In the past few months I have posted several recipes that I don’t consider to be true recipes.  Although they require some cooking or kitchen skills, they usually contain only one or two ingredients and involve a minimal number of steps.  However, I do believe that all of them are useful.  Sometimes a reduction, which has only one ingredient, may be what makes an entrée a shining star.

To deliver these helpful hints to Think Tasty readers, I have created a new category of recipes- Simple Solutions.  Approximately once a month, a new, yet uncomplicated, recipe will be featured.  All of these recipes will contain minimal ingredients and entail very few steps.  However, each and every one will deliver that little something extra that you need.

This month’s recipe came to fruition through happenstance.  I planned a dinner of grilled zucchini and summer squash, pan-fried Halloumi, lamb kebobs,and tzatziki.  Unfortunately, while I was at the grocery store I forgot to purchase pomegranate juice to make a glaze for the kebabs.  Thankfully I had white grape juice on hand.  Although it has a different flavor, I knew it would provide the sweetness I was seeking.

My husband, older son, and I enjoyed this meal and agreed that the reduction provided a tasty contrast to the garlicky flavor of the tzatziki and the savory taste of the kebab.  It truly was a simple solution.

White Grape Reduction

1 cup white grape juice

Pour juice into a small saucepot, and place over medium heat.  Once boiling, reduce to a simmer.  Cook for approximately 15 minutes, or until volume has reduced to 1/4 cup.  The juice should thicken and when poured from a spoon have a consistency similar to maple syrup.  Use as desired or refrigerate.

Earlier this month, Think Tasty readers had the opportunity to choose the best restaurant in the Central Plains region.  With ten fabulous restaurants in the mix, deciding wasn’t easy.  Until the last moment, fans shared their votes and left comments praising their restaurants.  When voting ended, the restaurant that earned the most votes was Eden Alley in Kansas City, Missouri.

I spoke with the husband and wife team of Greg Clootz (co-owner) and Sandi Corder-Clootz (co-owner/chef) to learn more about their fabulous and well-loved restaurant.

TT:  I noted on your website that you’ve run the restaurant for 16 years and that you’ve learned and made changes in that time.  What are the biggest changes you’ve made?

EA:  Change is good…but if you want to keep your customers, change has to happen slowly and gradually over the course of years.

TT:  How often do you change your menu?

EA:  We have an “everyday menu” that stays the same.  It’s a constant, featuring 7 starters, a plethora of drinks, 7 signature salads, and a virtual salad bar where the customer picks from most of the ingredients we have…and 9 entrees. Everything on this menu is time tested and customer loved!  Then we have our “specials” menu which changes semi-daily, usually consisting of 5-6 more entrees, 1 or 2 special appetizers, and 5-6 drinks specials.

TT:  What do you like about having a restaurant in Missouri?

EA:  We love the heartland because there are so many wonderful farmers trying to make a difference in the way our society eats!

TT:  What do you dislike?

EA:  The growing season for local produce is way too short.

TT:  What is your favorite dish on your menu?

EA:  Ultimate Garlic Grilled Cheese- Garlic bread with chili cumin aioli, pickles, onion and tomato, with cheddar, mozzarella, bleu and parmesan cheeses, baked bubbly, and served over mixed greens with a dollop of hummus and red wine dressing. {vegan:sub cashew cheese sauce}

TT:  You have a loyal base of patrons.  What is it about your restaurant that you believe makes them so?

EA:  “Honesty”  We believe in the truth of good food being made with great ingredients, in a simple manner.  This lets the flavor of the ingredients pop on our customers’ tongues…and NOT make them feel sick after eating.

Although summer is nearing its end and school has begun again, the current weather is in denial of these facts.  With temperatures in the mid-90s yesterday and today and staying that way for a few more days, it feels more like the middle of July.

As a person who has seasonal food preferences, the heat of summer spurs my craving for ice cream.  While I could eat ice cream daily, I treat it as an indulgence and enjoy it a few times throughout the summer.  However, since I treat it as an indulgence, when I do eat it, I indulge!  No single scoop of ice cream on a plain cone here.  If I am going to eat ice cream, I want it to be delicious, so I order a waffle cone or sprinkles or both.  When I am at home, I make assorted toppings for ice cream.

On a recent day of cooking, my husband and I bought several pounds of peaches to make peach salsa.  As there were two peaches left, they became the base for an ice cream treat.  Sauteed in a little butter and sprinkled with sugar, they were topped with scoops of vanilla ice cream.  While that could have been enough of a treat, it was a day of cooking, so how much effort would it take to make a little pecan brittle to top the ice cream?  Not much at all.

Pecan brittle is very simple to make and can be used in a variety of ways.  At the holidays, it could be placed in a decorative tin and given as presents.  It could be served atop ice cream to provide a little sweetness and extra crunch to your dessert.  It also can be eaten as is!

Pecan Brittle

1-1/2 cups pecan halves

1 cup white sugar

Line the bottom of a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Coat parchment paper with nonstick cooking spray.  Set aside.

Place pecan halves in a large nonstick pan over medium heat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for approximately 5 minutes or until pecans are slightly toasted.  Place pecans in a bowl.

Wipe pan with a towel, return to stove, and lower heat to medium-low.  Add sugar to pan.  Occasionally shake the pan to keep the sugar distributed evenly.  As the sugar begins to melt and turn brown, use handle to swirl the liquid.  When sugar is fully melted, return pecans to pan, and stir with a spatula.  Transfer sugar/pecan mixture to lined baking sheet, spreading so that pecans are not clumped.  Allow to cool completely, then break into pieces.

My husband and I have a variety of shared interests and hobbies, one of which is cooking.  However, on a typical day it is difficult for both of us to be able to work on a meal together.  Between work demands and parenting responsibilities, it seems that one of us is busy when it’s time to prepare food.  So, when we do have time to cook together, we enjoy it thoroughly.

A couple weeks ago we had an entire Sunday to ourselves.  With minimal work obligations and zero parenting responsibilities, we were ready for a day of culinary adventure.  Our plan: blueberry picking, shopping at our favorite butcher/cheese shop, cooking.  Included in our list of items to make were blueberry simple syrup, blueberry freezer jam, peach salsa, ketchup, and dried pepper powder.

Thankfully, the weather cooperated with our plan.  It was neither raining nor unbearably hot, making it the perfect time to pick.  With a full to-do list ahead of us, we were among the blueberry bushes by 7:30 and within half an hour had plenty of blueberries for syrup, jam, and freezing.  A couple hours were spent grocery shopping and stocking our freezer and cheese bin, and then it was time for our culinary artistry.

As the recipes had varying degrees of difficulty, we worked not only together but also on multiple recipes at the same time.  With all of this cooking, the kitchen was a fabulous combination of scents and tastes.  We wisely made the salsa and syrup early in the day.  That allowed for a delicious mid-afternoon snack of chips and salsa and a cocktail.

If you will be making this blueberry simple syrup, it is important to note that although it’s simple, you will have to wait a decent amount of time for it to cool.  Other than that, it’s a quick boil, a bit of time simmering, and you have a sweet and flavorful syrup.  I don’t think it is thick enough to use on pancakes, but it has many other uses.  Combine it with a little seltzer water for an Italian soda.  For adults, combine it with mint, rum, and seltzer, and you have a fabulous blueberry mojito (pictured below).  I haven’t tried using it in any food items yet, but if you have a suggestion, please leave a comment.

Blueberry Simple Syrup

1-1/2 cups water

1 cup sugar

1-1/2 cups blueberries

Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepot.  Simmer over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally.  Add blueberries, and bring to a gentle boil.  Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for at least 10 minutes to allow the flavor to infuse.  Cool.  Strain through cheesecloth into a storage container.  Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, and then it’s ready for use.

As Think Tasty has been conducting polls seeking the best restaurants in regions across the USA, we have discovered many exciting and interesting restaurants and chefs.  In July we explored the Rocky Mountain region, and along with it, The Palace Restaurant in Durango, Colorado.  The combination of a fabulous location, historical building, great food, and talented chef was all we needed to learn more about this restaurant and its chef, Paul Gelose.

Paul has always been interested in cooking.  He started cooking at the age of 16 at Henry’s Hamburgers in upstate New York but had been cooking at home before then. Paul continued to pursue his love of cooking, earning his culinary degree from SUNY in 1979 and graduating from RIT in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in hotel/restaurant management.  With his education complete, he headed to Steamboat Springs to work at Sheraton Hotels as a breakfast chef.   As a skier, he tied his career to mountains and worked in Colorado and Europe, which offered him the best of career and recreational worlds.

Chef Paul has worked in a wide array of roles and locations throughout his career.  In addition to working in Colorado, he has worked in Switzerland and the south of France.  He has a deep understanding of the many jobs in a commercial kitchen, as he has worked as a sous chef, banquet chef, executive chef, and more.  He also spent a year as Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef.  Whether prepping dishes, cooking for a crowd, or cooking for one, he understands the finer details of being a chef.

In 1997 he was presented with the opportunity to buy The Palace Restaurant.  The restaurant had been in business for many years and seemed like the perfect fit for Paul.  Since then Paul has transformed this restaurant into a well-loved restaurant that serves timeless and modern cuisine.  Chef Paul explained this type of cuisine for me:

Timeless is easy:  classics served in an old style Victorian restaurant in the historic district: a great steak or Reuben sandwich or roast duck. Chicken and dumplings have been on the menu for over 40 years. The modern food is more so of trends that are existing.  The Palace has the ability to be flexible; you could put a classic and it would fit and you could put a seared ahi and it would fit, too.

Both Chef Paul and The Palace Restaurant received much praise from voters.  However, Chef Paul is quite humble and stated that he didn’t know how unique he is.  However, what he did note was that he is hard working.  What he feels makes his restaurant (or any restaurant) successful is consistency.  He has been exposed to very professional kitchens and understands what a professional kitchen needs to be.  He maintains that professionalism in his kitchen.  He stated, “I don’t think the consumer cares that the menu is always changing. The consumer looks for value, consistency in food, service.  They want to know what they’re going to get. “

As with any location there are advantages and disadvantages.  According to Paul, the advantages of having a restaurant in Durango are the beef industry and others that support the culinary world locally.  There is a good economy there that is tourist based.  He has found the resort economy to be an advantage, as it is pretty resilient to recession.  A disadvantage is the location and proximity to the ocean and growing regions that allow diversity of fruit and vegetables. Buying local is difficult.  There is a bigger hurdle to achieve that in a rural location, such as Durango.

When asked what his favorite dish on the menu is, Paul initially suggested that people should order the rack of lamb, as it is unique and exotic.  He then followed this by noting something from his childhood, “My dad always would say, order something on the menu you can’t get at home.”  That is sound advice, which applies well to The Palace Restaurant.  With a historic building in a resort location and a menu that is both classic and modern, it seems just the place that you would find something that you can’t find at home.

All four of our children enjoy bagels.  It’s not uncommon to see a bagel being toasted for breakfast or lunch on any given summer day.  Some of the time we stock our pantry with pre-sliced, packaged bagels, and other times we have either homemade or bakery bagels, which need to be sliced.

As all of the kids are old enough to make their own bagels to their liking, we thought it would be best to buy some sort of bagel slicer to make that part of the meal preparation easier.  This purchase would eliminate the need for a cutting board and knife, ensure that bagels were sliced evenly in half, and protect fingers from a wayward blade.  With these three thoughts in mind, we purchased the Bagel Guillotine.  How did it perform?

• Protecting fingers- With a handle and clear plastic shield encasing the pointed blade, there is no way that someone could cut his or her fingers while using this tool.  It definitely has kept all of our fingers intact.
• Slicing evenly- The bagel is placed inside the cradle, and the blade is centered above it.  Unless you purchase mini-bagels, you are assured of getting an evenly cut bagel every time you use the guillotine.
• Eliminating cutting board and knife- Obviously the guillotine met this goal.  However, depending on the type of bagel you eat, the guillotine could make a bigger mess than a cutting board and knife.  If you choose a bagel with a sticky topping, the insides of the guillotine will be coated with that topping.  As the cradle is narrow, it will take more time to clean the inside of that than it would take to clean the cutting board and knife.

What’s our summation of this tool?  It’s a handy tool to have but can be more work than anticipated.  As long as you enjoy bagels with no or dry coatings, then it’s a definite tool to purchase.  If you like bagels with sticky coatings, you may want to stick with slicing bagels on a cutting board to save some time on cleaning.

After ten days of voting, the poll for the best restaurant in the Central Plains Region closed this afternoon.  With many incredible restaurants included, it wasn’t easy to decide.  However, loyal patrons and Think Tasty readers voiced their opinions, and a winner has been chosen. . .

Eden Alley, Kansas City, Missouri

Please return to Think Tasty in the coming weeks to learn more about this restaurant and why it is the best restaurant in the Central Plains region.

To view how the nine other restaurants fared, click here.

Sometimes business travel is all work.  Sitting through long meetings, hurrying through short lunches, trying to find a place to work between meetings, none of those are fun or exciting.  However, every once in a while there is a perk to the travel. Recently, I was able to coordinate my and my husband’s business travel so that we could go to NYC together and spend part of the weekend there.  A major victory in the world of scheduling!

After a full day of meetings on Friday, we planned a Saturday filled with fun-for-us events: a workout at the gym together, leisurely breakfast, afternoon of shopping on Fifth Avenue, an evening at the theatre, and a late dinner for two.  We didn’t have a set plan for dinner, so when the show ended at 10:00, we walked around the theatre district reviewing menus to find just the right place.  Arriving at Becco, the menu and ambiance seemed ideal.

Although there were many full tables, we were seated promptly.  Even with a fairly full restaurant, the service was prompt, and the servers were attentive.  Our water glasses were kept full, our dishes were served in a timely fashion, and our satisfaction with our dining experience was checked at appropriate intervals.

Becco has an extensive wine list, which we reviewed.  As we adore sparkling wines, we chose Bastianich Brut NV.  The wine was light and refreshing, almost dancing on our tongues.  To accompany our wine was a bread box filled with amazing options including focaccia and breadsticks. Served with dipping oil, it was a nice way to start our dinner.  With a little food and beverage in our stomachs, we were ready to consider our dinner options.

Although it was an Italian restaurant, I wasn’t in the mood for pasta, which did make my decision a little easier.  What did catch my eye was the Beef Rollaini.  Thinly sliced beef topped with eggplant and provolone, rolled, and baked, it seemed like the perfect choice for me.  This entrée was served with a rocket and cherry tomato salad, making the dish a little bit lighter but keeping it quite flavorful.  The rollatini was delightfully tender, though it could have had a bit more eggplant and provolone for stronger flavors.

My husband had the opposite reaction to choosing a meal this evening.  Being at an Italian restaurant, he was craving pasta.  Luckily for him, they offer Sinfonia di Paste.  Changing on a daily basis, this meal provides diners with a caesar salad or antipasto misto and unlimited servings of the chef’s three daily pasta preparations.  This evening’s three dishes were spaghetti with shrimp, fusilli with pesto, and mushroom ravioli with truffle butter.  He thoroughly enjoyed both the ravioli and the spaghetti, however, he found the pesto to be slightly overpowering.

My meal had included a starter of caesar salad, and my husband chose that also as his starter course.  The salad was well done with fresh, crunchy romaine lettuce, a generous sprinkling of parmesan, and plenty of crisp croutons.  The salad dressing was tasty and added in perfect proportion, enough to enjoy the flavor but not so much as to make the salad soggy.

With dinner completed, we were both quite full.  However, when you’re indulging for a day,  it seemed appropriate to indulge one more time and get dessert.  I ordered a cup of coffee, and my husband ordered a double espresso.  Sipping on our hot beverages gave us time to consider the dessert menu.  I chose Strudel di Mele, and my husband chose Ricottina.  My dessert was fabulous, a combination of flaky crust, sweet and tender apple filling, and cinnamon gelato.  My husband’s dessert was cheesecake as he likes, slightly lighter and very creamy.

Leaving the restaurant around midnight, we returned to the busy streets of NYC to hail a cab to our hotel.  This meal was the perfect end to a luxurious day.  Excellent service, tasty food, good wine, what more could you want?

Recently I was invited to dine at Perro Salado, courtesy of the owners.  After being told about their fabulous sticky ribs, it would have been hard to decline.  So, rather than resisting, I agreed to make a trip to this restaurant.

My dining companion (AKA my husband) and I arrived at Perro Salado about 15 minutes early for our 7:30 reservation on a Thursday night.  Entering the restaurant, the hostess greeted us promptly and informed us that our table was ready.  We were seated in a front room on the first floor of the restaurant, which is located within the Decatur House (home of American naval hero Stephen Decatur).  As it formerly was a home, there are various rooms (and a patio) in which you may be seated.

Being a Mexican restaurant, we started our dining with a round of margaritas.  They had a nice balance of sour, salty, and tequila.  Served in lowball glasses, they were the perfect size, in that a diner could sample more than one of the margaritas off of their menu without having to consume an overwhelming amount of alcohol.

While we could have sipped our margaritas and pondered the menu for quite a while, we knew that we had to sample the sticky ribs.  Rather than delay the inevitable, we ordered the ribs and then began to consider our other options.  In addition to a menu full of items, there were several specials that evening.

The ribs arrived in little time, and food decisions were put aside for the moment.  With a dinner plate filled with a generous portion of sauce-covered ribs, there would be no delaying our eating.  In a word, these ribs were fabulous.  Tender meat and slightly sweet and nicely tangy sauce created a dish that begged for you to devour it.  Cast neatness to the side, you always can wash up later!

With our appetites satiated for the moment, we returned to our menus (after cleaning our fingers, of course).  While I felt a pull to order an entrée, there were so many tempting appetizers that I just couldn’t resist.  We decided to make a meal of an assortment of munchies, including grilled corn, duck nachos, and lobster quesadilla.  While it did mean we wouldn’t sample a full meal, we definitely would get a feel for the chef’s talents with an assortment of ingredients.

All three appetizers arrived at the same time, which allowed us to nibble bites of each, enjoying the contrasting flavors.  The grilled corn was a unique and tasty dish.  Served on the cob and topped with cheese and other savory ingredients, it was a fun dish to eat.  Diners are given a knife to remove the hot corn from the cob, so that you can scoop up all of the ingredient of the dish.  The next dish that I sampled were the duck nachos.  Topped with duck, black beans, tomatoes, and melted cheese, it was another winner of a choice.  I could have eaten many bites, but I knew I had another dish to sample.  The last appetizer I tried was the quesadilla.  I have found that many restaurants claim that these sort of dishes are full of seafood but disappointingly aren’t.  Perro Salado isn’t one of those restaurants.  The quesadilla was filled with generously sized pieces of lobster.  Between more melted cheese and lobster, I found this dish to be delightful.  Needless to say, I managed to enjoy many bites of each of these dishes.

Although both my husband and I were quite full from all of the appetizers, I thought it would be best if we ordered a dessert to split, so we could try a menu item that didn’t come from the appetizer section.  The banana flan was the ideal choice for us, with the Mexican chocolate sauce on the side.  With an unexpected, but enjoyable, crust and a perfectly sweet filling of banana flan, it was a wonderful way to end our meal.

With quaint decor, tasty margaritas, excellent food, and reasonable prices, Perro Salado is well worth visiting.  In fact, the next time we are in Newport, we will be returning.  And this time we will endeavor to order entrées.  Well, after an order of sticky ribs anyway.

In our house we always are trying new recipes.  Sometimes they fail miserably, sometimes they simply exist, and sometimes they are huge winners.  Last night I tried three new recipes, and all three were hits.  It was kind of like a hat trick for me.  Granted, two of the recipes were courtesy of cookbooks and online searches, but the third was all mine.  So, it was quite pleasing to have such good results.

As the other two dishes were ribs and french fries, I wanted to have a healthy veggie dish to round out the meal.  Broccoli is always popular in our house, but serving it plain seemed way too dull.  Plus, it’s summer, so it felt like the perfect time to give a broccoli salad a try.  As it turns out, that was a great choice.

So many broccoli salad recipes tend toward the unhealthy side, as they are laden with bacon and mayonnaise.  While that may be tasty for some, it seemed like a poor pairing for the rest of our meal.  Once I started thinking about how to make my broccoli salad, I realized that I could make a broccoli salad that was tasty without being unhealthy.

The most important part of this recipe was finding ingredients that provided an enjoyable array of flavors and textures.  Thus, the sunflower seeds added crunch and saltiness, the onions added a savory taste, and the dried apricots added some sweetness.  Using Greek yogurt in the dressing helped to keep the sauce lighter in calories and fat.

Reflecting on this salad today, I am certain that the ingredients could be adjusted to meet the flavor preferences in your house and keep the salad healthy.  Instead of apricots, craisins or golden raisins could be used.  Instead of sunflower seeds, slivered almonds or peanuts could be used.

I plan on trying this salad again in the near future.  Maybe it even could be a family project where each person chooses one of the add-ins.  It could be a fun way to make this dish.

So good it's all gone!

Broccoli Salad

1-1/4 lb. broccoli florets

3 Tb. plain Greek yogurt

2 Tb. mayonnaise

3 Tb. cider vinegar

salt & pepper

1/4 cup sunflower seeds, shelled

1/4 cup red onion, diced

1/4 cup dried apricots, diced

Trim broccoli.  Heat a pot of salted water to boiling, and add broccoli.  Cook for 2 minutes, and drain well.

In a small bowl combine yogurt, mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Place broccoli in a large bowl, and add dressing, seeds, onion, and apricots.  Stir to combine.  Chill for at least 2 hours to allow flavors to meld.