We did it again, faithful readers.  We rolled up into a vineyard and cooked a bad-assed meal.  At Adelsheim Vineyards in Oregon wine country Chef and I cooked up a 5 course plated dinner for some lucky people.  They had hor de oeuvres at the winery while we set up our food and the service staff set up the table.  Nestled between rows of grape vines sat our al fresco kitchen, which was equipped with two low propane burners (the kind used for outdoor turkey frying,)  a large charcoal grill, and ample plating space.  The guests were enjoying Gazpacho shots, arugula pesto prawns, and hamachi tartare while I drank beer and spit cusses at the grill.  I had one hell of a time getting that thing lit.  It took a side towel soaked in lighter fluid, but I got that fire rolling.  The guests strolled up in the waning evening light as the charcoal sputtered and spat to life.  Spring Lamb Chops marinated.  Chef seared scallops as the girls plated the first course.  I scurried about, feeding chef clean pans and regulating fires and helping plate.  The servers bussed and poured and ran the plates when each course came up.  When it was time for the duck tits, the sheet pan flat top was again created, and the sizzling fat filled the air with a delicious smell.  They were sliced and hit the plate with a scrumptous plop.  The fading light mingled with the gasps of gastronomic pleasure, the breeze wafted sweet smelling smoke and aounds of merriment across the vineyard.  The lamb chops hit the grill with a satisfying sound, that fucker was hot.  Chef kicked me off grill duty as I blackened some of the chops.  Fucking pastry chefs trying to grill, shit…

                       Scalding hot lamb fat..That’ll Getcha…Sorry Chef!!

I ran this dessert as a special last weekend and it sold pretty well. With milk chocolate sauce and hazelnut praline, it looked sharp and tasted delicious. The chocolate base is Tony’s truffle sponge, almost a brownie but with egg whites folded in. The central crunchy layer was a caramel candy filling, which I augmented with a little milk chocolate and feuilletine. The mousse was a new recipe, one I found on Cuisine French. The recipe caught my eye because it assumed a certain level of knowledge and technique. For example, step three in the recipe states “prepare a custard with the milk, sugar, constarch, and egg yolks.”  That’s my kind of recipe. The praline garnish, I’m embarrassed to say, is isomalt.  This synthetic sugar always makes me feel like a cheater, a corner-cutter and a hack.  It is a beautiful garnish however, so I guess it’s OK.  I learned how to make those over ten years ago now.  Hmph….I’m getting old.  Meanwhile, it’s business as usual at the restaurant,  things have been picking up.  The Oregoinian released an excellent review of us last week, and we’ve been seeing increasing numbers. I couldn’t find the review online…even without mention of the desserts-it was a good one.  

I guess we were really braising, in duck fat, since the meat had already been brined and roasted. Left-over pork loin rejuvenated into a barbeque sandwich. I had some duck fat in the fridge, so I brought it to a boil on the stove and threw in the pork. We covered it, and in a 210 F oven it cooked for 4 hours. The resulting meat was tender and flaky and tore up easily for sauce slathering and sando assembly. The sandwiches provided no photo opportunities as they were quickly munched down by the hungry inhabitants of our household. Jaybill was available to pose with his barbeque sauce, which was delicious. I used some of Chef’s chorizo vinaigrette to make a paste with mayonnaise, we spread that on the toasted buns. The tastiest morsel of the meal was found on the side of the dutch oven we used. An incomprehensible ducky-pork flavored paste stuck to the inside rim. It was like eating candy.

After months of waiting, my manager finally let me have iPhone. I love this baby. A tricorder sized computer, mp3 player, movie player, and tracking device. A balls-deep, bad ass little piece of hardware. Sure, sure it’s way more phone than I’ll ever need, but to me, that’s half the point! Expensive? So, what! Just some more dollars towards , the singularity and human augmentation. Seriously, I’m O.K. with it. If I had the ability to Borg myself out I would. Optical readouts and enhanced performance, biosoft learning environments, and bionic arms and shit? Sign me up!! I guess I got a little off topic there but this phone has possibilities. The available applications are beaucoup. I’m already reading the New York Times on the shitter, and the full sized touch pad keyboard has got me texting with 3G Of giggerram. It makes beautiful music. I don’t know how it does what it does, and I don’t much care. It is the most intuitive phone I have ever used. Within 15 minutes of owning it, I was tracking myself on Google Maps. I was reading webcomics. I was making light saber noises while I whirled it around.

Today marks one year that I’ve been writing this blog. From humble beginnings mrjeffmccarthy.com has soared into the blogosphere, with faithful readers in 29 countries and over 400 average monthly visits. Maintaining this blog has helped me get jobs, learn Photoshop, improve my writing skills, and become an international superstar. Well that last bit is an exaggeration but you get the idea. I’d like to thank everyone for reading, the comments and celebrity visits have been highly enjoyable. The feedback, copious. Special thanks goes out to Jaybill for making this site possible, the guy created a monster. A hairy, sarcastic, irreverent, sometimes foul-smelling monster. For the next year I’ve got big plans. Guest writers, an expanded recipe section, finishing Butterhead and of course, more genius. Lots more genius. For anyone that wasn’t aware my blogday was today, never fear!! Mrjeffmccarthy.com will be accepting 40 oz’s all week!!

So I took the chocolate flour-less cake recipe that I used for Chocolate Whiskey Cake, and I piped and swirled some NY Cheesecake batter into it and I’m calling it Marble Cheesecake. I discovered this process by mistake at Carlyle, where I had the two batters ready at the same time. Funny how stuff comes together sometimes. I learned one recipe from Tony, and one from Mark, it’s as if I delivered their bastard child. The creaminess of the cheesecake flirts with the fudge-like chocolate, blackberry coulis and delicate horseshoe chocolate garnish sells it. Pretty cool looking I thought, and hell of decadent. I used this cake for a recent off-site event, and it was well received. Some people even want it for their birthday. Right now Bramble-type berries are so good in Oregon, and these blackberries are no exception. Viridian farms delivers, and the berries don’t disappoint. Take for example their blueberries, which are an integral part of the Lemon Blueberry Tart, below. This is an extremely simple dessert, pate sucre, lemon curd, the blueberries and coulis, a bit of chantilly. It’s selling well. I didn’t know how it was going to work until I had it on the plate. Simple and delicious. I’m also using their raspberries for the new Bread Pudding set, with raspberry caramel ice cream, a different but delicious frozen treat. Also new this menu is Funnel Cakes. I wanted to try these again to see if I could actually produce them, instead of just piping a few like I originally did. I can. I can also serve it with roasted banana anglaise and call it a day.

I eat good at work. At about nine-thirty, or ten o’clock, I’m about to get fed. One night Perez made me this slider, it had foie torchon and a fried quail egg. I practically inhaled it. Arturo loves to cook for everybody. One morning when we were all hungover he cooked up some rib tacos with black bean sauce. Perfect hangover food. One night, at the end of service, he brought me this tasty pork loin dish, it had this great spicy salad on it. Niell also cooks for me sometimes, like stuffed chicken breast and bacon shallot mashies. I asked him what he could throw together for me real quick and he shows up with a perfectly seared, feta stuffed goodness with smooshy taters. It made my night. He made me a big fat steak one night, too. Still another night, Tony 2 Fingers had a duck tit mac-e-chee for me, with stinky blue cheese. He’s always got some project going for me to taste, like a bacon wrapped terrine. One night I ate this delicious duck confit, Perez made that one, too. But you know, I get hungry. Doing what I do, you can catch an appetite. The kind of appetite that requires a healthy portion of mayonnaise, butter, duck fat or cheese. I wonder what my cholesterol looks like these days. I imagine a delicious looking sludge pumping through my veins, a river of fetid creaminess that would make a good sauce were I to mount some butter. Ah, gluttony…GIMME A RIB!!