Off Topic Post - For the Love of Suzie

A few weeks ago, a blogger that I follow wrote about her cat passing onto Rainbow Bridge.  After I read her blog, we exchanged a few words, I told her about my beloved Golden Retriever, Brady, passing away a long time ago. (Just for the record…even though I live in New England, he was not named after Tom Brady…Tom Brady was not even out of high school when we named him…)  Afterwards, life got in the way, and I forgot about her post.

Until last Saturday. 

I was sitting on my deck last Saturday reading from my Kindle.  It was quite windy that day, and Cathy didn’t want to sit outside.  So it was me, my Kindle, and Suzie.

Suzie is my 10 year old Golden Retriever.  I watched her for a few minutes.  Her back was to me as she was watching the boats go by and the planes taking off from Logan.  The wind was making her ears flop.  Then she turned to me and I scratched her underneath her chin.  When I stopped, she put her paw on me as if to say, “Ummm…can you scratch me under my chin some more?”

I remembered my friend's blog.  Then, a flood of memories came back to me.  

I remembered when we got Suzie. She was 10 months old when we got a call from Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue.  We had applied for an older male dog to adopt, but also told them that we wanted to help a golden with medical needs.   A few months later, they told us about a petite golden girl who had surgery on her knees six weeks earlier.  If we accepted her, we would be her third family, though only her first since she ended up at Yankee Golden.  Neither Cathy nor I knew what to expect… needless to say, we expected a dog to come out slowly…barely able to walk.  Instead, out came a whirlwind who jumped over the couch we were sitting on.  We took her for a walk…No, what I meant was, she took us for a walk.  We decided to take her home with us.

I remembered that she was so skinny when we got her, she could fit through the railings on our stairs.

I remembered the first time I got the ok from the vet to let her off the leash in our backyard.  It was the first time in Suzie’s life that she ran.  Unfortunately, she didn’t know how to stop and ran into the fence.  She figured it out though.

I remembered the time she got out of the house and ran down the street.  Despite hours of training, she wouldn’t come to me when I called her.  Then she heard me yell, “Let’s go for a ride!”  She nearly knocked me over running back.

I remembered the time she got kicked out of a doggie day care, because she was too much for them to handle.  I also remembered another doggie day care that told us that the kindergarten kids loved Suzie because she would play fetch with them until their arms practically fell off!

I remembered the first time I saw her go in the water.   How she plopped in on her side, stood up, and plopped in on her other side.

I remembered when we moved to a condo and how freaked out she was when she got in the elevator for the first time, until she realized this was a “magic box” that took her from our floor to downstairs and back.

And I look at her now.  Her muzzle is grey.  Whereas I had to train her to walk with me instead of ahead of me, now she has been training me to walk slower so I can walk with her.  When Cathy’s alarm goes off in the morning, she doesn’t always have the strength to jump up on the bed and cuddle with me for a few minutes.

I have never been scared of death.  I’m not sure why.   But as I have gotten older, I have gotten more spiritual.  Not religious, but spiritual.  They are two different things.  And I have come to believe that when a living thing dies, the only thing that really dies is the physical being.  The soul continues on among us, it becomes part of us.  I fear that Suzie will not be with us much longer.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying she will be gone tomorrow or next week or even next year.  But sooner, rather than later.  And while I will be sad when she departs for Rainbow Bridge, I know that Suzie will always be a part of me, a part of Cathy…even a part of our cat who is not particularly fond of her.

But for now, I will enjoy watching Suzie’s ears flop in the wind, while she puts her paw on me as if to say, “Ummm….when you’re done scratching my chin, can I have a piece of cheese?”

Mildred's Corner Cafe

Many years ago, before I was even a thought, my father had a job as a soda jerk.  For those of you who don’t know what that is, before there were soda machines behind counters, you actually had to mix the cola syrup with carbonated water.  One day, a very classy woman came in to the place where my father worked and ordered a soda.  My father tried desperately to pick this woman up.  She left and left him a note that said, “Young man, unless you learn some manners, you will never amount to anything”.  Signed, Joan Crawford.

Years later, my father entered World War II and Joan Crawford’s career began to fail.  Then after WWII came to an end, and my father left what was then known as the Army Aircorp, Joan Crawford made a comeback in the movie “Mildred Pierce.”

Mildred’s Corner Café is a small restaurant in Lynn, which just happens to be named after Mildred Pierce.  The owner is obviously a movie nut, as the walls are covered with pictures of old time movie stars and the two televisions near the corners of the ceilings play old time movies.

They do not have a gluten free menu, but they do accommodate.  They have the normal breakfast fare, all quite good, but they also have items not normally seen on a breakfast menu.  For example, the first time I went I had something called the Hawaiian Omelet, which had chunks of pineapple in it, that was surprisingly good, as sometimes pineapple can get a little slimy if overcooked.

Although I have tried many different things there, and have liked them all, my favorite is the huevos rancheros.  I give them two corn tortillas and off they go.  They top them with refried beans, sautéed peppers, cheese, avocado, onions, tomatoes, and of course eggs any way you want them.  I prefer mine to be sunny side up.  Certainly not a dish to eat if you are calorie counting, but hey…it was free day!

Coffee is quite good and served in really big mugs.  

Prefer tea?  They have a very large selection of teas for you to pick from.

For your full gluten family members and friends, they serve really big pancakes, and they are often seasonable.  As an example, in the fall, they serve pumpkin pancakes with cranberry butter.

Needless to say, my father did acquire manners and became a successful businessman.  And Mildred’s Corner Café has become one of my go to breakfast places.

The North End Restaurant Series Part 1 - Marco

We Bostonians are being punished.

No, not by the Red Sox.  Well…yes, by the Red Sox, but that’s not what I’m talking about.  I’m talking about the weather.

We had an extremely mild winter; in fact, Boston had the second least amount of snow it had ever received in recorded history.  Unfortunately, we have been paying for it the last couple of months in chilly weather.  Oh, it’s been nice out when I’m stuck in my office.  But generally, it’s been kind of cold and grey. 

Last Saturday, we woke up to news that it was to be pretty nice out Saturday, so we decided to go to the North End.  For those of you not from around here, the North End is like the Little Italy of New York.  We had read good things about a restaurant named Marco, and being that more and more restaurants in the North End are serving gluten free pasta, we thought that this would be a good place to go.  Needless to say, the weather turned out to be... cold and grey, which wasn’t the nicest weather to walk around in.

Marco is upstairs from another restaurant, so it was rather hot in their smallish dining room, but we were seated by an open window that let in a very slight breeze.  Our waiter came over and he knew that I was gluten free based on the reservation we made through Open Table.  We discussed the pasta, which is not made in the restaurant.  I thought I had previously read somewhere that they served Glutino pasta.  As it turns out, all of their pasta is from a box except for the pasta they make for their Bolognese.

Now I should say that I have not eaten in the North End for quite a while.  Quite frankly, except for one or two places, I am often underwhelmed by the quality of the food, so I wasn’t holding out much hope.  I’m glad to say I was wrong.

Cathy and I shared an appetizer of figs that had been stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped with prosciutto.  Figs have kind of a peachy strawberry-like flavor, which played well off of the creaminess of the goat cheese and the saltiness of the prosciutto.  There wasn’t a ton of goat cheese, which I think was great, because sometimes too much goat cheese can overwhelm the dish.

Then they brought over some bread.  Because we had made our reservation early enough, they brought over some gluten free bread.  They also brought over some separate extra virgin olive oil for me to dip the bread in and some honey.

Then the main course came.  You can order ½ orders of their pasta, so for you – my readers – I sacrificed myself and ordered a ½ order of two different pastas.  It’s a tough job…but someone’s gotta do it.

I ordered - what would have been cavetelli but was gluten free bow ties - with little neck clams, sausage, spinach and tomato.  The clams were slightly overcooked, but the sausage had good flavor.  There must have been some red pepper flake in there somewhere, as there was some heat.

But the star of the show was my second half order, the Bolognese.  Everybody’s Bolognese is a little different.  My personal favorite recipe is from Anne Burrell, and you can find it here.  This was different, made with some cream, but still hearty, filling and delicious.  The gluten free pasta they used was slightly thicker than the tagliatelle they normally use, but it was still cooked perfectly. 

We were full, but our waiter talked us into a slice of their flourless chocolate tort.  It was dense and full of chocolate flavor.

We were comped the two cappuccinos because it took a while for them to come out, so that was a very nice surprise.  The bill, which included what essentially was a bottle of wine, came to $127 before tip.

And of course, as luck would have it, as we were leaving to go home, the sun came out.  I guess though, I shouldn’t complain.  Tomorrow the temperature is going to be in the high 90's.  And the winter was pretty good.  I mean, we could always have a repeat of this.

What's For Dinner...At My House

Cathy and I both like to cook.  We cook because, obviously, it is healthier in general than eating out every day, but we also enjoy it.

This past weekend, we had our best friends, Jan and Leslie, over for dinner. The trick for us, of course, is to serve a flavorful gluten free meal for friends who don’t eat gluten free.  This is what Cathy and I set out to accomplish.

The first course was gazpacho.  I have to admit; I had never had gazpacho before, never wanted gazpacho before, and never planned on having gazpacho.  But ever since I saw the ad for the iPhone with Samuel L Jackson…y’know the one where he says “Hotspacho”…I have been intrigued.

After reading a number of recipes, I settled on a gazpacho recipe by Alton Brown.  As regular readers of my blog may have figured out by now, I am an Alton Brown groupie…I mean FAN…an Alton Brown FAN.  There were a few ingredients that I wasn’t sure were gluten free, so I checked on line at Gluten-Free Living.  Having confirmed all the ingredients were safe, I began cooking.

Having never made gazpacho before, or even knowing what it should taste like, I was a little nervous about making it. Once again, Alton did not let me down.  The soup was chunky with good texture.  It had a very slight bite from the jalapeno pepper that was in it.  Leslie, who loves gazpacho, said it was really good, so that excited me quite a lot.

The entrée was roast pork that is cooked in a slow cooker.  I found this recipe in the local newspaper so there is no link to it, but here is the recipe:

1 large onion sliced,

2-½ lb. boneless pork roast

1-cup hot water

3 tbl  red wine vinegar

2 tbl soy sauce (We use gluten free tamari)

1 tbl ketchup

½ tsp black pepper

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp garlic powder

Dash of hot pepper sauce

Put the onion on the bottom, put in the pork, add the rest of the ingredients, and cook 6-8 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high.  Easy, right?

The pork is tender and juicy, with all of the flavors flowing through the pork and the gravy, which is created.  You do need to watch it because you can overcook this, and if you do, it can be a little dry.  The best part is, the leftovers make unbelievable sandwiches!

Back to the Food Network for the side dish.  Claire Robinson has a dish called Twice Baked Rosemary Blue Potato Mash.  I know that in the past, there have been questions about whether blue cheese is gluten free.  I have been making this for a while, but only after doing some research on blue cheese did I feel comfortable making it.

Now here’s the thing…I don’t like blue cheese.  It seems people either love it or hate it.  However, these potatoes are fantastic.  I have served this to people who don’t like blue cheese, and they can’t stop eating it.  While blue cheese is the main flavor, the slight hint of rosemary and garlic pervades the rest of the dish.  Eventually, we had to take the potatoes off the table as Leslie and I spent the better part of dinner picking away at it.

You might be wondering about dessert.  Well, figuring that we would be pretty full, Leslie brought over some sorbet.  I went with the lemon flavor.  It was cold and creamy.

There are lots of wonderful gluten free recipes that have great flavor.  All you need to do…is look.  And it helps being an fan of Alton Brown's Good Eats.

Kansas City Here I Come

Last week, I was in Kansas City, Mo on business.  I have stayed in Kansas City before, mostly in the area that they call the Power and Light District.  This area has funky shops, bars and restaurants, including one place that has various burgers made from different types of game.

This time, however, my group decided to stay downtown.  Downtown was actually very nice; as a matter of fact, downtown Kansas City was named one of the top downtown areas by Forbes Magazine.  Lots of shopping, clubs, bars, and restaurants all within walking distance.

Usually, we try to get to Jack Stack, as their BBQ sauce is all gluten free.  Much to my dismay, some other companies had booked both of the restaurants for the evenings we would be there!  Bummer! 

Our group administrator had heard some good things about the restaurant Plaza III.  A colleague of mine who has Celiac disease usually calls ahead for us, and made sure they could accommodate the two of us.  Sure enough, they could.

The décor was elegant.  Definitely, not some place you go in jeans...but I felt comfortable dressed in business casual clothes.  The waiter brought two baskets of crudités for the table, which was cool so my colleague and I had something to munch on while others ate the bread that came out.

I decided I wanted to have the filet mignon.  The waiter (whose name, believe it or not, was Angus…no really…) was quick to warn me that the seasoning they use on the filet has flour in it, but they could still give me the steak seasoned with salt and pepper.  That sounded fine to me!  As a group, we ordered sides to share.  Garlic mashed potatoes, lyonnaise potatoes, marinated mushrooms, and grilled asparagus, all gluten free.

The meat was cooked to a perfect medium rare on the inside, juicy, and not the least bit tough, with a very nice sear on the outside, which gave a slight crunch for texture.  The vegetables used for the sides and the crudité were extremely fresh.  The garlic mashed potatoes tasted just right to me, with a slight garlic taste, but not so much that your breath would knock over the person sitting next to you.  The skins were still on the potatoes for texture.  The lyonnaise potatoes were equally good with a nice flavor from the caramelized onions.

So, while I would still get BBQ if I could, I would also highly recommend Plaza III.

And now, for a musical interlude.

Restaurant Review - In A Pickle Restaurant

Not only do I love eating food, I love to read about it.  Anyone who describes himself or herself as a foodie should read the trilogy of books by Ruth Reichl.  She describes food so well, your mouth will water reading about why you should eat sushi, even if you didn’t like sushi to begin with.

Some books about food are better than others.  One of the better books is one I am reading now called Eat My Globe by Simon Majumdar.  For those who don’t know who Mr. Majumdar is, you might recognize him as one of the judges in “The Next Iron Chef.”

Essentially, this book is about the time that Majumdar decided to eat his way around the globe.  The book is very funny and very enlightening on different food around the world.

The chapter I am reading right now is when he is in the U.S.  As I was reading, the following quote caught my eye: “…but the restaurants I did visit came well recommended by locals and were packed to the rafters with diners who seemed happy enough.  The meals, though, were ordinary and fitted neatly into the identikit mold of midrange American dining.”  This is how I felt after eating at In A Pickle Restaurant in Waltham.

Look, I am loath to write anything that is not complementary about anyplace that does anything for gluten free diners.  But if I am to have any credibility with you – my readers – I guess I have to.

I chose this restaurant because they had gotten four stars in Yelp.  That being said, I noticed a lot of reviews ranging all over the place.  One would say the service was horrible, the next one would say the service was great.  One would say the servings were small, the next one would say the servings were huge.  When I looked at the menu, they had a lot of interesting omelets, but what really caught my eye was the buckwheat pancakes.  After double-checking to make sure buckwheat was gluten free, I felt we should give this place a try.

So off we went.  When we arrived around 8:30, there was already a line outside and we had a twenty-minute wait.  Usually a good sign.  We were eventually seated and our waitress came over right away with fresh coffee.  So far so good.

My wife ordered the regular waffles, loaded with berries and whipped cream.  Our friend ordered the buckwheat pancakes the same way.  I am a purest.  Just give me a plain waffle that I can put butter and syrup on, and I am a happy guy.

Now, I should say that I make waffles at home.  Before I became gluten free, I found a recipe on food network called Waffle of Insane Greatness.  After I had to go gluten free, I simply substituted King Arthur’s gluten free flour and some xanthan gum and they come out great.  And before I had to go gluten free, the waffles I would order out were always very good, so I was excited to see how good it was.

The waffle was ok.  There was nothing bad about it.  It tasted fine.  Bit there was nothing about it that made me go, “Wow!  Really delicious!”  It was a little soggy in fact.  No crispness, and by the way, there was no crispness to my wife’s waffle either.

I also ordered something called the Supreme Omelet.  It sounded fantastic.  It had ham and bacon, and mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes and broccoli.    I took a bite.  Again, there was nothing wrong with it.  But it was just ok.  As Darrell Sheets from Storage Wars would say, “There was no wow factor.”

Now, I do want to say that there are some very funky things on their menu that sound quite interesting and I would love to try them if I could.  Things like the Snicker cakes, which are pancakes that have Snickers cooked into them.  Sounds good to me!  Just can’t have them.

So while I would love to say I would go back again and again, I think I will stick with the Waffle of Insane Greatness.

Restaurant Review - Hungry Mothers

Every year, to coincide with March Madness, the Boston Globes website does something called Munch Madness.  They bracket 64 of the best/most popular restaurants in Boston and the surrounding area, and they let readers vote on them.  Just like in the NCAA March Madness tournament, the winners move on to the next round until there is an ultimate champion.  The last two years, a small southern inspired restaurant called Hungry Mother in Cambridge has won.  So, to celebrate our 22^nd wedding anniversary, Cathy and I decided to have dinner here.

Hungry Mother has a relatively small menu.  The good news is, upon investigation, I found that they were quite gluten free friendly.  Many of the dishes are gluten free to begin with, and many others become gluten free if something like crostini is left off of the dish.

Downstairs there is a small area with two tables and a bar.  Upstairs is the main dining room with about twelve tables.  I must say the clientele is quite eclectic.  Diagonally across on my right hand side was a table of older couples.  The men were in dress shirts and slacks, while the women were in dresses.  Directly across from me was a young couple.  She was wearing a mini dress; he was wearing a polo shirt, shorts and flip-flops, while my wife and I were wearing something just short of business casual.

I have read various reviews mentioning that Hungry Mother’s bartenders are incredible.  However, Cathy chose to get their wine du jour, while I chose to go with sweet tea.  I mean, how could I go to a southern restaurant and not get sweet tea?  The tea by the way was just right, not overly sweet like it sometimes can be.

Both Cathy and I had the same appetizer, which was the New Orleans BBQ shrimp and grits.  We have tried shrimp and grits in many places, including the Pink House in Savannah and Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain.  This was unlike either of those.  This had a heat to it that you felt on the back of your tongue, but it wasn’t over powering on your pallet.  The Tasso ham brought some smokiness to the party, and some gluten free cornbread croutons brought a nice bit of crunch to the dish.

We shared the large skillet cornbread, which as I mentioned was gluten free.  It was very crunchy on the outside with good corn flavor, but was ever so slightly dry on the inside, though Cathy didn't think so.  That being said, it had very good flavor.  It was topped with sorghum butter, which I had never had before, but certainly can’t wait to have again.  I suspect it was sweet sorghum that was used.

For our entrées, I had the smoked pork shoulder and Pat’s clams.  Pickled peppers, ramps, hominy and potatoes were also incorporated into the dish, along with a sauce.  To make this gluten free, all that had to be removed from the original dish was a piece of grilled crostini.  The clams were very fresh, and the pork shoulder was smoky, and appeared to be fairly lean for that cut of pork.  The texture was not like shredded pork, but instead were in small chunks.  The left over cornbread was used to sop up the sauce.

My wife chose to have the scallops, with sea island peas, bacon (everything’s better with bacon), pea tendrils and pickled red onions.  The scallops had a good sear to them, but were perfectly opaque on the inside.  Again, the other items were incorporated into the dish for different textures, and flavors.  This dish was also completely gluten free.

Finally, we shared the butterscotch pot de crème.  This was also gluten free, and had a salty aftertaste to it which I believe was also used to make their salted ice cream.  It was full of butterscotch flavor, but the finish was a bit salty for me…which is not to say I wouldn’t have it again.

One thing I really liked was the portion size of the dishes.  As you can see from the pictures, the entrees were not massive quantities of food, nor were they so small you felt like you were getting ripped off.  This was the perfect amount of food, so when you left, you didn’t leave feeling bloated or wanting.

So, when you’re feeling blue, and your mother isn’t around, go to Hungry Mother for some fine Southern Comfort Food.