Food-Travel-Life... Enjoy!

Apr 17, 2009

St. Thomas with the Biltz Family

Drive on the left side of the road up the steepest hills and the curviest streets with no guardrail and finally, you get to the house. Oh, and then pull over and enter the code to get in the gate, where you have to drive up the steepest driveway I have ever seen.

But the view from this beautiful house was INCREDIBLE…St Thomas with the Biltz family.

How do you like your sweet tea. SWEET. And not sugar coated. But, damn sweet HEAD!!!!

Accompanying Tim and Kelly blitz was their daughter Lisa and her Husband Will and their friend John with his wife Meredith. Oh… and Jenny and I. It was the 8 of us in St Thomas at the house that took 30 minutes to get to, but it sure was beautiful…and most importantly the grill worked perfect.

The first night was Will and Lisa’s first wedding anniversary. Not knowing that until our arrival, Jenny and I were excited to make it special, but we were a little unprepared. We made a baked brie in puff pastry and cut out the number one and baked it on top. To keep with the theme, we made cupcakes with a number one on them as well. The menu included Caesar Salad and crab mashed potatoes with grilled beef tenderloin and sautéed corn.

Other food highlights of the week:
Panko crusted grouper
Homemade onion dip
Fajita night
Sushi at the Rtiz
Prosciutto wrapped asparagus
Burger night
Key lime soup
Hangover crab cakes

Great people, delicious food, a beautiful view and huge iguanas…St Thomas with the Biltz family.

Apr 7, 2009

The night before St. Thomas (Pizza at Picco)

I love pizza, but Jenny usually advises me to avoid it. The night before we left for St. Thomas I was lucky enough to eat at a place called Picco on the South End of Boston with good friends Marc, Lisa, Jason, and my beautiful wife. It was a celebration for Jenny who had just passed her Florida Real Estate exam.

Pico is a new age rustic pizza/ice cream restaurant with this slogan: “If you don’t like your pizza crispy go somewhere else.” They create pizzas with bold ingredients and distinguishable flavors while the same goes for their home made ice cream. The beer is hand selected from small breweries around the country. They have a friendly staff that includes our waitress who immediately felt more like an old friend. The 5 of us foodies split 3 pizzas and came close to finishing them.

ALSATIAN our version of France’s tarte flambé sautéed onions, shallots, garlic, sour cream, bacon & gruyere

RED PEPPER, ARUGULA & GOAT CHEESE PIZZA  chopped tomatoes, salsa verde & arugula salad tossed with aged balsamic vinaigrette

MUSHROOM SPECIAL

They came out crispy, hot, and had tons of flavor. I could tell they use the best possible ingredients and know how to utilize flavor combinations. The same goes for their ice cream.

The sampler cost $6, contained 3 delicious flavors, and was well worth it. We ordered 3 samplers that consisted of chocolate peanut butter swirl, coffee, raspberry chip, malted chip, caramel swirl, dark chocolate sorbet. When they were gone our nice waitress brought out some mini oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip marienge as a gift.

I left Picco very, very happy, which is not always the case because I tend to be picky in restaurants. The pizza and ice cream were amazing, the service was amazing, and it was nice to catch up with old friends. I feel like it is a good value at Picco and that remains very important to me. A $5 salad is worth $5, and $6 for a variety of three whole scoops of ice cream is worth $6.

http://www.piccorestaurant.com/about.htm

At this moment Jenny and I are in mid air half way to St Thomas for work. We are about to take the Biltz family on a culinary adventure in paradise. I will keep you posted throughout their trip.

Mar 12, 2009

Alaska and The Iditarod

The Iditarod Trail's Finger Lake Checkpoint

and

The Winter Lake Lodge

Videos Below

It was day 4 of the Iditarod and all the mushers had made their way through Rainy pass and were heading toward McGrath. For Alice’s airplane to get though Rainy Pass the weather needs to cooperate and on this day it did not. So our travels took us to the last Iditarod checkpoint before the pass called Finger Lake.

On the shores of Finger Lake sits the Winter Lake Lodge. www.withinthewild.com

The Winter Lake Lodge is only accessible by an airplane with skis or floats. It is a culinary destination for people who love the outdoors and love food. We did not get to eat anything except for a chocolate chip cookie (which was amazing), but chef Kristin has won the best chef in America award, while her daughter, the sous chef at the lodge, has worked at the French Laundry in Napa. The aroma from the kitchen made me wish we could stay for dinner but the snow was starting to fall so we had get going or sleep there overnight.

Mar 8, 2009

Alaska

As I sit on Alice's basement couch, I can hear a plane landing in her back yard on the frozen Campbell Lake. That is Alaska and that is what I experienced today.

After pushing the plane out of the hanger, Alice (pilot) gracefully took off with Burkes' (pilot instructor) calm and minimal instruction... very impressive. We took a quick right turn and headed for the Chugach mountain Range. Burke took the controls and flew us into places you would think a helicopter, not a plane, could get that close to. Amazing!! The most untouched beauty I have ever laid eyes on.

We made a quick stop at the village of Willow but the race hadn't started yet. So we headed home.

Tomorrow's itinerary consists of checking out various Iditarod checkpoints, where hopefully we will see some dog teams in action. Maybe Andrew will even fly us home.

Feb 22, 2009

Captiva with the Beni Family

The Beni Family Culinary Adventure with Chef Ben and Pastry Chef Jenny

Feb 14-21

Captiva Island

The Beni Family, what a great family, all 15 of them. It was a pleasure cooking for them on their vacation. They love to eat, they love bold flavors, and they eat a lot! (which is good) Jenny and I had a lot of fun working for them. Between sessions of washing dishes and cleaning up, Jenny was baking everything she could think of. From caramel short bread squares to cookie pie, cookie bars, cupcakes, brownies, lemon squares, etc!
There was no question; the Beni’s knew what they wanted to eat and how they wanted it prepared. For example: Their lamb had to be crispy on the outside and just a little pink on the inside. Their Meat had to be medium rare to medium, but not too pink but not too well done. Their decaffeinated Tetly iced tea had to made with bottled water and don’t forget the lemon slices on the side! And the bacon, it haaaad to be crispy.

Day 1

Hor’ Devoures

Mini Lamb burgers

Antipasto Platter (my hummus, peppered salami, cheddar cheese, carrots, Mary’s gone crackers)

Buffet

Arugala with roasted mushrooms, pine nuts and lemon vinaigrette

Orzo with grilled asparagus, peas, scallions, feta, olives, roasted yellow and orange peppers

Grapefruit marinated hanger steak with my chimichurri

Grilled Gulf shrimp and pineapple skewers slathered with my pesto

Faccacio bread

Dessert

Jenny’s white chocolate, macadamia, dried cran cookies and semi and milk chocolate cookies