Today, one hundred WNC restaurants will be participating in Dine Out For Life.  Twenty percent of your total bill will be donated to the Western North Carolina AIDS Project.  I cannot think of a better reason to go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  For a complete listing of participating restaurants, please visit the WNCAP web site.  There are so many restaurants to choose from, I just do not know where to begin!

If you plan on dining out today, send me a message letting me know where you plan on going or where you went.

Enjoy!

In response to Gourmet Grrl’s Ode To Soup, I thought I would post this recipe for Fish Dill Soup. “Soup” may not be the correct term to use, as my faithful taste-tester insists this is actually a chowder. A search on Foodie View turned up results for a Russian Fish Soup… so call it what you like. I discovered this soup in January at a Golden Globes pot luck. The gentleman who was kind enough to share the recipe said it was passed down to him from his mother. We made some minor changes to suit our tastes… because in our house everything must be spicy, and by that, I mean habanero spicy!

Fish Dill Soup

1 medium onion, chopped

1-2 jalapeno or habanero peppers, chopped (optional)

2 tablespoons butter

2 cups each chicken broth & water

3 large potatoes, cut into chunks

4 teaspoons dill seed (or dill weed)

salt and pepper to taste

1 lb. frozen or fresh fish fillets

1 pkg. (9oz.) frozen green beans

(or I used bunch chopped, sauteed kale instead)

1/2 cup sour cream (optional)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Saute onion and optional peppers in butter until tender. Add all ingredients down to the fish. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Cut fish into bite sized chunks. Stir into soup with frozen vegetable (if using). Return soup to boil, then simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Stir in any non-frozen, cooked vegetable you may chose to use along with the sour cream, then heat gently but do not bring to a boil. Serve garnished with parsley and crusty bread.

Enjoy… maybe there will be at least one more cold day before Spring to enjoy this soup!

I just happily polished off the leftovers from last night’s dinner and thought I would share this wonderful recipe! I discovered it nine years ago when my vegetarian friend invited me to dinner one evening. I was totally surprised when she told me she had prepared fish for dinner… before this night, I had never seen her eat any sort of animal protein. It was this evening that I swore I would die if I did not have my very own copy of Sundays At Moosewood!

After countless requests for this cookbook for Christmas and birthdays, a friend finally heard my call and got the book for my birthday in 2003 (I will overlook the fact that she made me wait almost 2 months after my birthday so she could give it to me in person). Since that day, it has been a valuable resource in my kitchen. The really funny thing about all of this is that I totally forgot about the recipe that fueled this desire.

One snowy day a few weeks ago, my dutiful taste-tester and I ventured out to the grocery store, where we found wild caught flounder on sale for $4.98/pound. Knowing I had a fridge full of tomatoes that were just about to be past their prime, the wheels started turning. My parter is not too keen on cooked tomatoes, so I was a little worried about his reaction to the meal… all that worry for nothing! He loved it… he loved even more that it was a middle eastern meal.

With flounder on sale again this week, we made this delightful dish last night. Not having all of the ingredients on hand, we substituted a couple of things. The taste-tester gave the meal even better reviews than the last time, stating it was the best flounder he had had in his life! So, without further ado…

Baked Fish Nicosia
(page 76, Sundays At Moosewood, the Moosewood Collective)

For the topping:

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil,

4 cloves garlic pressed

pinch of cayenne

2 teaspoon ground cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds

salt to taste

3 cups whole wheat bread crumbs

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

2 pounds firm, firm white fish fillets

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1/2 cup fresh parsley

juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup)

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy skillet. Add the garlic and let it sizzle for a minute. Add the cayenne, cumin, corrander, and salt to tast. Stir for few minutes, being careful not to burn. Add bread crumbs and stir so they are coated with spices and oil. Continue to stir until the crumbs are golden and crisp. Add chopped basil and stir for another minute, then remove from heat.

Rinse fish fillets in cold water, pat dry with paper towels and place them, skin side down, in an oiled baking dish. Spread the chopped tomatoes evenly over the fish. Sprinkle on the garlic, parsley, and then the lemon juice. Add a little salt and pepper. Top with the seasoned bread crumbs, completely covering fish.

Bake, uncovered for about 20 minutes, until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Garnish with lemon wedges.

The substitutions that we made were the following:

We used fresh cilantro (about 1/3 cup, chopped) instead of coriander and added it at the same time we added the basil.

We used 4 slices of toasted kamut bread to make the bread crumbs.

Lastly, we substituted cilantro again in place of the parsely.

For those of you that are in Western NC, Ingles will have wild caught flounder on sale through Saturday, 2/23. Enjoy!

For the second year, Barilla has made their Celebrity Italian Table cookbook available for free download. A free cookbook is always great, but what makes this cookbook even more special is that Barilla has partnered with America’s Second Harvest- The Nation’s Food Bank Network. For every cookbook downloaded, Barilla will donate $1.00 to America’s Second Harvest, up to $100,000. You can even direct where you would like “your” dollar to go!

Here’s what they have to say on the Barilla web site:

“In Italy, all of life’s moments are celebrated and shared around the table. Just the basics are needed — great food, family and friends, good conversation and laughter.

This year, we’ve asked 5 of America’s favorite celebrities, one of the world’s leading Italian chefs and the most prominent party planner in the U.S. to help us celebrate the Italian Table — 6 different ways.

Stanley Tucci, Marisa Tomei, Debra Messing, Natalie Portman and Chris Daughtry shared their favorite pasta dishes with us. Mario Batali recreated these dishes and developed a special menu for each party while David Tutera developed creative and stunning table designs to make each experience special.

As we celebrate all that is special about the Italian Table, we also want to share with those less fortunate. Please join the cause and support America’s Second Harvest, so that everyone can enjoy a seat at the Italian Table.”

So, what are you waiting for? Go get your free cookbook by clicking here, and for those of you in Western North Carolina, please make sure to direct your dollar to Manna Food Bank!

Okay, so I know that a few weeks ago, I talked about an Apple Custard Pie that I was imagining… but I just have not been able to achieve success with this one. I wanted something different than the Moosewood version. It just was not creamy enough and lacked spice… which is exactly where I am having difficulty. I just cannot seem to find the right spice combination. So far, I know it is too much allspice, but I am not sure about the cinnamon and nutmeg. That being said, I do know that the topping was fantastic. I chopped ginger finely in the food processor, and to that, I added walnuts and a teaspoon of brown sugar. It gave the crunchy top of the pie the perfect amount of pizazz.

Since I started the quest to make more pies, my partner (who pulls double duty as the official taste tester) has been getting a little spoiled. While he did not like the allspice in the Apple Custard Pie, he had no problem eating half the pie in one sitting (he takes his role very seriously). I made a Banana Walnut Cream pie this weekend for my parents. Being the nice person that I am, I brought him a slice to try. Every night since, he asks, “Don’t we have any more pie?” and looks horribly dissappointed when I have to tell him “No!”

So, today I am making an attempt at a Walnut Coffee Pie with a Chocolate Cinnamon Crust. Being that I am out of all-purpose flour, I am experimenting with a spelt pie crust. I looked at several different recipes on the internet, but settled for making my own. The texture is different than that of regular pie crusts, and, as I started to roll it out, I realized that it was not very cooperative. When it came time to put the crust into the pie dish, the dough just fell to pieces. After several attempts at rolling, I remembered that about half of the recipes I read suggested that you put the dough in the pie dish and press it into the dish. This worked perfectly!

So for the recipe…

Combine the ingredients in the work bowl of a food processor. Pulse until dough comes together in the shape of a ball. Divide in half if using a 8″ or 9″ pie dish. If using a 9.5″ pie dish, you will need about 2/3 of the dough. Put dough in the center of the pie dish and press into dish. Fill and bake as required for recipe. If there is dough left over, refrigerate for future use or cut decorative shapes to put on top of the pie.

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter and sugar. Add honey and mix well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add salt, Half & Half, and coffee and mix until thoroughly combined. Pour the coffee mixture into the top pan of a double boiler. Cook 5 minutes over boiling water, stirring often. Remove from heat. Add gelatin, vanilla and walnuts. Pour into pie shell and bake 1 hour, or until pie is set. Cool and serve with whipped cream.

The results are in: Our official taste tester has reported that the unique combination of spices and flavors are awesome. He says, “It is hard to compare to anything I have had before, and it is hard to remember anything I have had that was better! The combination of the nutty spelt spiced crust with the essense of coffee, vanilla and walnuts is just too good!”



The Asheville Wine Market will have their usual free wine tasting this Saturday, February 2nd, from 1pm-4pm. They are located at 65 Biltmore Avenue, in downtown Asheville. AWM will be featuring four Italian wines from the CHL Imports. You are in luck, too… One of the four wines they are tasting is the Tenimenti Conti Neri Prosecco di Prosecco Extra Dry. If you remember, I mentioned this great wine in my first post (Looking Back at 2007). I will most certainly be there! For $14.99/bottle, you cannot go wrong with this wine!

If you can’t be there, check out Canella NC Prosecco do Congeliano for $15.79 at Wine.com. A great value, and it received a score of 87 from Wine Enthusiast.

Canella NV Prosecco di Conegliano - Champagne & Sparkling

Here is a list of Asheville guides that I think you will find useful in your quest to eat locally all year long:

• How To Eat Locally in January: Check out the great list of local food sources by Gourmet Grrl on her blog She Who Eats.
• New Life Journal: Read Peter Marks’ article “Overcoming a Wintering Over: Eating Local Through the Darker Months.”
• Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project: ASAP’s Local Food Guide is a great resource for buying locally. In the guide, you will find information about area farms, CSA’s, tailgate markets, grocers, restaurants, caterers, and more!

Just when I thought eating locally could not get any better… I just read that French Broad Luscious Chocolates is opening The French Broad Chocolate Lounge this Saturday, February 2. The lounge is located at 10 S. Lexington Avenue, in downtown Asheville. Their handmade, organic truffles are heavenly… my favorite being the lavender honey truffle. And, I insist that you try their sumptuous sipping chocolate.

What a very strange day it has been. I was lying in bed this morning trying to recover from a little spill down the stairs to our basement. My head was filled with random thoughts about things I needed to accomplish, weekend plans… anything to ignore the pain I was experiencing… but then I began to wonder what ever happened to two women I once worked with. Then, 10 minutes later, my phone rang, and much to my surprise, it was one of the two women I was thinking about. It was good to hear from her; although, her reason for calling was unfortunate. I was left thinking was this coincidence, or did I manifest the phone call?

So imagine the thoughts that went through my head, when a mere two hours later a Google search turned up information about the other former co-worker… and I must first say, the Google search was not in one way related to her or anything about her. I was looking for blogs similar to mine in other cities; what I found was a blog about a young woman’s disappearance in the Oakland/San Francisco area. I was shocked! While this was someone I never got along well with personally or professionally, I was saddened to learn she had disappeared, possibly taking her own life or becoming a victim of homicide.

Why post anything about this person here? Well, Alicia Amanda Stokes (”Mandy”), age 33, lived in Asheville for several years. On the off chance she might have willingly disappeared, I thought I would put this information out there so any person or persons who might have had contact with her since November 25th could let her family and the authorities know she was still with us. Here is a link to the article: http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/localnews/ci_7966785. At the time of her disappearance, Amanda was going through a difficult time. She was still grieving over the loss of her father and faced with uncertainties abut her future. She left her home to run errands, but was never seen again.

My thoughts are with the Stokes family and Amanda’s friends at this time. I cannot even begin to imagine the pain they are experiencing.

Hey everyone! I received the following email from my friend John, reviewing the newest dining spot on the Asheville scene.

I know I am not one of the girls who talk kitchen, but I sure do like well prepared food and decent restaurants. I must heartily endorse the Asheville Yacht Club as the best new restaurant in Asheville in a long time. Great Caribbean selections, well prepared, full bar, and both owners took the time to talk to us. They even make an excellent hot sauce similar to Delidas but hotter served on request. Yum! The atmosphere is fun and a Tiki theme. It has a good feel to it, and we hope it will be successful.

For those of you who do not know about Delidas: it is the most wonderful hot sauce ever made!!!!! Unfortunately, it is only made in Panama and must be shipped at great expense to the US. It is certainly worth every penny!

I love Zinfandel… the red stuff, not that God-awful pink swill. Although, I must make a confession; the pink stuff is where I started. I read once that White Zinfandel is what introduces most people to wine drinking and is credited for giving the wine industry a real boost. I guess it serves a purpose, but I cannot understand how I (or anyone else, for that matter) ever drank the stuff.

I admit, I have expensive taste in wine. Having previously worked in the social services industry, and now assisting my partner in pet sitting, I have never really had the income to support my habit. I love Boony Doon Vineyards’ Cardinal Zin, but at $20+ a bottle, I had to start looking for good wines within my budget… and even then, I am pushing it. One wine in particular that I LOVE is Gnarly Head Zinfandel. Made from Lodi grapes, this California wine is berry flavored, but it has a spicy finish. And to make things even better, I learned recently that Gnarly Head Vineyards practice earth friendly farming. I encourage you to try it and let me know your thoughts!