Casa De Morrill

Today was one of those Days of Food at Casa de Morrill. We woke up this morning and headed a short ways down the road to pick up our first load of food from a local food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. The group does a co-op mainly for fruits and veggies, but you can also opt to buy cheeses, bread and beef from them. You opt in every two weeks, select what you want, purchase it online and then every other Saturday you head down to your local pick-up point and get your food. Here’s a picture of our haul once we got home.

We paid $17 this time as first time participants (it will be $15 after this) and we got approximately $50 worth of fruits and veggies. We got lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, green onions, red bell peppers, canteloupe, pineapple, bananas, apples, peaches and pluots. We’re pretty pleased and what food we’ve tried so far is quite yummy. We also picked up a loaf of country bread and some raw milk Jack cheese through them. The cheese is already quickly being consumed in our house. Yum!

After a breakfast of some pancakes and peaches (from our earlier haul), we took a little trip over to Queen Creek. Earlier this spring, Sean and I had read about an olive mill out in Queen Creek and had wanted to visit, but never had the time. About a week ago, Sean found out about a butcher that just sells pork products that was about 3 miles down the road from the olive mill. That was enough to make it worth a short trip out to the area and since Doug’s (Sean’s dad) in town this weekend, we decided it would be a great trip to make with him as well.

We started with the Queen Creek Olive Mill. It’s a small operation, but they offer tours and they sell all of their products onsite. We got there just in time for one of their tours and spent the next hour learning about olives and making olive oil, which I have to admit I found really interesting. A couple of notes about Queen Creek Olive Mill. They’re the only olive grower and olive oil producer in Arizona. The whole operation started as a hobby and in four years has grown to being a major provider of olive oil to a lot of the higher-end restaurants in town as well as providing olives and olive oil to the public. They only sell extra virgin olive oil and their oil is produced through a cold-press process. At the end of the tour, we meandered around the store and sampled some of the products. We had originally planned to have lunch at the restaurant they have on the premises, but were so full after grazing on the samples, we decided to pass this time. We did pick up a 15 oz bottle of their extra virgin olive oil, a 7 oz bottle of the vanilla bean olive oil (extra virgin infused with vanilla beans), a bottle of their mesquite smoked almond stuffed olives and their sweet red pepper and olive tapenade.

The last stop on our trip was The Pork Shop. Yes, that really is their name. Here’s proof. The shop only butchers pork, but it doesn’t just stop there. They make their own sausages that span everywhere from basic breakfast sausage all the way to German beirwurst, italian sausage and smoked andouille sausage. This is a very dangerous place for Sean and me. When we walked in, they had samples out and as we sampled those and they were polished off by the steady stream of customers walking in, those samples were replaced with other samples of other meats. As if we weren’t full enough already. Holy cow. The sausages were all so tasty it became hard to decide what to get and what not to get. We settled on a pork butt for Sean to smoke tomorrow for pulled pork. This decision was only made after a long discussion with the butcher on what they used and what they thought might be best. We also picked up 5 cheddar brats, 5 Fat Tire brats, 1 Parmesan Italian Sausage coil, 1 package smoked andouille sausage, 1 smoked ham hock, .5 lb beirwurst, 1lb pepper-smoked bacon and 1 log Wisconsin summer sausage. So we went a little crazy with the purchasing. You would have too, if you’d been in our shoes. Yum!

Dinner tonight? Brats (from The Pork Shop), roasted potatoes and pineapple (from Bountiful Baskets). Day of food indeed.

Another part of Sean’s anniversary gifts (yes, there were several) was a madeleine pan because I’ve been curious to try making these at home for a while. Madeleines are a shell-shaped sponge cake that are good to serve with coffee or tea. I finally had time to make some this morning, so here are some pictures of my first attempt at madeleines. Click on the picture to see the rest of them.

I was pleased overall with how they came out. The batter was pretty easy to make, although it took a while. The next batch will definitely come out better now that I’ve got the hang of them. If you’re interested to see the recipe I used, here’s the recipe from King Arthur Flour Company (it’s the only type of flour I use now).

I’ve unfortunately been rather remiss in posting photos that I’ve been taking all summer. Part of the reason is that I really just finished editing all of the photos a couple of weeks ago and then didn’t get around to posting them on flickr until I got back in town from my trip to Huntsville. So, here’s a recap of the trips that Sean and I’ve been on this summer and links to the resulting photos.

San Diego
This year is Sean’s and my 5th year anniversary. As part of celebrating our anniversary, we decided to take a five day cruise out of San Diego down to Mexico and then spend a couple extra days cruising around San Diego and watching the Fourth of July fireworks on the bay. The cruise was fun, but we really enjoyed our time in San Diego even more. After getting off the cruise, we wandered up north to La Jolla and had lunch up there and wandered the beaches. Beautiful! We stayed in the Gaslamp Quarter, which is part of the old town area. It was also walking distance from the bay, so we didn’t have to deal with driving to and from the fireworks, which was a definite boon. We also wandered around parts of Balboa Park. We loved the park and there’s definitely stuff that we want to go back and visit on another trip.

High School Reunion
At the end of July was my 10 year high school reunion down at ASMS. I couldn’t pass up a chance to see some of my friends, especially the awesomest roomie I ever had. Hi Evonne! It was also the first chance that I had to show Sean my high school. It’s changed a lot since I went there, but it was still great to see the school again and all of the improvements that have been made in the past 10 years. It was also great catching up with everyone in my class and seeing how well everyone’s done.

New Orleans
In order to get to my high school reunion in Mobile, AL, Sean and I actually flew in and out of New Orleans (much cheaper than Mobile!). As a bonus to the reunion, we stayed a couple of days in New Orleans. Part of me needed to see what the town that I spent so much of my childhood in looked like in the aftermath of Katrina and this was the first time that I could get up the courage to see a town so much changed from my memory.
Sean and I also took advantage of being in New Orleans to eat at two of John Besh’s restaurants, August and Luke. Two yums up to both of them. I would go back to both of them in a heart beat. August was definitely the fancier, more upscale. It was more traditional French cuisine mixed with local ingredients and a bit of Creole cooking. Luke was a bit more casual with a tendency towards a cross between a butcher’s shop and a seafood shop style menu. I’m glad we went to both of them, though. We also found the restaurant that we had had great red beans at last time we were in New Orleans. For the record, it’s called Alpine and it’s just off of the Northwest side of Jackson Square, about a block down. Seriously good red beans. Oh yeah, and there’s no way you could drag me out of New Orleans without at least one chance to eat at Cafe du Monde.
It also gave me a chance to go down to my family’s plot in one of the cemetaries and document it. I’ve got five generations of my mom’s side of the family there and I felt it was important to document that my family was there at one point even if none of us live there anymore. The house photos are of the house my great aunt used to live in in New Orleans. It survived Katrina with no problems (note that it actually sits on a hill). The current owners have also really fixed the house up well and it looks beautiful. I’m just sad that the magnolia I used to climb as a child is gone now.

Huntsville
This was a trip that Sean didn’t take with me. He had classes to attend back in Phoenix, so I went on my own. Back in January when I was last in Huntsville, Misty asked if I wanted to come and keep her company while Stephen was at DragonCon, since neither Sean nor I were planning on going to Con this year. I was like, “Are you kidding me?! A week getting to spend time with you and your two awesome kids?! Sure!” So, there I found myself at the end of August making a hop to Huntsville for 10 days to spend time with Misty and the locals as well as a few days with my family. It was a blast. I love getting to go back and spend time with Sean’s and my friends back in Huntsville as well as all of the new friends that have been added to the group since we moved away. The best part, though, was getting to spend lots of time with Misty and her two awesome kids (as previously stated). We had a great time, playing in water fountains and going to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens and just getting a chance to hang with the locals. I was sad to leave Huntsville, but alas, my job did await me back in Phoenix and I can only avoid it for so long.

Between all of these trips, I was also spending a lot of my time in Denver for work, so I haven’t spent a lot of time in Phoenix this summer. Now, though, I’m back in Phoenix, happily installed back in my own home and I think I’ll stay here for a while, if I can help it. Hope you enjoy the pics!

I pulled this from Domesticat.net. It appeals to me just because I have worked really hard over the past few years to adopt an open attitude towards all food and at least try all food once. 83 out of 100 isn’t too bad.

(Snitched wholesale from www.verygoodtaste.co.uk…)

Here’s a chance for a little interactivity for all the bloggers out there. Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.

Here’s what I want you to do:

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4. Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (Comment: It wasn’t all on it’s own, but it was definitely in there)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (Comment: I’ve had and enjoyed Cognac before, but I refuse to ever smoke, so the cigar is out of the question)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (Comment: This is the most perfect food in the world. Of course I’ve had this!)
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV (Comment: Every fall Four Peaks brews a barley wine. 12% ABV. Well worth every drop.)
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (Comment: All of the above!)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

My three friends who are new mothers are going to hate me for writing this, but I had the most wonderful night of sleep last night. Sean and I have both been dragging pretty badly this past week. Getting home as late as we did Monday night and getting no sleep impacted us for the rest of the week. Last night, though, finally made up for it. 10 hours of beautiful, wonderful sleep.

The only disturbance was that at about 5am our power went out. I have no clue how long it went out, but some of our electric items in the house turned themselves on when the power came back on. I woke up hearing voices in the house. Since Sean’s been feeling sick the past couple of days, I didn’t want to wake him up, so I snuck out of our bedroom to see what was going on. It turned out to be the TV in the guest bedroom was on and it was the talking heads that woke me up.

Now that I’ve gotten sleep, I guess I should concentrate on a few of my weekend activities. On the roster this weekend:
- Finish sorting through old photos and post them on my new Flickr account (we’re moving away from Gallery, but it will be a little while before everything’s moved)
- Start the search for new desk furniture (My desk has officially become too small for me, so it’s time to upgrade. I also need a new filing cabinet as my current one is now too small to hold all of our paperwork.)
- Finally finish adding all of our investment accounts into Quicken (yes, I’ve been going this long on my own homegrown spreadsheets and I’ve finally gotten the point that I’m tired of dealing with maintaining my own stuff)

Okay, time for my weekend to finally start. Oh, and on the dinner menu tonight is a new recipe from Sunset Magazine. Salsa verde braised pork.