Barn Dinner #1 – Success

The barn was restored, the new floor was in, the lights were hung, the farmers ready, wine glasses polished (all 150 of them!)…time for the first Barn Dinner.

The inaugural Barn Dinner on November 6, 2008 went off pretty much without a hitch considering it was the first one! The reservation sheet read 50 guests! On the day of the event the phone was ringing off the hook with people trying to get in last minute. Too bad we couldn’t seat 100 people, the reservation sheet was full a week after announcing the date!

The week prior to the dinner I drove up to McMinnville to pick up the wine from Dominio IV. 6 cases! hehehe. Let’s drink! We worked with Patrick Reuter whom I met from my first Carlton Winemakers Studio Dinner in April 2008. We will be using his Pinot Noir – Black and Red, Syrah – Old Man Looking East, and Viognier – Still Life. mmmm…

The day before the dinner we went to Ruby and Amber’s Organic Oasis to pick up the produce for the dinner. Kris and I had spoken the week prior to see what she would have available to us and that is when I wrote the menu. They had squash, potatoes, napa cabbage, garlic, cippoline onions (!), and many other items that I included in the dinner.

The days leading up to the dinner were frantic! Luckily I have a wonderful family and they helped tremendously!

The cooking was the easy part, that wasn’t stressing me out it was all the little stuff. Making sure the glasses were polished (all 150 of them!), the staff showed up, the apple cider was out for aperitif, the menus were out, the credit card machine was working, the directional signs to the farm were out…on and on. I had originally planned to make all the bread but while I was away checking on the barn I burned it! Woops! So, someone was able to run into town and buy me some bread from Hideaway, thank goodness for that. (We did give Hideaway Bakery credit for the bread on the menu!)

Everything seemed to flow just perfectly, the rain had stopped just for this day. Rained the day before the dinner and the day after. Our back up plan if it rained was to have the servers use umbrellas since the barn with the kitchen and the barn with the dinner was quite a distance apart, whew glad we dodged that bullet.

Here’s what we served for the dinner on that first
Barn Dinner – November 6, 2008:

Aperitif

Fresh Furrer Farms Apple Cider

First Course

Ruby and Amber’s Roasted Vegetable Salad
Squash, Beets, Carrots, Cippoline Onions, Apple Cider Vinaigrette
Blue Cheese, Arugula, Dandelion Greens

2007 Dominio IV “Still Life” Viognier

Main Course

Braised Beef Short Ribs
Ruby and Amber’s Yellow Finn Mashed Potatoes,
Honey-Bacon Braised Napa Cabbage, Vegetables, Beef Sauce

2005 Dominio IV “Old Man Looking East” Syrah

Dessert

Pumpkin Goat Cheesecake
Spiced Whipped Cream

2006 Dominio IV “Black and Red” Pinot Noir

If you’d like to join our mailing list and get emails about the upcoming dinners for this year go to the website:
http://www.barndinners.com/contact-us/ and fill in the mailing list form at the bottom of the page.

Cheers!

Heidi

Yurt Living – The Decision

For years I’ve wanted to just step back and live as close to the land as possible. People always just laughed it off as, “must be that hippy in you, being raised in Oregon.” Well, yes I guess to those who I told on the east coast it may have sounded like a crazy idea. But, really isn’t living in a congested, noisy, dirty, expensive city just as crazy? Ever read the book Your Money Or Your Life by Joe Dominguez? Well, my Dad had me read that book just out of high school and I think it changed my whole outlook on what’s important in life.

Born and raised in Eugene, OR (the epicenter for liberalism and relaxed living) I moved out to the east coast to attend the Culinary Institute of America. After graduating I ended up getting married, buying a house and settling in the area for a bit. Until that is, I realized I was just stepping on the treadmill towards that typical American lifestyle. All my dreams of someday stepping off and living off-grid (or close to it) in a yurt had never been understood by my then-husband. I was told even by him that it was ‘crazy nonsense’ to even think about living in a yurt.

So, I quickly moved back to the West Coast once the realization set in that I was signing up for a life of credit cards, gas guzzling vehicles, pottery barn furniture and 2.3 children. Whew. Feeling like I really dodged a bullet I moved on with my quiet, slower paced life in Oregon.

I have now been able to and decided to build a yurt on my family’s farm (more about that in another post). So, what’s crazier – Living in a yurt? Or, stepping on the treadmill to live like everyone else?

First of all, living in a yurt here in Oregon is a fairly accepted thought, yet they are technically illegal to live in! Explain to me why people can build those “McMansions” everywhere, guzzling down power and I can’t live in a yurt. Some of those houses are well over 5,000 square feet! Give me a break. The electricity used in one of those houses could easily power an entire town in a third world country.

So, I’m trying to live – legally – in a structure that is plenty big enough for two people (30′ yurt is a little over 700 sq. ft.) and it’s not aloud. I will be treading much, much lighter on the earth and living with less (not much extra, frivolous crap can fit in this thing). I have asked the yurt manufacturers and they claim that most people just build these illegally. So, why hasn’t anyone gone to the trouble to try and make these things legal?

The messed up part about this? They have them at about 18 state parks in Oregon for people to rent for the night instead of taking a tent! Explain that one! Not even the county can, they are completely contradicting themselves.

When visiting Pacific Yurts in Cottage Grove they have their demo yurts set up to look like houses. They have all the amenities that are needed; toilet, shower, kitchen sink, dishwasher, fireplace, etc. They have their 30′ demo set up to look like some kind of Vail ski house, really even those people building the giant, Martha Stewart houses would be impressed! Yet when you pay a visit to the county to try and get a permit to build one of these things they start off by saying they aren’t really legal to put up at all, let alone live in one. The one way they let you build it is as a “storage shed”, not one person may spend even one night in the yurt. Then even on top of that you have to have the plans for the base of the yurt engineered!

So, I can’t live in this structure. I can’t really do much except store my shovel and rake in there yet I have to go to the trouble and pay an engineer top dollar to be aloud to build this thing!

So these series of blog posts is about just that. My journey of going through the loop holes and all the county permit crap to just get this thing built. Then, of course I’ll have pictures and videos of putting the yurt up, and later living in the yurt – seeing just how far I can reduce my carbon footprint and still live a fairly normal life.

Blogs – Narrowing Down to One

I have three blogs out there. Each of them talking about things that are very closely related food, farming and travel. Over the next few months I will be bringing posts from my other blog over to Cooking School At Home. Just in case some of the posts seem a bit random…

Carlton Winemakers Studio – July 2

Eric Hamacher Dinner Carlton

Yes, a little bit behind schedule here I know. Better late then never though, right? At the last dinner on June 11 with Bryce Vineyard I was asked to come and cook the dinner on July 2 with Eric Hamacher.

Prior to the dinner however, on the 16th of June Eric and Tom asked if I would please come and cook a lunch. They had their professors from the School of Viticulture and Enology up visiting the studio. The lunch was a wonderful chance for me to be able to work with Eric more than just at the dinner. At the luncheon they all were seated outside and had a light three course meal.

Hamacher Luncheon Menu:

First Course
Local Red Leaf Salad
Shaved Sweet Onions, Pecorino, Herb Vinaigrette

Entree
Boneless Pork Chop
Green Beans, Potatoes, Onions, Radicchio Slaw

Third Course
Oregon Cheese Plate
Fern’s Edge Goat Cheese
Rogue River Blue Cheese
Ancient Heritage Sheep Cheese
Fig Perserve, Crostini

The menu for the 2nd of July with Hamacher wines was meant to be kept light and summery. First speaking with my fisherman he said there was a possibility of getting spot prawns for the dinner! I was so excited about that option but in the end the prawn fisherman didn’t end up going out… bummer. This is the menu that I served with Eric Hamacher’s wines:

First Course
Fresh Ricotta
Grilled Bread, Local Greens, Strawberries
Paired with: Hamacher 2007 Dry Rose

Entree
Grilled Spicy Prawns
Spaghetti, Tomatoes, Garlic, Citrus, Butter
Paired with: Hamacher 2007 Chardonnay

Dessert
Almond Torte
Strawberries, Goat Mascarpone
Paired with: Hamacher 2006 “H” Pinot Noir

Bread by Hideaway Bakery… yummm!

I made the fresh ricotta from local milk the day before the event. Everyone LOVED this cheese and they were all very impressed that I made it. People wanted to know where they could buy this cheese. Eric Hamacher said he hadn’t had ricotta cheese this good since he was in Italy! So, I guess I should pass along the recipe that I used.

I have a standard formula and method for making ricotta (just in my head), but it really never produced a great yield. Since I was making cheese for 50 people here I needed to try a different way. So, I turned to Barbara Ciletti’s book Making Great Cheese At Home and the difference in taste, texture and yield was so impressive.

RICOTTA CHEESE
Yield: 1 pint

1/2 Gallon Whole Cow’s Milk
1 C Heavy Cream
7 Tblsp Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp Salt

Heating the Milk
Blend the milk, cream and lemon juice – med. low heat. 45-50 minutes allow to reach 165-170F. Stir only once or twice during this time – stirring more will break up the curds too much. It will start to form into small pea sized curds.

Increase slightly to medium. 7-8 minutes more to 200-205F. should be right on the verge of boiling. curds should be creamy.

Remove and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Curds settle to the bottom, whey to the top. Pour into cheesecloth. Drain 20 minutes. Add salt and refrigerate.
_________

Once at the dinner I grilled pieces of Hideaway bread, added a scoop of fresh cheese and heated it in the oven. Served along side the cheese was a salad with a strawberry (fresh, local, of course!) vinaigrette.

The dinner went over very well, it was oversold at 48 people. Everyone was able to sit outside and enjoy one of the great summer evenings of the year.

Cheers!

Garden Fresh

First meal out of the garden this year! We planted our radishes just a bit too close this year and needed to thin them, so I took some home and a few onions as well. Mmmm…dirt Growing your own food is just a wonderful thing, if you’re not growing your really missing out! It’s not just the food that you’re missing out on though, it’s the smell of the dirt, the smell of the garden once you water it, the connection with the earth when you kneel down and weed for an hour. It’s a very spiritual project. Your growing food. And it’s very cool. What would it be like if you had to grow this food to live though, ever thought of that?

So, like I’ve said before, start with good ingredients and you don’t have to do much to make a great meal. And, with food this fresh it’s a no brainer (of course it is for me, but really for you too!). I just took the garden fresh radishes and onions, washed just a bit of the dirt off, sliced and put them into a salad along with some other freshly picked herbs. A little red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, freshly ground pepper and voila we’re in business!

Fresh food! Along with the salad I marinated firm tofu in some spices and put it on the grill, tofu and salad…mmmm. Easy.

Sunday Night Dinners

SUNDAY NIGHT DINNER
June 29, 2008

Cheese Plate
Fraga Farm Cheddar – a raw cheddar
Fraga Farm Farm House Goat
Pepperoni
Local Cherry Tomatoes
Hideaway Bakery Whole Grain Bread

Dinner
Oregon Lingcod
French Green Lentils, Local Vegetables, Yogurt-Green Onion Sauce

This dinner was inspired by Hideaway Bakery‘s awesome bread! I wanted everyone to enjoy the bread before the meal so I bought some local cheeses from Fraga Farm in Sweet Home, Oregon, grilled the bread and allowed some time for cheese, wine and bread. The cheeses from Fraga Farm are wonderful if you haven’t tried them yet, do!

For the dinner I started at Capella’s, a small market that sells locally grown and sourced foods. Wandering through the store I started with lentils. Don’t know why but I just decided I hadn’t eaten lentils in awhile. From there what goes with lentils? Yogurt. I picked out a local, plain yogurt from Nancy’s. Hhmmm…What should I put in the yogurt, how about the local green onions that looks so young and fresh. I have my sauce and lentils, now what?

Yogurt sauce and lentils are a very Mediterranean influenced choice and those two could go with a number of protein items such as lamb, chicken or fish. Since it was about 92 degrees outside and we were drinking Tabula de Rasa (a light, fruity white wine) from Carlton Winemakers Studio I decided to go with the lighter option of fish. That I wouldn’t get at Capella’s though, the fish market is just a few blocks down the road so that will come after the rest of the shopping.

Wandering through the store they had a wonderful selection of local produce from Oregon so I let that lead the way. Thinking along Mediterranean lines I wanted to just do a simple saute of fresh vegetalbe, garlic and olive oil. A preparation that would allow the great flavors of these local, fresh foods to shine through. I found some patty pan squash, rond de nice squash (appropriate for my Mediterranean inspired meal), young onions and shallots. I checked out and ran to the fish market.

At Newman’s Fish Market I was able to find an Oregon caught Lingcod to serve along with all the other foods I already purchased. Back home to cook now. With all these locally sourced, wonderful foods there wasn’t much work for me to do except wash, cut and cook.

I seared the onions and squashes in a pan together, added some garlic, shallots, olive oil, salt, pepper and butter. Done.

The lentils were boiled in water, drained and sauteed with shallots, garlic, oil, salt and pepper.

For the yogurt sauce I just added sliced green onions, salt pepper and citrus juice. Easy, done.

The fish was seasoned with salt, pepper and seared in a very hot pan, serving side down first. I allowed the skin to sear and get nice and crispy on the first side before flipping to the other side. Added a little butter, spooned it over the fish and viola!

Now Will You Eat Local Food?

If the latest report doesn’t scare everyone into eating strictly local food I’m not quite sure what would. They are now saying they STILL don’t know where the salmonella outbreak came from. Could be onions, cilantro, jalapeños, or maybe they still just don’t really know… Yeah, that’s comforting.

So, buy local or grow your own! Then you don’t have to worry and start throwing stuff out of your cupboards each time there is an outbreak in our messed up food system.

Take a class on gardening and grow your own, really it’s easy. Put seeds in ground. Give seeds water. A little sun. Seeds grow. Result, FOOD! No pesticides, chemicals or chance of getting very ill. You grew it. You know where it’s been. Don’t feel skilled enough to garden? Meet your new friend, Mr. Farmer-Down-the-Road. Here’s another bonus, local food tastes better!

Morning Calm

Sitting on the couch, 6:27am. I’ve been awake now for over an hour, my mind racing. I’ve been doing work, reading blog posts and getting up to date on my food news stories. Pandora is playing my “George Winston” station in my pink earbuds, green tea brewing in the cup beside me. It was just now that I realized the sun is coming out. With its light flooding the room, peaking around tree limbs and casting it’s rays on the side of the hill.

Recently I was reminded of all the old posts on this blog which caused me to go back through and read over again what I had written while living in Indiana. This moment right now is so familiar to me from that time I was in Indiana. Getting up early in the morning to get what little time I could for myself. I would always turn George Winston, brew my first cup of coffee (first of many throughout the day) and sit and write blog posts or dream of being back in Oregon. If I close my eyes right now I could be there, that thought alone makes me shudder.

As I said before in one of my reflective moments flying to NY from Indiana, “life is for watching sunrises and climbing mountains…”. I was only in Indiana for a brief moment but it was long enough. I realized quickly there in that time (luckily) that I wanted to watch sunrises and climb mountains. If I had stayed like I should it would be coming up on one year. I sat in bed last night as I realized that… Wow. How messed up would I be right now? Would I have totally lost it by now? Would I be so out of sync with my thoughts and myself that coming back here to this quiet and peaceful life would be scary?

I remember being on the drive back home wondering if I would ever be able to get back to my old mind set. I wondered if I would ever be able to back to the state of peace and calmness that I had worked so hard to be at before I ever went to Indiana. Well it was this morning that I realized I have. I’ve been back in my calm state for quite sometime now but just now fully realized it.

Sun light peering on the deck where our container garden sits, George Winston playing, my morning cup(s) of green tea (I stopped drinking coffee awhile ago). I’m so glad I saw through that life in Indiana. It really took a lot of guts to go to that place and leave so quickly. Always make sure you’re happy in life. It really is short. You hear that all the time from people but until you do it for yourself you’ll never quite understand why it’s so important.

This year my younger cousin, 18, lost his two-year battle with cancer. That alone is a very powerful motivator to live life, not stress the small stuff and to take time to appreciate beautiful moments like this right now this morning. This is what life is about. It’s not about a job, a house, a fancy car or money. It’s about appreciating what’s around you. What you have, not what you don’t have. That is why I am moving down to the family farm, building a yurt and am gonna raise some food. Live a simple, small, peaceful life.

You hate your job? Think about why you have that job. Is it to pay for your new car, new fangled-latest-greatest cell phone-a-ma-jig, big screen TV, new clothes, fancy-lavish vacations? Get a smaller car (you’ll get better gas mileage too, a double bonus!). And all those other things? They are just a result of your stressful job and they are adding to your stress. Think about it. You wouldn’t need a vacation if your life was free of excess stress. And, you wouldn’t need the stressful, high-paying job if you didn’t need all those excess things. That’s all they are. Just things. Things that don’t go with you when you die. Things that cost money and stress you out.

Be happy. Everyday. Really, do it. If you’re waking up and dreading work, dreading life. Change. Each day could be your last. Live. Turn off the TV, go for a walk. Take time to enjoy the real beautiful things around you, they don’t cost any money.

Carlton Winemakers Studio, June 11th

This was the second time this year that I have been the guest chef at the Carlton Winemakers Studio in Carlton, OR the winery I was paired this time was Bryce Vineyard. Bryce Vineyard is a small vineyard located in the Ribbon Ridge AVA, in the town of Newberg in the Oregon Willamette Valley wine region. Marcia Bagnall makes a wonderful Pinot Noir, she focuses all her attention on one grape and makes just one wine per year making her wine a very special, limited wine to be able to enjoy.

Marcia’s 2006 Pinot Noir, which is what we had for the dinner, has a wonderful flavor profile that includes notes of cherries and chocolate. Wonderful. Delicious. Tasty wine. Marcia has just 4 acres of grapes planted and chooses to err on the side of producing less than the Oregon average/acre to preserve quality. She lovingly takes the wines from the field to the pressing room at Carlton Winemakers Studio and ends up with a great Pinot, one that sells out very quickly due to the short supply that she makes each year. I was very lucky to get to work with Marcia and her 2006 Pinot!

Because she only produces one wine we ended up using it to pair the main course and the dessert – a tricky feat – pairing with savory and quickly followed by sweet. For the first course we chose to use the Viognier from fellow winemaker, Patrick Reuter of Dominio IV. He just released this wine in the end of April and what a wonderful wine!

Before I could write the menu for this dinner I had to go and taste Marcia’s and Patrick’s wines since they had both just recently been release and I had not gotten a chance prior. In order to do that I had to make a trip up the Carlton for their annual Memorial Day tasting. The event brought all the winemakers at the Studio, all together there were 48 different wines to taste…not a bad day on the job at Heidi Tunnell Catering Company! And, one great benefit to being a chef at the Studio – we all got into the event for free (entry fee was $20-30/person).

We got the chance to meet all the winemakers and taste *almost* all the wines… think we came pretty close to trying all 48! I got the chance to talk to some of the winemakers about coming down and being the showcased winery at our Barn Dinners (more on these in another post). It was a very cool experience, getting a chance to really connect with each winemaker there at the event. Just some of the winemakers interested in making the trip down and be showcased at the dinners include: J.Daan, Boedecker, Dominio IV. So exciting!

Back to the menu. So after tasting Marcia’s Pinot and Patrick’s Viognier this is the menu I came up with:

FIRST COURSE
Grilled Asparagus
Paprika Oil, Fleur de Sel, Pecorino

MAIN COURSE
Tuscan Chicken al Mattone
Potatoes, Greens, Grilled Lemon, Olive Persilliade

DESSERT
Goat Cheesecake
Strawberries, Hazelnuts

The menu went over really well. The dinner was oversold! And, everyone seemed to appreciate pairing the Pinot with the main course and then the dessert.

A little detail about the menu:
- Chicken was marinated with paprika, garlic, rosemary, thyme, red wine vinegar. Then, cooked under a brick on the grill at the Studio for a crispy, delicious skin.
- Potatoes were roasted with Red Pepper Flakes, Paprika, Fennel Seed, Thyme, Garlic and sauteed at the event with lemon juice and parsley.
- Cheesecake was made with hazelnuts in the crust, fresh strawberries picked just the day before and first of the season!

Sunday Night Dinners

Almost every Sunday night I go out to my parents house and cook a meal, usually another sibling shows up, maybe more. It’s a dinner that could be for as many as four to ten people, and I usually don’t know about the extra six until I get there. These dinners are a good time for experimenting, trying new products and working on my improv skills. Since some of these dinners turn out to be something pretty cool I thought I would start keeping track of them. And, it’s a good way to see how my mind works in creating these menus off the top of my head.

SUNDAY NIGHT DINNER
June 22, 2008

Farmers Market Salad
Broccoli, Dried Cranberries, Blue Cheese, Balsamic Vinaigrette

Spicy Cabezon
Seared Potatoes, Olives, Herbs, Oranges, Avocados

This weekend the products I had to work with were very exciting, this was the Cabezon (a rockfish) that I had just bought at the farmer’s market! So fresh, I didn’t need to do much to the fish to make it taste great. This is what I did:

Cabezon – I found chilies and garlic in my Mom’s pantry and I had just clipped some fresh herbs out of my garden before I came over. So I seasoned the fish with salt and pepper, seared it (serving side down first) in a hot saute pan. Once could see the fish starting to cook up the side and it had come loose in the pan, meaning it was sufficiently seared, I flipped it.
Once flipped I added some sliced garlic, sliced chilies and a pat of butter. Then tilt the pan to the side and start spooning the butter over the fish, this helps to cook it but it also adds another level of flavor. Just a couple minutes and it’s done. Fish should still be transparent when you cut into it, not dry and flaky, perfectly cooked fish is a very wonderful thing.

Potatoes – These were made just from random items found in the fridges and cupboards of my parents house. I took some Yukon Gold potatoes, simmered them whole in salted water until they were a little more than half way cooked. Then I took them out, cooled them just a bit and sliced them into 1/2″ thick rounds. In a saute pan I sauteed some onions, olives and garlic then pulled them out and heated the pan back up. In that very hot pan with oil I seared the potatoes, making sure to keep plenty of oil in the pan for the potatoes to fry in. Once they were all seared I added the onions and other pre-cooked items back in, along with some orange zest, orange juice, avocados and fresh herbs.