Dancing Spoon

Planning Thanksgiving Dinner

Planning Holiday

by J. Michael Wheeler
Thanksgiving Tips: Game Plan
There’s no question about it, for me, Thanksgiving is absolutely the best holiday: it’s all about getting together with friends and family and eating a great meal. No Christmas present stresses or New Year’s Eve anxiety. Cook a lot of good food and share it with friends and family. One of my favorite Thanksgivings was when I was in college in San Diego and I organized an “Orphan’s Thanksgiving” for my fellow college friends who wouldn’t be traveling home for the holiday. It was a bit less than traditional, but the spirit certainly was there.

Of course, for the host, Thanksgiving might not be all that stress-free. Still-frozen turkeys, wallpaper-paste gravies, and well, we’ve all got our stories (we’d love to yours). So in the interest of everyone enjoying our favorite holiday, we’re sharing with you some tips for a great Thanksgiving. We’ll start out with an overall game plan that we call, cleverly, T-Day Game Plan.

Break it Down
Sit down with paper and pen well before your first trip to the grocery store (yes, you’ll shop in phases) and starting with the menu, break the T-Day undertakings into steps. This will give you a bird’s eye view (couldn’t resist that one) of what needs to be done and when. As you accomplish each task you can check it off, giving you a measure of your progress, as well as what tasks remain to be done. Learn to love Lists.

Big Helpful Tip: Organize all of the recipes you plan to use ahead of time. Photocopy each recipe from your cookbook, recipe card, or torn out newspaper article and create your own personal T-Day Cookbook for that meal. With all of your recipes together, in one place, you won’t have to flip through several books and different pages.

"Delicious Simplicity" Published

Tips Tasty

by J. Michael Wheeler

Delicious Simplicity
Dancing Spoon's contributors include its fair share of cookbook authors and we're pleased to let you know Anna Tourkakis, Tasty Tips, has just joined that impressive group.

Anna's new cookbook Delicious Simplicity is now available. It's packed with quick-and-easy recipes, Delicious Simplicity is your go-to cookbook for scrumptious meals. Save time and money while preparing delectable recipes that make nutritious eating in your busy life practical.

Inspired by the healthy ingredients of European cuisine, Anna brings old-world flavors to weeknight meals. She’ll help you create mouthwatering dishes with a Mediterranean flair to intensify flavors and aromas. The luscious, guilt-free desserts take the same approach. This is nutritious cooking at its best. Take pleasure in serving good-for-you food that nourishes your family’s health and bonds built at the family table.

Buy Delicious Simplicity.

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Bermuda Fish Chowder

Chowder Simple

by J. Michael Wheeler
This Fourth of July Grill brought together friends, food, drinks, and even an impromptu bagpipe serenade! Joe, the piper, is also Joe the sailor, and he just recently completed the 2010 Newport (Rhode Island) to Bermuda (Sailboat) Race. It’s a 635 mile ocean race, most of it out of sight of land, and can last anywhere from three to six days. (If you’re into sailing, Joe sailed on a Hinckley 70!)

Besides his pipes, Joe also brought a big pot filled with a taste of the race destination: Bermuda Fish Chowder. It’s a locals’ recipe using local ingredients, but as with many fish stews, use whatever local, fresh fish is available. There are two very unique ingredients to this fish stew however: the local Outerbridge’s Sherry Peppers Sauce for kick, and Goslings Black Seal rum as a topper. 

Here are two tasty and similar recipes (Joe says use either one). The first recipe is from Outerbridge’s of the Sherry Peppers Sauce, and the second is from Gosling’s Rum.

Goat Cheese Turkey Burgers

Grilling Simple

by J. Michael Wheeler
Goat Cheese Stuffed Turkey Burgers
Grilling season opened this weekend here in New England and I was ready with my 1963 Vintage Charbroil charcoal grill. The cooking surface of this old workhorse is solid cast iron and as big as a restaurant grill. For me, the first grill of the season is all about loosening up and getting my chops back, so I like to keep it simple.

We had good friends over and while the day felt like burgers, I was disinclined to go for heavy beef burgers, so I opted for turkey. What I decided on was Goat Cheese Stuffed Turkey Burgers. As these burgers cook, the goat cheese melts and kind of oozes inside. It adds a great tang and a bit of body to an otherwise lightweight burger.

This technique of burger-stuffing works for all types of ground meats, and all types of cheeses and other stuffings. Try it with meatballs sometime!

Ingredients
Serves 8

3 pounds ground turkey. I used ground dark meat turkey.
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (Out of crumbs, I put a several handfulls of Whole Foods Tortilla Chips in a plastic ziplock bag and let my 7 year old son pound away at 'em till they were good and fine. That's how you teach boys to like cooking!)
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
2 tsp fresh grated lemon zest
2 tsp chopped thyme, or rosemary, or whatever sounds good to you. (I even thought about sneaking in some red chili flakes, but I worried about the kids and some of the womenfolk.)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
4 oz goat cheese
4 tsp vegetable oil
Combine everything in a bowl, except the oil, with a wooden spoon.

How to Stuff 'Em

1. Divide your ground meat (beef, turkey, lamb, whatever suits your mood) into your own regular burger portions. Then divide each of those portions in half. You now have burger tops and bottoms.
2. Shape each half to the correct size and place about an ounce of cheese (or other stuffing) on the bottom half. Put the top half on the bottom and pinch the edges together.
3. Reshape I like to then reshape the entire burger, making sure the the stuffing doesn't try to sneak out the top. Shape the burgers round and flat. To keep them flat during grilling, put a thumb-indentation right in the center of both top and bottom sides. Now wash your hands.
4. Refrigerate Place the stuffed/formed burgers on a baking sheet or in a plastic container, cover, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, but better for 6-8 hours. This lets everything firm up before the fire.
5. Grill Get your grill hot: gas grill to high, or charcoals glowing red with a white ash. Brush your burgers with the oil, and grill over direct heat for 7-8 minutes until browned on that side and then turn 'em over and do the same on the other.

Happy Grilling!

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How Hot Is that Grill?

Basics Grilling

by J. Michael Wheeler
Heat & Fuel
Cooking on an open fire goes all the way back to prehistoric Barbecue-Man. And while he probably wasn't clutching a can of Budweiser in one hand and a can of charcoal starter in the other, the basics of cooking over an open fire remain the same. And it doesn't get more basic than burning stuff and how hot it needs to get.

If you use a gas grill for your outdoor cooking your selection of fuels is, well, gas. But for those of us who prefer to cook on real fire, there are more choices. Here are some of them:

Lump Charcoal Usually made from softwood. It comes in a variety of sizes. Easy to light, but quick burning.

Charcoal Briquettes Slow burning, easy to find. Some claim they give food an unpleasant taste.

Self-igniting Charcoal Briquettes or lump charcoal treated with a flammable substance. Easy to light. Let all of that flammable substance burn away before cooking.

Wood Hardwoods like oak and olive burn slowly and the aromatic smoke imparts a great taste to the food. Wood fires must be tended carefully to keep an even and steady heat.

How Hot is Hot Enough?
"Heat your grill to medium-high and place the . . ." How do you determine the temperature of your grill? While some grills have built-in temperature gauges, and there are even infrared heat seekers to tell you how hot your grill is, you've got a couple of built-in thermometers yourself: your hands.

Place your hand, palm facing down, just above the grill where you'll be cooking. (Please don't wear long, loose-fitting clothing while grilling.) Without being too macho about it, hold your hand over that spot and count how many seconds it takes before you say "ouch" and have to take your hand away from the grill.

Here's a chart to help you determine your grill's temperature. If you can hold your hand above the grill for this long, the grill is that hot:

· Two seconds is high heat
· Three seconds is medium-high heat
· Four seconds is medium heat
· Five seconds is medium-low heat
· Six seconds is low heat
· Seven seconds or more means you have time to open another beer

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Farm to Fork New England

Very Local Eating

by J. Michael Wheeler
Know Your Farmer
You never know where you might eat that eight-course meal; it might be in a barn, a pasture, a micro-creamery, an heirloom apple orchard or even at a dairy. What you will be assured of, at a New England Farm 2 Fork Project, is that Chef Sebastian Carosi and his band of roving rural culinary visionaries will wow you with their on farm dinners, luncheons, brunches, and other culinary events throughout the different New England seasons.

The New England Farm 2 Fork Project is an eco-gastronomic organization that supports a biodiverse, sustainable food supply, local producers, heritage food-ways, and the pleasures that surround the American kitchen and table. They work closely with farmers and producers to raise local food supply awareness, and to support sustainable agriculture and economic development throughout the Northeast.

Our destiny and mission is to serve the best local, sustainably produced artisan ingredients and to treat them with respect and simplicity in our cuisine...This means using as much of a products resources as possible, be it the greens from garden grown organic heirloom beets, or the livers and gizzards of pastured barnyard heritage chickens...Our deep-rooted regional influences have shaped and continue to shape New England Farm Cuisine and inspire our cooking and food on a daily basis. — Chef Sebastian Carosi

The project is the brainchild of Chef Sebastian Carosi, an admitted local foods junkie, turophile, and Slow Food  practitioner. Chef Carosi wholeheartedly supports responsible agricultural methods, exposes diners to local food resources, and is cultivating a more conscientious food culture throughout New England.

What the Indians Ate Dinner, on May 29th & 30th, is the next New England Farm 2 Fork Project event. Here’s what’s on the menu:

Heirloom appaloosa bean, smokehouse ham hock and American snapping turtle soup, shagbark hickory cured steelhead with red alder smoked sea salt and crushed wild ramps, ossipee mountain cherry wood smoked trout cakes with misickquatash, air dried Maine raised red deer with Perkins Cove juniper berries, corn smut honey, fried parsnips and foraged wild greens, smoked squash and wild maine moose meat pie, indian fry bread ‘taco’ with braised black bear, shaved lettuce, smoked pepper sauce and pickled sunflower seeds, sinzibukwud cured magret duck breast with suppawn, crushed heirloom crane-berries and swamp cabbage.

And for desert? Abenaki Indian pudding with heirloom local rhubarb jam. Of course.

Wow.
Upcoming Events: A Shaker Supper in the Orchard, A Gravenstein cider press & dinner, and National Moldy Cheese Day & A Made in New England Cheese Social. Keep up on their Schedule. 

The New England Farm 2 Fork Project

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Top 5 Restaurant Complaints

Out Eating

by J. Michael Wheeler
What's Your Gripe?
Sylvia Rector reports in the Detroit Free Press (Check it out, guys: The Top 5 restaurant gripes, 5/13/10) that it's not slow service, poorly cooked food, or even mixed up orders. In her survey of 100 diners who responded to questions about restaurant pet peeves, it's "the little things that drive people up the wall."

The Top Five Gripes
No. 1 by far, was a surprise: Significant numbers of diners of both sexes detest being addressed as "you guys" -- as in "How are you guys?" or "Are you guys ready to order?"

No. 2 Servers might take home bigger tips if they didn't ask, "Do you need change?" when they pick up a guest's check with cash. Diners considered it presumptuous or thought it was an effort to get an extra-large tip -- so they left less in protest. Most servers will tell you they're only trying to avoid an unnecessary trip back to the table.

No. 3 Checks brought too soon irk many readers; most interpret it as a sign the restaurant wants them to leave quickly. The comments of Liz Simmons of Mt. Clemens were typical: "I truly hate when the server slaps the bill down on the table while I'm still eating. ... What if I decide I want dessert? What if I want a cup of coffee to wind down my evening? ... I don't very often have a night out in my budget anymore and would love to savor it a bit," she said.

No. 4 Wiping down tabletops and chair seats with the same dirty cloth all over the dining room is a serious turnoff -- and it must be common, because so many diners described the same scene: "They take a rag that sits on a counter or shelf and fling all the residue and crumbs off the edge (of the table). Naturally a large portion falls on the chairs. ... What do we do? Yes, we use the same rag to wipe the seats. We then put the rag back ... for its next table wipe. Yuck," wrote Gene and Sylvia Oakie of Warren. And Alan Schebil of Auburn Hills calls the practice "repulsive" and adds, "I've gotten so paranoid I refuse to allow my silverware to sit directly on the table."

No. 5 Dining room noise, especially loud music. "My No. 1 pet peeve in a restaurant is the music," wrote Sharon Rugh of Shelby Township. "It annoys me beyond reason when the music ceases to become background music." Said Lorelei Christy of Farmington Hills: "People ... going to a restaurant for a nice meal and conversation with friends ... should not have to shout to be heard."

Read the full article at Detroit Free Press online Freep.com

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American Wild Shrimp

Ingredients Know Your

by J. Michael Wheeler
American Wild Shrimp
American wild shrimp, caught in Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf Coast waters, ranges from the sweet, small, delicate Maine Northern Pink, to the six-inch long and coral pink California Spot, to the four inch light brown-shelled Gulf of Mexico Brown.

We Americans consume more than a billion pounds of shrimp each year. While much of that shrimp is imported, almost a quarter of it is caught right off our own shores. And of the 200 million pounds of domestic shrimp brought to market, 95 percent is net-caught in open water by sustainable methods. Wild-caught American shrimp, moreover, is not just one species (pond-raised shrimp is a single species, Litopenaeus vannamei, commonly called Pacific white shrimp), but is a wide range of species.

I was introduced to the Northern Pink from Maine this past season and I was captivated by the small shrimp's intense, sweet flavors. (They reminded me somewhat of the French crevettes grises, the tiny shrimp served in the cafes such as the Brasserie Les Vapeurs  in Trouville, just across the bridge from Deauville in Normandy, France. The crevettes grises are so small in fact, that to eat them you need to learn the thumb technique: you more or less scrape the tiny creatures out of their shells.) The Northern Pink, also just called Maine Shrimp, have an intense flavor of rich sweetness like creamery butter. I went on a Maine Shrimp binge (the season lasts only from December to April) and sautéed them, steamed them, used them in pastas, salads, and delicate Asian dishes. And always cooked them for just a minute or two. These shrimp are also enjoyed raw!

Fresh local shrimp, often available only during a limited season, can be an eye-opening (and taste-bud-opening) experience. If you've only eaten the pink pond-raised variety seek out fresh domestic wild-caught shrimp. You might find yourself on a season shrimp binge too!

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The Simplicity of Bread

Simplified Culinary

by J. Michael Wheeler
Flour, Water, Yeast
Bread: “…the culinary domestication of…hard, bland seeds.” Harold McGee.

There’re a lot of different kinds of bread. There are ashcakes, baguettes, biscuits, bloomers, Boston brown breads, ciabattas, cobs, cottage loaves, crispbreads, granary loaves, harvest loaves, milk breads, potato breads, Vienna bread, white, marble rye, and whole-wheat breads.

There are breads made with wheat, rye, corn, barley, chocolate, fruits and veggies. There are flatbreads, braided breads, round loaves, square loaves, and sticks. There are even breads made just to hold a hot dog. Walk into a boulangerie in France and witness an entire world of breads.

That Staff of Life
But what really is bread? It’s just flour (usually wheat), water, and yeast. You mix, you knead, you let it rise. Shape it. Bake it. You got bread. Simple.

What’s Inside
You really need only three ingredients to make a loaf of bread.

1. Flour Grind up an edible grain fine enough, and you’ve got flour. While bread can be made from many types of flours, the main cereal grain used for bread is wheat because of its high protein (gluten) content.

For a grain to be made into bread, it must be milled (ground) into a flour fine enough to mix into a dough. The most primitive means of milling grain is the mortar and pestle, but the grind is too course for bread and is more suited to porridges and gruels.

2. Leavening You could mix flour and water together, shape it into a thin disk, and bake it; you’ll end up with a flatbread. To make a risen loaf, the “loaf of bread” loaf, you’ll need to add a rising agent such as yeast.

Yeasts are almost magical little single-celled plants. They’re a tiny, little fungus. In fact, one teaspoon contains hundreds of millions of yeast cells. The magic is that they make breads rise, grape juice turn to wine, and grains and water turn to beer.

And here’s the magic that’s important in bread making: yeast breathes air and exhales carbon dioxide, just like we do. Given a lot of air and some food (like flour), yeast grows fast and produces a lot of carbon dioxide. And it’s this gas that makes bread rise.

3. Water And water.

Manly Cupcakes

Trends Food

by J. Michael Wheeler
Butch Bakery
Rum & Coke, Mojito, Beer Run, B-52, Driller, Jackhammer, Tailgate: Dude, muscle your way up to the counter and grab a cupcake?

Yeah, these ain’t your granny’s cute little fussy cupcakes, these are MANLY CUPCAKES made for MEN! The Butch Bakery in Manhattan has a mission:

Our objective is simple. We’re men. Men who love cupcakes. Not the Frilly Pink-Frosted-Sprinkles-and-Unicorns kind of cupcakes. We make MANLY CUPCAKES for MANLY MEN.

David Arrick, formerly an attorney for a major Wall Street law firm, felt it was time to combine a masculine aesthetic to a traditionally cute product: the cupcake. When a magazine article mentioned that cupcakes were a combination of everything "pink, sweet, cute, and magical,” he felt it was time to take action, and butch it up.  He decided to create a company where "Butch meets Buttercream.” No "golf tee" cupcakes, or "baseball" cupcakes, but products that guys would love.

  WE BUILD A BETTER CUPCAKE. See plans below.

Butch cupcakes are topped with a macho chocolate disk like the Woodland Camo, Wood Grain, Houndstooth, Plaid, Checkerboard, or Marble. They’ve got Dude-flavors like Beer Run, a chocolate beer cake with beer-infused buttercream topped with crushed pretzels, or the Driller, a maple cake loaded with milk-chocolate ganache and topped with, what else, crumbled bacon!

Butch Bakery cupcakes are made to order in New York City commercial kitchen, and delivered directly to homes or offices within Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn.  Butch Bakery plans to open a commercial bakery storefront by Spring, 2010.

Here Dude, have a Mojito (rum-soaked lime cake with mint white-chocolate ganache). Butch Bakery.

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