Krik's Picks

I figure that if a video clip makes me laugh out loud (LOL), it deserves a post on Krik’s Picks. I’ve written before how the New York Times Dining & Wine section online is one of my favorites. I consider it a weekly ‘must read.’ And I’ve also written about the videos posted by Mark Bittman who writes a column called the Minimalist. Bittman has a video in this week’s edition. And it was entertaining. But the one that I really enjoyed was ‘Grillades & Grits’ a recipe by John Besh from New Orleans . The video takes about 8 minutes, so click on it when you’ve got enough time to watch it. But there are two parts of it that I really enjoyed. First, while he’s making the grits, he talks about adding first butter and then mascarpone cheese. He tells the viewer, in his laid-back, Louisiana accent, that ‘this looks like a lot of butter ,’ and if you don’t want it, just don’t add it. Then he says, with a sly grin, “But it sure is good.” I’ve never been a big fan of...

Ever since The Bad Waitress opened, I’ve been curious about it. How can you not be curious about a place that’s so sassy to call itself that? So when I met my wife and son for lunch on Eat Street , it was a perfect opportunity to give it a try. When you walk in, you’re struck by the campy diner-style décor. It’s got a counter. It’s got booths. It’s got old movie posters and covers from comic books and photos of famous people. It’s got a jukebox. It’s got tschotschkes in every nook and cranny. Definitely a sensory overload. So here’s the joke – the bad waitress is … YOU! When you enter the restaurant, you seat yourself, the menus are on the table, and you fill out your order and take it to the counter. I’m really not too keen on self service at a restaurant. I really don’t like places like Café Latte or French Meadow , where you go through a cafeteria line, pay, and then find a table. At least at The Bad Waitress, you get your table first, and after you place your order, a ...

I saw a flock of seagulls in an athletic field the other day. We’ve had a lot of rain this month. So the ground is pretty soggy. I suppose the soggy soil caused the worms to come to the surface, and the birds flew down to enjoy a feast. It reminded me of autumn and harvest on the farm. I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I grew up on a farm. I learned how to drive a tractor when I was pretty young. After my dad got confident in my ability to control the machine, I would help out in the fall by plowing fields after they had been harvested. Basically, from September on, I would spend weekends and often evenings after school on the tractor. Dad grew mostly corn and soybeans. After the combine had cleared the crop, the open field consisted of stubble and discarded stalks and hulls. I’d come along with the plow and turn over the brown stubble, burying the organic matter and reintegrating it with the soil, exposing rich, black soil. Gradually, slowly, the tractor making repetit...

Throughout the summer, I’ve written about the fresh herbs I’ve been harvesting from my garden. I have so many trees in my backyard, that I don’t really have a good place for a vegetable garden . But I can strategically plant a few plants of herbs in small plots that do get enough sun to thrive. I’ve got chives, oregano, mint, sage, and tarragon that come back every year. I also grow rosemary, parsley, thyme, and basil, which I plant fresh each year. As the weather begins to turn cool in September, it seems like the herbs take on a heightened level of flavor and aroma. It’s like the plants anticipate the coming frost and in the face of impending doom, they decide to meet their fate just bursting with flavor. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to harvest a bunch of my basil and capture the flavors at their peak. To be honest, I waited a bit too long. The flavors were still wonderful, but some of the leaves had already started to get brown spots and to lose their intense green col...

In the post above, I wrote that I made a tart with pesto, artichoke hearts, roasted tomatoes, and parmesan cheese for a party that we hosted. After all the wedding entertaining, we decided that for this party, we needed help. So for the first time ever, we hired a caterer to make some of the food and to provide help in the kitchen during the party. For the catering, we hired Georgia Sander. According to her web site, she’s been doing catering in the Twin Cities for 18 years. She also owns a restaurant in Dinkytown, Kafé 421. We selected three items from her catering menu. She made crostinis with a variety of toppings, including goat cheese, eggplant, and roasted peppers. We had meat and vegetarian dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) with tsatsiki (yogurt, cucumber, garlic, oregano) sauce. The third choice was chicken breast filled with spinach and herbs, rolled and wrapped in phyllo. Then the breasts were cut into appetizer-size portions and served with a roasted red pepper sauce. Besides ...

I wasn’t going to do a blog posting on my daughter’s wedding. Even though it was an extended length of days filled with food, drink, laughter, music, and dancing, I didn’t think it really fit in a food blog. Then, on the last day, I took this photo, and realized this belongs in Krik’s Picks. This was taken at the Minneapolis Marriott Southwest where we had most of the wedding activities. The hotel had a buffet brunch and people gathered there before leaving town to say goodbye to the bride and groom before everyone returned home. The butter offered on the buffet was LAND O LAKES Continentals. I had my daughter hold one up while I snapped this photo of her and her groom. It reminded me of a story from her childhood. When my daughter was a little girl (well, she still is, but what I mean is much younger), we went to a friend’s house for dinner. During the meal, she disappeared from the table for a few minutes. It turns out, she’d gone to the refrigerator to see what brand dairy...

I used to make this recipe very regularly when my children were experimenting with being vegetarian. It's very tasty and very easy to prepare. I always go through the exercise of soaking dried beans and cooking them. But if you want to simplify and streamline preparation of this dish, then you could use canned black beans. I've always made this dish with red lentils. As I prepare it for posting on Krik's Picks, I'm a little surprised to see that it doesn't specify red lentils. The red lentils add a vibrant color to the dish. If you used green lentils, I think it would be quite drab. When I prepared this on my daughter's wedding weekend, I garnished it with minced parsley and chive blossoms. Lentil & Black Bean Ragout Recipe By : Good Housekeeping, July 1993 Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :1:00 Categories : Beans Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 l...