Pates,Terrines and Galantines

You may not know it, but I have been attending school for the past few semesters.  These are some of the things I learned to prepare this semester at the Johnson County Community College culinary program. One of the best in the nation.

Pates and Terrines have a long illustrious history. They were mentioned in documents dating back to 75 b.c.
I have learned to debone a chicken and not tear or break the skin so as to make a galantine. This is done by putting meat back in the skin and rolling and poaching it in chicken broth.     This is a forcemeat production.
I look so forward to every class. I will bring this knowledge and skill to the Casa Somerset B&B for our overnight guests.

Casa Somerset "Living the Dream"

It is alive now, after 13 years of dreaming and designing.   Friends and Family visit often.   We still have much to do, but since we moved in July of 2009, we have accomplished a lot.  It is a work in progress, and will be the rest of my life. 

I purchased the land and  a house that was on it those 13 years ago.  I started envisioning the possible results.  In 2007, Christine and I pushed over and burned down the existing house, which is on 6 acres with a six acre lake.   In it's place we built a 7,000 sq. ft. house with a 1,600 sq ft veranda that wraps around the whole second floor.  Never did I dream that I would have a home with a name.  It really came from my friends and adopted family in Italy, Casa Caponetti.  

Please come for a visit. We tour daily. 

We love to sit inside or outside around tables with good food and friends and family. 

We want to grow the Somerset area to be the Sonoma of Kansas.  Somerset is a vanished town, a town that used to have it's own zip code, but due to diminished population, the town became part of Paola and lost it's post office.  We are located a mile from the Louisburg Cidermill. We would love to see you.
Mike

"World's Largest Garlic Festival"

Gilroy, California July 24th

I have been wanting to go to this festival since I did a report at my culinary class on garlic at JCCC.

Christine convinced me this was the year.  We decided to go to California for Christine's birthday.  Our trip started in Sacramento, where we stayed with friends Thursday night.  On Friday we drove to Gilroy, which was not easy.  The traffic near the San Francisco Bay area was awful!  Fortunately, Christine drove.  We met a couple of Christine's friends on Saturday.  She went to school with Marguerite, and her friend Steve came too.  They were not as crazy or adventurous  as we were about eating.  

  

We started with Garlic ice cream, Christine didn't care for it, but I went for seconds.   The escargot were great, but no one else had any.   You could smell the garlic as you arrived, actually, you could smell the garlic even when you were miles away from the festival!!!   The thing that was really great was that 10% of the people from Gilroy volunteered to work this festival, a real community effort. They had guest chefs, Fabio Viviani, from the Firenze Osteria in Southern California, and Andrea Froncillo from the Stinking Rose restaurant in San Francisco were the two we watched. 

Some of the interesting things to eat were garlic chocolate, garlic sauce, and garlic fries.  The fries were $6.00, and they had about 20 cents worth of potatoes in the serving.  That was topped with chopped, raw garlic with  herbs and parsley.  Wow! Talk about heartburn!

There were other things to do at the festival.  Christine attended a garlic braiding class.  Pretty funny too!  I don't think she will be giving up her day job to be a garlic braider!!  They had lots of arts and crafts at the festival.  Marguerite and Christine were interested in those.  We bought a couple of T-shirts and some garlic cookbooks..  But mostly, we just walkded around and ate. 

More to come on the Califonia trip...

Bella "the beautiful"

Well, we have added to our little family.  First there was Mike and Christine.  Then, last year we added

Rafael and Figaro, our sweet, but admittedly spoiled cats!  The boys have a BIG surprise coming.

Last weekend Mike and I traveled out to DeSoto and found our newest member.  Meet Bella, a St. Bernard puppy.  Bella will be ready to leave her mama in about 10 days.  She is 5 weeks old in these pictures. 

Mike used to raise St. Bernard's more than 30 years ago.  Since I have known him, he has always spoken lovingly about his dogs.  Now that he is retired and the weather has finally turned warm, it is time to add a dog to the mix. 

This will definitely be Mike's dog.  It was so much fun watching him when we drove up to see the puppies.  The family has a lovely home and a big yard.  We got out of the car and there were little fuzzball dogs toddling around everywhere!  Mike was unusually quiet (yes, I said quiet) and watched each puppy.  He eliminated them one by one.  Finally we got down to just two... a male and a female.  I really thought he would pick the male as he was the larger of the two.  But, he sat in a lawn chair and held each one for some time... finally choosing the female.  Bella.  The beautiful. 

Casa Somerset, the hideaway

Looking over Casa Somerset on a Friday evening. Just floating on the lake with the one you love, in a paddle boat with a bottle of wine.  The storm is over for now, but it is so peaceful.    Christine and I are sharing a bottle of wine and sitting on the veranda.

Only 20 minutes from Overland Park. Somerset Ridge Winery is just a mile away. Louisburg Cidermill is the same. 4 D acres EMU farm is a mile away. It is so relaxing here. There will be 600 vines tomorow planted across the road. This is very quickly becoming the Napa of Kansas. 

We love to show off our home. Please call for tour.  913-557-9288

Bring a bottle of vino and sit on  the veranda with us to enjoy the surroundings.

Kansas City Food Circle Expo

Saturday April 3rd in Independence, Missouri.

We attended the Kansas City Food Circle Exp on Saturday, and there were many small producers there.  Bad Seed Farms, 4 D Acres, Beau Solais, and Schenker Farms are pictured but there were more.  We bought organic sweet potatoes and leaf lettuce for Easter dinner.  We purchased our Easter ham from Schenker Farms which is in McCune, KS.  We also picked up a few plants for our garden this year.  There was more information than one could absorb in one day.   This organization does a great job promoting the small grower.
 
This year, try to make friends with several local, small producers and make at least a weekly visit to the farmers market in your area.   If we don't support them, they will go away and we will only have large corporations to buy tasteless products.  Buy Local.          

Bourbon and Chocolate Pecan Pie

Ingredients

Pie Pastry:

1 cup all-purpose flour,plus more for dusting

1/4 cup finely ground pecans

1 TBS Sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter.cold and cut into small chunks.

2 TBS ice water,plus more if needed

Filling :
1/4  cup(1/2 stick) unsalted buttter
2 oz of unsweetened chocolate
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup or sugar cane syrup
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 TBS bourbon
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups of pecan halves.

Directions:

To make the pastry:combine the flour,ground pecans,sugar,and salt in large bowl. Add butter and mix with a pastry blender or your hands until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Pour in the ice water and work it in to bind the dough until it holds together without being to wet or stickly. Squeese a small amount together ,if it is crumbly.add more ice water. 1 TBS at a time. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Roll out dough on lightly floured surface in to a 12 inch circle. Carefully roll the dough up onto the pin and lay it inside a 9-inch pie pan. Press the dough into the pan so it fits tightly and trim the excess around the rim. Place pie pan on a sturdy cookie sheet so it will be easy to move in and out of the oven.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make filling :melt the butter and chocolate in a small saucepan over medium -low heat,remove from heat and let cool.  Beat eggs in large mixing bowl untill frothy and then blend in the sugar. Stir in the syrup, vanilla,bourbon,salt and the melted butter mixtue until well blended.
Arrange the pecans on the bottom of the pie crust and carefully pour the egg mixture over them.  Bake until the filling is set and slightly puffed,about 45 minutes. Test doneness by sticking a thin knife in the center of the pie,if it comes out  pretty clean,your good to go. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely before cutting. 

This is a Tyler Florence recipe.   Look for local ingredients,eggs ,pecans, flour,etc