Articles for April 22nd, 2010

Classics in a Cookbook: Tales From Your Kitchen

posted by Nancy Nichols | April 22nd, 2010 4:05pm | filed under Baking, Cooking, Recipes | 8 Comments »

The following report is filed by our intern, Ashley Oates.

You’re driving home and thinking of a delicious dish to whip up as soon as you hit the kitchen. It’s been a great day, and you feel like cooking something amazing. Should it be the braised beef with sautéed asparagus? Or maybe a summery pasta dish, teeming with fresh vegetables? Either way, once you get home, you’re digging into your recipe box or trying to adapt something from the Les Halles Cookbook, mainly because you don’t have any cippolini onions.

This is where Debby Barney comes into the picture.  Her home business, Tales From the Kitchen, takes your muddled recipe and cookbook collection and turns it into a pristine, spiral-bound cookbook of your favorites.

How did she come up with this ingenious idea? Necessity. She began collecting recipes while living on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, with her then-husband, a chef. After moving to Dallas and unearthing her collected recipes and photos from years past, Barney began to sort the items into categories. “I made four separate books,” she says. “I literally cut and pasted these recipes, hand-stamped the page numbers, and added a table of contents and index. These were very organized, straightforward books.” When Barney showed her friends and family the books, the spark was lit. Continue reading "Classics in a Cookbook: Tales From Your Kitchen"

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Wine Report: Robert Craig Winery in Napa Comes to Dallas

posted by Nancy Nichols | April 22nd, 2010 11:37am | filed under AgriBusiness, Andrew Chalk, Procrastination is part of the creative process, SideDish Supper Club, Wine & Spirits | 1 Comment »

Yesterday, Andrew Chalk and I sat down with Elton Slone of Robert Craig Winery in Napa. I was particularly interested in tasting the much ballyhooed 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Affinity. Why? Because the wine which scored a 96 on Robert Parker’s scale is making its Dallas debut next Wednesday at the SideDish Supper Club at Sevy’s Grill. It will be poured with the fifth course (Crustacean vs. Cow). We have six seats remaining. Hurry, it is shaping up to be a fantastic dinner and presentation on sustainable seafood.

Anywhoo, Andrew Chalk files this report on our tasting along with witty and informative video interviews.

Elton Slone, General Manager of Robert Craig Winery, rolled through town this week and remarked how pleasant the balmy 70s weather was. With serious faces, we explained that it was pretty much like this everyday in Dallas, at least until November. We think he fell for it! However, while you can pull the wool over Elton’s eyes about Dallas weather, the same isn’t true when it comes to making wine. Elton and Robert Craig Winery have a very clear picture of what they are trying to do and where they want to go. And that is the pursuit of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines that compete with the best in the world. The path that they see to achieve this goal is to choose mountain vineyards, plant Cabernet Sauvignon and blending grapes (Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot) and then cultivate for very low yields so that the vines concentrate all their nutrients into comparatively few grapes. In this video, Elton explains the difference between mountain vineyards versus valley floor vineyards. Continue reading "Wine Report: Robert Craig Winery in Napa Comes to Dallas"

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Shawn Horne Leaves DISH in Dallas

posted by Nancy Nichols | April 22nd, 2010 9:47am | filed under Celebrity Diners, Foodie People, Restaurant News | 8 Comments »

Remember Kitchen 1924? Then you remember Shawn Horne. Since the beloved Kitchen 1924 closed, Horne has tooted around town taking various GM jobs at Five Sixty and, most currently, DISH.

Horne has left DISH and has partnered with Flynn (Fogo de Chao) Dekker. Their soon-to-open enterprise will open “June-ish” on Henderson and be called Horne & Dekker. I don’t think they will be manufacturing coffee makers. All Horne would say about the place is: “We are going to do meats on a stick and carnival food. Just kidding. I will give you more on the concept soon.”

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Mama Pita is Open at The Shops at Legacy in Plano

posted by Nancy Nichols | April 22nd, 2010 8:56am | filed under Andrew Chalk, Ethnic Food, Openings/Closings, Restaurant News | 4 Comments »

This just in from Andrew:

Owner Bechara Harfouche tells me that Mama Pita is to Middle Eastern food what FreeBirds is to the burrito. i.e. kind of build-your-own. They opened Tuesday and will likely do a roaring trade at the Dallas Food and Wine Festival which takes over the Shops at Legacy this Saturday.

Hmm, that is interesting but a little disturbing. It makes me think that THIS could one day be THIS.

http://www.dallaswinefest.com/entertainingwithstyle.html

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