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.)

Touched

A couple of weeks ago, around 2pm or some other non-descript slow restaurant time, a single college age student had a sandwich and left us a little note, semi-crumpled on her dining table.

This is our first ever piece of customer generated sandwich art.  And the kind and thoughtful words give me that lump in your throut, 'I kinda want to cry feeling'.

Here is what is says:

"I'm at Graze by myself.  I ordered a Turkey sandwich.  I miss Michigan.  Walla Walla is a very different environment.  I miss the forests and the the smells.  I wish I felt better about my move.  Good food is important to me that's why I came to Graze.  My dad and mom would eat here.  They both have worked in the restaurant industry for their whole lives.  They taught me the difference between a good dish and a bad dish."

We have had this little scrap of paper push-pinned to the wall ever since she left it. 

Cheers and Thank You to the young lady.

"the chipolte incident"

I read this book a while back called... oh I can't remember it now.  But it was about famous chef guys and gals and their own personal pro cooking screw ups, nightmares, horror stories.  Batali, Keller, that dude with the famous 'best restaurant in the world' Spanish guy, Bourdain, all the usual suspects.  It made me smile, remembering the time I let two gallons of fryer grease overflow the catch pot onto the floor of Creektown Cafe (rip) to begin a day that would see us serve a hundred or so lunch patrons.  Or the time (as a very newbie cook) I was making a batch of pesto in a blender.  Apparently I was unhappy with how quickly the basil was working its way toward the blades. so holding the blade end of a chefs knife I poked the basil downward with the wooden handle, only to hit the spinning blades, nearly cutting myself... and to the horror of the other cooks immediately proceeded to reattempt the failed exercise... hitting the blades again.

This definitely not a mistake!  Roast delicata squash, acorn squash, garlic, onions, rutabegas,

sage brown butter. For a tiny little wedding this weekend.

   

I recall all of this because we had an accident the other day at the sandwich shop I would like to share with you.  It went like this, the cook, great person, newish to the trade, was making chipolte mayo for the pulled pork torta (have you tried it yet? chile garlic onion braised pork, smashed avocado, fresh cilantro, our house quick pickled jalepenos, tomatoes... I digress).  The secret recipe goes like this, one can of a certain brand of chipoltes, nine cups of mayo, blend in food processor till smooth.  The smoothing out process can take awhile, chipoltes can be a bit tough, and we don't want any chuncky bits.  Something made our young cook unhappy so she stuck her spatula into the running machine.  Of course it hit the blade (I could have told her that...) and the whole machine started to rattle, and shake, and immediately spurt chipolte mayo everywhere.  She panicked, and rather than shut the machine off, she tried to dislodge the spatula, which only seemed to make the machine spew faster.  By the time she got the thing stopped, the aftermath was not pretty. 

Being the extraordinary boss that I am, I immediately started laughing and taking as many pictures as I could before the clean up started.  And now for your viewing pleasure, the day that will be fondly remembered in 'GRAZE - a place to eat' history as "the chipolte incident".

It hit everything...

...the ceiling...

...across the entire cook area...

... into the dining area...

... it was awesome!

Cheers

pro-fesh-uh-nall

The difference between my camera phone and the professional photographer's lens is well... jaw dropping.  Photos from Brenda and Keith's Wedding Reception.  Courtesy of Wilton Photography.

Summer's finest.  All purchased at the farmer's market Saturday Morning and prepared for 200+ guests Saturday Night.  Sweet corn saute, zuchinni, basil, Maria's perfect cherry tomatoes. 

Prime rib.  Don't you hate grey prime rib, thats what you get when its cut too hot, and placed in a chafing dish.  We carve ours in back, keep it warm with a heat lamp, cook it between medium rare and medium, and serve it on a crisp white platter.  Salt and herb cured for three days prior to service... we don't gloat... but yeah its probably the best prime rib in town... by a longshot.

 Kimi's Rockstar Salad Mix, and just cut vegetables with a couple of side dressings.  Kimi is the proprietor of Stone's Throw Farm... amazing salad greens.

Ron's green beans, sun dried tomatoes, toasted almonds, parmesan, extra virgin olive oil, golden garlic.  Do you have any idea how long it takes to trim and blanch 40 lbs of green beans?  Answer... too long.

Cheers

fun stuff

The last few weeks we have done some fun stuff.  Mostly winery thingamabobbers and whatchamacallits.  A trip up the hill and dinner in a gazebo for Cadaretta, family style dinner at Dunham, appetizers at Longshadows, buffet at Waters, plated dinner at Amavi (poor JF, the winemaker for Pepperbridge, I think he ate at three dinners of ours in four days, and had a few sandwiches in there as well), wedding in Dayton, and ran all over Walla Walla delivering sandwiches. 

Here are some random photos.

 The Cadaretta gazebo built on some vineyard property (near the Seven Hills Vineyard on the Oregon side of the border).  The gazebo at sunset and the inside of it setting up for dinner.

 Brian's paper thin crostinis with white bean arrabiatta and seared shrimp.

A special at the sandwich shop.  Grandpa's favorite sandwich was a huge slice of tomato from his garden, lots of mayo, salt and pepper, and a fat slice of raw onion.  We upscaled it a bit... I still think his is better.

So this picture looks pretty horrid.  It is tiramisu we served for the Washigton Wine Commision field trip to Walla Walla.  We did a family style dinner for 70 guests, and finished up with this dessert.  I swear this picture doesn't do it justice.  We don't normally make dessert... but we are starting to rethink that with our tiramisu.

Same deal.  This looks bad right.  But it was killer.  We cut yellow, green and red heirloom tomatoes in half, removed the seeds, stuffed them with fresh mozzarella, egg washed the cut sides, and breaded them with panko bread crumbs, then shallow pan fried the breaded side, then flipped them and roasted them on the grill to just get them warm, then drizzled pesto over the top.  You will never want to have a regular caprese salad again after eating these.

The view of Walla Walla from the Cadaretta Vineyard site.

Cheers

Summer is dead... Long live the Summer

Ask any farmer, vineyard manager, gardener, and avid farmer's market shopper and he or she will tell you 2010 was not your typical Walla Walla growing season.  Spring was cold and long.  Summer was mild and never really showed up until late July.  I think July 4th recorded a high of 84! (shocking considering our first four July 4ths as Walla Walla residents came in at 102, 104, 108, and around 119, or at least they felt that way)  And when our summer heat finally did arrive it didn't come with any gusto, every night cooled considerably, which seems to be a major contributor to tomato ripening (or at least that what my farmer friends say).  So here we are, the last days of September, a couple of weeks later than usual for grape harvest and crush, and the weather is just a perfect 80 everyday, with pleasant nights, and those tomatoes I dream about in July are here in abundance... and all I want is for this to last for at least another month.  That seems fair considering how inconsistent our weather has been this year.

My favorite tomato photo of the year.

Heirloom roma tomato, oven dried, on a wafer thin crostini, extra virgin olive oil, and a couple of leaves of fresh thyme.  Boring to look at, fantastic to eat.  We were going to serve these with a bit of goat cheese... glad we didn't, they were so clean tasting served so simply.

Fresh picked local corn soup, thyme cream, and prosciutto bits.  I told Brian (the cook) to infuse some cream with a ridiculous amount of fresh thyme.  It was so powerful the cream was faintly green, and by itself tasted rather medicinal and unpleasant.  But as a component for the smooth sweet corn soup it was perfect.

So we have been obsessed with tomatoes and watermelons ever since we did a large salad for a wedding in July.  This was our sixth or seventh version of the paring done for a wine dinner.  We blanched and peeled all the cherry tomatoes, flash fried some sweet cayenne peppers, splashed some extra virgin and kosher salt, and drizzled the whole thing with some balsamic glaze (which is the part I would rather take back) and a tiny dash of smoked paprika. 

The most lovely kitchen assistant I have ever had.  This little lady (who is also my little lady) came to Terra Blanca Winery with me for a cooking demonstration/class.  She was a big help, and looks super cute in the Graze apron.

Cheers

Well Now....

Summer has been a blast.  It has been so long since our last post we might as well do a summary.  Since June we have done 18 Walla Walla Weddings, ranging from down home country cookouts to three course plated affairs; numerous conpany events, and lots of medium and little stuff.  Here are some photos from the last two months.

Took the boy to his first Mariners game... they lost in 13 innings... he cried.

Our version of dessert, cobbler, or we make brownies, or we cut pre-made cheesecake.... or we order it from the patisserie.

We tie, salt, and herb all our roasts for three days.  Tenderloin headed to the oven.

Tracy our Event Manager tending the buffet.

One of my favorite things to make, gravalax.  Three days with salt, sugar, lemon, gin, and dill.  Served with creme fraiche, capers, and fresh dill, stunningly good.

Pork loin bone in, coriander, fennel, garlic.  Possibly the best thing we make.  Rice salad, japanese black rice, basmati, sauteed red peppers, carrots, marjoram, parsley, red wine vinaigrette

Stuffed portabella mushrooms, sauteed zuchinni, red peppers, roast garlic, melted provolone, roasted portabella.  Awesome.

The evolution of a dish.  Tomato and watermelon salad with balsamic reduction, and chive sticks.  Super yummy.  And then we needed an intermezzo for a wine dinner, so we reduced it to a single skewer, blanched and peeled the cherry tomato, and sat the seedless watermelon in a tiny pool of balsamic glaze.  A touch of kosher salt and extra virgin olive oil and we were in business.

Seared shrimp, white bean arrabiatta crostini.  Needs a bit of minced parsley to really make it pop, don't you think. 

Our first wedding reception at Waterbrook Winery.  240 guests for appetizers.  A lovely day.

Ridiculous

You want to know what is ridiculous?  Having the last picture of food posted on this blog be asparagus.  It is the middle of August for goodness sake.

We really do cook seasonally, I swear.  It has just been busy here. 

Cheers

The Month In Pictures

This blog has a problem.  There aren't enough pictures.  So to mix things up... here are a bunch of pictures without a lot of words.

Blanched asparagus salad, smoked trout, potato crisps, tarragon mayo... dinner for 8 at Longshadows.

A shockingly similar plate arrangement for the same dinner!  Beef tenderloin, sauce bordelaise, roasted asparagus, roast walla walla sweet onions.

Chipolte adobo avocado sliders for the wine bloggers at Figgins Family Estate luncheon.

Castoldi Farm roasted baby carrots and walla walla sweet onions, on the sheet pan prior to service... for Northwest Farm Credit party at Watermill Winery.

Nora's Hawaiian Wedding Reception, an appetizer of fruit skewers and citrus mint dipping sauce.  The kahlua pork was really yummy.

A less than stellar photo of some guests at Dumas Station's wine club party.  The view was lovely, and the party ever so pleasant.

Is is possible to mess up a salad with Stone Throw Farm's greens?

Have I mentioned we do not do dessert?  Unless it is something as simple as this mixed berry shortcake, our sweet cream biscuit, whipped cream, and the bounty from our farmer's fields.

Does this guy look like a banker to you?  Attempted to eat five Latronkas in under 40 minutes.  Each Latronka weighs in at 17.5 ounces with 8 ounces of pastrami.  He ate two in fifteen minutes before calling it quits... three days later some other dude ate 2.5 in eighteen minutes.  Did we create a monster? (Editors Note: It has come to my attention this was not the case, that the challenger ate only 1.75 in eighteen minutes.  Keeping this fellow as the current Latronka eating champion.)

A wedding in the gazebo at Pioneer Park.  The short bald guy is Brian, our outstanding cook.  This is what we do to make food taste good.  Cook as much as possible on site.

Coriander, fennel, garlic pork loin roast, bone in, with creamy polenta, wilted swiss chard, roast baby carrots, and sauteed snap peas.  For Pepperbridge's Vine Club Luncheon. 

Lots more went on the last month, but per usual we failed to bring a camera or remembered to take pictures.  Needless to say it has been busy and a whole lot of fun.  The sun has finally decided to come out here... what an odd spring and early summer... so tomatoes should be appearing this weekend or the next... which always makes me happy.

Cheers

Palmares

Palmares is a cycling term meaning a list of great accomplishments.  Here is our version of palmares.

"Dear Tracy and John and all the Graze staff,
    We can't thank you enough for the wonderful meal you catered for Megan and Malcom's wedding!  All of you who served were so friendly and helpful.  The guests raved about the quality and the flavors of every dish, and it was beautiful as well.
    When we came into town on Thursday and had lunch at Graze, I was certain the wedding food would be delicious.  Knowing that helped pave the way for a relaxed and enjoyable evening.
Many thanks,
    Sally"

I tell brides, and mom's of brides, and very rarely grooms and dad's of the bride or the groom... to relax, have fun, don't worry about what time it is or what event is scheduled to take place next (if events are scheduled) (the really nervous ones I counsel to not wear a watch... and I get thanked for this piece of advice more often than any other).  I tell them they are throwing a big party, and their only job is to have fun... and provide a nice time for their guests. 

And when you can relax, and not worry about stuff, you really do have a good time.  We feel honored to be able to do that for our wedding parties.

Cheers