Hello! Hope you all had a great weekend, sorry about the crazy weather, I will make some phone calls and see if I can get that cleared up.
For all who were concerned, the swarm of bees that appeared at the front of the lodge has been captured. Swarming is how bees create new hives, when a hive is fully populated and healthy, they allow a new queen to be born and the old queen takes off with four or five thousand of her workers to find a new home and start a new hive. I was expecting this, and we captured the swarm pretty quickly. When the rain and snow stop this week I will take a look at the hive and see what we want to do with it. Swarms are fairly common in late spring, so if you see one please call the front desk and let them know so we can take care of it.
The soup of the week is Chicken Tortilla. Loads of chicken, tomatoes, peppers and corn tortillas simmered together with spices. Very hearty.
As an appetizer we have Pan Seared Sea Scallops served with roasted Corn essence and house made tomato sauce.
The Cheese of the week is called Humboldt Fog. This is one of my personal favorites, named after the thick morning fog of Humboldt county where this cheese was created. This is a goats' cheese made in the style of Morbier- a very old French cheese. The outside rind is firm, giving way to a soft, crumbly center bisected by a thin layer of ash. The flavor is bright and lemony, and we will be serving this with dried pears drizzled with honey.
At Dinner, we have Crispy Catfish with our own house made tartar sauce, braised collard greens and cheese grits. if any of you are craving a good southern meal, this one hits home.
We have Country Fried Steak this week. Actually we called it Beef Tenderloin Fritter, but you get the idea... Basically CFS is cube steak pounded into submission, breaded and fried. For years we tried this dish and got loads of complaints that it was too tough. Finally we decided to use the tenderest and most expensive cut of beef-the tenderloin, and people loved it. It's funny to me that a dish known for it's downtown casualness is made here with uptown priced beef. It's basically a fried Filet Mignon. Anyway, this is served with a creamy gravy, buttered corn and buttermilk mashed potatoes. I hope you enjoy it, I know this will be my dinner Monday night.
We have Pork Picatta this week. This is a pork loin chop and served with a sauce made from wine, butter, lemon, capers and garlic. This dish is usually made with veal or chicken, but I actually find that pork is more tender and flavorful. Picatta is long known as an old Italian dish, but there is no history of it in Italy. Likely it was created in the 1930's by Italian Immigrants in America. Veal was originally used, because at that time it was much cheaper than chicken. We are serving this dish with foasted roma tomatoes and angel hair pasta.
As the vegetarian special this week we are making a Quesadilla with Impossible meat and Cheddar cheese. If you've never tried Impossible meat this might be a good way to start. The flavor is rich and very beef like while the texture is similar as well, we season with chili powder, cumin and garlic, and sear it in a flour tortilla. We make our own salsa and guacamole for this, and serve it with a peach slaw and borracho beans.
We have a Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry this week served over rice noodles with a pork egg roll on the side.
For daily specials this week look for Seared Grouper with Squash Coulis, Lemon Pepper-Roasted Chicken, Pistachio-Crusted Steelhead Trout, Lobster Salad Roll, Grilled Tuna with Hoisin, and Poached Halibut.
On Tuesday, I will be doing a cooking demonstration and discussion about healthy eating and drinking options. I hope to see you all there!
