Thanksgiving 2019

John Coltrane.
Candlelight.
Mature Pinot Noir.

Pinot Noir by Candlelight

Doesn't sound like the start of a Thanksgiving post, right? At least not one that I have written on this blog before.

But it is. This year all the kids were scattered to the four winds: Lillie in Philadelphia, Ellie in Madrid, and Carter in Virginia. That left Ann and me to our own devices. To be sure, we both were feeling a little down because of the lack of hustle and bustle, but we had a wonderful day.

It was the first time in a long time that we both got in the kitchen and cooked together. And it felt good, natural, and fun. We are not often in the kitchen at the same time. To be fair, as an ex-chef, I'm used to running a kitchen my way and that's not necessarily Ann's way. I'm slowly learning to share and focus more on the experience than the outcome. I'm certain that Ann will say I have a long way to go, but yesterday worked out pretty well.

Our menu was simple: roast pork and orzo. We don't each much meat at all, living day to day on beans and vegetables mainly, with a bit of fish for animal protein, so the pork roast is way out of our ordinary. As for the choice of pork, I'm pretty done with the whole turkey thing after decades of cooking them. What's a turkey if you don't have a crowd to share it with, anyway?

Photos follow, in the order that they were shot. They tell the story of a leisurely day.

Spice Mix for the Sausage

Cup of coffee in hand, I mixed up some spices for my sausage, the stuffing for the roulade of pork: ground fennel, paprika, granulated garlic, salt, and white pepper. This is kind of a classic seasoning for finocchiona. Didn't weigh, didn't measure, eyeballed it. I wet the spices with a copious amount of Sauvignon Blanc and mixed it in to the ground pork. I tested a small batch of sausage for seasoning and decided not to change a thing. The sausage went back into the refrigerator to mellow until I needed it later to stuff the pork rack.

Testing the Sausage for Seasoning

About noon, we started to get hungry, so we went into the kitchen to finish dinner prep and get a focaccia working for lunch. I diced up some shallot and celery for Ann to sweat as she was cooking the orzo for her casserole.

Ann Sweating Celery, Shallots, and Sage

I pulled together a quick focaccia and topped it with Kalamata olives, rosemary from the front porch, grated pecorino romano, a drizzle of olive oil, and a nice sprinkle of coarse salt.

Olive, Rosemary, and Pecorino Focaccia

Then on to the pork rack, which I frenched and then unrolled.

Frenched and Unrolled Pork Rack

Ann finished up her casserole by adding flour to the mirepoix to make a blond roux and then by adding chicken stock to make a sauce velouté. She added Gruyère cheese to the sauce, melted it, and then stirred in the orzo.

Orzo Waiting for the Oven

Once I finished prepping the pork rack, I laid on a layer of the sausage that I made earlier in the morning, making sure to leave plenty of room around the edges for the sausage to spread out as I rolled the roulade.

Sausage on the Soon-to-Be Roulade

By this point, the focaccia was out of the oven and we devoured it!

The Finished Focaccia, Cooling

All that was left was to roll the pork rack roulade and tie it with butcher's twine.

Pork Rack Roulade, Ready for the Oven

Late afternoon when we started thinking about food again, having crushed the focaccia earlier, we popped both the orzo and the pork roulade into the oven.

Orzo is Done

Pork Rack Roulade Cooling

Thanksgiving calls for a special bottle of wine, so I opened this '07 Pinot Noir. 2007 was one of those cool Oregon vintages that I love, along with 2011 and 2013 (and maybe 2019, though those wines are still undergoing malolactic fermentation and it's hard to say anything yet about the baby vintage). The wine did not disappoint with its overlay of tobacco leaf and leather.

A Fine 2007 Pinot Noir

We debated cooking some spinach to accompany the pork and orzo, but as it was, this was already too much food. In the restaurant, I would have turned the pan drippings into a wonderful sauce and would have garnished the plate nicely, but it just being the two of us, I opted for simplicity. The pork was wonderfully juicy and the orzo was a perfect foil for it.

Orzo and Pork Roulade Chop

It was a slow day, a calm day, a relaxed day. I feel like we hit a good balance in making a special meal without a lot of fuss. It was great to be in the kitchen with Ann. But still, all that said, I missed some of the bustle and having the family around. I'm sure Ann did too.

McMinnville, August

We, Ann and I, were sitting out back sipping our coffee in the early morning, enjoying our time outside and sensing that little odd tinge of heat on the breeze that hinted at the 97-degree day to come, unusually hot for this time and location. I looked up and spied a sunflower, in its youth already 9 or 10 feet high, and still stretching for the cloudless blue sky. I thought, "That's a picture." And so I grabbed the camera and shot a couple hundred frames.

Sunflower, Blue Sky

All American Bacchus

Calendula, Oblique Light

Grace, Grapes, and Wallflowers

Pinot Gris

Tangerine Sage

Brooks Prune Plums

Chocolate Cosmos

Agastache 'Bolero'

Blue Salvia

Akebia, Apple Ladder

Bidens

Still Life with Frog

Anna's Hummingbird, Blue Salvia

Queen of the Backyard

It's fitting to close with a picture of the female Anna's Hummingbird on her favorite perch in the cherry tree, strategically located so she can keep an eye on her two favorite nectar sources, the twinberry honeysuckle and the blue salvia. Woe be unto any other hummingbird venturing into our yard. Her yard that is: we are lucky to be able to share it with her. We went inside and left her to it.

A Vegetarian Fourth

Almost two years post restaurant, I rarely get the urge to cook full meals any longer. But on July 4th, I felt like I wanted to cook a really simple meal that we could enjoy on the front porch with our vegetarian neighbors, taking full advantage of Oregon's delightful summer weather.

I always associate the Fourth with watermelon and Ann had been asking me to make lentil burgers for a week or two, so I decided to build a meal around that: lentil burgers, pita, hummus, arugula, tzatziki, and a watermelon salad. I started around 7:30 in the morning with some really easy tasks, mixing up some pita dough, making tzatziki, and knocking out a quick watermelon salad.

About 30 minutes before neighbors Pat and Mary Jo came over, I baked the pita, keeping them warm under a towel, while simultaneously frying the lentil burgers which then went into the oven after I turned it off, to keep warm for dinner.

Pat and Mary Jo

"What can we bring?"

We started the evening with a stack of warm pita, a bowl of hummus, and cocktails of pomegranate liqueur and Prosecco. I think that if that was all we had to eat, we would have been happy chatting away on the front porch, hearing all the neighbors doing the same on their nearby porches.

Starters: Pita, Hummus, Pomegranate and Prosecco

I love hummus. Just ask anyone who ever worked for me at the restaurant. I probably ate it every day for lunch. I eat it less frequently now, cooking less, but I still love it. Although you can't see it, this hummus has a lot of green olives ground up with the chickpeas. I also use a drizzle of sesame oil rather than tahini. Same flavor, but easier.

For this batch destined for company, I went to the trouble of peeling all the chickpeas, six pounds of them. For regular batches, I don't peel them. The texture is really much better if you peel them, but I'm not working that hard on a daily basis. I am no longer a restaurant chef judged by the slightest nuances in food. I'm now a guy who values time with people more than time in the kitchen.

Hummus with Olives and a Drizzle of Olive Oil

Lentil burgers, black bean burgers, squash cakes: I have a love affair with fried vegetable patties of all sorts. For these, I cooked the lentils with garlic and herbs, drained them, added eggs, sautéed mirepoix of carrot, celery, and shiitake mushrooms, fresh herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme), and panko. I pattied them out and put them in the fridge to firm up before frying.

Lentil Burgers; Local Sauvignon Blanc

Who doesn't love arugula tossed with some lemon juice, olive oil, and salt? It's one of the greatest and simplest salads.

I couldn't celebrate the Fourth without watermelon, so I made a really quick watermelon salad with feta cheese, red onions, mint from the back yard, olives, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Thank goodness for the smart plant breeders who came up with the infertile (seedless) triploid hybrid watermelons that are so delicious and easy to work with!

Call it tzatziki, cacik, or tarator, it's pretty much the same yogurt and cucumber condiment all over the Mediterranean. I've made a few thousand pounds of it in my life, always preferring the flavor of red wine vinegar in mine, rather than lemon juice. Herbs vary with my mood, but almost always include oregano, this fresh from my back yard.

Arugula, Watermelon Salad, Tzatziki

Behind the Scenes: Frying Lentil Burgers

Not sure why people think pita is hard to make. It's among the easiest flatbreads. I don't have a recipe per se, keying off the amount of water to give me final yield. One cup of water will incorporate enough flour to make 8 pita. Salt, yeast, and olive oil round out the dough, which I let rise twice before shaping into balls. After the balls rested for 20 minutes, I patted and rolled them out and into the very hot oven onto a hot sheet tray they went, three at a time, about two minutes on one side and another minute on the other.

These pita are very similar to the flatbreads and naan that I used to make at the restaurant, but I would typically put some yogurt in the dough for those. I did not for these pita, but it wouldn't have hurt.

Pita, Still Puffed from the Oven

When all was said and done, I was really tired. I no longer stand in the kitchen and cook all day and it shows. But I really am OK with that. I like the word retired in front of the word chef. It suits.

Virginia Whirlwind

We took a whirlwind one-week trip back to the East Coast, two days of which were spent traveling, leaving just five days to see Ann's mother, go to Ellie's graduation, visit Carter in Morgantown, and to see our friends.

Here are some photos from the trip. There's a lot of beer involved in these photos. Ann's mom is in a nursing home and not doing well, the source of much consternation. It took a lot of beer to get through the days where she did not recognize her own daughter and son-in-law.

One of our Favorite Portland Breweries

We started off by spending the night in a hotel at PDX because of our early morning departure and desire to avoid the heinous rush hour traffic. We stopped by Culmination Brewing, one of our favorite East Portland breweries on the way for a bit of dinner and a couple of beers.

Mad Fox Brewing, Falls Church, VA

After a long and grueling flight and dealing with DC rush hour traffic on the other end, we ended up in a brew pub in Tysons Corner. Not only was it yuppie mating hour at the noisy overcrowded bar, the beer sucked by Portland standards. Ultimately, we found Mad Fox brewing in Falls Church as a place with decent beer, as an escape from the drama of dealing with Ann's mother.

Rosé at Linden Vineyards

After a couple of days of seeing to Ann's mother and her house, we took a drive out west on I-66 to visit with Jim Law at Linden Vineyards. Shari was very kind to bring us a glass of 2018 rosé to enjoy on the deck while we waited for Jim to come in from the vines. He was gracious enough to spend a few minutes chatting, but it was clear that he needed to get back to the vineyard, so we took our leave after soaking in the landscape that we love so much.

It was pretty interesting that while talking with Jim, we met a young guy who works at another local Willamette Valley winery and with whom I had corresponded via email, but had never met in person. It is truly a small world.

I Never Get Tired of This View at Linden

From Linden, we made the short drive north to visit with Jim and Betsy Dolphin at Delaplane Cellars, just months before they would sell the property and retire to Florida. Jim was just starting on blending trials when we arrived. Suffice it to say that he never got to blending trials, especially after Betsy showed up and we started cracking bottles. Jim had previously invited us to go out to dinner with them, but we had to demur because of a very early morning departure for Charlottesville and Ellie's graduation.

Jim Dolphin at Delaplane Cellars

Lemonade from Lemons

2018 was a horrible year in the vineyard with feet of rain playing havoc on the grapes. Many winemakers focused on making rosé as a way to salvage something from a crap year. Jim was showing off his label poking fun at the whole disastrous situation. Betsy also opened a bottle of her special ICOE cuvée. ICOE is fitting for Betsy: In Charge Of Everything. Traffic going back in to McLean was hellish with an accident blocking the Beltway. Miserable.

My Spirit Animal

And sure enough, Saturday morning came very quickly. We left very early in the morning from McLean to make the two and a half hour drive to Charlottesville. Although we left early to beat the traffic and to find a good place to park, when we arrived at the Grounds for graduation, it was teeming and the lines to get in were very long.

Lillie met us and went ahead to save seats for us while we went across the street in search of coffee. Wouldn't you know that there is a Starbucks in the bottom of Newcomb Hall, a vast change from the days when I was there. Though not a fan of Starbucks, I was in need of coffee and Ann in need of a little breakfast.

Waiting for Ellie to March

The morning started out warm, humid, and cloudy, the cloud cover being the only thing that kept the day even moderately comfortable. About 30 minutes before the ceremony the sun popped out and made things truly miserable, especially for the kids in their black gowns. Unlike when Rita Dove kept us entertained with a short and focused speech at Lillie's graduation, Ellie was blessed with one of the worst commencement speeches I have ever heard—long, disjointed, rambling, and largely self-congratulatory. Finally, graduation wrapped up and we all walked a half a mile or more to the theater building where Ellie's diploma ceremony was to be held.

It was a long mile and a half walk for me in the blazing sun to retrieve our car and meet the rest of the gang who Ubered to a local brewpub for lunch.

Parched After Graduation in the Heat

Ann and I stayed with Lillie, Ellie, and her friends after lunch to have a final beer at the bar, before we headed back to Northern Virginia late Saturday. Sunday, we headed out to see Jeff and Kelly White at Glen Manor Vineyards. We spent a beautiful afternoon with them before heading back to McLean.

I Also Never Tire of This View at Glen Manor Vineyards

We got back late and then Monday went to see Ann's mom. We made plans for a late dinner with Ann's cousin Chris. Surprisingly, Mary wanted to go along with us and we were happy to have her with us. She even managed a tiny sip of Ann's beer.

Mary Tasting Ann's Beer

For our last full day, we drove out to Morgantown to see Carter, taking a ten-minute stop at the Farmers Market in Winchester to see Beth, Mark, Jessica and the other vendors. We arrived in Morgantown mid-afternoon and got the grand tour of his grungy frat house. We could tell we were cramping his style, but ultimately he decided to go to the brewpub across the street from our hotel with us. The Iron Horse Tavern has a great local beer selection and pretty decent food as well. I was really happy that the pub featured ales from Stumptown Ales in Davis WV, which I believe is my benchmark brewery for craft beer on the East Coast.

Beer Board, Iron Horse Tavern, MorgantownWV

Back to Northern Virginia with 1200 miles on the odometer completed the final leg of this whirlwind trip to Virginia. The flight from Dulles to PDX was routine. After driving from the airport to the house, it was good to have the trip behind us.

Donald's 50th

A few weeks back, Donald said that he and Terry were coming down from Seattle to celebrate Donald's 50th birthday and asked if we wanted to do a shellfish boil. Of course! We thought we were doing the do at our house and I would be cooking. But somewhere along the line, the boys rented a really nice apartment above the Methven tasting room in downtown Dundee and brought everything they needed for Terry to cook from Seattle.

We went out to dinner with them Tuesday night at Pura Vida in McMinnville and then they spent all Wednesday morning running around and all the way into Portland to buy the ingredients for dinner. We showed up at 5:30 as Donald was finishing up making the appetizers and Terry was working away on the shellfish.

The Donald

Terry Prepping the Small Lemons

Appetizers

We brought a bottle of Champagne and a nice Chardonnay to go with the lobster while Donald and Terry kicked in two local sparklers and a bottle of Pinot. Of course, they brought Riedel Champagne glasses with them from home!

One of Many Dead Soldiers

Always a Party When These Two are Together

Getting Suited Up for Battle

The Boys Never Forget Anything

Lobster, Clams, Potatoes, Sausage, and Corn

After the delicious feast that Terry prepared, we cut the cakes. Ann started baking a cake for Donald before she realized that he was making his own. We had way too much cake!

Pastry Chef Donald Made His Own Cake

Annie Made Donald a Cake Too

Donald's cake had marionberry jam and lemon curd between the layers and was frosted with buttercream. Ann's cake was lemon with blueberries and was frosted with lemon marionberry cream cheese frosting and topped with lemon rind and mint and Johnny Jump Ups (violas) from our garden. Both cakes were delicious.

I Can't Believe I Ate All This