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Goodbye, Downtown Grill

If you haven't heard, (because let's be real, this guy isn't that great, he just has really good PR) John Currence is partnering with Stefano Capomazza (who I don't know but apparently is a rich, stereotypical, Oxonian) and they are buying out the 22 year-old Oxford staple, The Downtown Grill. First, I think the investors should sell to someone other than Currence because the guy already has four restaurants, the best of (Snackbar) which is handled by his faithful Sous Chef Vish, who actually has all the talent.

Anyway, enough self loathing about an old man who has been in the industry since Oxford was a child, but I really wish the guy would quit trying to own this town. Oh, and on your 'John's Grits' recipe, you need another cup of water and chicken stock - your recipe makes the grits too hard. Don't worry, I'm really not that good at cooking. I just play around making mashed potatoes and breaking down meat.

I've been doing that a lot lately... Since most of the steakhouses in Oxford have abandoned ship, due to lack of business, we have started to really focus on aging our meats....I did some research to find the best way. I have a log keeping track of the 14oz. strips and the 18oz. rib eyes I have cut. Actually, I learned to cut them a few ounces bigger just in case trimming was necessary.

This is the first ribeye I cut down..






I salted each side, using a nice bit but not too much, and wrapped each one individually in a Linen-Like, (much like a thick, absorbent paper towel) and put them on an aging rack in the fridge.

This technique of dry aging is best when the steak is cooked after 7 days of aging, but before 14 days. This is, of course, my own personal findings. I had one that was aged 10 days and it is a Ribeye I will always remember. The first one I WANT to remember. One of our employees ordered one at 14 days. It wasn't as tender and juicy as the 10 day aged one. It tasted almost gamey, but I would still eat it. It's all about personal preference, but I think 10 days is the best. These are the strips I cut down..








These have been aging two days, if the linen likes absorb too much liquid and get soggy, it's best to change them out.

So that's what I've been doing at work lately!

If you happen to swing in to Oxford, of course, stop by Waltz on the Square, but also swing by Downtown Grill and pay your respects to one of the oldest restaurants on the Oxford Square.

Cheers

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:The Butcher's Block

An Easy Dessert

So my ever-so-talented sister needed a quick dessert for her supper club tonight. What's weird is that she is old enough to be doing supper clubs and we have totally different taste in food. But desserts are easy. So this is what I suggested.

Casey,
Desserts are easy and cheap. Whipped mascarpone cheese (or cream cheese + honey) with mixed berries and simple syrup is easy. Something that looks fancy? Get puff pastry sheets from the dairy/freezer section in kroger. Cut them into triangles. Fill them with a cream cheese, vanilla, and berry mixture, and bake for 5 or 6 minutes until golden (but not cooked all the way!!). Drizzle caramel and eagle brand condensed milk and you're good to go.

For ten people? 1 pack of puff pastries, 1 pack blueberries, strawberries, rasps, and blackberries (or just pick 2 of them), oh and maybe a banana! Get one thing of mascarpone (8 oz should do, almost an ounce per pastry. Just a note puff pastries are sweet and flaky and have been rolled and kneaded like 8 times, it's really ridiculous. Let the mascarpone get soft and whisk it to aerate it and get it fluffy.

Take 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water in a pot and boil it. Reduce it by 1/2, when it cools it will thicken, toss the berries in the simple syrup.

Be sure to par bake the pastries about 5 minutes and pull them out so you can see what you're working with. 1 can of eagle brand is plenty, and if you have brown sugar you can make your own syrup, even though it will already be sweet enough with the mascarpone and simple syrup. After they're made, cook them for a few more minutes to get them hot and finish cooking the puff pastry.

Not to mention the amount of butter in puff pastries is ridiculous. To make it better: top it with a scoop of butter pecan ice cream. Ice cream always make desserts better.

It really shouldn't be that expensive....2.50/ pint if you only get 2 pints...you could stretch and get 3. 5 bucks for puff pastry. 4 bucks for mascarpone. Sugar I hope you have at home (even though it's not in my kitchen). And water is free. That's..borderline 20... Get the store brand (you don't need fancy) and that will always save you a couple of bucks.

Make it good. Tell me how it is.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Post Yoga

Whiskey & Eggs: A Prelude

Dustin Hoffman is probably the greatest Hook, from Allyson Cartwright. Allyson, is also the same girl that will write a book better than mine with the title "the ramblings of a 20-something nothing." It will be on the New York Time's best-seller list within the first year of production. I guarantee. Sorry, I haven't quite learned how to italicize fonts on the iPad yet, but I'm working on it.

I always talk about writing this book, which is lately becoming a hallucination instead of a reality, but it will be called whiskey and eggs. Granted, I've already named about 4 titles of 4 books I won't write, but I promise you loved them already.

Hook is such a dumb metaphor for life, but I don't care. It's equivalent to the goonies. Recently, I've felt like I'm supposed to live forty different lives, and just experience the daily routine of someone different every couple of years. So far I think I have a pretty good start.

I was a public school kid, a private school kid, a runner at one point, and an actor at another point. I had geek friends, I was a computer nerd, Starbuck's used to be THE hangout for me....and Starbuck's is not that great. I lived four years as a frat kid and went to debutante balls and away football games and crashed on people's floor/couch/bathroom floor.

I got to pose as a londoner and a Californian for a year. It's weird though, because at each 'stage' in life i feel like I have found the best friends and the best possibilities and opportunities than innate ever had. I'm really lucky, turns out. One thing i haven't done though, is just sit back and relax and relish in the friendships I have made and just live life.

To be only 24, and living this young life, I'm okay with staying around for six or eight more months saving up and spending time with yet another amazing group of people.

Over Christmas I got to spend some time in Seaside, where i completely cooked for pleasure...once i figure out how to work this damn thing better, i might make this writing thing a regular occurrence. But probably not.




Oh, and Merry Belated Christmas.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Lost in the World

Sunday Alcohol Sales, Oxford, MS

Franzia-mosas. Now that is a Sunday morning cocktail after a morning full of praising our good Lord. It’s definitely not helping this not-so-booming economy, but it sure makes for a nice break from the bible beating endured at First Baptist or any other narrow-minded cubicle for cookie-cutter college kids and residents. That’s a total lie. I don’t do churches in the town of Oxford. It’s a social scene for politics and a good facade after binge drinking on the weekend. It’s an excuse to go to bed at night because you successfully fell asleep in a pew for an hour on a lovely Sunday morning.

Alcohol is a problem. So is parking on the square. So what, they’re two totally different problems on the spectrum of life in Oxford, but let’s be honest, they’re both a pain in the ass. Our heroic ‘religious leader,’ Eric Hankins, pastor at the First Baptist Church of Oxford, thinks Oxford needs a break from drinking for the week. It just so happens Sunday is that day, that one epic day of the week where we can’t indulge in funneling booze and shooting cheap liquor because we’re too broke to buy the good shit. I’d win an award for being the best liar. You know these fratty, sratty kids aren’t buying Taaka or Evan Williams Black Label. These rich kids buy Crown and Goose. The smart ones buy cheap.

What’s even more comical is that these eighteen-year-old alcoholics use their school scholarship money or loan money from the government to buy such royalties. Isn’t it funny the funding we use to better improve education at Ole Miss is also used to hike up DUI numbers and MIPs? Get it Jones, we are totally on the right track to the think tank…I mean drunk tank.

As Brandon Neimeyer wrote in The Local Voice, Oxford’s best locally independent newspaper, there are locals who work and live here that this situation should also be directed toward. No, I don’t want a special card confirming I have graduated and now work and live in the same town so I deserve to buy a bottle of wine on Sunday. I do, however, work in the food industry.

I work in an industry that walks on thin ice through summer when the rich kids abandon ship. The industry that booms during football season, regardless of the disaster of a team we call the Rebels, and is funded by high reservations made for sorority and fraternity formals. We’re also greatly funded by the result of Ole Miss baseball. Wait, that’s a lie. Instead, last baseball season some genius decided to schedule home games, Thursday through Saturday, between six and seven p.m. I loved feeding the masses of oxygen in our restaurant when all the patrons were getting wastey-face in the baseball stadium.

Alcohol might not bust us out of the never-ending economic trouble this town seems to stay in, but taking away business on weekends is definitely is not helping.

Needless to say, I don’t get weekends off. Neither do other people who live and work in this town. Sunday is my day to drink and delve into devilish debauchery. How delicious does drinking a bloody mary out of a bell pepper garnished with pickled okra or green beans sound? It would be after church, that I more than likely didn’t attend, of course.

It’s my Sunday Funday too, and I say a small prayer for those good folk sitting in pews while I’m sipping on my brew in my boxers, wafting the dust off my bible.

Tasting Greatness

I woke up at 8:00 this morning, just like most other mornings when that damn baby next door starts to scream his head off and be continually ignored by its pretty irresponsible parents, and rolled around in bed longing for me sleep that I knew wouldn't come.  Not only do I know I would not go back to sleep today, but it's finals week and I need to work on my journals, write out my note cards, and really get to business.  Instead I wanted to blog.  Responsible, no?  It's hard to think though with this damn baby screaming through my window like it's being tortured.  If anyone from social services reads this, please come take this child away from such unruly parents - it really needs a new home.  Im not kidding, Im listening to the parents have a normal conversation while this baby just screams.  They just don't care about it.  What did I just do?  I got out of bed, through the blinds open, stared the couple down, and slammed my window shut almost to the point of shattering.  I feel much better now.

Anyway, so the past few days have been absolutely amazing.  The restaurant has been slow due to this June Gloom, but the weather says after yesterday we'll be wishing it was back this week.  Saturday morning at work was slow so I got cut early and went to have lunch at Corral Cantina.  I always go and sit at the little two person window bar with a friend but today it was just me.  I love sitting there.  Normally, I chat it up with David or Cecil while they're pouring drinks and I just waste time before going back to work.  Cecil is really cool.  She's a cali baby and started off in the industry when she was 21 and then moved on to radio broadcasting.  After radio broadcasting she decided she got enough out of it and she now does landscape architecture.  Interesting how one day we realize we want to be doing something completely different (or, someone...ha!). 

I finish my lunch at the cantina and I get a call from my other half Brittany and she said, "Be at my house in 5 minutes, we're going for a helicopter ride."  Before I hung up the phone Cecil had given me my check for $10.83 and I was running out the door.  Have you ever flown in a helicopter!?  See, sheriffs in Malibu eat for free at the restaurant and Brittany just charmed them, I suppose, and we met at the helipad and got on our way!  You know how you always see on movies when helicopters land every thing around them blows profusely?  It's true.  Sand was going everywhere, I felt like at one point I was going to lose my shirt, and I didn't care at all.  We climbed in the helicopter and put on the big headphone-like things with the Britney Spears speaker-mouth-attachment and before I knew it we were taking off.  Ha, I loved it!  we flew over the ocean, stopped by the restaurant and waved, went down to the pier and almost to Santa Monica!  The ride home we flew over the canyons and just gaped in awe at the view.  Continuously I just kept grabbing Brittany and telling her I loved her because it was the coolest thing ever, which I seem to be saying a lot lately.

That night after the helicopter ride, I went with Kelly and Brittany to a party in Malibu Colony Estates at a friend's summer beach house (because his own house in Malibu wasn't good enough?) and we danced and sat on the balcony and watched the waves twenty feet below and occasionally enjoyed a cigarette or two.  

Sunday was a great day though.  I am very blessed for the company I work with.  I was invited to help in a charity event called Taste of the Nation, which I believe at some point I have mentioned before.  We got to the restaurant at 9 a.m. after only a few hours of sleep, naturally, and loaded the cars.  The girl I work with who kicks ass on the line, Amanda, and I carpooled to Culver together.  We set up our tent and got ready to work.  There were 46+ other restaurants and the event and a lot of winery's(sp?) where there.  We were really busy most of the day but we did get a nice break to go try some other restaurant's food, but we, of course, had the best.  

We served a Farmer's Market Salad.  It sounds simple but it was far from that.  It was composed of organic heirloom cherry tomatoes (which were peeled, yes 2100 of them were peeled) and cantaloup that had been seasoned and tossed in a basil vinaigrette.  On top of that was burrata cheese (an early stage of mozzarella, much creamier) with a basalmic syrup drizzle and Zoe's prosciutto on top.  Also in the salad was a pipette of tomato water, which you took after you eat the salad - it's crisp, refreshing, and really cleanses your palate.  Tomato water sounds weird but let me explain...Chef took boxes of heirloom tomatoes and pureed them with some sherry vinegar.  Then, he strained the liquid in coffee filters and it comes out almost clear but with the sweetest taste of tomato ever.  We could have made some bomb bloody marys....

After loading everything back up we went to the after party at Ford's Filling Station and drank Fat Tire and ate cheese and meat and just had a good relaxing time.  Ha, and after Ford's we stopped into Rush to catch the end of the Laker's game and have another drink.  After a few hours Amanda and I took the Jeep back down the PCH and unloaded everything back at the restaurant.  It was a great weekend in LA...and we raised a lot of money at Taste of the Nation to fight childhood hunger.  

Happiness is where I'm at.

Rock n' Roll

The past week has been filled with the most absolute insanity I could have ever imagined.  It was also the most fun.

Monday was Memorial Day (clearly) and I have never spent one quite like this.  First off, Sunday Funday was the night before - which involves numerous beers and countless amounts of Jameson - so we went to bed quite late.  Scotty and Maraine came up from San Diego to hang out, which is always a good time.  Monday we woke up and planned to meet with the crew from Sunset at 11:00 at Little Dume.  Naturally, due to Brittany Walters (my other half) and our favor of procrastination and constant lateness, we show up at noon, pushing noon thirty.  We get beer, coolers, and food and load the surfboards in my jeep and went down to the private beach.

The rest of the day consisted of swimming in the ocean, shades of red accumulating simultaneously on everyones back, and everyone trying on wetsuits.  I've been dying to surf for months so I finally got up and decided to try it out!  The first day was pretty much an acclamation of the surf board - balancing on it, swimming on it, sitting up on it, and trying to stand up without a wave to show how balance was key.  The first few waves were spent getting used to the pull of the wave on the surfboard and my body.  I tried to stand up once and guess what happened?  I drank some tasty Pacific Ocean.  Needless to say, Scotty was coaching me through everything and we spent the next thirty minutes trying out the small waves to get me started off.  It felt great!  It felt great walking into the ocean in a wetsuit with a surfboard, looking like a natural but being a complete novice.  

After the beach we stopped by the Pavillions for some food to have a barbecue at Villa Malibu.  Of course, I got to cook everyone's hotdogs and hamburgers and even a huge steak loin!  We weren't the only ones with the idea to cookout and before we knew it there were thirty people at the pool, everyone was cooking out, playing beer pong, smoking the huka(sp?), and having a great time.  It was a great memorial day.

One of my friends at the cookout, who lives on Point Dume is Kelly Voyles.  I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Kelly before - she's from Atlanta but graduated from Pepperdine.  She is an exceptional artist.  She does sculptures from mixed media and they are seriously amazing.  Well, she's been training for the Rock n' Roll marathon and her family couldn't make it out here to see her race.  Sooooo, my other half (Brittany) and I took Sunday morning off, made the drive to San Diego and waited at the finish line for her!  The night before we decided to surprise her, thinking she would visit her car before taking off the race, and we bought some window chalk and graffitied her truck to all extents.  

Kelly finished the race in a little over four hours, which I think is badass for her first marathon with hills like that!  She's a rockstar.  She is amazing and I'm so glad we're friends.  Congrats to Kelly - her motivation is such an influence.

Something else that is pretty cool is what I will be experiencing in a few weeks.  There's an event that is held all of the country called "Taste of the Nation."  It's a charity event that helps prevent child hunger.  They raise so much money every event they have to help feed hungry children in America.  Well, this year, I get to be a part of it.  Some of the best chefs in LA will be there and my chef is one of them, because he is one of the best.  It's going to be a great learning opportunity and I couldn't be more excited.

Well, it's 3:30 in the morning here and I've been going strong for the past week.  Time to get some rest before class tomorrow.  To my friends and family back home, I can't wait to see you again, and I am so thankful you all have been such a contribution to my life and who I am becoming.  

Love you, Ninja ;)