freaked on seeing the two wheels - but ignorance is bliss.

Cider

It's Fall, which means it's time to make cider.

Thanks to Tim and Chris organizational skills we all ended up heading over to the Whittaker Garage and pressing 20 gallons of fresh apple cider. And yes, we're fermenting it.

With most of these things, it was slow going at first, but once we started to get a system down, we flowed through it. A couple of mishaps on the way - like the stash tipping over in the back seat of the truck and losing a half a gallon - but it all worked out better than I thought. Next step is the fermentation and finding a better press.

Fresh Market

Again, pent up consumer demand from living in a country where it took 100 US dollars to buy a can of Coke has resulted in me starting a subscription to Farm Fresh Delivery. As I pass the ripe old age of 26, I realize more about myself and my unique weaknesses - one of which is the inability to get up on Saturday at 7AM and go the Farmer's markets in Indy. Enter Farm Fresh Delivery.

They delivery organic fruits and vegetables to your door via an online ordering process at regular intervals. I currently have it set up for a delivery once every two weeks - which seems to be working out well. Every Monday they tell you what they have in stock, and you can easily ammend your order. So far the vegetables have been good, but the fruit is even better.

It's still too early to tell, but we think we actually end up saving cash, since it forces us to stay at home and cook - not to mention getting our daily intake of fruit. If we left it to chance, I think Patrick would have an apple about once a month.

Ivory Tower . . . again

You know, I really love this place.

The Ivory Tower is one of those restaurants that you only come across a few times. Sure, it's a little eccletic with the decor and you don't know if you're in some Great Aunt's Living Room or not, but you can't deny that Seamus knows how to cook.

This time around Jamie almost burst, he was complaining that it was because of the mammoth-sized california rolls - but for me 8 small vegetarians little doo dads was perfect.

Kirby's: The Italian Matteo's

Not sure what it is about living in a foreign country and always gravitating to a specific restaurant, but Kirby's would have to be the choice. It's a cool little pasta/pizza place about 500 feet from our apartment. We usually end up there on Thursday's, but if the week was particularly bad, then we usually go on Wednesday. Weekends, of course, should be avoided due to the influx of tourists that just generally kill the ambiance.

Coffee Taste Test

Ever being this conspiracy theorist, I have this new theory that Nespresso does not in fact have different coffee flavors, they just put them in different colored capsules and make you think they're different. And if they aren't different, the whole wine-esque descriptions of the coffee tasting like "peach mountain rainbows on a potato sack race weekend" was getting a little out of control.

So to put my theory to the test (and to improve our tasting skills), Jamie and I did a blind taste test of three coffee flavors. We got about 66% right, but I think we were guessing. We need to continue the project until we can taste all the coffees - should take awhile.

Chocolate Shop

I know, they look like rabbit turds.

But actually these chocolates came from Patrick and the new chocolate shop that opened up down the street.

I think they tried initially with the lunch thing - offering some snacks and sandwiches along with their fresh chocolate. But I think they realized that it's easier to just sell chocolate exclusively. Really good stuff.

Brian's Visit: The Ivory Tower

Went to this amazing restaurant in Cork that Claire had told us about, the Ivory Tower.

She warned us that there is basically no entrance to this place, and you really need to know what you were looking for. You have to walk through and up these stairs through this whole Bohemian sort of place that reminded me more of the house Patrick's old apartment used to be in than an actual restaurant.

Well, the thing was - the food was absolutely amazing. We did an 8 course tasting menu, which is basically whatever the chef is feeling at the time. Some of the stuff are things from the main menu - other things are just thrown together from what looked good at the market. Great part is that they also did a Vegetarian option, which was absolutely fantastic too - not just leave off the meat stuff - but some definitely unique veg dishes.

Apologies on the video quality - couldn't bring myself to turn on the flash until the end. And to keep the portions in perspective - every dish was no bigger than 5 inches or so. We were still fat when we left, but not like you're expect if you were thinking a full plate.

Brian's Visit: The Chart House

Went to the Chart House on the suggestion of the B&B owner where we were staying for dinner.

Really nice food, really well done. I remember the South African Chardonnay was good - but Brian didn't. Did a little Jamie Dunn and quietly ate my veg pate thingy all by myself in the corner and didn't come up for air until it was all gone.

And as usual, I skipped dessert and just ate Patrick's. My theory is that if you don't order dessert and even have half of someone else's - it's still just a small fraction of the calories you would have in eating the same amount if you actually ordered it yourself.

Brian's Visit: A little bit of goodness

Back from France, I'm stocked with groceries - including duck confit - or what I like to call French KFC. It's like the closest thing the French will ever get to fast food.

So how do you cook it? Granted I had to get the "recipe" from Liane, but it ain't tough - just don't tell Patrick, otherwise he'd have it every night.

Basically open the can (yes, it comes in a tin can), find pieces of duck in fat, wipe off fat with paper towels, nuke duck for 60 seconds to slightly melt more fat, wipe off fat again with paper towels, and broil until the duck says it's done (about 10 minutes).

Bonus points if you're willing to clean your oven next week - don't use a tray - and have the fat (yep, you cannot get it all off) drip on some potatoes underneath. Brian and Patrick says that they're amazing.

Fegersheim: Back to the Market

Another walk down memory lane. This time to the market that was by our house. Turns out the same stalls are there, same fruit and vegetables are in season. Unfortunately, we were almost heading out of the town, so there was no sense to actually buy anything.

To be fair to the US, I think our local markets are actually pretty good relative to the french - during the summer season. It's when things start getting thin that the french markets last longer. You also have to keep in mind that this market is probably comparable to the Bloomington market, where the area served is only a couple of blocks as opposed to south central Indiana.

Fegersheim: Something New

Even though Fegersheim was more about doing the old stuff, you can always count on change.

Case in point is this new restaurant that was close to the Cathedral off the beaten path. The restaurant was actually a spin-off from the vegetarian place we went to a couple of time two years ago. They now have this chocolate cafe (that's really big in France now) and lunch place.

So I had a tasting menu lunch sampler thing. All vegetarian, really different stuff. Perfect for the summer - including some tofu and interesting sauces.