But, things are really looking up around here.  We now have the Thunder, our local NBA team.  Devon is erecting a huge tower in downtown that will forever change our city’s skyline.  The Myriad Gardens have become a amazing place to spend an afternoon and I cannot get enough of the amazing restaurants and multiple art districts.

Law Man and I love our date nights.  Last week was no different.  I was feeling a little under the weather and he was running late so I killed a little time on Twitter.  @LudivineOKC was serving a Seafood Stew and it sounded delicious.  Much to my surprise, when LM walked in and said we were heading to Ludivine I was THRILLED and I knew exactly what I was going to order.  The Stew was delicious and I got a crazy hair that I could recreate this little bit of heaven.

Tuesday I stopped by Whole Foods (Oklahoma even has a Whole Foods now and it is minutes from my house).  I stocked up on fresh seafood (Squid, Scallops and EVEN Mussels) and headed down the bean aisle to find some dark colored lentils.  I measured out the correct amount and checked out.  I was sure not to close off the bag mussels because they “would suffocate” I was told.  Who knew they were still alive in the store?  Probably a stupid question, but I am in the middle of the landlocked states.

It took me a good 24 hours to find the courage to combine the two recipes that I thought I could adjust to create just the meal I was going for, but I did it.  Last night I, Amy Curran, made a seafood stew from scratch….fresh fish and all.  And, it did not disappoint.  I will definitely make this stew again.  Next time I will invite over some friends because it made enough for the entire street.  So, I am officially landlocked no more.

Foodie is all too often viewed in a negative light.  Some think that it implies that you are a luxury snob or knowledge snob.  I strongly disagree.  I will freely admit that I can be a hotel snob and the State Fair continues to yuck me out.  However, foodie is not a term of snobbishness.  Foodie, to me, implies an interest in how food is made, prepared, its cultural background, emotion that is evoked and much, much, more.

Are Foodies emotional eaters?  No, you are totally missing the point.  A Foodie just recognizes that there is often emotion evoked in the smells and tastes of food from our past.  Remember the holiday stuffing?!?!  How can you forget the stuffing?

Foodies only go to exclusive restaurants and eateries?  Again, no.  Foodies like to go to places who think about what they are serving.  They get just as hyped when they are at a BBQ joint in Colorado that serves Fried Green Tomatoes as a side option (I *heart* Kirby Cosmos) as they do when they go to the upscale, all local, ever changing Ludivine here in OKC.

Wikipedia defines a foodie as different from gourmets in that “gourmets are epicures of refined taste, whereas foodies are amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.  Gourmets simply want to eat the best food, whereas foodies want to learn everything about food, both the best and the ordinary, and about the science, industry, and personalities surrounding food.”

They go on to explain, “typical foodie interests and activities include the food industry, wineries and wine tasting, breweries and beer sampling, food science, following restaurant openings and closings and occasionally reopenings, food distribution, food fads, health and nutrition, cooking classes, culinary tourism, and restaurant management.”  For me it Foodie also implies local food, wine, beer, restaurants, grocery stores, farmer’s markets, etc.

You get the picture?!?!  If not, how about a little list to simplify the situation a bit.

You might be a Foodie if:

• you LOVE to take pictures of well plated food…..or any food for that matter.
• you often tell your dining companions that they should pick something to eat that they are “passionate” about.  (Usually they look at you like you are totally crazy.)
• you much prefer to go to a restaurant that has a chef rather than a daily special.
• you have an internal rule to never order the same thing twice.
• you want to be the first of your friends and family to go to a new restaurant or grocery store so you can form your own, unbiased opinion.
• you research restaurants and breweries in cities you visit more than the hotel or shopping.
• you would rather have water than a Budweiser or Coors product.
• every season you pick a dish “to master” and then you make every foodie you know try it and give their opinion.
• you think presentation is as much of a part of the dining experience as the food itself.
• when people ask you how your vacation went and you tell them where you ate.
• you know whether Mangalista is a vegetable, breed of pig, or a type of pasta.

I posted a question into the Twitterverse last week asking, “What are your favorite foodie movies?”  I did not get one single response.  Apparently I am the only one who keeps a running list of foodie movies.  That is a sad state of affairs people.  The only response I did get….I assume….was an invite to the First Annual Foodie Film Festival here in OKC.  I will be attending and if you follow this Primer Series, you will be ready and informed to participate too.

In that vain, I am going to do a mini-series of posts to educate my readers on Foodie Movies.  While, we are going through this, please feel free to make comments, ask questions or just totally disagree.  This should be fun!

To kick things off, how about we talk about 5 similarities between Vampire Movies and Foodie Movies.  Full disclosure** I am not really a fan of vampire movies or television shows with heavy bloodsucking themes.  I understand they are a big deal right now, but they just do not peak my interest.  However, I do think there are some similarities between Vampire Films and Foodie Flims that might help others find an appreciation for the latter.

1. Death(or lack there of) & Food — Universality:  These are themes that have been around for ever and no matter what part of the world you are from you have to have food and you will die.
2. The first kill & Learning to boil an egg– Growth and Initiation:  In most all great Vampire Films and Foodie Flicks there is a great deal of the plot focusing on learning the trade, so to speak.  Learning to master that perfect meal, on one hand.  And mastering the art of surviving eternal life.
3. Flickering candles & Laying out all of the ingredients– Ritual:  Everyone who cooks has some sort of ritual.  I love to spend days researching and planning each course of a good meal.  I hunt all over town for the best ingredients.  Pour myself a glass of red wine.  Then, the ritual of actually preparing the meal begins.  Those of us who adore this process, like to watch the process of others.  Hence another big theme in Foodie Movies.  For Vampire movies, I can only assume it is similar to the ritual of becoming a bloodsucking corpse.  Although the ritual varies it is always present.
4. Incense, chants, exchange of power & Spices, kitchen sounds, food on the lips of the characters – Sensuality:  This can mean sensuality in a sexual way.  But, both types of film appeal to us because of the way they fulfill all of the senses.
5. The Handsome Protagonist & The Kitchen or raw food – Lust:  Let’s just agree that if the sound goes out or the plot spirals in circles, as long as we have something to lust over, we are going to keep watching.

By the way, if I disappear off the face of the earth in the future and someone decides to look at the history on my browser PLEASE tell them I did not run off to join a Vampire Cult….I had to do some research for this little post.

Now, a year after we spent an amazing week in Vancouver, BC for our 10 year wedding anniversary, I have been asked to make recommendations.  My brain immediately went to the blog entry I wrote…..oh wait….intended to write.  Then I surfed the web trying to remember the exact name of the places where pictures like

this….

and this were taken.

I Googled things like “bacon fried rice” and “modern thai”.  I flipped through all of my pictures and regretted that I deleted the few I had taken to document the names of the restaurants.  Why?!?!  Why?!?!  Why?!?!

So, here I go, I am going to break my writers block and start with a few of the places we enjoyed complete with my personal recommendations.  Now, I will say, I am not a professional food reviewer…..more to come on that later.  However, I am not giving these recommendations by request of the owner, under duress, or for any type of compensation…..although, if one of the establishments likes my comments and wants to compensate me in kind they may feel free to do so…..and fly me back to Vancouver immediately.

I digress……the bottom line is that I *heart* Vancouver.  It was an amazing trip.  Just enough adventure and rest to reflect on our marriage over the past 10 years.  Law Man can rarely…..okay, never, get out of town for more than a long weekend.  This is another issue, but for our anniversary trip, he made an exception.  We planned to be in Canada for 8 days.  This led to a bit of a planning problem…..solution….we had three mini trips in one.  This allowed us to see and experience different parts of the area, kept us from getting bored and kept things in our budget very nicely.

Mini Trip 1:  Downtown Vancouver (4 days)

We spent the longest portion of our trip here where we made our best attempt to balance between local living and just seeing the sites.  The best part was spending one day laying on the beach and the next…20 minutes away at the top of a snowy peak.  The highlights were:

Exploring Stanley Park

Biking around the Sea Wall

Don’t let this sign or anyone talk you out of the hike…..it is tough, but short and so much fun!  Added bonus…..the beer tastes better at the top after a hike.

The Grouse Grind……there is a great restaurant at the top with very cold beer and a great view.

The Celebration of Light…..this was awesome!  We were so excited to find out we would be in Vancouver during this event.  The fireworks were like nothing I had ever seen before and the people…..we are talking thousands….all over the city.  They shoot the fireworks off of two 500 ft. barges in the English Bay.  We watched the fireworks from the Burrard Bridge.  This was as wild as we saw the laid back Canadians get.

Favorite restaurants:

Goldfish Pacific Kitchen….this is where we shared the Bacon Fried Rice.  TASTY!

all of the casual little pubs around Stanley Park

Mini Trip 2:  Sunset Coast (3 days)

This was my attempt to, “forgo the individual rooms and stay together in a luxury suite”….it was our 10 year anniversary.  Highlights:

Rockwater Secret Cove Resort  this was recommended to me through a personal blog.  I have searched and searched for its source and NOTHING.  I will say I was not the least bit disappointed.  We stayed in a Tenthouse and had a wonderful time exploring the area.

Sea Kayaking  there are no words…..well, maybe one, INCREDIBLE.

The seals, the starfish, the bald eagles…it was beautiful.

Restaurants:

There were not a lot of restaurants in the area so we ate at the hotel every night and it was really good.  They had something different every night and I was really impressed.

Mini Trip 3: (1.5 Days) Downtown Vancouver….a little more upscale

We had to go back to Vancouver before we flew out and I took this opportunity to stay at a really great hotel I discovered while researching the trip.  Highlights:

The Loden ….it was beautiful and in a beautiful part of downtown.  I *heart* boutique hotels.

Urban Fare….a gourmet grocery store to end all gourmet grocery stores.  Sorry, I am a foodie at heart.

Restaurants:

Le Crocodile amazing French Cuisine with “West Coast Flair”……I *heart* West Coast Flair.  We opted to partake in the Chef’s Tasting Menu and were not disappointed.

So, here is our trip in a nutshell.  If you make it to Vancouver, give some of these places a try and let me know what you think.

]]> http://readandtellme.com/2011/07/14/vancouver-revisited/feed/ 1 http://readandtellme.com/2011/06/06/its-a-vegetable-not-a-captcha/ http://readandtellme.com/2011/06/06/its-a-vegetable-not-a-captcha/#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:19:07 +0000 admin http://readandtellme.com/2011/06/06/its-a-vegetable-not-a-captcha/ I have been branching out more and more taking the boys to the store with me. The first few years they were born, I did this all of the time. But as years have passed and I have more opportunities when they are at school and activities, it has become much easier to go sans [...]]]>

I have been branching out more and more taking the boys to the store with me. The first few years they were born, I did this all of the time. But as years have passed and I have more opportunities when they are at school and activities, it has become much easier to go sans boys and keep my sanity. They are constantly trying to talk me into buying them different cereals, cookies, juices…..I know, I should really loosen up. The problem is, this comes home with us and I end up eating most of it. Then, there is the evil stuff between the check out aisles that for some reason is just to tempting to open or stick in a pocket…..on a good day, they just beg and beg until someone ends up crying.

So, I went quite awhile with out venturing to the grocery story with the little guys. Now, I have the kids with me ALL SUMMER. Oh the joy! It has become a necessity that they run these errands with me. What to do?….I pulled out a little Super Nanny trick. Whenever we go through the produce aisle, I let each boy pick out at least one fruit or vegetable that they want me to buy for the week. This gets them involved and it has also proven to be a great lesson in the variety of fruits and vegetables that are available. It has become common place to find a piece of produce and ask me what it is called and what it tastes like.

This is just what happened a couple of weeks ago. Big Guy pointed to a strange looking green thing and asked, “what is that.” I looked at the disfigured sphere and then glanced at the name…..KOHLRABI. What is that????? Just before I had to fess up that I had no idea what it was or how to pronounce it, this woman with two young children herself, chimes in “it is ‘coal-rabi’ it is a vegetable that is often used in stir fry. It is delicious.” Then she said something about what it looked like when you harvest it from the farm and I was totally lost. However, I figured it was worth a try so I picked one up, stuck it in a bag and took it home. That night I peeled it, cut it up and added it to our stir fry…..what do you know? It was delicious!!! It tasted a lot like a potato. The most annoying thing was that when Law Man came home I quizzed him on the mysterious vegetable and he immediately blurt out, “It’s Kohlrabi.”

Oh yea…..in case you are wondering what a CAPTCHA is. It is that series of distorted letters that verifies you are a human and not a computer.

So, what do I like to do to celebrate such blessings…..  cook and eat!

Menu

Fresh Fruit

Croissant

Donut

Aunt Linda’s Lemon Strawberry Bars

Blueberry Crumble Bread

Baked French Toast

Curry Chicken Salad

Breakfast Casserole with Artichokes, Canadian Bacon and Goat Cheese

Green Chile, Bacon Sausage and Cheese Egg Muffins (I added a pound of bacon sausage…I had never seen it before, but I figured….how can you go wrong with bacon?  and I was right!!!)

There was a special place for my mother in law….complete with a special cup of hot tea.

I had seriously thought about setting a place for my mom, but in an effort not to creep everyone out…I did not.  However, I love how, unintentionally, the needle sampler mom made years ago, made it into my picture of the place settings.

There was a special table for the kids….the boys were thrilled to have a special place and help out their sweet cousin.

One of the highlights was to see Baby Jude.  He smiled all morning.

This was a great event and really a lot of fun to prepare.  It really did feel at times like I was cooking with my mom.  I especially enjoyed ironing her table linens.  I know she was smiling at the whole process.

Sunday was still a little melancholy, but healing takes time and it has only been two years.

Happy Day After Mother’s Day!!!

This year was different in just the right way.  Francis Bacon said, “the best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.”  How true it is and after several weeks with a sick family and more unknowns than I am comfortable with, beauty is what I needed and beauty is what I found.

English Garden

This view is looking from the driveway up into the Formal Garden.  In this picture you can see the water feature, well manicured shrubs outlining each individual section, and the pavilion complete with a blue ceiling.  All of these are unique qualities of an English Garden.

The Long Garden.

This portion of the garden reflects the intentional effort in an English Landscape Garden to create a place that displays an idealized view of nature often inspired many landscape artists.  Again, you will see the yard is immaculately manicured, wooded, and highlighted with beautiful bursts of color from patches of flowers.  All of this beauty highlights the focal point, an English Obelisk.  The rod-iron fence and graveled walkway, add a welcoming entrance into this home park.

Kitchen Garden

My absolute favorite part of the garden was the kitchen garden.  Although it is still early in the season, you can see the potential for the amazing beauty that comes from an edible garden.  This area was full of thyme, basil, chives, as well as grapes and blackberries.  All of this is used by the gardener and shared with friends and neighbors.

As I left I took special note of a hidden treasure….the rose bushes that line the wall of the quarters were FULL of buds.  It is only a matter of days before this wall will be full of color.

It was such a treat to get to visit and photograph this amazing little paradise.  What was most spectacular was the delight that came from the gardener.  Her enthusiasm exuded the beauty and wonderment of each detail as we walked through the garden and shared stories of childhood memories, common friends, and a mutual love for all things beautiful.

***Now, I am prepared with an abundance of natural ideas for kids and adults alike.  I will try to share them in the next few Friday’s…..a little weekend inspiration, you might say.  Until then, you must check out the blog of a family friend who has one of the most amazing gardens I have ever seen.

Happy Earth Day!

So, upon being asked what I would like of Grandmother’s things, I said, “I would really like a cookbook that she wrote in.”

My dad looked at me like I was a bit crazy and then replied, “Oh, there are a lot of those, what else would you like?” We went on with the day and I brought home some precious treasures that I will cherish for the rest of my life and I am sure they will end up at the home of one of my children or grandchildren some day.

Last Friday, I returned to Enid. We stopped by Grandma’s house. While most of her belongings were gone or stashed in boxes, he cookbooks were right where she left them. Dad gestured to the shelf and said, “Go ahead and pick out the one you want.” I pulled out of few and gently flipped through the pages. There was not a lot of writing in most of them. Finally, I spotted one that had duct tape up its spine. I smiled and picked it up. It was Irma Rombauer’s Joy of Cooking. My mind instantly went to the movie Julie and Julia and the less than flattering role Rombauer played in the film. **If you haven’t seen it, watch it.** When you do you will find out that supposedly she paid for her first edition to come out and she “did not even test all of the recipes.” My thoughts on the issue are as follows….the Joy of Cooking I remember is the cookbook that was always laying around my grandmother’s kitchen and it did bring her much joy.

This being said, I picked it up, flipped through the pages, found countless recipes scrawled in the front and back and I knew this was the one.  I took one more quick glance at the shelf and a few books down I found the cover with even more recipes in my grandmother’s familiar handwriting.

I held the book in my arms as my dad gave me a very strange look as if I just dug through a dumpster and pulled out the most disgusting piece I could find, but he didn’t say a word….he has learned that sometimes I know what I am doing.

Fast forward to this morning….I was flipping through a few blogs and I found a reference to the 1964 edition of the Joy of Cooking.  It made note of the Opossum recipe that is in the O section of the index.  I jumped up, found my copy and sure enough….it is the 1964 edition and right there on page 454 is the recipe for how to prepare opossum, bear, raccoon, muskrat, woodchuck and wild boar.  I am assuming these are some of the recipes Ms. Rombauer did not try, but I am just tickled to start my week with such a discovery.  This cookbook will be added to my collection of treasured cookbooks for sure.  And, no worries, I am sure The Joy will pop up in many more blog posts in the future.  Who knows, maybe I will prepare opossum for my next dinner party.

Now, get your mind out of the gutter. I just really want to have a dinner party at some unique places. I love a good dinner party. I like the conversations that evolve over a slow meal. I like the memories of the delicious food, the dynamics of the people in attendance, and the ideas that come out after enjoying a good glass of wine.

I have mentioned this to a few of my neighbors and they seem to think I am a bit crazy. Especially when I mentioned the dinner party out in the field near NW 13th and Classen. I thought it would be great. A view of the skyline in the distance….the nice neighborhood on one side and a bus stop and numerous “urban explorers” on the other side. It would be awesome….I just know it.

Here are some more wonderful parties to check out….

Dave’s Outdoor Party

Snowy Picnic

This is my absolute favorite!!!!

I leave you with two questions?

1.  Where would you most like to host/attend a dinner party?

2.  Would you come to a random destination for dinner if I invited you?

I almost forgot…..here is an event hosted here in Oklahoma that I was so sorry to miss.  It was dinner on the prairie hosted out at Turtle Rock Farm.  Kam prepared the meal and Horseshoe Road provided entertainment.  I will be there this fall if it happens again.  A little FYI to my Enid readers….Pat Hoerth, Kam Gamble, and Kyle Dillingham of Horseshoe Road all have strong Enid connections.