Foodbuzz 24X24: A (Surprise) Day in Vegas

My original plan for this weekend was to clean the house, do some laundry, and grill meat. When Matt proposed last weekend, everything changed – not only had he planned the proposal, but he had planned a surprise weekend in Vegas to celebrate!

Something else I had planned for Memorial Day Weekend was the Foodbuzz 24X24 dinner – 24 featured publishers have 24 exciting meals on one day, then post about them the next. I had planned a scrumptious farmer’s market dinner so when my plans changed, Foodbuzz allowed me to change my dinner as well!

**Disclaimer – I don’t feel qualified to review each restaurant, so please consider this just a description of food from my point of view.**

We started our day with a walk down the strip. When we checked the weather forecast, we were pleasantly surprised that it would be hotter in St. Louis this weekend than Vegas! The high for Vegas on Saturday? Mid-70’s, and it felt like it. I was chilly!

We entered the Venetian and people-watched (oh, the people-watching!) as we strolled through the beautiful scenery. I was shocked when we stumped upon a brewery smack in the middle of all those frozen margarita yards and $5 t-shirt shops!

Sin City Brewing Co. brews off-site but has three small beer bars, one in Venetian, one in the Flamingo, and one in Planet Hollywood (where we’re staying!). Kelly, the manager of the Venetian location, served us their seasonal IPA, which was delicious and totally drinkable at 11 a.m.

Kelly was great – in between dealing with the drunk bachelor parties (yes, still 11 a.m.!) and barely-dressed harems of women, she had a sense of humor and was incredibly welcoming. Just goes to show that if you find craft beer, you find good people (even in Vegas!).

We chatted with Kelly and a few other craft beer fans until close to 1 p.m., when we had to hit up Caesar’s for our reservation at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill.

(image source)

Mesa Grill is an upscale Southwestern-inspired restaurant. It serves “brunch” every weekend until 3 p.m., but for us this meal was lunch. We arrived early but were seated promptly at 1 p.m. and immediately ordered the house margarita (excellent!). They also served a variety of breads, including jalapeno cornbread and blueberry and apple pastries. The cornbread was great!

I had been eyeing the goat cheese “queso fundido” for days so we started with that. This dip was a bit on the greasy side, but the fact that this was goat cheese actually gave it a lighter feeling, not your typical “ugh, no more cheese!” queso feeling. We enjoyed it!

Though the queso was prompt, there was a mistake in the kitchen and our main dishes took well over 30 minutes to arrive (after we finished the queso). Mesa staff took a while to let us know what was going on, but apologized more than once and comped our drinks to make up for it. Kitchen mistakes happen and we had nowhere to be and all the time in the world, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.

I had the Sixteen Spice Chicken Salad (goat cheese, green onion vinaigrette) and enjoyed it.

Matt had the New Mexican Spiced Pork Tenderloin Sandwich (grilled red onion, arugula, ancho chile mayo, Southwestern fries) and enjoyed it as well.

While the food was tasty and the servers were gracious enough in making up for the kitchen mishap, my final thought was that the beloved Milagro Modern Mexican in St. Louis was comparable, if not better.

After lunch, we walked more of the strip, played some slots (I’m sorry but Wheel of Fortune is the most fun slot in the city), and ended up back at our room for a nap and a change of clothes. We had to refresh and recharge because we had dinner reservations at Craftsteak!

Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak is a steak house that attempts to use meat and produce from local family farms, and changes their menu with the season. Colicchio is a James Beard winner that cooks simple food with extreme flavor.

Normally, I would not whip out my camera at a restaurant of this quality, but I was committed to this Foodbuzz event. That said, I used my iPhone camera and the photos are rather dark, as expected.

We started with Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA’s (yay!) and the above rolls, topped with sea salt. I was afraid to eat more than a half of a roll, as we had a ton of food coming our way.

The menu itself is simple, just like Colicchio’s cooking style. Craftsteak offer a special chef menu, where three courses are served family style and angus beef is served sliced at the table. Our server stated that each course would give us a variety of offerings (three types of salad, soup, two cuts of beef, sides, etc) and for the price, this was obviously the best way to experience the menu and all Colicchio had to offer.

(The server said that this was a Memorial Day Weekend special. I believe they offer the chef menu all the time, so I’m not sure if he meant that the variety of foods was the special, or something else)

After the bread, we received a small bowl of lobster bisque, which was a complex oxymoron of creamy and light-as-air broth with pieces of lobster and scallops, topped with tarragon. Excellent.

Three salad offerings followed. From left – warm frisee salad with farm egg and smoked bacon, Caesar salad with white wine croutons and pickled anchovies, and a spinach salad with cherries and walnuts. All three were blissful but I especially enjoyed the Caesar! Those croutons hold a special place in my heart.

As if I wasn’t already full, the main course arrived: full-sized ribeye and t-bone steaks served in cast-iron skillets, sliced and cooked medium-rare and medium, respectively. Sides included asparagus with lemon zest, potato gratin with a roasted garlic cream, and a variety of mushrooms with which to top our steak.

Again, the amount of food for the price we paid was astounding. I don’t know how any couple could have finished this, but we tried! Every bite was fresh and tasted like Colicchio himself had purchased each ingredient from the farmer’s market that very morning.

After we ate all we could manage, I unlocked that secret compartment I have in my stomach just for dessert. I had to – look at what we received!

From left: a scoop each of lemon and apricot sorbet (the lemon was heaven in a bowl), vanilla bean cheesecake (!) with a graham cracker crust, candied kumquats, and sweet whipped cream, cinnamon monkey bread (!!) with brown sugar sour cream ice cream (!!!), and a plate of sliced farmer’s market fruit.

My favorite was a tie between the cheesecake and the brown sugar sour cream ice cream, but the lemon sorbet was a close second. And to our surprise, they served us a small piece of raspberry chocolate cake with that same sweet whipped cream in celebration of our engagement!

We were stuffed in the best way possible as we left Craftsteak. The service was impeccable from start to finish and the food lived up to everything I had built it up to be before going. I would recommend this restaurant (and go back again) in a heartbeat.

We stayed up until 2 a.m. playing slots and blackjack and are ready to do it all over again today!

Thanks again to Foodbuzz for allowing me to change my 24X24 idea at the last minute and sponsoring this post.

Have a great Memorial Day!

CSA Week Two: May 24 (Cooking with Beer!)

I picked up our second CSA box from Three Rivers Farm today and in the rush of packing for Vegas and giving myself a pedicure, I prepped my veggies for a long five days in the fridge.

Because we’ll be gone for almost five days and because I don’t want to waste anything, we are giving a lot of the greens to Matt’s mom (she promises to use them!). I will enjoy them next week! However, I am keeping the root veggies we received, as well as broccoli and these lovelies:

Red scallions! I have heard of them but never eaten one before (they taste the same). If you knew how much I love green onions, you’ll know how excited I was to get a bunch of these red babies.

Here’s everything we received this week in our CSA:

• 1 bunch red scallions
• 1 bunch turnips
• 1 bunch radishes
• 2 heads lettuce
• 1 bag salad mix
• 1 bag spinach
• 2 heads bok choy
• 1 head broccoli
• 1 head kale

To store non-greens while we are away, I did the following:

Broccoli: Simply placed in a plastic bag with holes in it, fresh broccoli should last over a week. Just make sure it has air to breathe.

Scallions: I’ve eaten green onions like candy since I was young (I know), and my mom would always put them in a tall glass with water in the bottom to keep them fresh (leaving the tiny root ends attached). I have now learned that if you snip off the green part (leaving the white part in the water), they will often regrow! You can also plant just the white part in dirt and again, it should regrow with some sunlight and water.

Radishes & Turnips: You want to snip the leaves off root vegetables as soon as you get home (but don’t throw the leaves away! Treat them like any other green and eat them up), since the greens will continue to suck the life out of the root (vegetable). Once snipped, store the root vegetable in an airtight container in the fridge for over a week. Don’t wash until you’re ready to eat!

And all those greens? Well, if we weren’t going out of town, I would make these braised greens.

Mostly because they’re braised in beer!

Beer-Braised Greens

by Every Little Thing

Keywords: sauté appetizer snack side vegetarian vegan spring summer

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced
• 4-6 packed cups of chopped greens (bok choy, spinach, kale)
• 1 bunch garlic scapes, chopped (or 2 cloves garlic, minced)
• 1.5 cups beer (a lighter beer works best - think ales, lagers, and even Kolsch)
• 1.5 cup vegetable broth or water
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

Wash all greens and pat dry with paper towel. Roughly chop all greens, removing kale stems. Heat the oil in a large wide pot or skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until onion is soft (8-10 minutes). Add the garlic/scapes and cook for 1 minute. Add all the greens and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly wilted, about 5 minutes. Add beer and broth/water and bring the liquid to a boil, then cover and simmer on low until tender. This can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on how you like your greens. I braised them for approximately 10 minutes covered, then 5 uncovered, to allow the rest of the liquid to cook away. Season to taste when they're finished with salt and pepper.

The hint of garlic in those scapes complements the hearty greens. You can taste almost an afterthought of beer – just the right amount. I used a Schlafly Kolsch but any beer on the lighter end of the spectrum would work.

If I was getting creative, I’d throw in bacon and caramelize those onions but let’s face it – this was about all the cooking I could drum up on a Tuesday.

We are off to Vegas today to celebrate our engagement! I have a special Vegas post planned for Sunday (I know, blogging on vacation! Just the one) and a guest post from a new friend after that.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Question: I need ideas for preparing turnips! Also, do they make you think of Super Mario Bros 3 like they do with me?!

St. Louis Food Media Forum, 7/28-29

Just a quick blog post today. This week has left me busier than ever (in the best way possible, of course!). Here’s one of the projects that has been in the works for months, and one I’m so excited to share with you:

The St. Louis Food Media Forum is the first ever conference devoted entirely to food writing, blogging, and photography. Food media can mean a variety of things. Are you a…

• food blogger?
• Foodspotting or Yelp veteran?
• food writer looking to expand?
• home cook?
• healthy living blogger?
• social media enthusiast?
• food stylist?
• future author?
• recipe developer?
• urban farmer?
• food photographer?

Truly, this conference has the potential to elevate all of the above and more. Food Media Forum is a two-day workshop on July 28-29, 2012, featuring some of the best food writers, photographers, and social media experts to help those in and around St. Louis perfect the art of sharing their food experience.

Check the website for speakers, agenda, and location. We’ve organized a reduced rate with a hotel down the street from the venue, so by no means do you have to be from St. Louis to attend the event! And at $100 per ticket, this event is a steal considering the professional speakers we’ve invited to attend.

Check out @foodmediaforum on Twitter and let us know if you’re attending by clicking on our Facebook link. This event is one-of-a-kind and if you’re anywhere near here (or not!), we’d love to have you! Tickets are very limited.

CSA Week One: May 17

I can’t believe I haven’t blogged since last Wednesday! A lot has happened since then. I started the weekend excited to have no plans and spend time away from the computer. I ended the weekend…

…engaged!

Yes, Matt proposed this weekend, at the top of the lovely stairs pictured above. I can’t believe we’re getting married!

The kicker? Matt planned a surprise trip to Vegas THIS weekend! He has never been and wanted to do something special for us to celebrate our engagement. We leave on Friday, right after work!

I don’t know how I’ll be ready in time, but who cares?! I’m going to Vegas!

I picked up week one of my CSA subscription last Thursday. They reuse all their boxes, so I emptied everything into my bag and hauled it home. Here’s what I received in one share:

• Two kinds of lettuce
• Radishes
• Kale
• Bok Choy
• Broccoli
• Garlic scapes (use like garlic!)
• Spinach
• Mixed salad greens
• Quart of strawberries

Amy from Three Rivers warned us that we’d have a lot of greens for the first few weeks and she was definitely correct! As soon as I got home, I started processing the greens.

I washed everything, then put the salad mix into our salad spinner. The other greens I dried and wrapped in paper towel, then put them in plastic baggies (that I will reuse next week).

I am certainly eating well with all this produce. I’ve eaten a salad with every meal so far, and the radishes, broccoli, and garlic scapes invite plenty of experimentation.

One of the most interesting things I’ve done with the veggies so far is to sauté the radishes.

The Sauce Magazine recipe stated to sauté them with butter but after making BLT’s for lunch, we had plenty of bacon grease to use instead of butter. First, I sliced them with a mandoline. You can also chop or dice!

I then sautéed them in about 2 tablespoons of grease for 3 minutes. I added about 1/4 cup of stock, then cooked that down over medium-high heat until the liquid was gone. I took it off the heat, added 2 tablespoons of butter, and a sprinkle of parsley and scallions.

They certainly aren’t pretty, but they were delicious!

I also made a quick batch of kale chips. Cook chip-sized pieces sprayed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. That’s it!

More to come, including beer-braised greens!

Question: What would you do with all these greens? I need more ideas!

CSA Partnership: Three Rivers Farm

I’m really excited for tomorrow. Yes, it means we’re that much closer to the weekend, but what I’m excited for is something new to me, and something that’s been a long time coming.

It’s my first CSA pickup!

It’s true, this summer will be the first time I’ve participated in a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture (localharvest.org has a good rundown of the pros and cons in CSA participation). Basically, a CSA allows you to “subscribe” to a farm’s wares. Every week in the spring, summer, and fall, you pick up a bountiful box filled with all the produce you’ll likely need in a week’s time. It’s a great way to expand your kitchen repertoire, eat good, clean, and fair, and support a local farm.

Not only is this my first CSA, but the partnership I’m forming with the farm that grows my future veggies is invaluable.

I first noticed Three Rivers Community Farm (Elsah, Illinois) at the Schlafly Farmer’s Market, then heard Amy Cloud speak at SLOWednesday’s, a free event provided by Slow Food and Schlafly Bottleworks that highlights local farms and farmers.

So can you imagine how excited I was when Amy emailed me asking for help with CSA recipes?!

This partnership is a dream come true for me. I’ll receive a weekly CSA from tomorrow through mid-November 2012 and in exchange, will create 1-2 recipes a week using the CSA items.

What great timing - I finally feel comfortable enough in the kitchen to experiment with a few weekly surprises, and a farm like Three Rivers that uses chemical-free, sustainable farming methods certainly fits in with the mission of Every Little Thing!

I also plan to help out at the farm at least once or twice this summer, as a way of saying thanks for the beautiful vegetables that Amy, her husband Segue, and their son Diego work so hard to produce.

I will be posting the recipes using Three Rivers’ CSA here on the blog, and Amy will also email them out to CSA subscribers, to help all those busy families trying to eat right and support Three Rivers.

(all the above photos belong to Three Rivers Community Farm)

Also, now that we’re definitely into market season, I’ll be posting a short market report each week, to let you know what you might expect before you go. Look for this logo to help guide you through all that good food!

I’ll be sure to report what I get in my first CSA box tomorrow. Amy has already told us to expect a bounty of greens for the first few weeks – kale, salad mix, lettuce, bok choy, spinach… I’ve already been researching some fun ways to cook the leafy stuff and even found a recipe for beer-braised greens that could get the most green-hating member of your household to try them.

Can’t wait to show you!

Question: Have you ever subscribed to a CSA? What do you think would be the most challenging aspect for you?