movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches

hollmeyer orchards, located deep in the westside on fiddlers green, has some absolutely phenomenal peaches. we always used to go down there when i was a kid, but we hadn't been in years until yesterday. we picked up some peaches, pears and apples (the really crisp, tart kind). they also had tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, honey, and jams. from what i remember, they also will have some delicious apple butter coming up here in the next couple months. in the spring they have asparagus. my family has always felt, though, that the peaches are the real reason to visit hollmeyer. firm, juicy and sweet, with not too much fuzz. i haven't tried the ones we bought yet, because they are not quite ripe.

does anyone have any favorite recipe for peaches (or pears or apples, for that matter) that you're willing to divulge? i would hate to not be able to eat them all and to see them go to waste.

fun fact about peaches: the peach was a sign of immortality to the ancient chinese. giving it as a gift was a sign of friendship. so make sure you share.

if you are going to go to hollmeyer, go soon. they only have peaches for another two weeks.

that's sumburger!

this week in chillicothe, i visited the hopewell culture national historic park, which contains reconstructions and one original burial mound of the hopewell indians. most of the original mounds were destroyed when camp sherman was built. it is an interesting little park, hidden by trees and nestled among correctional institutions. very peaceful.

my other historic visit was to sumburger, a drive-in operational since 1953. we opted to eat inside rather than do the drive-in thing. civics are not well equipped for supporting trays and establishing a comfortable eating environment. plus, they don't rollerskate anymore because of the liability, so it's not quite as much fun.




the very unique thing about sumburger is that inside, you use the phone at the table to order. it's a strange situation to be sitting in a booth and calling the kitchen.


they have a variety of sandwiches, but of course, i was there for the sumburger. available are a double sumburger, regular, and a junior. as a platter, there are two choices of sides, which are mostly the standard cole slaw, fries, etc, but they also offer fried mushrooms with a side of ranch dressing. i opted for the regular sumburger with fries and mushrooms. i also ordered a root beer, which is unusual for me because i rarely drink pop. this root beer turned out to be extra fabulous however, because it had the ice that's shaped like little cylinders with ridges, you know, that looks like it's been pushed out of a pasta maker? those tiny cans of coldness are the perfect complement to fountain drinks; they keep the pop really cold and make a satisfying swoshing crunch when i pump my straw up and down. the food arrived and the portions were huge. see that mountain of mushrooms in the photo? that's the amount considered a SIDE. stacy, who was eating with me and is from chilli, commented that all the meals are huge around there. apparently, when the olive garden opened in town, people complained that the portions were too small. the sumburger special sauce is somewhere between tartar sauce and thousand island dressing. it's kind of sweet. actually, the burger reminded me a lot of a big boy, only with a bun disproportionately larger than the beef. it was good though. i would rate it a 4 on the burger rating scale. it gets major points for the unique atmosphere.

even though i was way stuffed, i had to try a piece of the strawberry pie with whipped cream. dessert goes to a different place, afterall. the pie had delicious whole strawberries, but i would have to say the filling was a little too sweet for me. i just couldn't finish.

point of discussion

a friend of mine who travels to new york frequently on business commented that jean-robert's restaurants (pigall's in particular) were over-priced, shoddy imitations of similar food in ny (i'm completely paraphrasing). she thinks it's because restaurants believe cincinnatians don't know any better. i became unreasonably incensed by this, and i really hope it is not the case. i realize we don't necessarily have the diversity of offerings that ny provides, but i hope that we are also not enjoying poor imitations.

thoughts???

better late than never, right?????

So a few weeks (err many weeks) ago i had the pleasure of attending a rehearsal dinner hosted at the Art of Entertaining in O'Bryonville. Its located next door to Chateau Pomije Wine Store & Bar. I can't say enough wonderful things about this place. We were the first of the party to arrive, which is always a bit socially awkward. We were greeted at the door by Julie one of the owners. She showed us around the store and into the kitchen area, after serving us a beverage. When entering the building you enter in the store front area, where tons of wonderful dinnerware and other serving needs are shown. This is a place to find unique serve ware. Once arriving in the kitchen we were greeted by Chef Jacob who was taking asparagus in puff pastry out of the oven. One of the most delightful people i have met in a long time. Not only is he great at what he does, cooking and teaching, but he is wonderful and easy to talk too. The kitchen area had several large tables for eating and socializing and a large counter area where you can watch the food preparation take place. In this case you had the opportunity to determine your level of involvement. If you know me at all you can naturally assume that i was pestering Jacob with 1000's of questions.

The menu of the night included --

appetizers;
asparagus wrapped in puff pastry -- simple and delicious -- i was the first to try, but that's the perk of being the first to arrive
caponata bruschetta -- equally as tasty and prepare
grilled fresh mozzarella and bread skewers with tomatoes, red onion and pesto vinaigrette

salad;
green salad with manchego, apples and caramelized walnuts
- or-
pacific rim ceasar salad -- i did not try this salad but seemed to be a favorite amoung the crowd

entree;

chicken sates with red curry peanut dipping sauce

coffee rubbed new york steak -- this is one of those steaks where they don't cook to order but you have no complaints either. i'm pretty particular about how i like my steaks and i no complaints.....no one else did either.

side dishes;
baby vegetables in a balsamic glaze
crunchy roasted rosemary potatoes

dessert;

ok anyone who knows me knows that i don't really prefer dessert as i would often prefer to have another drink instead. in this case i happened to have several desserts. yes i had two of the chocolate kona coffee mousse. i then preceeded to have the mixed berry, white chocolate and lemon cream trifle once. making the grand total 3 desserts. drinks -- i'm not quite sure.

Everything flowed very naturally and smoothly. Julie introduced the place under the concept of the "mi casa es su casa" and made all guests feel welcome. Each dish was introduced as it was being served. Everything was displayed on several different buffets and guests were welcome to taste as they felt approrpiate. At the end of the evening each guest was given a booklet with receipes on each item we had at dinner this evening. I have to admit I have not tried to replicate any of them, but as i read through it again as i FINALLY finish this post, they all seem to be fairly to make. That evening was one of the more unique dining experiences I have ever had and consider it a pleasure to have met the staff at the art of entertaining

new feature

beth and i are both big fans of john cusack and (most) of his movies, including high fidelity. in homage to this, we are introducing a weekly food-related top 5. please comment your own responses...we'd love to hear them. note - the views expressed in the top 5 pertain to the poster and are not a consensus.

this week: top 5 gastronomical guilty pleasures
5) little debbie snack cakes: oatmeal cream pies, zebra cakes, strawberry shortcake rolls. need i go on?
4) salami and cream cheese rolls. these are always the perfect snack for any situation. they're fabulous.
3) cold pizza. i'd rather have leftovers cold than reheated. especially for breakfast.
2) butter. lathered on bread, whipped with sugar in the first steps of cookie-making, sauteing vegetables. mmm....maybe i shouldn't give paula deen such a hard time.
1) white castle. anytime of day. and i don't even have to be drunk.

eating adventures in chillicothe

chillicothe. ohio's 1st and 3rd capital. home of the chillicothe paints, sumburger, and three (yes, count them, three) large correctional institutions. not exactly a culinary mecca.

not sure what to expect and having been promised 3 free meals per day from the va, i arrived in chilli with limited provisions. which i stored on top of the radiator.

i soon realized i would not eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily in the dining hall with all the patients. even if it is free, i could not deal with hospital food. and since one cannot survive on luna bars alone, i made my way to kroger's, but also out to see what the chillicothe restaurant scene could offer.
the first stop was the old canal smokehouse. i have to start by saying, i do not like barbeque. i (yes, this is blasphemy) do not like montgomery inn. sloppy joes, also out. so this is kind of a funny first choice, but it is a really cute looking place and i have been trying to expand my horizons. plus, the pharmacy resident who was taking me out to dinner for my birthday suggested it.
for an appetizer, we ordered the onion rings. coated with coconut. and they were huge. the combination of coconut and onion was oddly satisfying, although there were way too many even for two people.

for dinner i ordered the pulled pork and brisket combo. i had never had brisket, so i wanted to give it a go. the plate was heaped with food, and there was cornbread and veggies (over cooked and nasty) on the side. while i steered clear of the barbeque sauce offerings on the table, i thought the both meats had a good, light smoke flavor. the meat was pretty dry, but that's fine with me because i don't like greasy meat. for my first brisket experience, i liked it well enough to order again sometime. and i was totally stuffed. not even room for dessert.

while i was taking this photo, the people at the next table said, "excuse me" and i could feel my face starting to turn red, worried that my fear would be realized and i would be interrogated about my food photography. fortunately though, they just wanted to know what i was drinking because they thought it looked so refreshing. it was a blue moon, and i guess any beer with an orange floating in it looks refreshing to people eating barbeque and clearly drinking too much wine.

next up - the taste of chillicothe. we saw the advertisement for it and just had to check it out. i'm envisioning something similar to the taste of cincinnati; lots of booths, beer, rides, bands, people. yeah. there were exactly six restaurants represented at the taste of chillicothe. one was mcdonald's. not very promising. the offerings were as follows:

mcdonald's: sweet tea

red lobster: shrimp (actually the best shrimp i've ever had from red lobster) and some kind of soup i threw away.

old canal smokehouse: pulled pork or brisket sandwich.

rooster's: wings. the hottest sauce offered was called donkey. i don't eat wings. i gave mine to matt, the pharmacy resident.

dakota's roadhouse: wings. matt ate mine.

mona lisa cafe: the mediterranean restaurant in town. hummus or baba gannouj. there weren't many takers of the latter, so that's what i had. it was spicy and really not very good.

there was a good cover band at the taste, and there was a crowd of about 200. a friend of mine from chilli said she had never heard of it, so maybe it's the first year and they are just getting started. kudos to them. one bonus over cincinnati's - cover charge was $5 and you could get a taste from each place, rather than paying separately at each one. although given how little i ate, i guess really that didn't end up being a plus.

chalk

a couple weeks ago i celebrated my second annual 29th birthday. we had a pretty fantastic evening at chalk food + wine. we were in the wine room and had a condensed menu (of my choosing). organizing was a breeze, and my husband did a wonderful job with the help of leslie, their coordinator. i had the prosciutto and melon, the polenta with jalapeno, the barramundi (fish, for those of you who don't know. i didn't until a few days before ordering it), and the peanut butter pie. really i included the prosciutto and melon on the menu just out of curiousity. i'm always intrigued by meat and sweet. i've put chocolate-fountain chocolate on roast beef at wedding receptions before, much to the chagrin of those unlucky enough to be seated at my table. that inspiration came from the movie chocolat. anyway, the combination was quite good. that and the peanut butter pie were my favorite parts of the meal. there was also a lot of sharing going on, and i also thought the fries were delicious, although salty.

the starters
i like the visual appeal. it makes me happy to eat pretty food.

the main event

first is the barramundi. i, of course, was a bad blogger and lost the menu description, so this will be a visual tour and not much more.

the pig with jalapeno cornbread.the lamb. note mushrooms in background.the trout.

i did take some flack from certain friends for not having a beef or chicken dish, but whatever.

finally, the desserts. i thought the peanut butter dessert was fantastic, but one of my friends complained she thought it tasted burnt. it was covered in super sinful dark chocolate, so i think that is where she got the taste of char. doesn't it look like fun?

strawberry pannacotta. the silver swirly sugar tickled me pink.
my only complaint: they put the fact i was turning 30 right up there on the menu for everyone to see.