Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Darwin Bistro has Closed
posted by snekse

As of Sunday night, Darwin Bistro has closed for business! The details are vague at the moment, but I assure you I'll post more information here as I get it. Hopefully Paul will stay in Omaha so we can continue to enjoy his food.

Labels: CLOSINGS, NEWS, RESTAURANTS

Monday, October 15, 2007

REVIEW: The Gourmet Next Door
posted by snekse

This past weekend I happened to catch the premiere episode of The Gourmet Next Door, hosted by Amy Finley: the winner of The Next Food Network Star ~ Season 3.

I have to say, I was kind of impressed. Or at least happy that it wasn't a complete disappointment. So here are some of my random thoughts about her first episode, entitled "Nod to the Bistro".

Over all I liked the content. I liked the style of food that was prepared and the way it was presented. I was also pleased that they didn't shy away from recipes, techniques or terms that might "scare away" the their Sandra Ray demographic. Personally I don't think they give their audience enough credit. That's not to say Finley's bistro menu was all that scary. The only thing I was really surprised to see was the fact that she made a pâte à choux.

I also appreciated that the show was done mostly in real-time with very little "TV magic". She prepped and cooked almost the entire menu on-air and only used pre-made ingredients when it made sense -- though she could have easily melted some chocolate for her dessert instead of using a jar of chocolate sauce.

For the most part Finley was very comfortable on camera. I think the rehashing of some phrases, like mentioning her husbands birthday like 3 time in 5 minutes, was simply nerves and will get better with experience. I was a bit surprised when the first words out of her mouth were "When I lived in France", considering she was criticized by producers during The Next Food Network Star competition for constantly referring to her time in France and possibly sounding condescending when doing so. I didn't watch the competition enough to comment on that, but I still found it interesting that was how she chose to start off her new show.

Another bit of interesting reading was this little tidbit from an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune and her MySpace page.

"She hadn't seen a reality show before her Food Network experience because she doesn't own a television."

"We download programs off my mother's cable onto our computer using a SlingBox"

Tags || THE GOURMET NEXT DOOR | FOOD TV | FOOD NETWORK | AMY FINLEY | THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR | TELEVISION | more... |

Labels: REVIEW, TELEVISION

Friday, October 12, 2007

PRODUCT REVIEW: Mozy - Online Backup
posted by snekse

Occasionally I will write about technical subjects here on GFC, because, well - I'm a geek.

Something that caught my eye last week was the acquisition of Berkeley Data Systems by EMC Corp. For those of you not familiar with the names, Berkeley Data Systems is a small start-up company with a product called Mozy. Mozy is a backup utility that allows you to systematically and securely store up to 2 GB of data online for free, or if you have more data, you can get unlimited storage for $4.95/month. EMC Corp is one of the world's largest enterprise data storage providers. So why is this important? Well, it does lend some credibility to what BDS is doing, but more importantly, BDS now has some money behind it. That should translate into improvements in the product and possibly larger storage limits for both their free and paid accounts.

Do yourself a favor - find the folder where you save all of your digital photos, right-click on it and select "Properties". How large that folder? How many files are in there? Now do the same to the folders where you keep your music, home movies, tax documents, and any other important files. Then ask yourself:

"When was the last time I backed-up this information"?
"Is the backup stored at an off-site location in case my house burns down"?
"Will I be able to handle the ulcer I get if my hard drive crashed in the next 10 minutes"?

It may seem a little extreme, but being paranoid is a good thing when dealing with technology that holds so much valuable information that really is priceless. This is why photo albums are one of the first things people search for when rummaging through a demolished house after a natural disaster. And now in our digital age, most of those memories are stored on that 3.5" hard drive that's not meant to last for more than 3 to 5 years.

For myself, I have 2 levels of protection. I have all of my important files on a RAID system to protect me from a hard drive crash and I also use Mozy in case something happens to my house or my RAID fails. This gives me peace of mind that if something were to happen, I could recover my 10,000+ photos and other important documents I have on my machine.

Since a RAID system is impractical for most people, Mozy is the perfect solution. It's a small application that runs in the background, so you don't even notice it. At a regularly scheduled interval it will send your important files over a secure connection to be stored encrypted on redundant storage systems. If your hard drive crashes, or even if you just accidentally delete a file, you can easily restore the file and be on your way. What's really cool is that it allows you to create rules and filters so it ensures you only backup the data you really care about - especially nice when you use their free 2 GB account and need to use your space wisely.

So this is just a friendly reminder - backing up your data is extremely important. Regardless of if you use external hard drives, DVDs, Mozy or one of the other online solutions, just make sure you do it, Mozy just happens to be the best solution I've found so far.

If you want to give Mozy a try, just click on the button below. Remember, it's free, so you really don't have much to lose other than some time. Also, if you do decide you need a paid account, ~~they are offering a 5% discount on all annual and biannual signups for the month of October. Just enter "OCTOBER" into the "Promotional Code" box on the signup page.~~

***UPDATE***
New Mozy Promo Discount Coupon Codes
FEBRUARY- 10% off a MozyHome Unlimited 1-year Signup
FEBRUARY2 - 10% off a MozyHome Unlimited 2-year Signup

Tags || MOZY | BACKUP | UTILITY | STORAGE | TECHNOLOGY | GFC |

Labels: PRODUCT REVIEW, TECHNOLOGY

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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

RECIPE: Ultimate Mac-n-Cheese
posted by snekse

Recently Paul Urban and the rest of his crew at Darwin Bistro won the Ultimate Mac & Cheese Challenge at the Comfort Food Classic. Paul was nice enough to share his winning recipe with me and has also agreed to let me share it with our readers.

INGREDIENTS:
8 oz. cooked pasta (shells)
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup Bechamel (see below)
1/4 cup Havarti cheese - grated
1/4 cup white cheddar - grated
5 ea. p&d shrimp (16/20 count)
1/2 oz. langostino meat
2 teaspoons truffle oil (preferably white)
1/5 cup chopped mushrooms
1 oz. caramelized onions
2 tsp. chopped garlic
2 tsp. chopped shallot
1 oz. white wine
1 crab claw for garnish
shaved Grana Padano for garnish
1 green onion sliced razor thin and shocked for garnish
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp. canola or blended oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

* get a large saute pan hot with blended oil in it, medium heat. add the garlic and shallot and saute until lightly browned, then add the onion and mushroom.
* saute vegetables until 90% cooked, about 2 minutes and deglaze with white wine.
* return the pan to the heat and reduce the wine - 2 minutes. Add your bechamel and cream. Allow the bechamel and cream at least 2 minutes to combine and slightly thicken.
* add your shrimp and langostino meat to the Bechamel, continue to simmer 2 minutes.
* add both Havarti and white cheddar to the pan and toss to combine and melt
* add the noodles, truffle oil and s&p, toss to combine.
* taste and adjust seasoning

** to plate - pour the pasta into a bowl. stab the meat end of the claw into the pasta and garnish with grana and prepared green onions.

For the Béchamel Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk (1%)
1 oz. butter
1 oz. flour
1 tsp. of each of the following:
chopped garlic
chopped shallot
fresh thyme
fresh rosemary
1 oz. white wine
1 tsp. olive or canola oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

*in a small pan, melt the butter and add the flour. whisk to combine until a pale yellow consistency forms. Set this pan aside.
*in a sauce pot, sautee all remaining dry ingredients in oil over medium heat
*when fragrant - about 2 minutes, deglaze with white wine
*after wine has reduced, add cream and milk and bring just to a simmer
*simmer for approximately 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
*vigorously whisk in roux and simmer an additional 5 minutes until thickened
*pass bechamel through a fine mesh strainer while still hot

yield: 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup

Thanks to Paul for sharing this recipe. If you make it, share your pictures with us and we'll post them here.

Tags || RECIPE | MAC-N-CHEESE | DARWIN BISTRO | PAUL URBAN | COMFORT FOOD | CONTEST | more... |

Labels: COMPETITION, CONTEST, RECIPES

Monday, October 08, 2007

NOTW: Monday, October 8th 2007
posted by snekse

News of the Week Month: Monday, October 8th 2007

Kids are a lot of work. Our new addition combined with my normally hectic fall schedule has wreaked havoc on my posting frequency here. I wish I could say that was going to be changing soon, but at the moment, I'm not seeing it. While I'm trying to get back to a normal posting schedule, get your food blog fix at Omaha Food Critic

The first item is the most important because it's time sensitive. Tuesday, October 9th is the 5th annual Omaha Dine Out Against Hunger. Of course you already knew that because you've been keeping an eye on the Omaha Food Events Calendar. On this day, each of these restaurants has pledged to donate 10% of the day's proceeds to The Omaha Food Bank. So if you were already planning on eating out this week, try to do it tomorrow. Of course if you'd rather just donate to the Omaha Food bank, you can do that too. Please pass this information on.

In television news, my prognostication abilities correctly singled out Hung as the winner of Top Chef: Season 3 - Miami. Keep an eye out for my season 4 predictions.

Until next season, we have The Next Iron Chef to keep us amused. ***SPOILER WARNING*** Caesars Palace agreed with me that Traci Des Jardins should be the favorite to win, however, that will not be the case since she was eliminated last night. Now I think John Besh is the man to beat. I'm extremely disappointed that they chose a single elimination format for this show. I would have actually have liked to see all contestants stay on board until the end and pick the winner from the entire group.

Getting cut from The Next Iron Chef has got to look minor in comparison to the news Grant Achatz got recently. The chef of Alinea in Chicago, released this statement through his publicist:

"I wanted to personally report that I have been very recently diagnosed with an advanced stage of squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth. I have consulted several prominent physicians and will likely begin aggressive treatment within the next few weeks. I remain, and will remain, actively and optimistically engaged in operations at Alinea to the largest extent possible. Alinea will continue to perform at the level people have come to expect from us — I insist on that. I have received amazing support from friends, family, and everyone who has thus far been told of the disease, and I look forward to a full, cancer-free, recovery."

We wish him all the best.

Another Chicago chef was recently featured in the Chicago Sun Times. A short, but very interesting read about the opening of Charlie Trotter's, which was 20 years ago this fall. One of the cooler aspects of his past 20 years has been the spawning of great chefs around the world. Check out Charlie trotter's family tree.

This past weekend was his celebration gala that included a real who's who of chefs that took over Chicago. The guest list included chefs Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal, Ferran Adria, Daniel Boulud, Wylie Dufresne, Tetsuya Wakuda, and Pierre Herme, along with sommelier Larry Stone and food scientist Harold McGee. And that's just the out-of-towners list! Together they raise over $250,000 for Trotter's culinary education foundation. Check out photos of the event.

Want a glimpse into the future of eating? Maybe try that new vegetarian fast-food at Zen Burger? Or find recipes by the moods and the emotions they invoke. Want some pensive deviled eggs? How about irate gazpacho?

Want a glimpse of the past? This man from Baltimore reportedly invented Tiramisu. Of course you can just jump to what you're really after - the original Tiramisu recipe.

And something I never thought I'd see, the Green Diamond in St. James, NE was featured in the Omaha World-Herald, complete with audio. I spent many of summers buying soda and candy from this place while watching games being played at the ball diamond across the street. The diamond is gone now, as is most of the town. Still nice to see a story about a rural town.

Something I'm really excited about is the fact that Sage Bistro is now open for the semester. In addition, they will be offering Sunday brunch with Prime Rib on October 28th. Oh, and it's only $12!

I'm glad to see the culinary department has been doing really well and has been getting a ton of good press lately, including landing the cover of the Omaha CityWeekly's Fall 2007 Dining & Entertainment guide.

Darwin Bistro won the Ultimate Mac-n-Cheese challenge at the Comfort Food Classic - and we have the winning recipe! Check ~~back tomorrow for~~ the dish on the dish.

Also over this past weekend, Jerry Buma won the World's Championship Chili Cookoff hosted here in Omaha.

In addition to the Foodies of Omaha, a new dining club has started recently. It was started by the same people who run Omaha Originals; hopefully it's not just an excuse or vehicle to sell more of their discount books, but only time will tell. If anyone has been to one of their gatherings, please leave your thoughts and impressions of your dinner in our comments section below.