Blog Moving

I tried and tried to get this blog to play nice with Technorati, but I don't have much time to tweak things and even google wasn't giving the blog any attention. The Tennessee Waltz had a good tenure here, but has now moved to nicolesauce.com.

This week, I am visiting my sister in Colorado and will post a Christmas Dinner recipe per day.

Hang ten!

"Caramelized Onions"

Recently, a friend wrote, "I made that rosemary lamb dish you do, but it didn't taste quite the same." She was referring to one of my famous shortcut meals: Rosemary Lamb Pinwheels, prepared by New Season's Market, mixed baby green salad from a bag, sliced fruit of the season and jasmine rice. It made me miss the grocery stores of Portland.

Being new to Nashville, it is almost impossible to find what is readily available in Portland: Fresh, organic vegetables that look and taste good at a close-to-conventional price point. In fact, I have been searching for any decent tasting orange or tangerine (organic or conventional) since October 15. The only decent quality produce here?

• Green beans
• Tomatoes
• Collard and mustard greens
• Sometimes lettuce
• Onions

Some "local hippies" are trying to solve this problem by forcing their opinions on the local people, according to a post I found on Tiny Cat Pants:

On Tuesday night, I was at a meeting for this group of crazed hippies who
have this insane notion that you can change the fortune of whole
communities, not by coming in and deciding from on-high what those
communities need and imposing it, but by listening to the problems the
people in the community describe having and providing them with the training
and resources to solve their own problems.

I don't feel like I do much more than sit quietly and listen, since it all focuses a lot on community health, which means it's mostly medical students, doctors, and nurses*
talking about these projects. But I feel honored to be there.

One project they've been working on are setting up fresh produce markets in
parts of Nashville that don't have grocery stores. They call them "food deserts" these areas that are highly populated by folks who don't have regular access to transportation and don't have grocery stores within easy walking distance or on convenient bus routes**.

Sure, it'd be great if everyone chose to be healthy and buy lots of great produce and, believe me, I miss being able to buy good fruit, a thing you can't even find in Greenhills at Wild Oats, but will people buy it?

Aunt B continues:

... the woman giving the presentation said some very interesting stuff which
may pertain. Tennessee has a (word censored by Nicole Sauce - no offense, it starts with sh)-ton of poor people, many of whom are 'food insecure,' ... I should have written this down, but I think she said that one in four Tennesseans has missed at least one meal in the past year because they had no food. And yet, we rank extra high on the amount of obese people we have, too.

... though it seems on the surface, impossible, research bears it out
that, in America, the hungrier the population, the fatter. ... she thinks
it's that, when you are very hungry, the quickest, cheapest food is exactly the
food that's the worst for you...

And so, she thinks, people get into this cycle of not having enough money to
eat or to eat well and they get money, they rush out and buy junk food, load up
on it, and then have a period of not eating or not eating well again.

As an aside on the topic of nutrition for the food insecure, a free-market think tank in Oregon found research that found the following. Interesting to note that food insecure score higher on the nutrition points scale than the food secure.

Recent studies show that many households labeled food-insecure by the
USDA have above-average levels of nutrient availability, even when household income is low.

One such study, Food Stamp Participants’ Food Security and Nutrient Availability
(USDA, 1999), ... An unexpected finding was, “food insecure households
tend, other things equal, to have higher levels of nutrient availability than households that are food secure.”

In addition to theoretical food stands (I have never seen one), there are various festivals and the farmer's market and more resources through fellow bloggers than a new-comer can find by driving around:

• http://www.musenashville.org/2006/10/13/this-weekend/
• http://www.nashville.gov/mc/boards/farmers_market.htm - apparently, we need a government agency to oversee the local farmers market. Must be why the variety of vegetables there is so limited.
• OH CHECK IT OUT - one grocery store purpoted to have good produce. I am jumping in my car right now!! http://lannaelong.blogspot.com/2006/10/trick-or-treat.html
• http://nashville.metblogs.com/archives/2006/07/vegetable_plate.phtml

But one thing that doesn't get much comment is the quality of the fruits and vegetables. A coworker and recent transplant agreed with me that the produce quality is poorer here than from her previous locale. My narrow experience with oranges, for example, has simply added to my fruit basket about 25 orange fruits that are juicy on one side and dry on the other. How do they DO that? Half dry oranges? Isn't Florida just around the corner?

Alas, with the latest hope centering on the coming of Whole Foods and perhaps helpful tips from other bloggers, my Rosemary Pinwheel Days are on hold.

But the onions here are great. And onions are easy to Caramelize:

1. Slice or dice the onions
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on high until it sizzles when you splash a drop of water in it.
3. Reduce heat to med-high and toss in the onions, saute them until they are golden brown. This takes at least 5 minutes, sometimes more depending on your range's power and the frying pan you choose.
4. Cook as normal with the onions.

If you are lucky enough to be able to buy pinwheels, you just toss them into the onion mix after the onions caramelize, brown the meat, add 1/2 cup red wine and simmer until the meat is done. Serve the wheels with the caramelized onion wine sauce poured over it.

Rose Pepper and Nashville Restaurants

One thing being new to Nashville is that every time someone asks where we should meet for lunch or dinner, I have no clue what to say. Only major chain restaurants come to mind, which is great if you want to know what you will get, but what about feeding a craving for authentic Thai food? (I mean the kind of authentic Thai food that has a green curry that will burn your socks off. In Thailand, this dish is very hot, but not according to the Thai people.)

Portland, on the other, hand has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the country. While living there, not only was there usually a nice small restaurant within one mile of anywhere in the city, but it was often run by a person with high hopes for making their mark on the culinary world. This made doing business over lunch and dinner, the habit of many home-office-ers like myself, very easy.

Resolute to discover something besides the Cracker Barrel in Nashville, we dropped in on the Rose Pepper Cantina last night. If Rose Pepper Cantina has a website, google hasn't found it yet, but Citysearch has a reasonably up-to-date summary.

The place boasts a flat screen TV showing sportscasts, interesting decorating ideas that I might steal and a HUGE outdoor porch that would be a lovely place to sip iced tea in the summer time. Lovely, that is, as long as you don't melt in the famed Southern Humidity.

Our Dining Story
8:30 pm on a Saturday and the place was packed with people much hipper than I. We were told that it would be 15 minutes before we could be seated so we opted for the bar.

Like most places in Nashville, I was shocked by its non-Oregon-ness. A child sat on his mother's lap in the BAR area while she chatted over food with a friend. Certainly, had this been Portland, there would have been a large fine for this transgression. We ordered drinks and laid into the chips an salsa.

Of the three types of salsa, my favorite was the hot red, followed by the yummy green. Mark preferred the mild red (which tastes of tomatoes) and the spicy red. The chips were freshly fried and they made the salsa taste great.

As is my custom, if I spot something on the menu that has the restaurant name, I order it. The Rose Pepper Rings were tempera-battered and fried pepper rings with a creamy guacamole sauce and chunky tomato salsa. They were spectacular. I will have cravings for this dish.

We also tried the tamales and tacos. The pork tamales were superior to the chicken. The only better-tasting tamale I know of was hand made by a neighbor in Tucson.

The kitchen must have thought that our waitress made a mistake when she put in the ticket requesting no beans (I have an allergy) because my plate had a healthy portion when the food arrived. The service was a bit slow, but the server was cheerful and kept us in booze.

Ranking

• Atmosphere: Good - not a place to pop the question, but comfortable. The restaurant is proud of their unusual decor, but to a gal from Portland it looks like normal to me. I did like their idea of the light rope spiraling up a post with meshy fabric wrapped outside the lights. Nice to look at.
• Business dinner capable? Not if your client is stuffy.
• Food flavor: Best Amerimexican I have had this far in Nashville. Oh wait. It's the only Amerimexican I have had in Nashville... Those Rose Pepper Rings are superb.
• Service: C. The German in me just can't go higher than that.
  
• Cool-Factor: With a porch like theirs, this place ranks high in the cool-factor category.
• People: Hipsters.
• Blogger Interest: 3 - Only three people have anything to say about this place.
  

Any tips on where I should try next? Preferably a place where the bar tender doesn't suggest a Chardonnay because it is similar to a Shiraz? (Anything can happen in Tennessee.)

Links of note
Appon's Thai Food Recipes
An excellent collection of recipes available for free online!

Ramblings of a Gay Nashvillian
A fellow blogger has much stronger opinions on the Rose Pepper experience.

Trying Boxed Wine in Tennessee

Moving to Tennessee from Oregon has brought prohibition to the forefront of my consciousness. Every state has its own weird alcohol rules.

In Oregon, the state-controlled liquor stores have standardized pricing, the list of accepted liquors requires lobbying the OLCC (which is why you can't get good Kirschwasser in Oregon), some types of beer may be sold one place, but not another.

Utah has a "membership" thing happening. If you do not have a membership to an alcohol-serving establishment, you may not enter and buy booze. However, if someone sponsors you, you can get in for free. This means that pretty blonde girls don't pay, but the rest of us have to.

You can avoid the membership thing if you go to a restaurant that serves beer, but wait! SOME sections of certain restaurants have membership fees. I also noticed that, as a girl, my serving seemed consistently smaller than my male counterparts. Must be because women metabolize alcohol slower than men. Ok, not when you control for differing amounts of water in the body, but for our purposes, women are slower.

My trip to Charleston revealed a culture where every drink comes in a tiny little bottle. Bars have rows and rows of airplane bottles. I was told this is so they can track the drink taxes. It made my classical liberal hackles rise. Prohibition AND taxes. Stranger still was closing time: police officers shoed us out the door and made certain we didn't wander off with a drink.

Tennessee is topsy-turvey. Two different organizations oversee two types of the sauce. Wine and liquor may be purchased at a liquor store, but not on Sunday, never on Sunday. I guess when Christ turned water to wine, it wasn't on the Holy Day. Beer, on the other hand is available at grocery stores, but if you wanted to have it at a liquor store, well then I guess you'd have to build a separate store next door. Worse, you may not ship alcohol to or from the volunteer state. Well actually, wine.com will ship here, but wine.woot.com will not. JD must have figured out a way around this.

Indeed, buying wine in Nashville has proven to be a challenge. I used to buy it by the case from a wholesaler in Portland on Sundays. ($60 bottles for $20)

It took me 2.5 months to find myself at the right kind of store on the right sort of day with wine on the brain.

Following a tip from a friend, I decided to try a wine called Black Box. For $20, you get the equivalent of four bottles. This is approaching Trader Joes prices and since we don't have Aldi's popular grocery chain here (probably because they'd have to build a separate TJ's wine shop), I gave it a shot. Here's is what I discovered:

Pro's

• It is more entertaining to open a box of wine than a bottle
• It is more entertaining to get your wine into your glass with a spigot
• It tastes OK
• Seeing the box in my fridge reminds me of when I was a kid and we were really poor
• $5 per bottle...

Cons

• It is a challenge to keep the wine in the glass when you pour from a spigot because it comes out so quickly
• The wine does not breathe in a bag (try a decanter)
• Come to think of it, the charm of opening a box will wear off and I'll miss the ritual of the wine bottle
• It "feels" so cheap
• With one box equal to 4 bottles, it is tempting to drink too much because you never run out of wine

All in all, we are happy with the Black Box as long as it stays in the basement fridge where we can't get at it as easily.

Other helpful comments on Black Box Wines:
The Boxed Wine Spot
Looks like they are marketing their product, or??
See Sip Taste Hear
Interesting take on boxed Sauce.

PERMALINK

Rosemary Turkey Risoto

Turkey bowls are so good after Thanksgiving. You know, those things with all the leftovers tossed together with a splash of gravy? Mmmmmm. But now it is Sunday and the charm of the turkey bowl is wearing off.

There are several reasons to turn to risoto at this time:
1) Turkey bowl appeal is passed
2) More than one turkey sandwich per day is too many
3) We're all gaining weight like crazy with all this gravy around
4) Risoto uses wine, but not ALL the wine in the bottle. 1+1=...?

Rosemary Turkey Risoto
2 tablespoons rosemary
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 onion
1 teaspoon salt
1.3 cups white wine
1.3 cups risoto rice
1/2 cup corn
1/2 cup green beans (spinach would be better)
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup diced turkey
Enough turkey stock to get the job done (about 4 cups)
1 tablespoon olive out

Directions
1) Heat oil on high and add diced onion when it is ready, carmelize the onions.
2) Reduce heat to medium. Add rice and 1/2 the rosemary and sautee until the rice begins to be golden.
3) Add wine and the rest of the rosemary.
4) Add corn, turkey and beans.
5) Simmer covered until the wine is soaked in then slowly add turkey stock until the rice is soft, but make sure not to add too much at a time as you dont want broth left in the rice dish.
6) Add parmesan, garlic powder and salt to taste.
7) Serve with a fancy garnish, the rest of the wine and make sure to educate anyone who objects that risoto IS the meal and no there is no steak to go with it...

Other helpful risoto links:
Arbor Foods' Comments on the Topic
This Risoto Recipe Is Goo-ood: Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity

Turkey Tips

Want the perfect turkey every time? Butterball would recommend that you buy their birds and never worry again. But what if you want one of those fancy organic numbers?

Following are some things that will help keep the white meat juicy and your guests coming back:
1) Start defrosting your turkey in the fridge RIGHT NOW if you bought a frozen one.

Testimonial: When I was 20, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. The night before the big day, with 4 guests scheduled to eat at 2pm, I ran out an bought a frozen Turkey, then read about how to defrost it. My heart sank. We were going to have to have pizza for our holiday because I had neglected to buy the turkey in advance and defrost it in the fridge. Disheartened, I called my food scientist father. He told me about defrosting the turkey in a sink of cold water and it saved the day. Be sure to change the water every 30 minutes.

2) If you haven't bought your turkey yet, GO GET IT, so you can defrost it RIGHT NOW, if you buy a frozen one.

3) If you are both cheap AND procrastinate, and buy a frozen turkey the day before Thanksgiving, fill your sink with cold water, plop the bird in, still in it's shrink wrap, and change the water every 30 minutes until about 1am when it will be mostly defrosted except for the icy gizzards and neck stuffed in the middle.

4) Buy: Meat thermometer, baster, apple, onion, turkey grilling pan, tin foil.

Testimonial: That fateful first holiday meal was also in a region of Oregon where stores actually close on Thanksgiving. Though I had the tin foil, I ended up depending on my apple tree for the apple and the pop-up plastic thing for the bird. I feared salmonella poisoning the whole time, but luck was on my side.

5) Rub the outside of the bird with rosemary, basil and pepper and salt lightly.

6) Shove a whole apple and whole onion in the bird. Stuff around these two items with your bread stuffing. Make sure you put lots of milk in the stuffing you put in the bird so it doesn't dry the bird out.

Testimonial: In those early cooking days, I was quite impressed by local cooking talent Geraldine Duncann. (If you haven't read her book, "a is for coda wada," run out an buy it right now!) Actually, I am stimm impressed by her and she has shaped my cooking style with her "handfulls" of this and "dashes" of that. I was lucky to have had her ear before my big cooking debut and she told me of the apple trick. Stuff an apple in the bird and it will make it moist moist moist.

7) Be careful to properly insert the thermometer.

Testimonial: With a food scientist as a father, we would be grilled with very detail-oriented questions whenever we got food poisoning. Dad would be there with his medical book trying to figure out the culprit.He was fascinated by the topic. Unfortunately, the food poisonee is usually not so entheusiastic about the subject. The result is that I have a large fear of causing food poisoning and tend toward extra safety measures when cooking. Take it from a girl who has had salmonella poisoning. You don't want it and you don't want to describe it.

8) Be sure to seal that bird well in its pan with tin foil and baste every 30 minutes.

9) Add fatty tastiness by shoving a whole stick of butter in the bird's belly. Fat and moisture=yummy.

10) The apple is really the key. Trust me.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Twister!

Nashville is the city of music. It is the city of printers. Today, it was the city of tornados. A few minutes after Drew and I headed out to the print shop to look at the proof of the 2006 Pork Report to be released April 12, he said, "I'm not gonna lie to you. That looks like trouble brewin'."

My Oregon eyes surveyed the storm clouds and saw merely rain. What looked like a normal downpour in Oregon, however, turned out to be a bit more destructive in Nashville. There's a lesson to be learned here...

Nicole in front of downed tree.

The tornado made the town difficult to navigate because you could not always pass through the destruction and, in one case, a street sign was twisted around so that the street names were 90 degrees "wrong."

Since we could not drive, Drew and I walked toward the printer. As the second wave started to pass, we were both fascinated by the level of destruction and hopelessly lost.

Yikes! Don't touch that!

We stumbled over debris and saw a fellow with a destroyed car. We looked at furniture sticking out of a broken retail window. The boat manufacturer was already out there clearing debris...

The Boat Factory.

The nice folks at the printing place were outside the building when we finally scrambled over the train tracks to find them and they had sustained minimal damage when compared with the neighboring businesses. Yet, a critical part of every print shop is power and all the poles and lines leading to the place are down. In addition, there are rumors that the press was "making funny noises." All the windows in the place are GONE and there are tree parts INSIDE. We were happy to see that all were unhurt.