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Thanksgiving - Our Way

For the last several years we've had unconventional Thanksgiving dinners and this year was no exception - except that I think we outdid ourselves. A relative from New England joined us, so we decided on a seafood theme for our feast, and what a feast it was.

We started with an oyster shooter each, and then the appetizers began: chilled raw oysters with mignonette, oysters rockefeller (Peter's way), shrimp with remoulade and cocktail sauce, local bay scallops wrapped in bacon with a pineapple mustard dipping sauce, and deviled eggs (don't ask me how they snuck in). These were all accompanied by a lovely chilled chardonnay.

The main course was set out on the island so everyone could help themselves to: steamed lobster with melted butter, sweet potato fries with smoked chile cream, roasted asparagus and mushroom salad with toasted pecans, blue cheese and red chile-mustard vinaigrette, and Yorkshire pudding (go figure!)

If that all wasn't enough, dessert was the pièce de résistance - a homemade French apple tart with the thinnest crust I've ever made topped with .... drum roll please ... brown sugar-bourbon ice cream, enjoyed with a Sicilian Malvasia. I can honestly (and not so humbly) say this is the best dessert I've ever had. The evening was finished with a grappa and espresso.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

Shrimp and Vegetables Cognac

Every once in a while you have to go back through some of the treasures in a cookbook library. I think I've told you one of my favorite "Sunday morning reads" is my mother's 1943 version of The Joy of Cooking. How things have changed and yet so much is the same. Trust me, if you read recipes in that book, you'll see that there's truly not much that is original in this world. Well I dusted off the shelves recently and rediscovered the 60-Minute Gourmet books by Pierre Franey - does any one else remember him? These books were, and are, good for simple meals, easy to prepare and with lots of flavor. That's what we want and that hasn't changed over the years. 

We had a half pound of large shrimp in the fridge and Peter couldn't decide what to do with them, so I tossed Franey's books to him and said "Take a look". He came across Crevettes Jardinière (Shrimp and vegetables cognac), decided on a couple of substitutions, and set about making lunch. With a romaine/watercress salad with Lemon "Vinaigrette", the shrimp were a delicious lunch.

Shrimp and Vegetables Cognac
(4 servings)

1½ pounds raw shrimp
3-5 tablespoons butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
5 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 cup sweet pepper, red or green, cut into thin julienne strips (or 4 roasted red peppers from a jar)
2 cups thinly sliced mushrooms
3 tablespoons cognac
½ cup heavy cream (or 0% yogurt) 
====================================

1. Peel and devein shrimp. Rinse well in cold water and pat dry.
2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet; add shrimp. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring the shrimp over high heat so they are cooked evenly, for about 2 minutes. Cook only utyil the shrimp turn pink and lose their raw look.
3. Using a slotted spoon, remove the shrimp to a bowl. Add one more tablespoon butter to the skillet and add shallots. Cook briefly, stirring.
4. Add the celery, pepper strips, and mushrooms. Cook about 2 minutes.
5. Sprinkle with cognac and add the cream/yogurt. Bring to a boil. Add any liquid that has accumulated from the shrimp. Cook about 30 seconds and add the shrimp. Cook until the shrimp are thoroughly heated. Swirl in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter (or not).

REPOST: Artichoke and Parmesan Soup from Patricia Wells

In my experience, you can never go wrong with a recipe from one of the cookbooks of Patricia Wells. She uses the ingredients in her recipes to maximize their flavor. It doesn't have to be complicated to achieve these results as this recipe proves. We made this elegant, velvety soup for Thanksgiving one year - to rave reviews. The wonderful, distinct flavor of the artichokes has little to no competition from the shallot and chicken stock, and the rich creamy consistency of the soup comes from the artichokes themselves; there's no cream in this recipe at all. It doesn't get much easier than this, and yet the result is sophisticated and delicious.  

Artichoke and Parmesan Soup
(Makes 12 Servings)

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Fine sea salt
2 shallots, trimmed, peeled, and minced
2 pounds artichoke hearts (about 12), fresh, canned, or frozen (we use frozen with great results)
2 quarts Homemade Chicken Stock
One 2-ounce chunk of Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese
========================================

• In a large, heavy-duty stock pot, combine oil, a pinch of salt, and the shallots and stir to blend.
• Sweat-cook, covered, over low heat until soft but not browned - for 3-4 minutes. 
• Cook, covered, over very low heat, until the artichokes are soft and impregnated with oil, about 2 more minutes.
• Add the stock, adjusting the heat to create a gentle simmer.
• Cover and simmer just until the artichoke hearts are soft and the flavors have had time to mingle, about 30 minutes.
• Taste for seasoning.
• Place a food mill fitted with a medium blade over a large bowl and purée the soup into the bowl. (Discard any fibrous bits that remain in the mill.)*
• Return the soup to a saucepan. The soup should have the consistency of a slightly runny purée. If the soup appears thin, reduce it slightly over moderate heat. (The soup can be prepared to this point several hours ahead and reheated at serving time.)
• With a vegetable peeler, shave the cheese into long, thick strips into a bowl. (If the chunk of cheese becomes too small to shave, grate the remaining cheese and add it to the bowl.) Set aside.
• Divide the hot soup among warmed soup bowls. Place the cheese shavings on top of the soup. If done correctly, the shavings should sit delicately on top of the soup, half-melted but still intact. Serve immediately

107 calories per serving ♨ 4 g fat ♨ 11 g protein ♨ 6 g carbohydrates

* We don't have a food mill so I used a food processor with very satisfactory results; we found no "fibrous bits" that needed to be discarded.

This recipe is from one of my favorite of Patricia's cookbooks, Vegetable Harvest. What I love about her books is they aren't just a collection of recipes, but they're fun reading, as she always has some interesting preamble for every recipe or an invaluable tip or two. You also will be hard-pressed to find butter or cream in her recipes these days. Her next book, Salad As A Meal, is equally as good.

 

Venice - The Outer Islands and Bar

Venice is magical and diverse. Each island that we ventured to last spring was amazingly unique in character in nearly every way.

Murano, known for its beauiful handblown glass, has a main thoroughfare through it that caters to the tourists who come from around the globe to purchase its beautiful wares, and yet just off that beaten path it feels quite residential - even slightly suburban.

Burano, best known for its colorful houses - painted brightly so seafarers could see their homes from distant waters, is cheerfully novel and beautifully reflective in its canal waters. It was also very apparent that this is a tightly knit community of families living three-to-four generations together, enjoying their home and ignoring the tourists.

Lido, known as the golden island of Venice, is a barrier "sandbar" separating the Venetian lagoon from the Adriatic Sea, and is the beautiful beach resort of Venice. It has beautiful tree-lined avenues and deep, sandy beaches - and they even have automobiles (although a limited number of streets). This island brought tranquility back to our days of running with the throngs of tourists on the main island where we stayed.

San Giorgio Maggiore, appears so small for such a large name, and yet you cannot avoid seeing it if you ever visit the Piazza San Marco. It has a tower, (twin-ish to the Campanile in the piazza), a marine basin for pleasure craft, and wonderful vista views of the lagoon.

We hope you enjoy this slide show of what we saw, enjoyed and loved about the outer islands and bar (sandbar that is) of Venice.

 

Photos and Slide Show © 2012 Claudia Ward
Music: Elegant, from the Soundtrack of Victor/Victoria 

Ciao!

 

Venice

What could possibly be written about Venice that hasn't been already - not much that's for sure. We all know it's a city of small islands (117) formed by lots and lots of canals (177) in a shallow lagoon just off the Adriatic. It's leadership in historical maritime trade is well known as is it's craftmanship in architecture, glass, and even lace. We all know it's special and believed to be sinking - albeit slowly. "Elegant decay" has been used to describe this unique city with streets of water. 

What could possibly be photographed in Venice that hasn't been photographed tens of millions of times? Not much, but that didn't take away the thrill of being there and capturing our own images. In many ways, Venice is a photographer's dream because it's truly best to shoot her early in the morning, and in the evening and at night - when the throngs of tourists are tucked away in restaurants or their hotel rooms. Said another way, anyone "in their right mind" would avoid shooting Venice in the middle of the day because there are 50,000 tourists milling about the squares and alleyways, and they can't get out of your way (nor are they inclined to), and then, of course, there is the sun!

Peter and I had the great good fortune to spend 12 days in Venice this past May which enabled us to experience this beautiful city as tourists first with all the unbridled excitement we couldn't have controlled if we'd wanted to, and then as a photography-loving individuals trying to capture images that conveyed the feelings and thoughts that this city evoked in us. Both experiences were rewarding for us, although looking at and experiencing Venice with no sense of time pressure was a true luxury. It was also especially rewarding as we joined a group of 8 like-minded individuals in the middle of our stay for a photography adventure,Venice Within The Frame, led by David duChemin and Jeffrey Chapman. We shared perspectives, knowledge and technology with one another, spurred each other on (some of us at amazing hours), and laughed over food and wine as one day closed to another's beginning. Those days in Venice we'll never forget.

As many of you expect to see a recounting of "what we saw" this slide show hopefully will not disappoint, but I also hope that some of you may detect a more accute attention to perspective, detail, color, and maybe even story.

 

Photos and Slide show ©2012 Claudia Ward
Music: William Tell: Dance for Six by Eugine Ormandy & The Philadelphia Orchestra
Dinner Classics: The Italian Album 

Ciao!

The Boats of Venice

Grand Canal & the Rialto Bridge in Venice ©2012 Claudia Ward

The Venetian lagoon is peppered with boats of all sizes and shapes, and we found ourselves endlessly entertained watching the water traffic wherever we were. The Vaporetti are Venice's public transportation system. They are a fleet of motorized bus-boats that will take you nearly anywhere you might want to go in Venice, along the Grand Canal or to an outer island like Burano. Water taxis are wooden speedboat limos, and literally will take you anywhere for a negotiated price. Gondolas are the picturesque wooden boats that so typify Venice to every tourist around the globe. Traditional bragosso and traghetto also traverse the lagoon's waters, as do nearly every manner of sail boat - small gaff rigged shallow-hulled sailboats, and the super-sized high-tech catamarans now being raced in the America's Cup race series. Venice even allows gargantuan cruise ships to glide through the waters of the Grand Canal, although they should probably rethink that as those monsters displace a LOT of water. These are but a few of the hundreds of boats of Venice. Ciao!

 

 Photos & Slide Show ©2012 Claudia Ward
Music: Rigoletto: La Donna e Mobile by Andre Kostelanetz & His Orchestra 

Sandy?

These images were captured the day "after" Sandy but I was unable to post anything until now.

Sagg Main Meets Sagg Pond 

Bridgehampton South Coast

Sagg Main's "Sandy" Parking Lot

Breached Dunes in Bridgehampton

Road Entrance and Parking Lot of Sagg Main Beach

Sandy Breached the Dunes at Sagg Main

Sagg Main Dunes Are Gone

There were once dunes leading to the ocean at Sagg Main. Roughly 20-25 feet of dunes has been ripped away and the lifeguard station has been damaged but isn't gone. Lester Elliston, the unofficial Mayor of Sagg Main, was video taping the damage to his beloved beach, as we were surveying it too.