A New Jazz Club in Town

Last night, January 5, 2011, I attended the grand reopening of the Bellingham art gallery The Blue Horse Gallery Cafe and Wine Bar as it debuted as the newest jazz club in town.

The Mike Allen Quartet featuring pianist phenom Miles Black, talented bassist and singer Adam Thomas and local celebrity drummer Julian McDonough.

Mike, a well-known jazz sax player from Vancouver, B.C., was recently hired as the jazz studies coordinator at Western Washington University. He brought along his quartet to not only help teach at the school but also to promote the program through demonstrating their combined talents out in the greater community.

Last night, they wowed the Bellingham community when they took the new stage at the Blue Horse. I love Mike's quartet for lots of reasons--they are all obviously masters at what they do. But most of all it is their obvious love for the music. They have so much fun when they play together and my life is lifted to a much better place when I listen to them.

The gallery is a great venue for music. It has a very open feel, yet it is intimate with warm colors, lots of wood and great acoustics. There was plenty of space in the main room for the 50 or so attendees to sit at tables and chairs yet the adjacent rooms allowed conversations and roaming through the gallery's ample art display while still easily hearing the music playing in the next room.

As I sat listening with friend Mark Fuller I leaned over and mentioned, "Who needs New York City when we have this to listen to?"

The cafe and wine bar plan to open with regular hours soon and music is planned as a regular event as well. You can see and hear Mike Allen and Julian McDonough every Wednesday night with guest musicians playing with them, Miles and Adam will join them every other week. They play from 7 to 9, though last night they played until 10. Be there!

Pulled Pork for Chritmas Dinner?

It was a request from our son-in-law, Nick, who loves anything pork--bacon, sausage.

So the menu went like this:

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Caramelized Onions and Peppers
Cole Slaw
Pan drippings and Porter Gravy
Potatoes Au Gratin
Cranberry Fluff Salad
Pineapple Cheese Casserole
Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

The upper right corner of this entry shows the pork in the process of cooking.

4-5 pound pork shoulder
2 bottles of dark bear
salt and pepper
green onions

For BBQ Sauce:

1 cup tomato catsup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
3 T brown sugar
4 T yellow prepared mustard
1 T molasses
1 T red pepper flakes
1 t cayenne
1 t salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and stir until blended. Set aside for a few hours until ingredients have a chance to marry. Pour over shredded pork or over individual sandwiches as you choose.

Cut off any unwanted fat off the pork shoulder. Coat with salt and pepper. Brown off all sides in a skillet. Set up a crock pot. Turn on high. Place browned off pork into the crock pot and pour two bottles of good quality dark beer around it. Add a few stalks of green onion. Cover and braise for 4-5 hours or until the pork shreds easily.

When pork is down, drain all but a bit of the beer out of the crock pot. A baster will do this well. Using a fork, begin to break up the pork until it is either in chunks of shedded. Pour BBQ sauce over the pork and blend it into the pork. Serve pork over your favorite roll or bun. Spoon a few of the caramelized onions on top or some cole slaw. Pour some of the gravy over the pork if you like for an open face sandwich.

Du Jour Bistro to Close

The end of an era will occur when Du Jour Bistro closes its kitchen on Cornwall Avenue in downtown Bellingham at the end of the month. One of the small handful of restaurants in the Bellingham area that offer a consistently exceptional dining experience, Du Jour had the special distinction of also being a great place to purchase a bottle of wine and then enjoy it at your table. The Vines is the in-house wine shop for the Bistro.

On more than one occasion I and my guests have walked out with several bottles of a wine we were especially impressed with during our dinner. With a very modest $5 corkage fee, and a wide variety of wines at retail price, as opposed to highly marked up restaurant prices, a nice bottle of wine with your dinner becomes very reasonable.

But the food has always been a fabulous reason to visit Du Jour Bistro. The French influenced bistro with a Northwest flair offers locally sourced organic foods whenever possible. Chef Mike Petersen, highly knowledgeable about wines with plenty of suggestions and ready to make special orders, has great talent with his saucing and creative combinations of fresh northwest seafood, lamb, beef and locally grown vegetables.

I am especially partial to the bacon-wrapped dates and the wild mushroom risotto small plates.

The Lamb Osso Bucco is so moist and flavorful. My wife's recent flat iron steak special with a soy-chipotle marinade was melt in the mouth. I have enjoyed a tomato sauce with succulent scallops and shrimp as well. It's just all good and too sad that it has to come to an end.

My advice, get over to the Du Jour Bistro at least one more time before it closes its doors for the final time. You won't be disappointed. And take home a bottle of wine or two as well.

One Very Impressive Thanksgiving Holiday!

About 12:30 pm last Thursday, our daughter, Kate, her husband, Nick, and their friend Sally, pulled up in front of the house and with their gear in tow, walked up the drive way and into the house. We stood with the door open and our arms open wide as the ascended the steps. The ground was covered with a beautiful snow fall. About 3 inches had fallen over the past several days and it made the trip to our house rather treacherous.

We were so happy they had arrived safely.

In the door and up the stairs to the rooms we had prepared for them they went, Kate and Nick into their regular room and Sally just placed her things out of the way in the office since she would be sleeping downstairs in the family room.

Not long after, in walked Richard and Jeanette (he is French and therefore his name must be pronounced accordingly). They moved into the office upstairs and then joined us with Thanksgiving preparations already well underway.

In fact, Mom and I had been preparing for the past several days. Mostly small things in the beginning, but over the past couple of days preparations got a bit more frenetic.

We cut up fresh veggies for the crudite platter, a 20 pound turkey was roasted off, sliced and laid out on a platter, and the day-before parts of several dishes were put together and stuck in the fridge.

By the time our little extended family had arrived, we had another, 25 pound turkey stuffed and in the oven and casseroles of dressing and green beans were awaiting their turn.

Everything was as ready as it could be when Kate and Nick entered the kitchen to begin production of 15 pounds of mashed potatoes! We wanted to be out of the way when they needed the kitchen.

Potato peels flew, potatoes were sliced and diced, popped into their water baths and the special ingredients brought to enhance the mashed potato experience were prepped--bacon, exotic cheeses, butter and cream were readied for their addition to the pots of creamy mash.

By about 4 o'clock others began to arrive and bring their contributions to the festivities. Friends from as far away as Oregon and just around the corner kicked off their shoes, poured a glass of wine and relaxed. Folks we didn't think would come due to the snow actually made it. In the end only 2 (Later about them) didn't make it of the 23 who originally said they'd come.

Everyone brought food. Though most were asked only to bring one dish, most brought two or three. Before long the dining table groaned under the weight, the piano bar was covered with wines and other beverages, the coffee table displayed an assortment of nuts and other pre-dinner goodies. Every counter top was covered, even stacked, with dishes of yams and salads and favorite, wouldn't-be-Thanksgiving-without-them dishes until it became nearly impossible to know what we had or get it all out on the serving table.

By about 4 o'clock we were ready and everyone gathered around the table to pile their plates high. Within minutes every nook and cranny in the living room and family room was occupied with the quietest group you ever heard all enjoying the yummy dinner.

By 6:30 some folks were already drifting out the door to head home for a long winter's nap (the carbs had had their effect). The inhabitants of our home remained surrounded by the remains of the day.

Seven loads of dishes later, the kitchen began to look somewhat normal again. The fridge in the kitchen and out in the garage however, were stuffed with plates and tubs and bowls and casseroles of leftovers awaiting the midnight snack and left over lunches sure to happen over the holiday weekend.

Crummy Climate Closes Classes!

A little alliteration to start the day! It's 19 degrees outside as I write this at 6:30 am. School has been closed for the day (the reason I am up at 6:30) and so the day stretches before me. I'll get some prep done for the big Thanksgiving party on Thursday.

Conferences were all canceled for the next two days. I don't know what that will mean for making them up. We are giving parents the option of not having one since we sent a letter home with the report cards. So, hopefully, with a couple of exceptions, they won't need to be made up.

We now have 21 coming for Thanksgiving. We have a second smaller turkey thawing and folks will be bringing food as well, so I can't imagine anyone will be starving. It should be a pretty wonderful celebration if everyone can get here safely.

We even went out and bought a couple of new double inflatable beds, so we can now officially sleep nine. With the weather and the distance some are traveling, we may be a full house Thursday night. Warm and cozy! Happy Thanksgiving one and all!

Thanksgiving 2010

We are beginning the plans for the first big holiday of the holiday season. Sorry, I don't count Halloween kiddies. Maybe when I get grandkids I''ll change my mind about that. I the meantime, make way for, drum roll please. . .Thanksgiving! This year looks like we may well be hosting a big crowd so our plans are getting pretty detailed. For an example we have a tentative menu.
Thanksgiving Dinner 2010

Champagne

Crudités

Sage Butter Roasted Turkey

Cider Gravy

Bacon Smashed Potatoes

Sourdough Stuffing with Sausage, Apples and Golden Raisins

Roasted Pumpkin Corn Pudding

Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Mushrooms with Bacon

Cranberry Fluff Salad

Wines

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir

Desserts

Bread Pudding with Warm Whiskey Sauce

Pecan Pie with Cinnamon Ice Cream

Dessert Wine

Gewurztraminer

Coffee and Tea

Sound good? Well, it isn't cast in stone quite yet and a change here and there may yet happen. But I like it! We have begun a shopping list. I won't bore you with cutting and pasting that into this document but it is significantly long. Some of it as a result of the spices that we buy each year about this time. They are on sale and the old bottles that are a year or two old should be tossed in favor of fresher product anyway.

Then there are the items that are seldom brought into the house except at special times like these. For example, real whipping cream. Not the stuff in the white tub or in the spray can. Or, the materials to make pies, cakes, cookies and other sweets that never make an appearance in this house except on very special occasions.

Finally, the turkey or I should say turkeys. They are on sale and the more you spend at the store the cheaper the birds are per pound. So, we each go in to the store and in separate carts acquire the amount of goods needed to get the price as low as it can go. We always buy enough that, the bill split in two, would get us two birds at the low low price. As a result, one goes in the freezer and one in the fridge to thaw. Oh, I hear you. Frozen birds? Why not a fresh bird or a Butterball? Frozen!? Well, I've had fresh turkey and I've had a Butterball and I can't honestly tell the difference. The frozen ones, prepared and cooked right are always moist and delicious.

As for dessert. I don't honestly know why we ever make them. Hardly anyone eats them anymore. They seem to wind up going down the disposal after sitting around for a couple of days and everyone is mostly poking at the the leftover turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and, around our house, the cranberry salad. Wouldn't be Thanksgiving or Christmas around here without a couple of bowls full of that hot pink fluffy sweet and tart salad.

So, only a couple of weeks to go before the craziness that is the holiday season begins. I would miss it. I hope your family enjoys whatever celebrations your holiday season bring. Happy holidays to all!

How Rude!

I'm making a list and checking it twice. A list that is of my pet peeves in a world that seems to have lost a great deal of the civility I grew up with in the 50's and 60's. Saw a segment on The Today Show about this topic this morning and it got me thinking. So here is my list. So far!

1. People who use cell phones in public places and can't do it without everyone else being forced to listen in.

2. People who take or make cell phone calls while having a meal with anyone.

3. People who, while having a meal with anyone, keep checking their text messages and replying to them.

4. People who use cell phones while driving. Yeah, and you who are trying to get away with something by texting in your lap while driving so no one will see you and you know who you are.

5. People who get into line to board airplanes before their section of seats has been called.

6. While on the subject of airlines. . .the way airlines treat passengers. Period!

7. People who don't say please or thank you or no thank you or your welcome.

8. Wait staff who are too pushy and insensitive to the needs of the customer. No one should have to ask for more water or bread. It should just appear. The staff shouldn't interrupt you while you're having a conversation to ask you if you need more of anything or if there is anything else they can do for you. They need to be aware enough to wait for the right moment to ask. It isn't about them and what they need to get done. It is about you the customer and what and when you need something.

9. Wait staff who are too familiar when they say things like "how are you guys today?"

10. Pushy people in general.

I'm still thinking. . .