Healthy New Year! (and decade)

Here's to your health and happiness in the coming decade--live long and prosper!

Coming soon: Healthy Foodie (non-) resolutions -- How this year will be our best EVER.

Pappadeaux -- foray into the 'burbs

Out to see "Avatar" in 3D and stadium seating, we stopped at Pappadeaux for dinner. My husband had never eaten there & I had been only once or twice at an outpost in Atlanta.
My husband liked the buzz of the place and pronounced this restaurant "fun."
One thing we could not help but notice was the preponderance of truly large people in there. I'm talking the obese and the morbidly obese, with a few overweight folks thrown in. You really don't see much of that in the city places we frequent. But that's real America these days, for sure.

Well, the portion sizes at Pappadeaux are right on track with our nation's obesity epidemic. You can order a "smaller" (to us, normal) portion of some of the dishes, but most were scaled to suit the clientele. (Of course, that could be a chicken-and-egg thing.)

The food definitely was tasty, the prices quite reasonable, and we managed not to overeat.
He started with a real deal on oysters -- 6 large ones with all the proper trimmings for only $2.95. I had a cup of very flavorful seafood and sausage gumbo.
For entrees, he had a salmon dish (small portion) with dirty rice, while I went with a made-up veggie plate of three sides: steamed broccoli (no sauce), sauteed zucchini ribbons and the sinful cheese grits. I was able to leave about half the grits behind--they were delish.
He had a beer and I had a glass of sauvignon blanc, and the bill hit about $50, plus a tip.

We had a good time.

Palomino's -- Fish, Chicken and a Pizza

After Christmas, we took our visiting family to Palomino's overlooking Fountain Square. With a view of the skating rink and the decorated square, it's a fun place to dine with out-of-towners.

The food is passable--our meals included chicken piccata, a swordfish dish and a tasty thin-crust fresh tomato and cheese pizza. My nephew also had a very, very rich lobster ravioli with an Alfredo sauce--too unhealthy even to photograph!

Black-eyed Peas for Luck (and Health) in 2010

It's an old-South tradition to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day, for luck, and therefore you can occasionally find fresh black-eyed peas around this time of year. I've seen it at Keller's IGA in Clifton some years--haven't looked yet for this New Year's Day meal.
Even if you must use frozen peas, try this recipe for NY Day. We like to have it with steamed rice and crusty bread.

Recipe: Black-eyed Peas with Fennel and Tomato
(Serves 6)

Ingredients:
Two 10-ounced packages frozen black-eyed peas, thawed -- or an equivalent amount of fresh peas
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 fennel bulbs--halved, cored and thinly sliced crosswise
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed
3/4 pounds Swiss chard, stems removed, leaves cut into 1/2-inch dice (Note: you can substitute spinach or another dark green, such as collards)
1 large tomato, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 1/2 cups water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions:
Cook the peas in boiling water until just tended, about 10 minutes. Drain well.
Heat 2 T of the oil in the same pan. Add the fennel, onion and fennel seeds, cooking over moderate heat, stirring, until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
Add the peas, Swiss chard or other greens, tomatoes and water.
Season with salt and pepper.
Cover partially and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the peas are tender, about 20 minutes.
Transfer to a deep bowl and drizzle the remaining olive oil over the top.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Christmas Eve Supper

On the menu:
Crab cakes (and one salmon cake for my husband, his preference)....Brussels sprouts steamed then sliced and sauteed with pancetta and diced carrots....pureed butternut squash with ginger, cinnamon, cumin and truffled honey (that's honey with a truffle in it, brought back from Italy)... sliced whole grain bread.
At the table:
The Cincinnati branch of our family--my husband, George; my mom, Wilma; our daughter, Kristina and her new (5/09) husband, Christopher; and me.
For the evening:
Candlelight service @ 5:30 PM at Immanuel Presbyterian in Clifton, home for summer, then exchange of gifts.

Donna's Gourmet Cookies -- worth the (occasional) caloric binge

Donna Phelps used to sell her wonderful treats on Saturdays at Findlay Market, but then her reputation for the best chocolate-chip cookies outgrew her ability to bake at home or even in a gigantic church kitchen in Hyde Park. About a year ago, she opened the shop, Donna's Gourmet Cookies, with plenty of oven capacity, off Montgomery Road just inside I-275. She no longer has time to sell at Findlay Market -- the city's loss, for sure -- but you can find her cookies at a few in-town cafes and at Keller's IGA in Clifton, among other places.

I'm not a baker and can't really decipher why her cookies are so fabulous, except I know she uses excellent (if not the healthiest) ingredients -- pure butter, real vanilla, and so on.

Needless to say, healthy foodies can't quite subscribe to Donna's slogan: "a balanced diet is a cookie in each hand." And we don't indulge in her stuff more than a couple times a year.

However, if you want to know whether her cookies (and brownies, bars, croissants and quiches) are worth the calories--that would be a YES.

In addition to the stellar chocolate chip, I also love her Snickerdoodles and oatmeal-raisin.
Check her website for a full list of what she offers.

Her shop is at 10774 Montgomery Road, and the phone number is 489-9600.

Doing the Chef's Table @ Boca

ae








If there's a better place to dine in Greater Cincinnati than BOCA in Oakley, we would love to know about it. But we're pretty sure that this classy and beautiful restaurant is in a league of its own, especially with Maisonette and Pigall's out of the picture. Other talented chefs turn out marvelous food at several places around town, but none can match the sophisticated setting that David Falk and team have pulled off at Boca.
We'd never eaten at the "chef's table" there -- which is a couple of stools at a counter overlooking the open kitchen. Up to four diners can reserve the space, but on this night my husband and I had it to ourselves. You sit within easy chatting distance from chef de Cuisine Joe Garcia (top photo) and his energetic team as they produce hundreds of perfect plates of food over the course of a few hours. Meanwhile, you get to eat some of the scrumptious stuff and enjoy wines to match each dish.
Sensory overload!
These are the best shots my camera produced of the chefs at work, my husband and I (taken by chef Jim, the one with beard and glasses--thanks, Jim!), and some of our food.

It was an unforgettable evening.