The Stone Cellar
71 Gore Street East
Perth ON K7H 1H8
Last summer, as per the usual, the majority of my family went to my grandparents' cottage in the 1,000 Islands for a few weeks. This was the first year Dave had gone up, and, despite his sever allergies, we had a lot of fun. We also discovered the masterpiece that is the Stone Cellar restaurant.
Really, my mother, aunt and grandmother had discovered it the year before, but this was the first time our whole family went together. Located in Perth, Ontario, it looks exactly as the name suggests - a converted wine cellar. It is fairly small and has been full but quiet both times I have been there. It would be an ideal place for a wedding rehearsal dinner or other small, businesslike functions.
This year it was a must that we go back before Dave and I left, so we went on Thursday evening. The food was just as stunning as ever, the only blemish being a change in the menu (discussed below).
For an appetizer, Dave and I shared the baked brie with apple butter. It was very simple - an entire 6" round of brie sliced lengthwise and cut in six wedges, baked until the edges were toasted and melted, topped with a sweet apple butter and accompanied with toasted slices of baguette. It was heavenly. Dave normally doesn't like cheese on its own but he made an exception for this - the entire plate was clean in about ten minutes, with minimal help from our neighbors at the table. My grandmother ordered the bruschetta which I tried - very good, but nothing truly spectacular.
Now, the entree that most of us ordered (and which was one of the main reasons we drove an hour to this restaurant) was the Torpedo Chicken. It is truly one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten. It consists of a chicken breast pounded flat, stuffed with apple, dried cranberries and pine nuts, wrapped in prosciutto and doused in a white wine and mustard sauce. Sooo good. Unfortunately, this was also the aforementioned menu change.
Still called the Torpedo Chicken, what we received was chicken stuffed with mozarella cheese and basil pesto. Good, yes, but not terribly memorable. The reason for the change may have been a purely seasonal one, as our last visit had been much later in the summer, but it was still a disappointment. My cousin was one of the nonconformists and got the 6 oz AAA fillet, and was smart for doing so. The beef practically melts in the mouth and was utterly delicious, and this coming from someone who doesn't normally eat red meat.
Dessert was a communal affair - the lemon cake is dense, sweet and fiercely lemony with a very tart icing, and the Bailey's creme brulee was fantastic. Flamed to perfection, the top was crisp and the creme not too rich, and the Bailey's left a nice aftertaste but was not overpowering.
All in all, a very good meal, and we sat there for about three hours talking and were left in relative peace, so it is a definite recommendation. My only complaint is the menu change, which will hopefully change back again. I am very glad at my foresight however, as I had asked last year for the recipe for the Torpedo Chicken, found below. I have not yet gotten a chance to try this recipe, so I haven't figured out any measurements. This is just what the waitress told me.
Original Torpedo Chicken recipe
Take one chicken breast, pounded flat with a mallet. Top the chicken with chopped apple, dried cranberries and roasted pine nuts. Roll the chicken breast lengthwise, then wrap in a layer of prosciutto. Wrap in tinfoil, making sure there are no openings. Boil for 17 minutes (she was very precise about that one). Serve with a white wine and mustard sauce.
If anyone has any good recipes for a sauce, or tries this and has any comments or tips, please let me know. I am looking forward to trying this recipe at some point.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Humidity
I have lived most of my life in Syracuse, New York. I recently moved to Maine, but I am back in the 'Cuse for some vacationing.
Now, as anyone who lives in this area knows, Syracuse has a weather pattern entirely it's own. Winter begins in mid October, often causing Halloween to buried in a foot and a half of snow and tiny children dressed as fairies and pirates to all look like Eskimos. Winter ends sometime around graduation. It does not matter when your graduation is, that is when winter takes it's last bow, and shits all over everything. The alternative is that the snowfall ends on April 15th, and summer starts on the 16th. We literally had a weekend of spring a few years ago: we had a blizzard on Friday, it warmed up over the weekend, and by Monday, everything was in bloom and having sex with the air.
Summer lasts from the end of winter (there is no spring) to the beginning of October. Fall lasts about 2.5 weeks, and is cold as shit and precipitous. Then winter starts again.
The winter here is bad, but at least bearable. It can occasionally hit -20 degrees (without windchill - a lovely device that makes already cold weather REALLY FUCKING COLD) with lake-effect snowfalls of three feet a day. But that isn't the bad part of the year.
When summer hits, it doesn't just give Syracuse a little love tap - it punches it really hard in the gonads and stands there laughing, every once in a while throwing a brick at its head. It has, for instance, been in the mid nineties all week, with humidity well above 150 percent. How is that possible, you may ask. How can anything have more than 100 percent? Well, most places can't, and the humidity scale was constructed for normal places where humans can actually exist in comfort. Then Syracuse happened.
Another great thing about Syracuse is that, as the winter lasts 3/4 of the year, NO ONE has air conditioning. That's fine October-June, but what happens in between? Hell.
The humidity is like this:
Now, as anyone who lives in this area knows, Syracuse has a weather pattern entirely it's own. Winter begins in mid October, often causing Halloween to buried in a foot and a half of snow and tiny children dressed as fairies and pirates to all look like Eskimos. Winter ends sometime around graduation. It does not matter when your graduation is, that is when winter takes it's last bow, and shits all over everything. The alternative is that the snowfall ends on April 15th, and summer starts on the 16th. We literally had a weekend of spring a few years ago: we had a blizzard on Friday, it warmed up over the weekend, and by Monday, everything was in bloom and having sex with the air.
Summer lasts from the end of winter (there is no spring) to the beginning of October. Fall lasts about 2.5 weeks, and is cold as shit and precipitous. Then winter starts again.
The winter here is bad, but at least bearable. It can occasionally hit -20 degrees (without windchill - a lovely device that makes already cold weather REALLY FUCKING COLD) with lake-effect snowfalls of three feet a day. But that isn't the bad part of the year.
When summer hits, it doesn't just give Syracuse a little love tap - it punches it really hard in the gonads and stands there laughing, every once in a while throwing a brick at its head. It has, for instance, been in the mid nineties all week, with humidity well above 150 percent. How is that possible, you may ask. How can anything have more than 100 percent? Well, most places can't, and the humidity scale was constructed for normal places where humans can actually exist in comfort. Then Syracuse happened.
Another great thing about Syracuse is that, as the winter lasts 3/4 of the year, NO ONE has air conditioning. That's fine October-June, but what happens in between? Hell.
The humidity is like this:
- You need to take at least two showers a day to not smell like your pet Labrador
- These showers will be icy cold, in an attempt to lower your body temperature enough that you don't begin sweating again as you towel off
- When you open the freezer, vapor will come boiling out an cloud your vision, and while you wait for it to clear, you will get yelled at for wasting energy
- Toilet paper rolls become so damp that they bend and sag on their holders, making it impossible to unroll them without announcing to the rest of the house, via repeated clangs, that you are doing so
- Every single window in the house is opened, and usually the doors as well, so there is a total lack of privacy and an inordinate number of insects flying, bumbling, biting and stinging their way around the house
- Becoming nocturnal does no good, as staying up until 6 am means you sleep past noon, and awake drenched in sweat and cranky as hell and hating life
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Corn Kugel
I haven't posted in a while, and I just realized that I haven't put this recipe up yet (which is appalling, as I have never had more people ask me for a recipe before), so here you go:
Jason Samlin's family recipe for corn kugel (that I have totally stolen from him, I hope he doesn't mind too much).
Corn Kugel
1 package Jiffy cornbread mix
1 cup sour cream
1 egg (1/4 C eggbeaters)
1 stick of butter, melted
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can creamed corn
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients in a greased 9x13 pan. It doesn't really matter what order you go in, though adding the cornbread mix last helps and mixing after every ingredient helps blend everything thoroughly.
Bake 1 hour.
That's it. Easiest recipe in the world. I love it.
Jason Samlin's family recipe for corn kugel (that I have totally stolen from him, I hope he doesn't mind too much).
Corn Kugel
1 package Jiffy cornbread mix
1 cup sour cream
1 egg (1/4 C eggbeaters)
1 stick of butter, melted
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can creamed corn
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients in a greased 9x13 pan. It doesn't really matter what order you go in, though adding the cornbread mix last helps and mixing after every ingredient helps blend everything thoroughly.
Bake 1 hour.
That's it. Easiest recipe in the world. I love it.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Operation Papaya - fail
Having never eaten fresh papaya before, Dave and I decided to get one over the weekend at the farmers market. I waited patiently until the skin had gone from Wicked Witch green to a mottled yellow, and then skinned and diced it.
Now, as previously stated, I have never before eaten fresh papaya, but I don't think this is what it is supposed to taste like. A friend of mine described papaya as "fucking delicious". I would describe this as being rather like what I would imagine Peter Griffin's ass tastes like.
I had a few bites, from various parts of the fruit, to make sure I hadn't simply gotten a bad bit - I didn't. I will save it until Dave gets back from work to be likewise revolted, and then straight into the bin it will go. Oh well.
Now, as previously stated, I have never before eaten fresh papaya, but I don't think this is what it is supposed to taste like. A friend of mine described papaya as "fucking delicious". I would describe this as being rather like what I would imagine Peter Griffin's ass tastes like.
I had a few bites, from various parts of the fruit, to make sure I hadn't simply gotten a bad bit - I didn't. I will save it until Dave gets back from work to be likewise revolted, and then straight into the bin it will go. Oh well.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Peach and Blueberry Cobbler
Last night we ate out for dinner, so I decided to make my grandmother's peach cobbler for dessert. As we had a copious amount of blueberries in the fridge - the store had had a buy 1, get 2 free sale - I decided to make blueberry/peach cobbler. This may have been one of my best decisions ever, second only to getting a tattoo while on antibiotics. Wait, that was a bad decision. OK, this was my best ever.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cobbler (the fruit part)
2/3 Cup Sugar
1 T corn starch
1 Cup boiling water
3 Cups sliced peaches (or in this case, 2 cups of blueberries and 1 cup of peaches)
½ T butter
½ t cinnamon
Mix sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan, gradually adding the boiling water. Transfer to the already hot burner and boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Add fruit with their juices, stir. Pour into 10x6x2"* baking dish. Dot with the butter, sprinkle with cinnamon.
Shortcake (the topping)
1 C flour
1 C sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3 T vegetable oil
1/3 to 1/2 C milk
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Stir in the oil and milk. Drop by spoonfuls on top of fruit.
Bake 30 min in 400-degree oven
Normally when my grandmother makes this recipe (a family favorite), the shortcake topping is white and fluffy. *I used a larger baking dish (13x9x2") and as a result the shortcake was submerged in the sugar water, rather than sitting on top of the fruit. The final product had a crispier top, but if anything, was an improvement. The only thing I’d do differently next time would be to use 2 cups of blueberries and 2 cups of sliced peaches, rather than just 3 cups of fruit. Try both, see which you like better.
In the end, the entire affair disappeared in less than 12 hours, eaten for dessert, a midnight-while-watching-True-Blood-snack, and for breakfast. Dave, attempting to embrace the Maine lifestyle as much as possible, insists on referring to it as "cobblah". I am more of a fan of the food than his accent.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cobbler (the fruit part)
2/3 Cup Sugar
1 T corn starch
1 Cup boiling water
3 Cups sliced peaches (or in this case, 2 cups of blueberries and 1 cup of peaches)
½ T butter
½ t cinnamon
Mix sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan, gradually adding the boiling water. Transfer to the already hot burner and boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Add fruit with their juices, stir. Pour into 10x6x2"* baking dish. Dot with the butter, sprinkle with cinnamon.
Shortcake (the topping)
1 C flour
1 C sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3 T vegetable oil
1/3 to 1/2 C milk
Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Stir in the oil and milk. Drop by spoonfuls on top of fruit.
Bake 30 min in 400-degree oven
Normally when my grandmother makes this recipe (a family favorite), the shortcake topping is white and fluffy. *I used a larger baking dish (13x9x2") and as a result the shortcake was submerged in the sugar water, rather than sitting on top of the fruit. The final product had a crispier top, but if anything, was an improvement. The only thing I’d do differently next time would be to use 2 cups of blueberries and 2 cups of sliced peaches, rather than just 3 cups of fruit. Try both, see which you like better.
In the end, the entire affair disappeared in less than 12 hours, eaten for dessert, a midnight-while-watching-True-Blood-snack, and for breakfast. Dave, attempting to embrace the Maine lifestyle as much as possible, insists on referring to it as "cobblah". I am more of a fan of the food than his accent.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Banana bread
What does one do, when one is too lazy to make a chocolate banana smoothie for breakfast every morning?
This is, by the way, a delicious and nutritious way to begin the morning, and it is pretty easy:
1 banana
1 cup of chocolate soy milk
3 ice cubes
Just blend until smooth and enjoy.
But anyway, what happens when you are too lazy to do that? You end up with a bunch of really nasty looking bananas sitting in your fridge, every day getting closer to the stage where they sprout legs, hold a mutiny, and turn you into a smoothie. Not a pleasant experience. Your only solution, therefor, is to do something that takes slightly more time than a daily smoothie, and is, admittedly, less healthy.
Banana Bread
6 over-ripe bananas (and by over-ripe, I mean black as pitch and squishy, eww!)
3/4 c. sugar
1 t vanilla extract
3/4 cup of egg beaters
3 c. flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
Mix all ingredients. Put into two 5 x 9 inch loaf pans that have been sprayed with pam. Bake at 325°F degrees for 1 hour.
The bread this creates is heavy and moist, and quite delicious. We ate one loaf in about a day, and the other is in the fridge for later consumption. If it is left there until it sprouts legs, I don't think there is anything else that can be done with it other than putting a steak through it's heart and throwing it away.
This is, by the way, a delicious and nutritious way to begin the morning, and it is pretty easy:
1 banana
1 cup of chocolate soy milk
3 ice cubes
Just blend until smooth and enjoy.
But anyway, what happens when you are too lazy to do that? You end up with a bunch of really nasty looking bananas sitting in your fridge, every day getting closer to the stage where they sprout legs, hold a mutiny, and turn you into a smoothie. Not a pleasant experience. Your only solution, therefor, is to do something that takes slightly more time than a daily smoothie, and is, admittedly, less healthy.
Banana Bread
6 over-ripe bananas (and by over-ripe, I mean black as pitch and squishy, eww!)
3/4 c. sugar
1 t vanilla extract
3/4 cup of egg beaters
3 c. flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
Mix all ingredients. Put into two 5 x 9 inch loaf pans that have been sprayed with pam. Bake at 325°F degrees for 1 hour.
The bread this creates is heavy and moist, and quite delicious. We ate one loaf in about a day, and the other is in the fridge for later consumption. If it is left there until it sprouts legs, I don't think there is anything else that can be done with it other than putting a steak through it's heart and throwing it away.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Crepe Night!
Having finished reading Julie and Julia, I had a very strong desire to make something from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. My dad had occasionally made crepes when I was younger, and my mouth practically watered when I read about them. I read and reread the recipe before attempting them, hoping to avoid the difficulties Julie Powell ran into.
I shouldn't have worried.
Crepe Batter
1 Cup cold water
1 Cup cold milk (fat free works as well as any other)
4 eggs (I used 1 Cup of eggbeaters)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Cups flour
4 Tb melted butter (I used 4 Tb vegetable oil)
Put the liquids, eggbeaters and salt into a blender jar. Add the flour, then the oil. Cover and blend at top speed for one minute. If clumps of flour stick to the sides of the blender, scrape off with a spatula and blend for a few more seconds. Keep covered and refrigerate for at least two hours.
* DO make sure to warn anyone else living with you that what is in the blender is crepe batter, not a delicious smoothie. This can lead to disaster. *
Julia calls for bacon rind* to grease your pan. Julie Powell stated that she had a devil of a time keeping her crepes from sticking.
Repeat after me: "All I need is a non-stick pan."
If you have a Teflon pan or something like it, you will have no trouble at all. The crepe will un-stick itself perfectly.
Set the burner for medium heat and wait until the pan is hot. Hold the pan in your left hand and the blender jar in your right (or whatever feels comfortable), and pour in just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan. Crepes should be thin - Julia suggests 1/16 of an inch thick, but lets be reasonable. 1/4 cup is good to start with.
Swirl the pan around until the bottom is entirely covered in batter, and return the pan to the burner for about a minute. The edges of the crepe should begin to curl upwards, allowing you to slide a spatula under the crepe. If you are not afraid of lightly burning your fingers, it is much easier to simply grasp the crepe by the edges and flip it, rather than using a spatula. The crepe will already have cook through enough that no batter will spill. This second side will be spotted - this is the inside of the crepe, not the display side.
After about 30 seconds on the second side, you can remove the crepe from the pan. Once you get the hang of flipping and removing, you can have two pans going at once. I know this sounds scary, but you really can. They really aren't that difficult to make.
Within 30-45 minutes, depending on how experienced you are, you will have a nice stack of 20-30 crepes.
I wanted to make the entire meal based around crepes, so I had to think of three different things to do with them. For an appetizer, I decided to use a variation of a filling Julia used for her Gateau de Crepes a la Florentine.
Cream Cheese filling
4 oz cream cheese (fat free for a slightly healthier dinner)
1/3 Cup chopped white mushrooms
1/4 Cup chopped green onions
2 Tb olive or vegetable oil
Put the cream cheese in a bowl, mash with a fork.
Saute the green onions in the oil over medium heat for a minute or two, until they smell strongly on onion. Add the mushrooms, saute for one minute more.
Add the oil, onions and mushrooms to the cream cheese, mix together.
That's all you have to do - this also goes well on veggie burgers and bagels.
For the main course filling, I decided to use spinach and chicken. Dave had the idea to marinate the chicken in a salad dressing we had (Newman's Own low fat sesame ginger), and the result was quite delicious.
Spinach and Chicken filling
three chicken breasts, cubed
two large handfuls of baby spinach leaves
1/2 Cup salad dressing
Marinate the chicken in the salad dressing for 1/2 hour. Cook in pan over medium heat until chicken has browned (around 5-6 minutes usually). Add the spinach. Spinach shrinks considerably when cooked, so you may want to add more.
Very simple to make, and quite flavorful.
For dessert, I used blueberries and chopped strawberries and peaches. No sugar, just fresh, juicy fruit. Delicious.
What are your suggestions for more crepe fillings, savory or sweet? They are simple to make, and not terribly fattening. They also freeze well, so you can make a lot and simply reheat them later.
*That packet of bacon I bought and ended up not using will probably sit in our fridge until we move next year.
I shouldn't have worried.
Crepe Batter
1 Cup cold water
1 Cup cold milk (fat free works as well as any other)
4 eggs (I used 1 Cup of eggbeaters)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Cups flour
4 Tb melted butter (I used 4 Tb vegetable oil)
Put the liquids, eggbeaters and salt into a blender jar. Add the flour, then the oil. Cover and blend at top speed for one minute. If clumps of flour stick to the sides of the blender, scrape off with a spatula and blend for a few more seconds. Keep covered and refrigerate for at least two hours.
* DO make sure to warn anyone else living with you that what is in the blender is crepe batter, not a delicious smoothie. This can lead to disaster. *
Julia calls for bacon rind* to grease your pan. Julie Powell stated that she had a devil of a time keeping her crepes from sticking.
Repeat after me: "All I need is a non-stick pan."
If you have a Teflon pan or something like it, you will have no trouble at all. The crepe will un-stick itself perfectly.
Set the burner for medium heat and wait until the pan is hot. Hold the pan in your left hand and the blender jar in your right (or whatever feels comfortable), and pour in just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan. Crepes should be thin - Julia suggests 1/16 of an inch thick, but lets be reasonable. 1/4 cup is good to start with.
Swirl the pan around until the bottom is entirely covered in batter, and return the pan to the burner for about a minute. The edges of the crepe should begin to curl upwards, allowing you to slide a spatula under the crepe. If you are not afraid of lightly burning your fingers, it is much easier to simply grasp the crepe by the edges and flip it, rather than using a spatula. The crepe will already have cook through enough that no batter will spill. This second side will be spotted - this is the inside of the crepe, not the display side.
After about 30 seconds on the second side, you can remove the crepe from the pan. Once you get the hang of flipping and removing, you can have two pans going at once. I know this sounds scary, but you really can. They really aren't that difficult to make.
Within 30-45 minutes, depending on how experienced you are, you will have a nice stack of 20-30 crepes.
I wanted to make the entire meal based around crepes, so I had to think of three different things to do with them. For an appetizer, I decided to use a variation of a filling Julia used for her Gateau de Crepes a la Florentine.
Cream Cheese filling
4 oz cream cheese (fat free for a slightly healthier dinner)
1/3 Cup chopped white mushrooms
1/4 Cup chopped green onions
2 Tb olive or vegetable oil
Put the cream cheese in a bowl, mash with a fork.
Saute the green onions in the oil over medium heat for a minute or two, until they smell strongly on onion. Add the mushrooms, saute for one minute more.
Add the oil, onions and mushrooms to the cream cheese, mix together.
That's all you have to do - this also goes well on veggie burgers and bagels.
For the main course filling, I decided to use spinach and chicken. Dave had the idea to marinate the chicken in a salad dressing we had (Newman's Own low fat sesame ginger), and the result was quite delicious.
Spinach and Chicken filling
three chicken breasts, cubed
two large handfuls of baby spinach leaves
1/2 Cup salad dressing
Marinate the chicken in the salad dressing for 1/2 hour. Cook in pan over medium heat until chicken has browned (around 5-6 minutes usually). Add the spinach. Spinach shrinks considerably when cooked, so you may want to add more.
Very simple to make, and quite flavorful.
For dessert, I used blueberries and chopped strawberries and peaches. No sugar, just fresh, juicy fruit. Delicious.
What are your suggestions for more crepe fillings, savory or sweet? They are simple to make, and not terribly fattening. They also freeze well, so you can make a lot and simply reheat them later.
*That packet of bacon I bought and ended up not using will probably sit in our fridge until we move next year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)