Best of the Best 2010 (and 2009)

So this is the second year in a row we have been voted Best of the Best by the readers of the Union Bulletin (our WW daily newspaper).  Which is pretty cool for a number of reasons.  One, at least we aren't the only business in the category being voted upon (drycleaner, dogwash, gourmet grocery, community college).  Two, we received zero votes from anybody that works for Graze, or owns Graze, or is a relative of a Graze employee/owner.  Three, we solicited zero votes from friends, acquaintances, customers, or mailing list members.  We feel we won the silly thing with a clean conscious.

It is really nice to be thought of as the Best... but then again three years ago when Graze Catering was barely know (and we were also the best caterer in town, thank you very much) the Whitman College catering service, which does very very little catering off campus won Best of the Best.  So we aren't about to let a little vote in the UB go to our heads.  Seriously now, how many people even vote for the category of Caterer?

I believe we are the best catering business in Walla Walla, not because people voted for us, but because we do a very nice job, for a fair price, with real food (as much as we can get from our local farmers)... that we make with love and care and attention.  We are proud of what we do everyday, and we are always trying to get better.  If you voted for us... thank you very much, and if you have been to one of our events and enjoyed the food enough to tell someone else about it... thank you very much, and if you have hired us (and hopefully would like to hire us again)... thank you very much.  And if you have read this far... thank you very much (don't you have anything better to do?).

[True story: In Sacramento the free weekly SN&R, ran the Best of the Best Issue every year... this was way before online voting, mobile check ins, smart phone banking, and facebook, so the vote was entirely paper and pencil balloting that readers actually had to fold and place into an envelope and put in their mailbox.  This complete train wreck of a restaurant stuffed the ballot box with their name for the category of 'best crabcake', even though they were some kind of Italian Fusion meets Neighborhood Bar mom and pop joint that maybe served ten dinners a night and probably served frozen pre-made crabcakes.  They win, then proceed to make one of those vinyl signs that read "BEST CRABCAKES IN SACRAMENTO!  Turn Right Here!" at the freeway exit.  I laughed at the absurdity of it all every time I exited the freeway.  The next year the free weekly changed the rules and made every ballot have at least 25% of the categories filled out to be valid, while mentioning nameless certain winners in years past had probably been ballot box stuffing.  At least the restaurant owners had the good sense to ballot stuff a lame category and not "best Italian" or "best fine dining"]
 
Cheers

Cattlemen's Association

What do you do to get your mind distracted from extreme anxiety?  I like to play games. 

Lets roll play.  Say you are going to serve 315 people, and you have done this bunches of times, and the math always works out, but there is always, and I mean always, this nagging question in the back of your mind that says "what if we run out?".  What if the guys in the cowboy hats just decide to eat more than they have in the past tonight?  What if a platter of food is dropped?  What if, what if, what if?

In the mad rush to get everything there, and on time, and fresh, and perfect; some wiggle room is always built in if dissaster strikes.  Which means almost always we have fifteen to twenty minutes to kill while waiting to serve our guests. 

So I like play games.  One of my favorites is the over/under game.  Ask any question regarding the event that is quantifiable, and then have everyone guess over or under the number.  Something like "how many bridesmaids/groomsmen will there be in the ceremony?" Or, "How much salad/prime rib/chicken breasts/spanikopita will be left over?".  But my favorite game is "guess the closest".  Every employee guesses how many or much of something is at the event.  I always put up the money, ten or twenty bucks seems to do the trick.  The servers and cooks guess a number and the closest wins.  It causes a lot of anxiety and wrinkled brows, and a healthy distraction from the pressure packed environment.

Our last big question was "guess how many cowboy hats are in the room?"  for the Cattlemen's Association Dinner hosted at the Walla Walla Fairgrounds.  Ten dollars went to the winner. 

Judging from the picture above what is your guess?

Dinner was a huge offering of buffet choices: prime rib and its accompaniments, spinach salad with mandarin oranges avocado red onion and toasted almonds, broccoli salad with sun dried tomatoes golden garlic provolone and balsamic dressing, pea salad with ham and cheddar, buttermilk dressing coleslaw, red potatoes and onions in brown sauce, brians wicked awesome potato salad, cauliflower broccoli and carrots with butter sauce.... whew it was big.  And tasty too, kind of a super fresh down home country cooking with a dash more culinary flair than mama provides. 

For the record, 15 prime rib at 14 lb averages serves right about 340 guests.  And there were 63 cowboy hats.

Cheers

Freddy's Birthday Party

I have eaten green mole exactly once in my life.  It was at Freddy's Birthday Party, which as I recall, was a big deal for the grandmother of Freddy (as he was her favorite) and the family threw a huge bash with lots of great food, dancing, and buckets and buckets of cold Budweiser in cans.  Freddy and his brothers and cousins made up the entire dishwashing staff at Paragarys in Sacramento, where I was a newbie pizza/pantry cook, and where I met my lovely wife, and where I fell in love with cooking and restaurants, and where I met Patrick who was the sous chef, and became a short time roomate, and eventually my best man at the wedding, and who now is the king of the Sacramento catering and dining scene, running both Culinary Specialists and Mulvaney Building and Loan restaurant. (hows that for a recap?)

The party was a blast, it was deep in the heart of scary ghetto Sacramento, not too far from where we eventually bought our first house to fix up.  Patrick, Becca, and I were the only whiteys at the party, and we were treated like honored guests... and implored to eat and eat and eat.  The food was made with as much love as a Mexican Grandmother can muster.  And green mole was one of the dishes, which Patrick explained was made with pumpkin seeds, and it was awesome.

Green Mole finished and ready for chicken.

Braised pork ready to crisp in the oven and then gets our chili sauce.

Con Agra called again and we cooked for their all employee luncheon.  We were supposed to make green chili chicken (its this tex-mexy homestyle casserole style dish I ripped off from my mom) and braised pork with red chili sauce, which at its core is really carnitas (and is the base recipe for the pork we serve on our sandwich shop torta).  All was well, but when I started to make the chicken sauce, I remembered Freddy's Grandmother and had to try my hand at green mole rather than the green chili sauce.  With a bit of assistance from Diane Kennedy's "My Mexico" cookbook the mole was superb.  And when the guests at Con Agra asked "who made the mole?" they never expected to hear "me".  And when the guests asked "is your grandma Mexican?" they never expected to hear "no".  And when the guest said "only my grandmother makes green mole, and that was really good" he paid us the highest compliment possible.

Green mole got me thinking about Patrick, and Paragary's, and the old days when I was a pizza cook and Becca thought I was super cute with my flour dusted forearms.  So we made pizza for Frances' (our Frankie, kind of close to Freddy, huh) Birthday party.  Here is the spanish chorizo, red torpedo pepper, and jalepeno pie, for the adults, the kids got cheese.  And in honor of Freddy's Grandma, a shot of our pulled pork torta with a crisp and cold Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Cheers

Ronald McDonald House

Our daughter was born three years ago today.  It wasn't a very happy time.  She was thirteen and a half weeks early and weighed one and a half pounds.  She was cared for in the Spokane Sacred Heart NICU.  Exactly one hundred days later she came home with us, a whopping 4 pounds and 14 ounces. 

Our son was just turning four.  The catering business was still a zero employee show with negative winter-time income.  Becca was not able to work at her hairstyling business.  It was a scary time.  We spent every weekend in Spokane with little to do except wait by an incubator.  The hotel was depressing, and expensive; and eating out was depressing, and expensive. 

And then we were referred to the Ronald McDonald House.  We had a nice little room, a place to cook our own meals, and toys and video games and books for our son.  He still says we should go back someday... and we always say "hopefully not". 

Today our daughter is healthy and stong (and still tiny).  The business is doing well.  We are so thankful to be able to give back to such a wonderful charity that is there for so many people in their time of need.  Below is our "press release".

Three years ago John and Rebecca Lastoskie gave birth to a baby girl they named Frances Kay. She was born 13 and a half weeks early, weighed one and a half pounds, and was very sick. After a painfully long and exhausting 100 days in the Spokane Sacred Heart NICU, and just shy of five pounds, Frances was sent home with her parents and brother to Walla Walla. Three years later she is a happy and healthy little girl who likes to annoy her brother... and amuse her parents.

For over three months the Lastoskie Family travelled between Walla Walla and Spokane, checking in on little Frances while trying to maintain two small businesses, and a sense of normalcy for their son. During that time the family stayed at the Ronald McDonald House for short periods and they have never forgotten the comfort and calm the House provided.

It is with great pleasure and a sincere gratitude of thanks that Graze – ‘a place to eat’ will donate 10% of its sales for the week of January 17th to January 22nd to the Ronald McDonald House of Spokane.

Cheers

John and Becca Lastoskie

Graze Index

(This piece of self indulgence has turned into a bit of tradition for me, so please forgive any overly sentimental chatter.) 

Four and a half years ago I started this two-bit little catering business with big ideas and dreams... with no clients, employees, advertising; or any idea how to go about getting the above mentioned.  Things have gone fairly well all in all.  A few bumps and bruises mixed in with a great many triumphs have paved the way.  The part I am most proud of is how utterly consistent we have become.  Just one solid meal after another.  Yes we have done some glitzy jobs, and some over the top weddings, and cooked in some crazy locations in some dastardly weather, but really it's the everyday plain jane catering meals we put out that make me smile the most.  Because after you count up the glitz, and the over the top, and the obscure, the vast majority of our guest counts are just solid, and honest, and cooked with love meals.

In honor of 2010, I present you with the Graze Catering Index (with apologies to Harper's Index). All totals are Graze Catering only, and do not reflect numbers from Graze 'a place to eat', our sandwich shop.

Guests served in 2006 --- 604
Guests served in 2007 --- 3,319
Guests served in 2008 --- 8,053
Guests served in 2009 --- 12,166
Guests served in 2010 --- 15,468

Number of events 2006 --- 17
Number of events 2007 --- 66
Number of events 2008 --- 83
Number of events 2009 --- 176
Number of events 2010 --- 194

Number of events 150+ guests 2006 --- 0
Number of events 150+ guests 2007 --- 2
Number of events 150+ guests 2008 --- 11
Number of events 150+ guests 2009 --- 16
Number of events 150+ guests 2010 --- 26

Number of weddings/rehearsals 2006 --- 0
Number of weddings/rehearsals 2007 --- 6
Number of weddings/rehearsals 2008 --- 18
Number of weddings/rehearsals 2009 --- 22
Number of weddings/rehearsals 2010 --- 22

2010: Sandwiches Served by Graze - a place to eat (dine in, delivery, and pick up) --- 29,619.
**** Look out McDonalds!!!

Thanks to all our past and future clients and guests. We look forward to serving you again.

Cheers

New Phone - Lamb Braise, Old Phone - Pork Braise

I got a new phone the other day, its got a great camera.  I hate the phone, but the camera is great.  Here is a lamb shoulder braise headed to the oven.  I love braising lamb like this.  No pre searing, no sauteing the vegetables, you just have to heat the lamb stock and white wine and lightly oil the meat surface before heading to the 350 degree oven.  Once the top browns, the meat gets rotated, brown side into liquid, and the process repeats itself until the meat is tender, but not fall apart tender like beef short ribs or pork carnitas.  Reduce the braising liquid a bit and it is perfect with some creamy polenta, and roasted winter vegetables. 

 Here is our pork braise headed to the oven.  We put tin foil over the tops of these and don't uncover them until the final 30 minutes of cooking.  This ends up shredded and on our pulled pork torta at the sandwich shop.  The key is the salt, 1 Tbs per 5 lbs pork shoulder.  And then the chilis, onions, and garlic.  We use guajillos, pasilla, new mexico, and japonese.  Look at the photo difference.  Its all tinny and washed out. 

Dinner with the family.  Papparadelle, mild italian sausage, spinach, garlic, chili flakes, extra virgin olive oil, chicken stock, parmesan. 

Cheers

Mayonnaise Week

Every so often we like to do fun things at the sandwich shop.  We had a "put our phone number in your phone and get a 10% discount or free brownie or free drink" Week.  We had a Latronka eating contest and a "pastrami" Week.  We had a "happy birthday to us" Week.  We just finished up Mayonnaise Week, a celebration of all things good about the creamy loveliness that is Mayo. 

You can find out about these fun and exciting things by joining our e-mail list.  It's easy, send us an e-mail asking us to join and we will let you.  No expensive initiation fees, no credit checks... its easy, its fun (kinda).

 

Here is our son drawing the winners for Mayonnaise Week, from the super special Mayonnaise Week Mayo Tub.  And below is the e-mail we sent out to all those e-mail list people.

Greetings Sandwich People,

We try to do things right at Graze ("right" being a highly subjective idea that we tend to always put ourselves on the correct side of the "right/wrong" continuum).

Mayonnaise, or Mayo for short, is one of those things that always makes us question just how "right" we are.

Consider the following "rightness" scale I have in my head regarding this French classic, descending from most right to least right.
- hand whisked, using fresh peeled garlic and local organic eggs, pure olive oil, lemon, kosher salt
- food processor, peeled garlic, fresh eggs, pure olive oil, lemon, kosher salt
- food processor, peeled garlic, fresh eggs, canola oil, lemon, kosher salt
- best foods mayo (hellman's for you east coasters)
- food processor mayo, jarred mashed garlic (this stuff is toxic, ruins most everything), fresh eggs, lemon, kosher salt
- assorted mayo brands
- heavy duty five gallon bucket industrial strength generic mayo


Now as much as we would like to make mayo for our sandwiches and sauces daily... it just is not practical. And as safe as it is to make mayo from egg yolks, this risk/reward ratio on our part is much to high, and the health department would flip out and make us put warning labels all over the sandwich shop.

So we choose to use Best Foods as our only mayo. But here is the deal. Five gallons of Best Foods Mayo costs us $62.50. Any idea how much the generic industrial heavy duty stuff sells for.... $32. Yep, we are idiots. But without Best Foods our basil mayo would be lackluster, our russian dressing would suffer, our chipolte mayo would be bland, the caesar dressing would taste greasy.

Best Foods is so good, so fantastic, so that much better than the alternative, so as close as you can get to a house made mayo without the tiny health risk while being incredibly non-perishable, that we are going to celebrate it the only way we know how. This entire week at Graze is Mayonnaise Week!!!!

Here is how it works. Come in. Order. Then say "Bring Out the Best". For every sandwich you order you get to place your name in... wait for it.... wait for it... the Best Foods Mayo Gallon Tub. And we will hold a drawing at the end of the week and award the lucky winners their choice of a Graze T-shirt or a Graze Handbag. Three winners this glorious glorious Mayonnaise Week.


Cheers

Random Appetizers

We had the pleasure to make a few appetizers we haven't done in a while.  First up, a decidedly non-winter app that a client insisted we make... sometimes I am so glad we do things we would not normally do.  She said she wanted some goat cheese and sauteed vegetables with crostinis.  So we found these little green zuchinni and sliced them into thin rounds and just super quick sauteed them in olive oil.  Then we hard sauteed some red peppers and piquillo peppers and added really large thinly sliced garlic.  For the goat cheese we pureed some basil with lemon and salt, and then whipped up a batch of goat cheese mousse.  A new favorite for anytime of the year.  Thanks for the inspiration Julie!

A twice baked red potato, filled with yukon gold pureed potatoes, with cheddar and pepperjack cheese, bacon, and chives, topped with paprika.  So yummy all Brian and I could do was think of breakfast.  So we popped an egg yolk in the hollowed out and roasted potato, topped it with some bacon and chives, and baked it in the oven for a few minutes... until the yolk was barely set... and it gushes all over the plate when cut into.  Yeah, it was one of those kitchen moments of bliss.

Who doesn't love a good Thai spring roll?  Here is the ingredient list for our spring rolls.  Rice paper wrapper, somen noodles, rice wine vinegar, mixed greens, finely shredded carrots, mung beans, clover sprouts, cilantro, basil, and mint.  Packed with flavor they are super tasty.  Although pretty much everyone in our kitchen hates making them, they are time consuming beyond belief with that many ingredients.  We serve them with sweet chili dipping sauce and/or our homemade peanut sauce (you know that gloppy kind that reminds you of wallpaper paste but coats your mouth with peanut butter and hoisin flavor... not that kind.)  Our peanut sauce is a puree of sauteed red torpedo peppers and garlic and cilantro stems, peanut butter, lime, salt, and coconut milk.  Its fantastic.

A dim and bad photo of our fall dessert tartletts.  Pumpkin pie and chocolate pecan pie.

Cheers

Reininger

We have had the pleasure of working for and with Reininger Winery for a long time now.  Their annual Holiday Barrell Tasting Party was one of our very first big winery jobs.  Appetizers for 150 people for a two hour party.  I was scared silly at the time.  These days 150 person appetizer parties are kind of run of the mill.

For this year's Fall Release Weekend we were happy to do a first ever for Reininger, a tasting and pairing of small plates for a group of 33 guests.  Here is how the evening broke down.  Guests had a couple of small passed apps as Chuck Reininger gave them a tour of the facility.  Then the show began.  First course was a heirloom squash soup with sage cream, prosciutto di parma, and a mini butternut squash panini with roasted garlic and fried sage - paired with a reserve chardonnay. (here is the dish right before the panini went down for service.)

Second course was a herb de provence crusted pork tenderloin with butter braised brussel sprouts, bacon, and roasted fingerling potatoes - paired with the SoRo Helix. (not pictured)  Third course was a crispy polenta cake/cup filled with Thundering Hooves red wine braised beef ragu, wilted chard and garlic, and parmesan grana (shakily pictured below) - paired with Helix Sangiovese.

The fourth course was a minimalist cassoulet.  Calypso beans from Welcome Table Farm (close to the best beans I have ever had)  The beans are cooked in chicken stock, wine, lamb braising liquid, and thickened with a duck fat roux.  We then incorporated the lamb neck meat, crisp duck confit, and seared cubed saucisson, then topped the whole thing with duck fat mini croutons.  (picture of the lamb braise as it heads to the oven, sorry no pic of finished dish)

The last course was as unlike anything we have ever done.  We poached dried mission figs in helix merlot, then reduced the liquid to a yummy syrup.  Made some marshmallows, and broke off cubes of Girardelli Chocolate.  The whole thing reminded me of a smore, so we added a skewer, and let guests toast up the mallows at their tables over the tea lights.  It was pretty darn good, and pretty fun to do. 

For this years Holiday Barrell Weekend Reininger is switching gears and not doing the appetizer party.  They are planning something much better.  A vertical tasting of Cima (their super tuscan themed red) led by Chuck, followed by a really simple buffet meal of our red wine beef ragu, creamy polenta, and roasted fall vegetables with sage brown butter. 

Cheers!!!

Thanksgiving x 3

We served Thanksgiving three times over the last two and a half weeks.  First we served 90 staff at the Walla Walla Clinic.  Seven days later we served 170 Corps of Engineers staff and family.  And six days later we served 130 Con Agra employees (a new mexico version, chipolte stuffing, and jalepeno and red torpedo pepper cornpone (cornpone you ask? it's a midwest corn casserole I tweaked from my grandmother and mother's holiday table)).  That makes 490 Thanksgiving dinners served.  Brian and I both do not want to see another turkey until November 2011. 

And we do it right too.  Gravy is made from turkey stock.  Stuffing from leftover sourdough and italian bread from the sandwich shop.  Potatoes from scratch... etc etc.  Turkeys are salted and herbed for three days prior.  And the best part is the leftovers turn into sandwich shop specials... that are truly fantastic.

Thanksgiving soup.  Turkey gravy, thinned with stock, leftover turkey scraps, sauteed celery and carrots, fresh thyme.  Its like a full thanksgiving meal in a cup.

 And the special sandwich... like a thanksgiving meal between bread.

And the two combined... comatose heaven.  (And can you believe it.  490 meals served... and not a single picture of the roasted bird.  I am an idiot.)