Carnevor

You can't say that The Man Who Is Still Working and I aren’t doing our share to stimulate the economy. Not only have we hired half of Waukesha County’s labor force to repair our decrepit house (more on that in a future episode), but we continue to do our share of stimulating the local restaurant economy.

Last weekend we extended our generosity into downtown Milwaukee. And we weren’t the only ones to do so. Carnevor Restaurant was packed on Saturday evening, and one might assume that everyone placing orders had noticed the prices on the menu. Entres range up from $34, which includes some of Carnevor’s toppings and sauces, like bearnaise or blue cheese, but many of the sauces are extra, like the oscar topping for an additional $9.

I suspect you’ve all heard of Carnevor and you probably know it is situated among other lovely restaurants and clubs on Milwaukee Street. All of the establishments along this block just north of Wisconsin Avenue share a much appreciated Valet service. Inside, Carnevor’s sleek, clean, modern decor includes clusters of bamboo poles surrounding the light fixtures and large, curved wood ceiling joists – Kay said it felt like sitting inside a whale. Considering this whale's interior is pretty narrow, the tables are graciously spaced, and the noise level does not overpower conversation.

The service is good, and not intrusive. And the food is as delicious as you'd expect. I’d read the menu and some reviews on Yelp.com before we went, so we knew which dishes had received raves. One of those was, believe it or not, the Mac and Cheese ($11), a small plate to be shared around the table. We started with that as a sort of appetizer, and all agreed – it was delicious. The menu says it has goat, maytag, pecorino, nutmeg and cinnamon. Interesting. My Man, the Connosoir of Kraft Dinner in a Box, thought it was good. No raves, but good. The rest of us thought it was yummy. Let’s see: I followed that course with the Lobster Bisque ($9), which is not to be missed. As with all of Carnevor’s dishes, it is RICH, and loaded with hunks of lobster. Kay started her meal with a tasty Beet Salad ($8) with arugula and goat cheese.

For my main course, I ordered the Scallops ($27), six huge sea scallops which were perfectly pan seared and served with a butternut squash puree (I could live on that stuff, happily) and a few steamed sugar snap peas. The Red Meat Man and Doc each had an 8-oz filet mignon ($34), while the 10 oz. Lobster Tail ($45) was calling to Kay. For side dishes we tried the creamed corn ($7 and okay), the truffled mashed potatoes ($11 and very good), and the mini twice baked potatoes ($5 and not worth more).

Did I mention that the wine list at Carnevor is REALLY outrageously expensive? Often the four of us share a bottle of wine – or two. But at Carnevor, buying wine by the bottle would be enough to stimulate the Bank of America! The cheapest bottle was $60, with an average bottle running about $150 - $300 and some were over $1000! Not all of these bottles are of fancy wines. For instance, the Merryvale Starmont '05 merlot that Carnevor offers for $80 a bottle is available all over the web for under $20. Carnevor’s prices for wine by the glass are also ridiculously expensive. I had a glass of Rodney Strong Pinot Noir ‘07 for $13. It sells for $15- $20 A BOTTLE in your liquor store.

Let’s compare Carnevor to another of Milwaukee’s great restaurants: Dream Dance. Carnevor has a very good chef, but he/she is not as creative with ingredients as is Chef Gorman at Dream Dance. The prices are comparable, EXCEPT for the wine. Dream Dance states that they are not trying to make their profit on the wines, and this seems to be true. As one of their less expensive wines, Dream Dance offers a bottle of Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel ‘06 for $34. This is exactly the price for which I found it offered on the web. And while Carnevor offers over 100 wines by the bottle, Dream Dance offers over 700!

And if you are looking for the Best Big Red Beef Filet in town, The Big Red Meat Man still contends that Bonefish Grill is right up there with the best. For $19, he contends it is just as good as Carnevor’s filet mignon.

Hmmm... Maybe Bonefish Grill is just the right sized restaurant stimulus package to offer, at least while we are also stimulating several construction trades.

Stirring the Pot

Banana Orange Muffins

So you tell me you liked that brownie recipe. I didn't want you all to think I'm not cooking, now that I'm calling my blog "Cooking on Donmar." I served these delicious muffins with lamb stew. Tasty, tasty. And don't these muffins seem like they must be healthy, what with the fruits and a whole cup of wheat germ?

Someday soon I hope to be able to tell you I prepared edible venison. Yesterday I bought juniper berries at Penzey's - the best purveyor of herbs and spices anywhere, headquartered about a mile from my house. I have venison in my freezer from a local hunter. Tubeworm told me that one needs juniper berries when cooking venison. She's sending me a recipe, but if you have other favorites, send them along. I'll let you know if The Man declares that Venison Is Not Too Funky To Be Eaten. Of course it IS red meat; how funky can that be?

Banana Orange Muffins

1 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. brown sugar
3 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 c. wheat germ
2 medium mashed bananas (about 1 c.); lumpy is okay
1/2 c. orange juice
1/4 c. oil
2 eggs
1/2 c. pecans

Mix dry ingredients. Stir in wheat germ. Make a well in the center. In separate bowl, stir together bananas, juice, oil, and eggs. Pour into dry ingredients and stir briefly. Fill 12 greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool in pan.

Recipe: Fudge-Topped Brownies

Okay, so Tubeworm and The Man Who Eats '50's Food like the Fudge-Topped Brownies. I'll settle for that as a recommendation. Here's the recipe (which probalby dates from the '50's):

Fudge-Topped Brownies

1 c. butter, melted
2 c. sugar
1 c. flour
2/3 c. cocoa
1/2 t. baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 c. milk
3 t. vanilla (divided)
1 c. walnuts, chopped (if you can find them)
1 (12 oz.) package choc chips
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together butter, sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, eggs, milk and 1 1/2 t. vanilla. STIR IN WALNUTS. Spread in greased 13x9" pan. Bake 40 min or till brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. While brownies are baking, in heavy saucepan, melt chips with sweetened condensed milk and remaining vanilla. Spread over HOT brownies as you take them out of the oven. Cool, then chill. Cut into bars.

Then put a couple of them in a baggie in your purse, and take them to Starbucks to share with Tubeworm when you go with her for a cup of coffee.

Bask in the rave reviews.

Stirring the Pot

Why Buy Desserts

So I’m going to make Fudge Topped Brownies. My extended familys’ kids are coming tonight for beer and pizza with their cool aunt. I’m making this dessert for them. When I grocery shopped yesterday I made sure I had all the ingredients. I measured out the flour, the sugar and cocoa, the baking powder. Next ingredient: walnuts. I know I have walnuts. I saw the package somewhere this week when I was writing my grocery list. “You’ve got walnuts,” my brain said. It also said, as I faintly recalled this morning, “That’s an odd place for walnuts.”

So where are those walnuts? I keep nuts in the freezer. Of course I don’t expect to find them there, since that is where they are supposed to be. I look in this cabinet and that. I look with the cereal in the pantry. I look in both refrigerators. No walnuts. There is no point in asking The Man Who Does Nothing With Food But Eat It if he has seen the walnuts. He’d only have seen them if they appeared on his plate. I’m about to go to the store for more walnuts when I get some ice out of the freezer for a glass of water and whoa! What are walnuts doing in THAT container? Okay. So my brain DIDN’T say they were in a weird place. It said they were in an odd container.

Okay. Let’s make these #$(%&$# Fudge Topped Brownies. I chop the walnuts and start adding ingredients to the mixing bowl. Yummy, yummy. People with acid reflux are not supposed to eat chocolate, but a little lick of the batter proves delicious. I grease the pan, pour in the batter and put the pan in the oven. The ingredients for the Fudge Topped part of the recipe wait on the counter to be melted together and poured over the top of the baked brownies.

Meanwhile The Man has been working on labels for a mailing for the land trust. I pop into his office to admire him – no, no, – to admire his work, though he is pretty cute on Saturday mornings. Anyway, after kissing his bald spot and listening for about five minutes about how this program or that makes labels, I return to the kitchen to clean up my Brownie baking mess. And there on the counter, in its cup measure, are the chopped walnuts. Hmmm... I quickly survey the recipe. Oops. The walnuts are not supposed to go into the Fudge Topping. They were supposed to be mixed into the dough before baking. I whip the pan out of the oven, dump the #$(#$U) walnuts on top and stir them into the now-warm dough that has thickened around the edges, the pop the pan back into the oven.

Is there any chance these brownies will continue to rise and taste like anything but bricks after having their oven time interrupted?

So I'm telling you: Just buy desserts at the bakery. That way you won’t spend your day questioning your sanity – and have to throw away the whole #$R9(&(* batch.

Stirring the Pot

Whole Foods #2

Did you read what my friend, Hilde, the Tubeworm, did with her stuffed chicken breast from Whole Foods? THAT’S what I’d call being creative in the kitchen. I just plunked my chicken breast stuffed with broccoli and cheddar cheese (so it said) into the oven for a while, testing it now and then with a meat thermometer. I did not overcook it, but the meat was dry. And the stuffing had something in it besides broccoli and cheddar that stirred up the acid production in my stomach – again. Is this fair? I, who loves to eat, can eat only small portions at a time and must be sure nothing contains anything delicious, like fat, tomatoes, citrus, coffee, hot spices, mint, chocolate, etc. Anyway, I agree with Tubeworm that the stuffed chicken breasts would feed four, but that four will not include me. I have whole chickens in my freezer from a local farmer whose meat I’d much prefer, just plain roasted. Even My Man Who Only Eats The White Meat of Fowl didn’t care for the Whole Foods chicken breast meat. We threw more than half of it away.

The haddock I made the next night I would not buy again either. Oh well. When I opened the package, it smelled like it does when you walk into the Empire Fish Co. store. Hmmm... And then I tried to serve the garlic bread from Whole Foods. It was a half loaf of Italian bread, sliced the long way, spread with garlic and olive oil. I paid $9.95 for it, which I thought was a lot, but decided it looked really good, so.. Well, it was a total loss. The loaf was dry, old bread, even unable to be revived when warmed in my oven. I threw it out.

So... Hilde and I have decided: we’re glad we made the trip to the east side to check out Whole Foods (also known as Whole Paychecks), but we will continue to do our shopping at Grasch’s. Whole Foods vast selection of bulk olives was exciting, the tomato basil soup I bought was very good, and their cheese section is extensive, but Grasch’s has them beat in both the deli department (by a LONG shot) and the meats and fish section. Whole Foods fish section is huge, with a greater selection, but that may be the problem. Can they sell that many varieties of fish and have them all be fresh? The bakery we tried from Whole Foods was very good, but Grasch’s is too. And I have never gotten stale bread from Grasch’s. Of course Whole Foods has a much larger organic produce section. Grasch’s produce is lovely, but the organic section is limited. In addition, the Health Hut on nearby Bluemound Rd. is a small organic grocery that is adequate for most fresh produce.

Last night I made lamb chops for dinner. I buy a whole lamb (butchered, of course) from a local farmer who raises them “free range”. (I have no idea if there is any other way to raise sheep. There are many areas in which I am not an expert. Farming tops that list.) Anyway, The Man Who Never Notices What He Has Eaten Unless He Doesn’t Like It commented upon biting into his lamb chop, “I think you should always stick to preparing your own food.” I took that as a compliment for the lamb chop. I used a lamb chop recipe from www.epicurious.com If you want to try it, go to the site and search for “Cider-Glazed Lamb Chops.” Tasty, tasty.

And now I am going to try to figure out how to establish a cookbook of my favorite recipes on the epicurious website. I think you can save recipes from their site in your “favorites” and even type in your own recipes, and even your mother’s. Why am I keeping files and folders and searching for the old recipes that I like?

Dragging myself oh-so-painfully into the 21st century,

Stirring the Pot

Whole Foods Fills the Refrigerator

My house is filled with the delicious aroma of vegetables roasting. If I can remember how, I’ll show you a picture of them. This is a combination of eggplant (my favorite vegetable for roasting), snap peas, carrots, onions, and the real treasure: golden beets. Yummy! And you’re asking, “Where did you find golden beets, Stirring the Pot?” Well...

My friend Hilde and I made a trip to the Whole Foods superstore on Milwaukee’s east side today. In addition to all those beautiful, organic vegetables that I’m roasting, have I got food to cook! I am going to be actually “cooking on Donmar” for quite a while.

I’d been to Whole Foods in Madison and in Charlottesville, VA, where one of my daughters shops. But neither of those stores compares to Milwaukee’s in size. Hilde and I were there for over three hours, scoping out the healthy stuff.

This massive store makes up the first floor of Columbia/St Mary’s office building. With free parking in an underground garage, it is very convenient. Hilde and I began our morning adventure admiring the bakery department. This led to a pre-shopping tasting in the in-store coffee shop and some shared pastries. I would highly recommend the spinach and feta stuffed croissants, and they make a mighty fine dark chocolate mocha.

Next we perused the cheese selection, which rivals Sendik’s on Capital Dr in Brookfield – and that’s saying a lot. Whole Foods had 5 different cheeses from Carr Valley, plus the award-winning Pleasant Ridge cheese, and one of my favorites - Drunken Goat cheese. I also picked up a stilton with lemon peel, which turned out to be a lovely new flavor combination for me.

Next we visited the olive bars. There were two of them, with perhaps 20 or more types and combinations of olives and other pickled delights. Be sure to pick up some of the pickled sun-dried tomatoes and the garlic-stuffed green olives and the Kalamata and feta cheese combo.

I could go on and on, describing the deli and the produce and the beautifully displayed fresh fish counter and all the aisles and aisles of organic canned and packaged goods and the flowers and ... Go and see for yourself.

Tonight I will roast some garlic and herb coated haddock filets, serve them with some of the roasted vegetables, slices of garlic and olive oil Italian bread and a fresh watermelon I cut up, all from Whole Foods. Other meals this weekend will include a roasted chicken breast stuffed with cheddar and broccoli and some of Whole Foods own crab cakes on Sunday, risking the wrath of The Man Who Only Eats Red Meat Happily. I’m assuming he may eat haddock, as he will eat cod, though usually only if it’s deep fried and beer battered. And I can feed him crab cakes on a rare occasion, hidden beneath a remoulade sauce (which I also bought at Whole Foods). I know he'll be pleased with our weekend lunches of tomato basil soup from WF’s deli and produce section and the chicken pot pie from WF's deli.

As there is already a whole (cut up) lamb in my freezer, plus some locally raised buffalo and beef, either I must stop grocery shopping or you all had better come over for dinner soon. The table is set...

Stirring the Pot