Lucy and Dog Chow Royale

Lucy on the bed-this is usually a no-no. She mostly sleeps under the bed for some reason-something to do with an unresolved conflict from her family of origin. The other photo is a typical choice offering of Dog Chow Royale. I won't list the ingredients.

Mike vs. The SpotBot

Sometimes Mike eats too much. Then he turns into a little urpster in all the wrong places. So, time to get out the handy little cleaning bot, the SpotBot.

Result: the myth of progress is shattered once again.

Mike: 2, SpotBot: 0

Elfo's Special

And now, here’s something we hope you’ll really like. THE FIRST in a series of delectable recipes adapted from the incomparable cookbook “A Treasury of Great Recipes”. The cookbook consists of recipes from restaurants Vincent and Mary Price enjoyed while on their world travels.

Elfo’s Special (Spaghetti with Shrimp and Mushrooms)

Adapted from “A Treasury of Great Recipes” by Vincent Price from Gristanti’s Restaurant in Memphis

8oz. Thin spaghetti-cooked ( I used whole wheat)
¼ C. butter
¼ C. extra vigin olive oil
4 cloves garlic-minced
1 lb. Shrimp-peeled and diced
5 lg.mushrooms-diced
salt and pepper
pecorino romano-grated

Heat butter and olive oil in a large skillet, add garlic, mushrooms,and shrimp.
Cook slowly in hot butter-olive oil for about 5 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste.
Add cooked spaghetti to skillet and toss all together.
Sprinkle with pecorino romano.

Bon Appetite !!

Friends of the Farmers' Market

The Friends of the Farmers' Market 2006 Spring Celebration was held this Wednesday, April 19, 2006. If you didn’t make it, you missed some mouth watering local wines and cheeses that were so good one of the vendors had to issue a cease and desist order before I cleaned him out. Of note were the soft cheeses from the Monteillet Fromagerie in Dayton—yum, now that was just about as good as it gets.

Chicken with Shallots and Mushrooms

Chicken with Shallots and Mushrooms
-adapted from Intermezzo magazine

Not a Vincent Price selection (again), but really tasty and easy to make. The entree is shown with oven-grilled asparagus and mashed Yukon Gold potatoes.

1 package chicken thighs
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 button or cremini mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 shallots, thinly sliced
¼ cup dry vermouth or dry white wine
¼ cup heavy cream or half and half
1 tablespoon grainy Dijon mustard

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper
2. In a large heavy-bottomed sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium–high heat and cook chicken 7 to 10 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
3. Melt butter in the same sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Add shallots and cook for 2 minutes more, until shallots turn translucent but do not burn. Add vermouth or white wine and scrape browned bits off bottom of pan; add cream and mustard. Cook until sauce has reduced by half and is quite thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Return chicken to pan briefly to re-warm. Serve chicken with sauce on top.

The House of Usher

OK, so no delectable selection from the cookbook yet. But, we did watch another camp classic starring Vincent “Lord of Horror” Price, “The Fall of the House of Usher”. This is from the group of films Price did based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe—a serendipitous collaboration if I’ve ever seen one. Totally creepy and disturbing with no gore-how do they do it? The best line (done with that exemplary Price delivery but I'll have to paraphrase as I can’t quite remember the exact words): “she’s mad now, I can hear every cry she utters”. “She” was his sister, whom he had buried alive, who wasn’t just mad, but really, really furious. When she finally clawed her way out of the coffin, she got even by trying to throttle everyone in sight, at which point everything went downhill very quickly-end of story.

Vincent Price

Thespian, author, gourmand, Yalie: Vincent Price was the real deal. We recently watched his classic from 1958 "The House on Haunted Hill". Well, they just don't make them like they used to—an acid vat in the dungeon, skeletons, ghosts--over the top campy fun. My favorite part occurred when the star, after getting his guests thoroughly snockered, offered up little coffins containing loaded pistols as party favors—now that guy knows how to get a party started.

Next up, a choice selection from his cookbook “A Treasury of Great Recipes”.

Caverna del Diablo

Mazatlan: The Devil's Cave used to hide soldiers guarding ammunition during the revolution. Now, just your typical Mexican drunk tank.

Mike

Mike-badboy, gourmand, dog about town. He is not possessed.

The Meatball

Kind of like meatball tartare at this stage. Actually, we cooked it--yummy!