Grape Leaves with meat - ورق عنب باللحمة

Makes around 24-25 (I prefer to eyeball or use as much as the filling makes)

This recipe can be served with a green salad and plain yogurt.

Ingredients:
Grapes leaves (24 small or medium, half of that if the leaves are big cause you can cut in half)

Filling:
1 cup of lean minced meat
1 cup of chopped onions or shallots
1/3 cup of small diced tomatoes
1/2 cup of plain white rice
1 teaspoon of allspice
Salt & pepper to taste

2 cups of water, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, 1 teaspoon of flour to be mixed with some water. 2 Cinnamon sticks.

- In a bowl, add the minced meat, onions, tomatoes, wash the rice and drain and add to the bowl too, add the spices and mix the ingredients together.
- If the grape leaves are fresh, soak them in hot water for half an hour, then drain.
- If you are using the ones from the jar, soak in tab water for few minutes, then drain and use. To start filling, take the leaf and spread it on the surface you're using, cut the stem, take a teaspoon or less depending on the size of the leaf and place the filling a bit before the center, fold the sides toward the center and roll tight. In order for them to unravel and fall apart while cooking, I tie them up together. I place three stuffed grape leaves, then two on top, then another one or two like forming a triangle, I tie them up together with a string and place in the pan, add the water and tomato paste, cinnamon sticks and bring to a boil, add the flour mixed with a little bit of cold water then reduce the heat and let them cook slowly for half an hour. Remove the cinnamon sticks and discard when serving the grape leaves.

PS: If you end up with extra filling, keep them in the freezer or stuff a bellpepper, tomato etc... ;)

Pork after hours

May 8

Gamble at the Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino and you might well notice that, although attendants hand out free coffee, there’s not a drop of alcohol to be seen.
From what I understand, the casino’s neighbors complained that alcohol and the winding roads leading to Barona didn’t mix, and so now the place is basically dry. No alcohol is allowed in public spaces, except for the steakhouse. You can drink at private events, like the National Pork Board’s Taste of Elegance, provided you have a wrist band indicating that you can, and in your room, but that’s about it.
We had been warned about this, and so before going to San Diego I filled my hip flask with good bourbon.
That turned out not to be necessary as the pork board had arranged for alcohol service, because they know better than to get between chefs and their alcohol.
I really like the chefs at this type of event: mostly unpretentious, good-natured, bright folks from mostly Midwestern communities with whose culinary scenes I am not as familiar as I should be.
The New York chef community is close-knit, so imagine how it is in cities like Indianapolis and Minneapolis.
In this picture, on the left we have Rebecca Peizer from Las Vegas and Todd McDunn from Columbus, Ohio, and on the right we have Brandon Hamilton. You might recognize them from the blog entry below, as they were all competitors in the Taste of Elegance. But next to Brandon is Abbi Merriss, who, like Brandon, had received a culinary scholarship in Indiana and came to San Diego to help him. Isn’t that nice?
In the next picture, we have chefs Francisco Vintimilla and Tony Beran, but who’s that guy in the middle, wearing the sport coat? Why, that’s Mark Otto, a French-trained chef from Minneapolis who decided to have a wife, family, an income and reasonable work hours, and became an accountant. But he came out to San Diego to cook with Tony.
I put my camera down and spent much of the official after-party hanging out with Michigan chefs Jake Robinson and Dave Rensi, along with Jake’s little brother, who also cooks in Ann Arbor, and some other guy who’s relation to the other Michiganders I didn’t catch, but he seemed nice enough. How long, we wondered, do you have to stay at a job you don’t like for it not to look bad on your résumé?
Then toward the end I fell in with the Minnesotans and Hoosiers and ended up in one of their rooms for the first hotel room party I’d attended for quite awhile. It felt very college, or maybe high school.
They had vodka, rum, tequila and basic mixers, but I passed around my bourbon flask, too, and we talked about many things, including how competitions shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Really, they shouldn’t. I’ve judged enough of them to know that opinions vary, votes can go many ways, and the results should in no way reflect your opinion of yourself — it says more about the judges than the competitors. I think that’s especially true in the final round of judging. Getting nominated for something, or making it to the finals, indicates you’ve crossed a certain hurdle, but the final results quite often are a crap shoot.
So, imagine that discussion, but add tequila and bourbon.
As the Minnesotans drifted off I ended up grilling Brandon and another Hoosier, John Adams, sous chef at L'Explorateur in Indianopolis, about chefs I should be paying attention to in their state.
Their list: Neal Brown (John's Boss), Greg Hardesty, Regina Mehallick and, in Bloomington, David Tallent.

Gee Ann Pineda

The fourth couple who tried my valentine's month dinner special: Gee Ann and Wally. Gee Ann was a TV reporter in a Japanese News program a couple of years ago. She and my former customer Marian Trinidad were colleagues during that time and they parted when she transferred to ABC 5 as a reporter. She narrated how she started as a crime reporter or what she called her graveyard shift. She said that is the starting point of every reporter's career. Before you can cover major events in the society, a reporter must first experience the graveyard shift. Years passed by and Gee Ann decided to settle in the news office of ABC 5 as a correspondent. She said reporting is a very demanding job and will consume all your precious time. She just wants to live a normal life, I guess. So how about her boyfriend Wally? Wally is Gee Ann's long time friend since college. After how many years they realized that they were meant for each other. So as of last February Gee Ann told me that they are more than one year in their relationship. I wish they would end up together because they are very sweet couple.

The evidence of the crime.

The thank you gift that Gee Ann and Wally gave me. They are really sweet isn't it? The paper holder is from IKEA by the way.

For the month of February I gave take home goodies for the couple. The cake that I gave Gee Ann & Wally was from Cafe Ysabel. Unlike last December all my take home goodies were from Yumi Castrillo, maker of yummy cupcakes.