by Christina Waters | Dec 11, 2007 | Holidays, Home |
Already enjoying a cult following among local winemakers, Au Midi in Aptos has planned a splendid New Year’s Dinner menu. Chef Muriel Loubiere will begin with Champagne and oysters, followed by seared foie gras and peaches. Then comes a first course of organic chicken breast with morels and white wine, followed by salad in hazelnut vinaigrette and crispy goat cheese. The entree of sand dabs wrapped in butter lettuce sets up the palate for a triumphant chocolate Bûche de Noël adorned with chestnuts and pears.
Au Midi’s gala Reveillon dinner, served from 7pm to 11pm on the 31st —available by reservation only — is priced at $90 per person (not including tax and gratuity). Move swiftly to make your plans to dine out the old year a la francaise, at Au Midi, located at 7960 Soquel Drive in Aptos (behind the Aptos Cinema). Call 831/685-2600 for reservations.
by Christina Waters | Dec 11, 2007 | Home |
The Farm & Garden folks have come up with another one of those mouth-watering cookbooks — Fresh from the Farm & Garden: Volume 2 — just in time for holiday gift giving. (You think they planned that?)
Available at Capitola Book Cafe, at Bookshop Santa Cruz, and also through the UCSC Center for Agroecology directly ($20, with some proceeds going toward the work of the Friends of the F&G, contact Joni at 459-3240, or jonitann@ucsc.edu), the tempting recipes, over 200 of them, will have you spending quality time in the kitchen during the coming new year.
Naturally the focus of this great new cookbook is local, seasonal, organic produce and how to turn it all into memorable dining.
You wanted local gift ideas. Here’s another one. Go check it out.
by Christina Waters | Dec 11, 2007 | Holidays, Home |
Some people go shopping, I get baking. Immediately after Thanksgiving I lay in a supply of pastry flour, candied citron, pecans, walnuts, almonds, cranberries, oatmeal, raisins, oranges and spices — oh, and butter and eggs. And then I retrieve my vanilla-stained copy of the Sunset Magazine from four years ago — the one with a few dozen award-winning Christmas cookie recipes. This is my template. I have embellished each recipe over the years, adding twice the amount of spices, plus coriander and white pepper, to the Pfeffernusse recipe. Stepping up the amount of grated orange peel, and substituted almonds for coconut in the cranberry-orange recipe. You get the idea.
Then – for two weekends – I bake. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Dec 6, 2007 | Home |
Here are two of Rebecca King’s week-old lambs, happily lounging with their moms on the panoramic Watsonville pastures of Deep Roots Ranch.
Seriously adorable bits of life.
(See my profile on King and her fledgling artisanal sheep cheese biz in next week’s Metro Santa Cruz.)
by Christina Waters | Dec 6, 2007 | Home |
Before he was the Executive Chef of the University Center’s dining room, Terra Fresca, Jamie Smith was chef at Sestri, where he won a following for his stylish and delicious variations on Mediterranean and New California cuisine. At the upstairs dining room in the centrally-located UCSC University Center, Smith has not only created a go-to lunch menu of standards and daily specials, but his handiwork is further finessed by a crew of polished waitstaff.
I joined Inca scholar Carolyn Dean last week for lunch at Terra Fresca and was wowed by the distinctly non-institutional nature of the menu — and of the flavors. Packed with faculty and guests from the “Science Hill” cluster, Terra Fresca has managed to give a sense of atmosphere to the enormous room — sensational views of the surrounding redwoods — with gobs of botanicals. (more…)
