Abraham Lincoln - A great president and cook

Abe Lincoln was a cook

Coincidence - a great statesman who cared a lot about food, was a cook? I think not.

Food played a great part in Lincoln's life from an early age - does this make a great statesman? I like to think it does.

House of Seafood

Yes, it's Valentine's Day but also the new season of House of Cards. A small celebration of both at our house featured some very fresh littleneck clams and shrimp.

Garlic and white wine made these into a fine meal on another cold, wintry night. A Kermit Lynch white Bordeaux made for wonderful sipping as the clams and shrimp cooked.

Spaghetti ala vongele - aka w/ clam sauce was so simple - olive oil, garlic, a splash of the good white wine cooked together, tossed with simple pasta.

The shrimp were sauteed with garlic, butter and black pepper. Fresh asparagus rounded it out. And to sop up the juice a couple chunks of toasted baguette.

In less than 30 minutes, we were feasting.

And then onto the dark vortex that is House of Cards. What could be better on a slushy and cold winter night?

A Happy Hour on a cold night in Birmingham

Nothing like meeting long time college friends for a drink and a snack and lots of talking. We tried Townhouse in Birmingham, MI tonight, because the Happy Hour menu was appealing and the price was right.

The regular menu at Townhouse is very pricey - burger's $19 bucks, NYC prices for local chow.

The happy hour menu = 3/ $20  - drinks and apps. (e.g. 1 drink + apps, 3 apps, 3 drinks, etc.)

The three of us shared two 3/$20. Two glasses of really decent sauvignon blanc and a pinot noir. Snacks were totally outstanding:
        Crispy Brussels sprouts -- crisped in brown butter and sauced with balsamic
        Fried Manchego cheese -- crusted with almonds and served with apples, dried cherries
        Truffled french fries w/ garlic aioli sauce

All were beautifully crisp, flavorful - in fact just delicious. Portions were more than generous. Service was extremely friendly.

Planning on another gathering in February.

http://eatattownhouse.com/food-drink/4579150781



 

Eat It Detroit is always right

Eat It Detroit consistently does great reporting on the Detroit food scene. She's never wrong:

Eat It Detroit

A small taste of Detroit

A colleague of Gourmet Underground Detroit, Nicole de Beaufort, was assembling a small recipe book for a souvenir for a number of German Marshall fellows. Heady company. The goal: to send them back with a taste of Detroit.

It was a quick project and a number of folks dived in, including Detroit Food. The end result is a charming, well-designed and tasty look at some of the delights of Detroit cooks. There's some talk of an expanded book -- a welcome addition to Motor City chow!

Detroit Food's (aka Gary and Martha Shea) contributions are Sloppy Joes and hamburger gravy -- iconic foods of junior high school and a highlight of Catholic school lunches.

Read it here:   Detroit Delicacies

Harvard + Science and Cooking

Harvard: The Michigan of the East


Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science

This is the first course I've taken through HarvardX , the online learning portal for Harvard. 

It's pretty rigorous and not a beginner cooking class. Per class syllabus: "At the end of the course, students will be able to explain how a range of cooking techniques and recipes work, in terms of physical and chemical transformation of food."

Each week we virtually visit a world-famous chef, who shows some of the secrets of their cooking. These include:  Jose Andres, Nathan Myrhvold, Dan Barber, Ferran Adria, David Chang, Wylie Dufresne as well as author Harold McGee and food scientist Dave Arnold. We're using Harold McGee's "The Science of Food" as a textbook. 

We'll have homework each week of the 10-week course, and a new lab exercise every Tuesday, where we can experiment with the scientific concept of the week. We'll submit home and lab findings  and will finish with a final project where were can carry out our own scientific study of an aspect of cooking in your kitchen. 

As knowledge of high school physics and chemistry are useful, there are whole review sections on calculating density, pH, logorithms, geometry, and chemistry. Good combination of video and work pages. So I've been figuring volume of cubes, density of a solid in a solution,  and about to relive my chemistry class and taking multiple choice practice tests.  

Parts of my brain feel like the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz --- rusty but starting to move. 

I'm excited about this, and including it on the blog so I have some accountability and push through the hard parts. 

Wonder if I need Harvard t-shirt? 

A simple pizza dinner

Homemade pizza

A busy couple of days, and today a bunch of games. No time or inclination for a full dinner.

But we had some simple, delicious ingredients; tomato sauce made from Marcella Hazan's tomato/butter/onion recipe, fresh mozzarella, good olive oil and garlic and homemade pesto. 

Threw it all on a simple crust brushed with the garlic oil, tossed on a couple of pepperoni slices, good cheese and a short stay in the oven. Here's what emerged. 

A good early evening - good chow, Michigan won, Michigan State did, too. No pizza left for watching the Tigers. Maybe next game.