Duh! I was corning spot

So what was I doing with a fish and a tootbrush?

Corning spot, of course! Corning is an old-fashioned way of preserving fish. It's a dying art that Jim Merritt over at The Catch Seafood in Norfolk is passing on through  classes at his market. Jim's next class is Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

In fact, Jim, a Norfolk native with OBX roots, will give lessons on anything seafood . . . how to clean it, how to cook it, how to select it. He pan fried a corned spot for me and I couldn't help but think that the simplest food is often the best food.

Anyway, I'll be writing about corning spot in the wood pulp edition of The Pilot on Wednesday, and online, of course.

But for now, you just need to know that Jim used the toothbrush to clean every bit of guts from the belly of the fish. Apparently, if you don't do that you are doomed. I, of course, did not clean the fish myself (although I can clean fish myself).

I'm awarding two cookbooks, one to Bill Mitchell, who guessed correctly, and one to kandc, who had such a great imagination --really, making hair pins from fish bones!

Anyway, y'all send your mailing address to lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com and I'll put a cookbook in the mail to you. Oh, and let me know what flavor cookbook you'd like -- Italian, grilling, desserts, healthy stuff . . . . we got 'em all.

Have a great weekend!

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Guess what I've been doing today

So. What do y'all think I've  been up to today?

Figure it out and I'll mail you a brand new cookbook!

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Got apples? Make Amish apple cookies!

Remember that bounty of apples I received a coupla weeks back?

The apples that my OBX friends – the ones who inherited part of an apple orchard – bestowed upon me and The Baby Girl? The ones with names like Razor Russet and Esophus Spitzenburg?

Anyway, they were mostly gone – and our stash of lunchbox snacks had been ransacked – when I received a copy of “The Amish Cook’s Baking Book” in the mail at work (a definite perk of a food writer!)

Now I rarely bake cookies. That’s because I like cookies. Actually, I love them. And I will attempt to eat them all. But since The Baby Girl needed cookies for her lunchbox, I decided to give a wholesome-looking recipe for “Apple Cookies” a try. Gosh, what could be more wholesome than Amish apple cookies?

These were easier than pie to make. (But really, what isn’t?) And if you are lazy and “sift” all the dry ingredients together right in the measuring cup, it only requires one bowl to make.

The result: a few dozen sweet, oatmeal-apple-walnut cookies! Plus, if you’re a mom, you get to revel in a moment of virtuousness.

I know, I know. Mine look a little flat. Wondering why, I flipped through a copy of the Sur La Table’s “Tips Cooks Love.” (Gotta love that mailbox!) There I learned that I probably overcreamed the butter and sugar. (Those of you with KitchenAid mixers know how easy it is to walk away and suddenly find yourself reading the mail.) “Tips” says to cream the butter and sugar no more than 2 to 3 minutes.

In my kitchen, I omitted the raisins because The Baby Girl won’t eat them, I don’t know why.

Apple Cookies Makes 4 dozen cookies

¾ cup shortening, softened 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar 3 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon salt ¾ teaspoon baking powder ¾ teaspoon baking soda ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 ½ cups quick-cooking rolled oats 2 medium McIntosh apples, peeled and chopped ¾ cups raisins 2/3 cups walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and brown sugar. Then add the eggs and beat the mixture until it’s fluffy. Sift together 2 cups of the flour, the salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Add the sifted ingredients and the oats to the creamed mixture. Blend well.

In a separate bowl, stir together the remaining 1/3 cup of flour, the apples, raisins and walnuts. Fold this mixture in with the rest of the batter. Drop by the teaspoon 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake until edges are golden, about 12 minutes.

Cool the cookies on a wire rack or a plate and then put into sealed containers. These cookies will stay fresh for up to 5 days.

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Help me interview Guy Fieri!

There's a food-a-palooza taking shape and that crazy Food Network chef, Guy Fieri is in charge.

Billed as "the first ever rock n' roll culinary tour." Guy and his Krew will hit 21 cities in 30 days, including a stop at Chrysler Hall on Nov. 20.

Flair bartender Hayden "Woody" Wood will open the show (gotta love that name!). A yet-to-be-revealed local chef will follow and then Guy will take center stage with an unscripted performance, complete with interractive cooking stations, demos, behind the scenes stories from the road and more.

On Friday, I'll be talking with Guy on the phone. It should be a pretty fun interview. But I don't want to hog all the fun, so I thought I'd ask you guys if you have a question or two for this California guy gone wild.

Let me know and I'll try to work it in!

And while you are at it, nominate a local chef to cook with him at the Chrysler. I'll relay that info to Guy, too!

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Unleashing dark spirits - brown likker season starts tomorrow

Know what tomorrow is?

It’s the day that the dark spirits are unleashed. For bourbon and whiskey types, that means twisting off the cap of a bourbon bottle to mark the beginning of what my friend Tim calls “brown likker season” (proclaimed in his best Colonel Sanders drawl).

Margarita glasses and my dear summer friend, the one-serving slushie machine, will soon be nudged to the back of the bar in favor of rocks and highball glasses, cherries and bitters.

My house drink in cold weather is always a Manhattan. During Brown Likker Season '08, I became enamored with Stirrings Blood Orange Bitters and frequently subbed that for the sweet vermouth in my Manhattans. But last night I was flipping through a great little bar companion, Food & Wine magazines “Cocktails ’09.”

In it, I found an intriguing recipe for the “Beatnik,” an updated version of the classic Manhattan, made in a pitcher. (BTW, I believe that stirring up cocktails in pitchers is an up-and-coming trend.)

The cocktail was concocted by Duggan McDonnell, owner of a swank San Francisco bar. He says in the book that his “interest in large-format cocktails began when I hosted parties in college.” (My friends were not like that. I recall visiting a boyfriend at U.Va. and being served dinner in a Frisbee.)

Anyway, here’s his version:

Beatnik Makes 8 drinks

24 ounces bourbon 12 ounces tawny port 8 ounces Averna amaro (a bitter Italian liqueur sold in ABC stores) 32 dashes of Peychaud’s bitters Ice 8 orange twists

In a pitcher, combine all of the ingredients except ice and the orange twists and stir well. Add ice and stir again, then strain into chilled martini glasses. Pinch an orange twist over each glass, rub around the rim and add to the drink.

PS - If you don’t have a favorite bourbon, the mixologist-authors of this book recommend Bulleit (value,  $25.95 for 750 ml) or Booker’s (high end $58.95 for 750 ml). Both are listed in “Virginia Wine & Liquor Quarterly,” the official ABC catalogue, as available in Virginia liquor stores. If your store doesn’t have what you need, I’ve found that the managers are more than happy to order elixirs for you.

PSS – That is not a pitcher of Beatnik in the photograph. It's another drink in "Cocktails '09" and I just liked the shape of the pitcher!

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Griff's, the area's newest sports lounge

Wondering where to watch the game this weekend?

I have to admit, I’m not. I’m one of those football neutral gals. But say I was a Philly fan, or a Cowboys fan, or a Steelers fan.

Then say I couldn’t watch the action in my favorite sports bar ever – Big Wave Dave’s in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua – where Big Dave fashions his big screen from a white-ish, nearly wrinkle-free bed sheet and projects the game on it to lure expatriates out of the sun for a cold one.

OK. So say I couldn’t do that. Then I’d head over to the newest sports bar in the area, Griff’s Restaurant and Sports Lounge, which opens Friday in Old Towne Portsmouth.

I checked Griff’s out the other day. Carpenters and electrical guys were still at work, but gosh, this is one fine looking establishment. It’s owned by David Griffin, Sr., who opened the original Griff’s over on Portsmouth Boulevard in September of ’08.

Griff has also been in the tile biz for 30 years, and this bar shows the mark of that connection – stone wainscoting on the walls, a gleaming, curved granite bar, tiled floor and the backdrop behind the bar, well, you’ve just got to see it. It’s just a showplace. But Griff also tore the drywall down to reveal the original brick walls, which give the place a real, Old Towne feel.

The place has 14 HD TVs, and Griff (a U.Va. and Skins fan) promises that he’ll play “all the games all the time.” Almost every set can be seen from anywhere in the house. There’s also a pool tables (with the most comfortable spectator bar stools). There’s also seating on the patio right on High Street, where two televisions will be turned on.

On Friday they plan to start serving lunch and dinner and the menu runs from sandwiches ($5.99 to $9.99) to higher priced seafood entrees for dinner. Griff particularly recommends the wings and the crab dip appetizers.

The place seats about 120, and Griff’s goal is to have a “comfortable” bar, not a big one. Thus the padded, backed stools at the bar.

“I’ve sat my butt in a lot of bar stools,” he said as he pulled the plastic wrap off of one of them. “I know that if the seat is comfortable, I want to stay longer.”

Griff's is on High Street in Portsmouth, just across the street and a few storefronts from St. Paul's Catholic Church. Call (757) 606-3990.

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A peanut pumpkin score!

Just back from a hugely successful trip to the pumpkin patch. I know, I know. I already wrote about pumpkins, I already bought pumpkins, I already carved them. Apparently I have a new habit. Ever since I saw one, I just had to have one of those “peanut pumpkins.” And one of my blogosphere tipsters, Loci, left a message saying that they had arrived at Sessoms Farm Market in Suffolk.

So, I tooled on over there this afternoon and as promised, there sat a patch of peanut pumpkins. Pretty gnarly stuff.

The bonus was that I also found what I’d been looking so hard for all last Halloween . . . a gi-normous pumpkin. I Halloween wasn’t but days away, I’d have bought one. The sight of the big, orange orbs really and truly made my heart skip a beat, like when you spy the perfect shirt on the rack or are served a dessert that sends you into the stratosphere.

Anyway, I borrowed an apple from the farm stand and placed it atop the great pumpkin for scale. See what I mean? Fifty-cents a pound.

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Stir up some chili, make big bucks!

Need a hundred bucks? How about 200 and a trophy?

Then the brothers over at the Old Dominion University chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha would like to speak with you.

See, the guys are having what they call their “first annual” Pi Kappa Alpha Chili Cookoff (even though my editor would insist that you can’t technically have a “first annual” anything).

“It should be a good time,” said Marty Williamson, a junior civil engineering student and Pike member who is coordinating the event. “Hopefully, we’ll raise a lot of money and can keep doing this for years and years.”

Prizes include $200 and a trophy for the best chili; $100 and a trophy for the people’s choice award and $100 and a trophy for the best booth award. The proceeds will benefit the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation.

It all takes place Saturday, Nov. 14 from noon to 4:30 p.m. in the Batten Arts & Letters building parking lot (that’s the tall building right on Hampton Boulevard.) Chili chefs, or teams of up to six chili chefs, must report earlier and all cooking must be done on premises. And you’ve gotta make 4 to 6 gallons of chili, enough to go around.

To help a brother help a fallen fireman out, click here.

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Driver Days offers good eats

Yesterday, I arrived at Driver Days out in Suffolk on the back of my guy’s Harley and so hungry I was off to find festival food almost before Mr. Trophy had stowed the leathers in the saddlebags.

I contemplated one of those huge turkey legs. OK, not really. Only King Henry VIII can pull that off. Instead, I took a more virtuous route and tried a fest food I hadn’t seen before: whole roasted ears of corn.

It had been roasted in the husk until it was tender and served wrapped in white paper. It was plenty yummy with a rich corn taste, but my virtuous inclinations wore off quickly and soon Mr. Trophy and I were splitting a bulging barbecue sandwich and checking out  the competition bikes.

As for the corn, it’s good to see that festival food is evolving to something a bit tastier than fried Pepsi, seen at the State Fair of Virginia. Up in Maine, I met a guy who makes hot-smoked salmon and sells it on sticks. Sigh.

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Peanut pumpkins - creepy without carving

The other night, The Baby Girl and I covered the kitchen counter with a layer of our (handy-dandy!) daily newspaper, hauled the pumpkins in from the yard, washed ‘em off and got to carving.

The Baby Girl’s favorite part of the jack-o-lantern caper is scooping out the muck from the belly of the orange beast. Oh, that and drawing the most intricate pumpkin faces for her dear mother to carve. I mean, who ever heard of a jack with eyebrows?

We broke all of our proper pumpkin carving tools last year, so I was armed only with a set of Henkels and thank goodness I had them sharpened this summer. My pumpkins were tough and hard as one of those little fruit-flavored taffy squares that some people toss in trick-or-treater’s bags and almost every kid eventually tosses in the trash.

Next year, I promise a full investigation of the pumpkins that are easiest to carve. The task was truly aerobic, but the result (in the picture) was worth it.

But I still want one more pumpkin this year. Have you seen these “peanut” pumpkins? I mean, they are creepy without even being carved. If anyone knows where to get one, please do tell!

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