Aslan

This picture is "picture of the day" from earthshots.com and when I saw it I was immediately reminded of Alsan from the Narnia movies.

The latest one, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", is coming out December 2010 and I can't wait. I saw the preview at the Toy Story 3 showing (great movie, by the way) and I beamed the entire time watching the trailer.

There's something magical about Aslan, don't you think? That's all there is to it.

Royalty at Pizzeria Basta

Last night I went to Pizzeria Basta (a name I find incredibly difficult to remember) in Boulder, Colorado. I read about it on the web and had a hunch it would be right up my alley; Chef Kelly Whitaker trained in Italy for four years and makes almost everything in house with the exception of a few cured meats that he sources from places like California and New Jersey. One of these house made products, chicken pate, I actually enjoyed when It came out on the cutting board charcuterie plate. It's a pretty big deal considering I usually can't stand any sort of liver...even foie gras most days.

I called ahead and warned the server I was coming solo with a camera, making sure there would be room at the bar and the chef didn't mind me photographing his work. Justin, the server who answered, had a genuine tone telling me he'd ask the chef and that they'd keep me company at the bar.

I drove the 25 minutes to Boulder and ventured in for an early solo dinner at 5:45. A tall, strappingly handsome late-twenty something "Justin" opened the door inviting me in and guessing I was "Vanessa from the phone"-maybe my big camera gave me away. The industrial vibe to the small restaurant caught me off guard at first but I quickly warmed up to the atmosphere as I began meeting the all male, extremely good looking and sincere staff.

Justin asked the bartender from New York, Jordan, to give me a glass of Prosecco on the house to start my meal off right. As I got comfortable in my bar seat and sipped the bubbly Justin looked at me and asked, "so I hear you're ordering lots of dishes and taking pictures?" "Sure, I guess you could say that," I responded, feeling the pressure flood over me as I sensed their expectations of my experience there. They saw me as a serious food critic, someone who would put the word out that they do great work. So I took the challenge and decided I would act as a food critic would and ordered all courses with no remorse about calories or cost...it was empowering and terrifying all at the same time.

Everything hit the mark on the delicious scale and I was continually impressed with the attention to detail and on-top-of-it service.

Chef Whitaker explained details of the charcuterie plate and hit the mark on the rest of the dishes to follow; a crisp salad of romaine, capers, oven dried tomatoes and lemon vinaigrette, a Margherita style pizza with house-made sausage followed by an absolutely to-die-for Lavender Panna Cotta with honey.
Chad, another server who I found out later rooms with Justin and shares with him the home state of Oklahoma, insisted I drink a complimentary glass of "boxed" Riesling with my salad and then suggested a great Sangiovese to sip alongside my pizza. Both were fabulous. He later confessed to never knowing if he should reveal to customers that such a great wine comes in a box; I personally loved knowing.

My experience was "royal" because the staff truly treated me like a princess from the warm greeting at the door to the ending gracious conversation I had with Chef Whitaker thanking me for coming and telling me to come back whenever I'm in town.

You better believe I'll be back!

Check it out...

Pizzeria Basta, Boulder, CO
http://www.pizzeriabasta.com/

Heaven in the real world.

Last weekend I spent Friday through Monday night with a group of my most cherished friends from college. Here are a few pics...

Bekah made this for dessert after we whipped up a delicious meal one night. What you do: 1. Take a pizza stone, put raw cookie dough (any kind will do) in a layer being sure to flour it beforehand, bake it until it's done. 2. Mix whipped cream and cream cheese (equal parts, both whipped before combining) and spread a thin layer over cooled crust. 3. Lay any fruit of your choice on top! De-lish.

We stayed up late...every night. Going dancing, playing games or just chatting til the wee hours of the morning...
Joyous girl time...
Boy time...
Puppy time...
Haircut time...
May David's Rainbows RIP. They bit the dust on our way back from rope swinging down a creek. At least their last days were super fun!

We'll reconvene six months from now...yay for Christmas-time!

Champagne

Tonight I bought a Cava from Trader Joe's that was quite delicious. It's called
"Albero, Cava Brut".
Cava is a Spanish sparkling wine that I'm usually not a fan of but this one was surprisingly good. It reminded me of the cheaper champagne I used to drink in France...which made me miss the roommate and couple I used to drink champagne with in France. And because I'm on a roll of blog posts about France I decided to add another.

To top it off I bought Raspberry Sorbet for dessert which is something Gina and I constantly had stocked in our petite French freezer. It's just not the same eating and drinking such delights without these fabulous people.

(Gina's last day on the job...Chef Gesbert opened Dom Perignon!)

(Gina, Hugo, Nina and me in Rennes, France)

France, you stole a piece of my heart

When I tell people why I miss France I never know what to say. I've thought a little about it and here's what I've come up with...

I miss the people. From what I've experienced, most Americans don't really understand this and so I always have to clarify and say I miss the people I worked with...the guys who fabricated mass amounts of fish everyday and sweat over dishes produced perfect for a screaming French chef.

I miss the sites. The countryside is beautiful and taking the train from Paris to the surrounding towns (in my case, Rennes) is spectacular. Even when it rained I enjoyed it.
The last night I spent in Paris my mom and I trekked across the city to go to our favorite Italian restaurant. On the way back to our rented flat I kept turning around starring at the Eiffel Tower and thinking of how much I would miss it. I wiped tears off my face the whole way.

I miss the metro and walking. It's a weird sort of joy to not have a car.

I miss being the observer. Watching people, most of the time having no understanding of what they spoke, gathering enough from their body language and manner of speaking.

Waking up to emails that were written in the daylight of California but during my most vital sleeping hours. It was like opening a present when I awoke.

Cobblestone roads. Cheap, delicious Champagne. Football games. Boots. My flat.

I think I will have to return.

**the picture above is from earthshots.com

Sushi in Denver

MISO SOUP 4
Traditional Japanese Miso soup with tofu, seaweed, green onions, enoki,

shimeji, and shiitake mushrooms

SHIITAKE SALAD 9
Grilled Japanese shiitakes served on a bed mixed greens, pink grapefruit
and grape tomatoes tossed in a soy-ginger balsamic vinaigrette

My advice is simple: When in Denver, eat at Sushi Den. Supposedly (and I don't doubt it), it's the best sushi in the city.
I went with my friend Matt on a Monday night and it was packed to the brim. Three or four separate dining rooms projected classy, themed lighting and decor with two bars beautifully displaying bottles and a friendly staff. The sushi bar, where you can watch chefs create your sushi to order, could seat at least 15 guests at a time and looked magical. I loved the atmosphere as you can probably tell.
We scored a seat at the window and ordered an array of sushi along with the most delicious salad pictured above. Matt ordered the miso soup and said it was quite delectable with an abundance of whole mushrooms. They own two restaurants on the same block so I'm sure I'll be back to one of them next time I'm in the area!



I also had the pleasure of eating at Domo, another Japanese restaurant that focuses less on sushi and more on traditional dishes. Everything inside is rustic and dark with lanterns made of thin paper covered with Japanese characters and beer served in Turkish cups. (I think I prefer a cold pint glass)

The best part of Domo, aside from their food, is the Japanese garden/patio outside where every table has it's own bright red umbrella and every woman is given a basket to put their purse in so it won't sit on the gravel.

I wasn't able to capture pictures of the dishes since they failed to come out til dark but I did get a few of the gardens. We waited a ridiculous amount of time for our food and they didn't give us any sort of anything for waiting. If you know me you know I was peeved, especially after I insisted on our waiter bringing the manager to my frustration but I had to get over it since I was surrounded with good conversation and company and when the food finally did come, it was dynamic, fresh and full of goodness.

Next time I go I will hit it up for lunch, sit on the patio and make sure I come before the big rush so I'm not caught behind a few big parties. The food was most definitely worth it and I highly suggest experiencing what they have to offer...the Japanese curry was to die for!

A Lemon Cake Weekend

This past Friday night, exhausted from the week I decided I had to make a lemon cake on Saturday to ease my mind and completely veg out. But it wasn't going to be just any lemon cake; I like layered cakes with lots of different fillings and character so I decided on a four layer one with lemon curd, deliciously light lemon cake and lemony buttercream frosting. I added blueberries and raspberries as a garnish because it's spring and why not live a little right? Truthfully, cake isn't my favorite thing to eat but for some reason constructing one always sounds like a good idea.

THE FACTS: This cake will not disappoint- Moist, full of lemony goodness and completely balanced, I dare say it may be my "go to" lemon cake...though, how often do you make lemon cakes these days? I found the recipe here, at Epicurious.com (I know, I find everything there). The only change I made was doubling the lemon curd to have some leftover and leaving out the xanthan and guar gums (I was too lazy to find them in the store). Beware, the lemon curd will take much longer to thicken up without adding the guar gum (you'll probably have to stir it for a good 10-15 minutes). Oh and as for the rice flour in this recipe, I ended up using it since I was curious but you can easily sub in All Purpose Flour. I ended up loving the flavor of rice flour, by the way.


My easy way to cut parchment paper into a perfect circle. Just cut where you see it creased...

My suggestion of how to use your microplane as to avert a huge mess...I hate messy kitchens. Seriously.


It became a "Lemon Cake Weekend" opposed to a "Lemon Cake Saturday" because on Sunday I used the leftover cake (oh, I didn't tell you...I made double the amount of cake since my first batch I only put 1/3 the amount of baking powder on accident...woops!--it still turned out delicious though...deliciously dense) to make my first ever trifle! I highly recommend these for a party. Not only are they super easy but are beautiful and yummy as can be.

I used the whipped cream mixture ratio from this recipe (subbing mascarpone cream in for cream cheese) but ad-libbed from there using my leftover cake, spreading the leftover lemon curd as one layer and using both blackberries and strawberries in two separate layers. I cut them up, put them in separate bowls and let them macerate for an hour or so with lemon juice and sugar (more sugar for the blackberries). I let my dad use this for a party he had and it was a hit!