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Many thanks.
Exhaustedly,
Leigh
We arrived just after 7:00 on a Saturday evening. All tables were filled and the restaurant hummed lively. A sweet woman with short dark hair asked for a name, then reassured us that the 2-tops open quickly. There were about 4 parties ahead of us. She handed us two menus and a wine list to look over while we waited. Remembering that this space’s previous incarnation was the Wing-Stop, I was pleased to note that all of the waitstaff were in blacks. A minute later, she reappeared to let us know about a particular bottle of wine that was on special. Would we care to try it?
Why, yes please. A 2007 Tomaresca Neprica, at $18 somewhat lower in price than the bottle we had been considering. (And at a lower markup than I’ve seen around town.) A sip proved delightful, and we accepted her recommendation. She made sure to open the bottle in front of us, pressed stemless glasses into our hands and let us know she’d put our bottle aside until a table came available.
With 12-15 tables in this relatively small space and 3-4 servers, I was surprised that the restaurant was not noisier. I conversed easily with my dining partner without raising my voice.
As we reached the 15 minute mark of our wait, a server came by with a tray of fried ravioli topped with fresh tomatoes. “Compliments of the chef.” Nice. I appreciated that attention was paid to the hungry souls forced to wait. The pace in the kitchen and of the servers was fast, but not frenetic. Another 10 minutes passed and a table opened up. As we sat, our bottle was brought over and our glasses refilled. We ordered the bruschetta as an appetizer. It came out quickly, a plate of grilled flatbread topped with diced tomatoes and onions, drizzled with a rich balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
One curious thing I noticed is that the bread and olive oil that usually comes standard to the table at most Italian restaurants was listed as an appetizer. For ~ $4. Their list of appetizers was tempting enough and their prices so completely reasonable that I wouldn't count it as detracting from the experience. Keep in mind that this is an independently owned restaurant in an out of the way space, filling what I feel is an important niche in Asheville – casual Italian.
We ordered our entrées, zuppa di pesce for my dining partner and chicken scarpiello for me. It took an effort of will not to order the penne alla vodka, temptingly front and center on Nona Mia’s list of specials.
Next time.
The entrées took some time in coming out, but I did not mind at all. For one, I am fairly certain they cook to order and two, on a Saturday night with parties still waiting for tables and more coming through the door, at no point in my experience did I ever feel rushed.
After I finished my second glass of wine, a server we had not interacted with up to this point stopped by and asked if we’d like some water. Yes, absolutely. So used to water being poured as you sit, I had not noticed this was not the case.
Our entrées came out smelling incredible. Warm, savory, tangy. A good amount of food, but not so much that it was piled together atop my plate. This was not a careless presentation. The chicken scarpiello had capers, potatoes, peppers, chicken, sausage, a few sundried tomatoes and artichoke hearts in a thin but tasty sauce accompanied by a wedge of foccacia. The zuppa di pesce had clams and rings of calamari mingling in a spicy broth with three squares of fried pasta. We were asked if we wanted freshly grated Parmesan.
By the way, the answer to this question is always yes.
Our server stopped by to inquire if everything was to our liking, and I responded with an enthusiastic “Excellent, thank you!”
The entrée was almost too much to finish. My partner finished, likely more out of his duty to all things seafood, (being from eastern North Carolina) than there being room in his stomach. I sensibly asked for a take-home container and one was provided.
And then there was the tiramisu.
I never order tiramisu when out to eat. I dislike the standard presentation of a flat cake square dusted with espresso powder, always too soggy on the bottom. It is often too sweet for me and I find other offerings more tempting.
However, my partner insisted. It’s really good, he said. Try it and see. So I did.
The tiramisu came out presented in a tumbler, with three lady fingers spaced around the sides. Homemade whipped cream, not too sweet. The cake at the bottom was perfect, very espresso-y without being soggy and gross. It was delicious, and I would order it again, no question. Consider me converted.
I thought about sharing the total cost of our dining experience, but wouldn’t that be crass? Trust me when I say that for all that we ordered and ate, it was wholly reasonable for a meal out in Asheville. Dinner for two could easily be done for under $40. The most expensive entrée on the menu was the chianti braised lamb shanks, for all of $17. They offer a variety of meat and pasta dishes, ranging from $10-$14.
Go, and enjoy it.
Nona Mia
807 Patton Ave #A
Asheville, NC 28806
828-505-2028
EDtF, Day 5.
My apologies for the obvious lack of pictures this week. The dishes I’ve made just haven’t wanted to flirt with the camera. And my “photographer” is out of town.
So here’s a picture of Penguin, being adorable on top of the fridge.
(photo courtesy Christopher Greene)
Awww.
And no. I have no idea what that is on the side of my freezer door. It will not clean off.
Tonight, I had a concert to go to. I was feeling overtired, overwhelmed and pulled in three different directions. It was not the night for pork and sauerkraut. Tomorrow. I promise.
(Yes, I am going out to dinner tomorrow night. But there’s nothing to stop me from making P+S at 3 in the afternoon.)
I opened the fridge and my eyes landed on the leftover red lentil soup from almost two weeks ago.
Soup keeps forever. And it was stored in a nifty jar mom gave me. A magical marshmallow fluff jar. Keeps the perfect amount of soup for one big bowl, the lid screws on really tight and it is a unique shape.
Mom’s not getting her jar back.
I checked the status of my greens, which I had washed, spun dry and put into plastic bags with a paper towel to absorb any excess moisture. On their last legs, but I could manage.
Then, tucked in the very back of my fridge, I saw two items that cemented the plan for dinner in my mind. The rest of a block of cream cheese and a small amount of Nikki’s Jezebel sauce.
I heated up the soup, made a quick salad with the spring mix and wilted the rest of the baby spinach in a saucepan. Then I dug out my last packet of saltines, spread them with cream cheese and topped each one with a small dollop of the sauce, which was how Nikki introduced me to the Jezebel magic in the first place. I want to share its goodness with you, but it will also have to wait.
Suffice to say it makes my Polish heart go pitter pat because it contains lots of horseradish. And I’ve been known to eat it straight from the jar with a spoon.
A big spoon.
The soup reheated beautifully, which gives me faith. I adapted it from a book called 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes. I made the soup on the stovetop no problem. It’s quick and easy and vegan! You can even do most of the prep the night before and have it ready in under 30 minutes. Try it and see. The coconut milk lends an interesting and tasty dimension to the soup.
Red Lentil and Carrot Soup with Coconut Milk
serves 6
Ingredients
2 cups red lentils
1 T olive oil
2 sweet onions, diced
3 large carrots, peeled and sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 tsp turmeric
2-3 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
½ tsp cracked black peppercorns (or freshly ground black pepper to taste)
2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes, including juice
1 quart vegetable stock
2 cups water
1 14-oz can coconut milk (can use lite – I did)
freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
Directions
In a colander, rinse lentils thoroughly under cold water. Set aside.
In a stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and carrots and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
Add garlic and cook one minute.
Add turmeric, cumin, salt, pepper and cook, stirring, for one minute.
Add tomatoes with their juice and bring to a boil. Stir in lentils, stock and water.
Simmer for 20 minutes to 1 hour or more. However long you have.
Stir in coconut milk, lemon juice and cayenne. Simmer 20-30 additional minutes.
Serve warm, with crusty bread.
See Monday's entry for the updated list of food being used up from my fridge.
EDtF, Day 4.
Fatigue has officially set in, and I am embarrassed. At a glance, this week is little different from any other week. I feed myself, occasionally others, from my acquired grocery bounty. The only difference is that I did not go grocery shopping this week. And was forced to confront old, possibly freezer burnt, neglected, lost ingredient souls.
While not exactly depressing, it has weighed on my mind. Coupled with an inordinately stressful week, at this point I'm nearly ready to fall to my knees and beg for a dinner out.
(Which will happen on Saturday. Scheduled pre-EDtF. Nona Mia here I come.)
The selection for Thursday evening was Feta-Hazelnut Ravioli (with butternut squash) from Rising Moon Organics. It had been in my freezer since 2007. At least. There was also some Wild Chanterelle Mushroom ravioli, but that I knew that a late 2008 purchase. Perhaps next week.
Not content to serve ravioli with a marinara sauce as I usually do, I decided to make an alfredo sauce. No, a brown butter sauce! With sage. Yes. Excellent. And I had some spring mix for a simple salad.
I assemble my ingredients and, while I have a working knowledge of brown butter and alfredo, I consult Bittman. The section on brown butter is incredibly unhelpful, but it is a straightforward method: melt butter on medium heat, scraping down the sides with a spatula until the foam subsides and the butter darkens to nut brown. Season to taste.
Easy, right?
It was a friggin disaster. I ended up with excessively browned butter, speckled with black flecks and an acrid smell in my kitchen. And I burnt myself. Twice. I think it had something to do with the pan.
By this time the ravioli is cooked.
I start to make an alfredo sauce. No cream. 1/2 a cup of whole milk will have to do. 2 eggs. 1 cup of Parmesan. Again, Bittman. Had I not been looking at the book, I would have done the following:
Warm cream milk in saucepan.
Beat eggs and add to cream milk.
Add parm a little at a time until melted.
Continue to heat until thickened.
Instead I read what he wrote, which was essentially: Mix everything together in a warm bowl off the heat.
What?
Interjection: Twitter amuses me beyond belief AND is somewhat useful. As I tweeted that I was attempting an alfredo sauce without cream, this came back at me: whatever you do, don't make alfredo with soy milk! very bad eating experience! Noted.
4 bowls, 3 saucepans, 2 sticks of wasted butter, a burned hand and the rest of a block of parmesan later, I had a serviceable alfredo. My kitchen was a mess, parsley was everywhere...
Verdict: Not my finest moment. But there were learnings for which I was grateful. Like don't attempt anything more complex than boiling water when you've had less than 6 hours of sleep per night all week.
TGIF.
See Monday's entry for the updated list of food being used up from my fridge.
EDtF, Day 3.
I am tired.
Wednesdays are late nights for me, as I usually do not get home until 9:00. To be perfectly honest, tonight I was craving something simple, filling and comforting.
In keeping with the spirit of EDtF, I had all the ingredients on hand and it is a recipe I’ve wanted to share since I stumbled upon it.
The referenced article lives here, and I found it via the wonderful Tea, of Tea and Cookies.
This recipe is fast becoming my go-to comfort food, a wholesome heals-all-wounds dish, an umami festival in my mouth. I would feed this to someone experiencing loss as easily as I would someone bouncing off the rooftops with joy.
Thanks to this recipe, I discovered two ingredients that are now staples of mine: red quinoa and ponzu.
Nikki’s reaction to the ponzu pretty well sums it up:
“Ponzu? What’s that?”
[tips the bottle onto a finger and tastes a bit]
Her eyes light up. “Oooohmmm. Yum!”
(I was, in fact, able to find Eden Foods Ponzu. Rock on, Greenlife.)
Oh yes. It is THAT good.
Milder/less salty but more astringent than soy sauce, it has a citrusy overtone from the orange and yuzu.
Be forewarned: for a condiment it is kind of expensive.
A 6.75 ounce bottle was $6.59.
I need to look into what other foods I can sprinkle this magic concoction on.
Red Quinoa with Nori and Avocado
Ingredients
½ cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed (I LOVE the red variety)
one sheet nori, cut into small strips (I wave mine briefly over my gas burner to toast it)
1 avocado (halved, sliced and sprinkled with lemon and salt)
Ponzu sauce to taste (around 2 T, but you may desire less)
1 tsp. sesame oil (or less – I use a toasted sesame oil that’s pretty concentrated)
Sriracha to taste (bring on the heat!)
Directions
Cook the quinoa in 1 cup water (2:1 ratio if you use more than ½ cup quinoa)
Put the nori strips in the bottom of a deep bowl and pour the cooked quinoa on top.
Add ponzu, sesame oil and sriracha and stir well to combine the sauces and nori with the quinoa.
Top with avocado and sprinkle a bit more ponzu on top of the avocado for good measure.
Verdict: Seriously, you will love this.
See Monday's entry for the updated list of food being used up from my fridge.
EDtF, Day 2.
After the ease of Monday evening, I was lulled into a false sense of complacency.
Recently gifted with two 1 ½ pound parcels of freshly butchered deer meat (this is
I have ideas! I will triumph! Venison Chili for dinner!
And then I got home at 7:30 and realized I failed to defrost the meat.
Kidney beans, check.
Tomatoes, check.
Onions, double check (sweet onion AND leftover red onion from the lox adventure).
Meat…crap.
In an ideal world, you defrost meat for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator. Never on a counter at room temperature. I closed my eyes and tried to remember mom’s advice on defrosting meat when you:
a) don’t have any time and
b) don’t own a microwave.
Coming up short on ideas, I plunged the frozen block of meat into a bowl of warm water, praying for a reprieve from bacteria. Just this once, God. As visions of horrific food poisoning danced in my head, I dug out my cast iron Lodge 5 quart pot and started sautéing the onions in a bit of olive oil.
Check the meat, still frozen.
Oh, ew. The water is now red.
I drain off the water and plop the block o’ frozen deer parts in the Lodge along with the onions.
And start to scrape the meat off into the pot as it browns.
Please don’t try this at home.
Remove the meat and onions to a plate lined with paper towels and drain off the excess fat. Add meat back to the pot, along with some minced garlic and a Chili seasoning blend made just for me by someone who understands spice balance far better than I do. Two cans of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce and a can of kidney beans. Stir and cover.
Verdict: Easy enough, but I've got to start remembering to defrost meat. The pork for Thursday is still in the freezer. Sigh.
As I've been thinking through the rest of the week, I've realized some things about my eating/cooking/preparing habits. Since I cook for one, occasionally two people, I rarely put together a full meal (salad, main course, vegetable side, dessert), preferring to make a single dish and let it speak for itself. I'm pretty firm on always including vegetables and using minimal meat. Hmm. To be revisited.
I don't always make such simple meals, but that seems to be the trend this week. Just you wait 'til I throw together my favorite late-spring meal: Poached Halibut with Saffron Mashed Potatoes and a Beet-Arugula salad. (Thank you, Emeril Lagasse.)
See Monday's entry for the updated list of food being used up from my fridge.
Note: To those of you reading in an RSS feed, please bear with me as I straighten out this font situation. I am well aware that it displays somewhat funkily. I'm a novice!
EDtF, Day 1.
There was a plan. And I executed it to the letter.
Which is kind of boring.
I had this vision of peeking inside the fridge, finding forlorn vegetables and abandoned meat just begging to be paired together. Instead, I had the makings of a perfect and easy meal at my disposal. Perhaps it was too early in the week.
I tore open my freezer with a flourish, grabbing the half-consumed bags of frozen vegetables that were getting used, tonight (damnit). I got out the tofu, brown rice, a big pot and my largest skillet. Ponzu, tamari, mirin…oh, and rice vinegar.
Nikki arrived (bottle of wine in hand – bonus!), and we set to work.
While assembling ingredients for the stir fry, I tried to take some time to reflect on why this food had been left to sit for so long. Everything I was using tonight (except the tofu) had spent at least 6 months, even up to a year in my fridge or freezer. I felt somewhat guilty, remembering the nights when I exclaimed, “I have nothing to eat!” before taking off for the grocery store, the perfect meal in mind. In large part, this habit is why I decided to take on the challenge. I need to change my ways.
First order of business: sampling the Fat Tire of much repute that has been hyped to astronomical levels as it is finally, FINALLY available in
And...well?
Is that it? Light, hint of fruit, smooth. Nothing remarkable.
Dare I say it? It was blah, even neutral. Well above your PBR and Yuengling, but…
Sorry folks, I won’t be a Fat Tire convert any time soon. Gimme a Pisgah Pale Ale any day.
Updated to add: Looks like this guy over at Creative Loafing agrees with me. Ha!
Impromptu beer tasting over. Back to the food. Open the wine, a full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon from... Australia? Huh.
Yes, I am fully aware it was a Monday.
Quite unceremoniously, I dumped the hodge podge of frozen vegetables into a colander and gave them a quick rinse and inspect. No freezer burn. The edamame, however, was a lost cause. A sacrifice to the gods. Sad.
I drained, pressed and dry-fried the tofu (my tofu preparation of choice, thanks to the magnificent Melissa Ray Davis) and mixed up the marinade. Little of this, little of that. Taste. Blech. Add some ginger and rice vinegar. Mmm, getting closer. Whisk in a clove of pressed garlic. Perfect. Toss in the tofu and let it marinate for all of…5 minutes.
What? We were hungry! Despite the fool-proof rice method, the brown rice still took forever to cook. And it was already after
Heated up the skillet and added a little ginger oil and some of the marinade. Tossed the veggies in the sizzling skillet and let them cook for a few minutes. Added the tofu and sautéed a few minutes more.
Ta-da!
Verdict: A success, if a simple one. The rest of the week will not be this easy.
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