Tasting the World in Central Kentucky

Ouita Michel's Holly Hill Inn in Midway, KY

As much as I admire traditional Southern cooking when I travel through Kentucky, I get a big kick when talented chefs put great local ingredients to use in dishes inspired by cuisines well outside their geographic stereotype. Labor Day weekend gave me a chance to sample some fabulous dishes that did just that.

The inspiration for this trip came when I learned chef Jeremy Ashby was doing a Latin Pig Roast last Friday night at his Lexington restaurant Azur Restaurant and Patio in collaboration with chef Miguel Rivas, who hails from the Dominican Republic. I always love a pig roast, and the array of Latin American dishes on the menu for this 5th annual Azur Labor Day fest sounded too good to pass up. I've had a great time at other special-occasion dinners at Azur, including this one the night before last Thanksgiving. The Labor Day weekend bash is the only time all year Azur does a buffet, and the crazy huge assortment of dishes available at an all-you-can-eat $35 was a spectacular way to start my holiday weekend. Here's a taste.

Papas rellenas filled with picadillo and topped with a sauce 
I wanted to slather onto almost everything else

Ceviche mixto with shrimp, calamari, mussels, and crab, 

plus enormous grilled shrimp with tomatoes, serranos, and cilantro 

Ensalada de maiz, an heirloom tomato and street corn salad that showcased 

some of the best corn and 'maters I've had all season

Fried sweet plaintains and 
Chicken braised in a soulful red mole that was one of my favorite dishes

There was also a watermelon and tropical fruit salad with queso fresco, an empanada with local sweet corn butter, and the star of the show: Roast suckling pig (and cracklin's!) with mojo, rice, and black beans. And probably several other dishes I've somehow forgotten. I had to set a spell before tackling dessert.

Tres Leches cake with pineapple-kiwi salsa, and

Butterscotch banana rum pudding with dulce de leche

My previous visits to the restaurant were last winter, and it was great to finally see the Azur patio in action (there are actually two patios – one covered, one uncovered). This dinner was sold out, and everyone was clearly having a great time. When the buffet line finally slowed, I had a chance to chat with chef Jeremy Ashby, and he was kind enough to introduce me to Brigitte Nguyen, a lovely transplanted Lexingtonian who has a show on the Cooking Channel called "From the Kitchens of . . ." Brigitte also hosts "The Kentucky Proud Kitchen," aired on various FOX channels in Kentucky. She is a spokesperson for Kentucky Proud and will be introducing headliner Tyler Florence at this year's Incredible Food Show in Lexington Oct. 27. We have so much talent here in the middle of the country! Here's lil ole me with Jeremy and Brigitte.

I was incredibly impressed by last year's Incredible Food Show, a less-than-2-hour trip from Greater Cincinnati, at a mere $15 for general admission. It was a day filled with more demos than I could attend, plus samples from – and the opportunity to meet – more than 100 KY Proud food vendors. (I was so inspired I wrote about the Incredible Food Show here, here, here, and here.) IFS led me to get to know more local/regional farmers, chefs, and food bloggers, and I strongly encourage you to put the Incredible Food Show on your calendar, along with a couple more great food events I wish I could attend. Jeremy Ashby will be one of the chefs cooking for a James Beard Foundation Celebrity Chef dinner at Cane Ridge Cattle Company September 15 in Paris, KY. The dinner will feature Kentucky-raised Wagyu beef from Cane Ridge! Jeremy is also teaming up with Critchfield Meats for a cooking class dinner September 18 at Azur.

While I was in the area last weekend, I also took advantage of the opportunity to taste the food of one of Kentucky's most celebrated chefs, Ouita Michel. When I saw that Holly Hill Inn – the fine-dining restaurant Ouita and her husband Chris operate in Midway, Kentucky (less than half an hour northwest of Lexington) – was doing a Mediterranean Holiday menu, I looked no further for Saturday dinner plans. It's the charming spot pictured at the top of this post, and although the evening's offerings drew inspiration from a variety of cuisines around the Mediterranean Sea, the service could not have been more rooted in genuinely warm and gracious Southern hospitality. And the local ingredients were the proud stars of every plate!

Amuse-bouche: Tomato and eggplant jam on crostino

Bacalao croquettes: Salt-cod and potato fritters 

served with a piquant salsa rosa (Spanish "pink sauce") and local microgreens. 

Sheltowee chanterelles,Happy Jack sweet corn, and sage leaf on croustades with Boursin cheese. 

The sherried cream sauce sang "Spain" to me, and was one of my favorite dishes of the night.

Salad Majorca: Heirloom tomatoes, olives, finely diced cucumbers,
and Good Shepherd cheese with balsamic, olive oil, lemon, and basil. 

There are few things better than a "real" summer tomato. 
These, with their accompaniments, were magnificent.

Lyons Farm strip steak topped with garlic-herb sauce and 

served with green beans, Happy Jack potatoes, and a Salsa Verde 

of garlic, tomato, olives, and saffron that was one of the highlights of the evening.

Dessert: Fresh figs, dried apricot, pears poached in red wine, and a chocolate truffle. 

Simple and delicious.

Holly Hill's menu is limited and ever-changing, so see what's on offer if you're planning a visit. The evening I was there, I had four courses and complimentary amuse for $40 and opted to add the bacalao fritters (I'd once tried my hand at them and couldn't resist the opportunity to taste them again, especially from a CIA-trained chef). Holly Hill also offers wine flights specifically selected to pair with the menu. The two-glass flight I chose was $15.

Holly Hill is just one of Ouita Michel's restaurants. The word "empire" doesn't seem right to describe what all she does in a fiercely local way. So I'm gonna call Holly Hill Inn the white-tablecloth apex of a pyramid that includes Windy Corner Market on the northeastern outskirts of Lexington, Wallace Station Deli and Bakery in Versailles, and the newly opened Midway School Bakery – because, yes, it's located in an former public school. Ouita is also Chef-in-residence for Woodford Reserve Distillery just outside Versailles, a stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail with a lot of enticing events. If you're not familiar with the area, your map or GPS will show you how tightly clustered and near Lexington they are.

Sunday morning before heading home I stopped by Wallace Station, distinctly more homespun than Holly Hill.

Here are just a few of the items in the Wallace Station pastry case. If they don't have you at "sorghum cookies," they also have "corn cookies," made with Weisenberger cornmeal and lots of butter.

Still full from my previous nights' dinners, I bypassed the opportunity to try these sweets (and am still kicking myself for leaving that opportunity on the table). But I did let Ouita Michel's team take me to New Orleans with this Sardou Panini, a breakfast-sandwichy version of Eggs Sardou, a NOLA classic with spinach, artichoke hearts, and hollandaise.

Country ham is available in various preparations at Wallace Station too. If you're searching for more of Ouita Michel's New Orleans-inspired dishes, Windy Corner Market serves up fully dressed Po-boys that go beyond traditional oyster, shrimp, catfish, and crawfish to include house-smoked roast beef, pulled pork, and tofu.

Although it wasn't originally on my itinerary, I decided to make one more stop on my way home when I read Napoleon Grocery + Deli's Sunday Supper Special: Boeuf Bourguignon over egg noodles with green beans and French bread. Operated by Tricia Houston, the Napoleon Deli is a hidden gem of a place located between the first and second exits off I-71 just after it splits from I-75 south of Cincinnati toward Louisville.

It's located closer to Northern than Central Kentucky, but anytime I'm traveling on I-71 between Cincinnati and Louisville, I try to make a point of stopping there. When I plugged this unplanned stop into my phone's GPS as I left the Midway/Versailles area, I was delighted to discover that instead of back-tracking to I-75, I could take a straight shot north through Frankfort, with far less traffic and gorgeous scenery.

This Julia-Child dish is higher-end than the fare normally served up at the only store and restaurant in the tiny burg of Napoleon, KY. But you can always count on delicious local food at ridiculously cheap prices. This enormous helping of Boeuf Bourguignon with accompaniments was $7!

Just up the road Tricia Houston is the self-proclaimed "feed delivery gal, dirt pusher, stall mucker and animal whisperer" at Napoleon Ridge Farm + Nature Center. But don't let that fool you. Before moving to Kentucky, she operated her own catering business in Vermont and worked as personal chef to the likes of writer John Irving. You can find produce, meats, and value-added products from her at Covington Farmers Market. She also operates a CSA and supplies to restaurants that include Local 127, The Palace, and Bouquet. This lady also makes a mean apple tart. If you stop at the Nap Ridge Deli, be sure to sample the fabulous baked goods Tricia and her crew whip up.

Culinary tourism is becoming a "thing" here in the middle of the country. Bleu Plate Tours in Lexington, KY and Columbus Food Adventures in Columbus,OH offer some great pre-packaged food tours. If you're coming to my city, check out the Taste the World Tour at Findlay Market, or check off a few of the 100 items on the Findlay Market "Bucket List."

Or just do a little research, follow some local bloggers and facebook pages in areas you're contemplating traveling to, and invent your own custom culinary adventure like I did last weekend. We've got world-class dishes and spectacular locally and sustainably grown food all over this region. Meeting the people who make it possible is another great way to get to know an area when you're traveling. Stay tuned for another installment from my Labor Day weekend trip, because I checked out some wonderful markets too.

My Current Situation: Blogiversary

My clever sister came up with some great personalized Christmas gifts this year, all of which she tagged to the theme “your current situation.” You can see mine above – a 3-d version of my blog logo!

For my dad, who has been having issues with his eyesight (we're hopeful it will be improving soon): large print playing cards, a giant die (singular dice), and more. (Dad also got a kick out of the blog book I dedicated to him based on my trip to South Dakota.)

For my mom, who has been driving Dad where he needs to go, a fun turn-about: My sister hired a stretch limo to chauffeur Mom (and the rest of us) around her town to view the Christmas lights!

Today marks the start of Year #3 at Eggplant To Go, and I’m looking forward to where this blogging journey leads me next. I couldn’t have predicted the surprises, delights (and occasional scoops) the last year has brought my way.

Thanks to Chef Todd Kelly at Orchids in Cincinnati and Chef Jeremy Ashby of Azur in Lexington, I’ve had two of the most spectacular meals of my life. I got all kinds of inspiration from the Kentucky Proud Incredible Food Show in Lexington, a front-row seat to watch the filming of Man v. Food at Tom + Chee, an invite to the press party for Chef Kelly’s new cookbook, and an insider’s view of the Cincinnati Magazine “Best of the City” party, thanks to two of my favorite Cincy food truck friends, Toya and Randy from a Streetcart Named Desire aka New Orleans to Go. Even got a hug and a thanks from my favorite fishmonger on New Years Eve day.

It’s funny how what goes around comes around. 2011 was a year in which I made strides in overcoming my shy, homebody ways and learned a lot about how rewarding it can be to reach out. One turning point came in August when I screwed up my nerve and asked local Top Chef: Just Desserts contestant, Orchids pastry chef Megan Ketover, if I might be able to speak to her on behalf of AllTopChef (where I’m a member of the blogging team). In addition to being a remarkable talent, Megan was so welcoming and gracious that the experience inspired me to screw up my nerve again and invite local food bloggers Stephie from Small Girl Adventures (who is launching her own business) and Jen from Our Good Food Life to join me for dinners during Restaurant Week, and Jeff from A Dork and His Pork for a Slow Food Cincinnati meet-up, where I met a bunch of other lovely people passionate about local food. At the press event for the release of Todd Kelly’s cookbook, I finally got to meet in person the uber-talented Courtney of Epiventures (who is also Chef Kelly’s co-author) and a number of other local food bloggers, reporters, and personalities as well. I was in food blogger hog heaven thanks to the company, as well as the opportunity taste more of Chef Kelly's amazing dishes.

As much inspiration as I draw from all the fine food folks I’ve been lucky to meet in person this year, I’m also full of gratitude to my homies – the bloggers of all ilks, from all parts, who have become dear friends even though I haven’t met them in person – who care, and comment, and lift my spirits. One never knows quite how karma weaves its way through our lives. But I can’t help but believe the chances of Scout returning home after his 2½ week kitty walkabout were only improved by your prayers and good wishes. And I’m certain that if he hadn’t come back, you would have been there for me too.

With the full force of your inspiration and friendships filling my sails, I already have a lot to look forward to, including a return visit to Lexington for Azur’s “Naked Dinner” Jan. 26; a local Cincy blogging conference in connection with the Winter Beer Fest on my February birthday; the weekend after my birthday in Lousisville to see Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert – and eat at Edward Lee’s 610 Magnolia!; and a late March visit to Nashville, where my niece is competing in Show Choir Nationals (think “Glee” in real life). Let me know if you have any suggestions on where to eat in Nashville.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to be an enthusiastic cheerleader for the Culinary Smackdown (do you have your recipes ready for Battle Tofu?), and I’m looking forward to bringing you more blog-worthy posts from my own kitchen. Because inspiration is a terrible thing to waste, and it's always fun to keep exploring!

xoxo, eggy

Dinner and Demos at Lexington’s Azur Restaurant and Patio

My holiday gift to myself Thanksgiving weekend was a Wednesday night trip to Lexington, where I attended the first Chef Series Cooking Class at Azur Restaurant and Bar, and what a treat it was!

Lexington is a city I’ve passed countless times traveling between Cincinnati and Knoxville without having a clue what is going on there culinarily or otherwise. Fortunately, that is changing. When I went to the Kentucky Proud Incredible Food Show there in October, I ate at a couple of area restaurants, sampled the wares of some local food purveyors, and was especially intrigued by one demo at the food show, by Azur Chef Jeremy Ashby. I knew right away I wanted to taste his food, and an excellent opportunity presented itself when I read on Azur’s facebook page that he would be doing a cooking class and five-course tasting menu rolled into one for $60.

Among the things at the Incredible Food Show that impressed me about this Kentucky native (he attended Johnson + Wales in Charleston, SC, after UK and worked with Norman Van Aken in Miami prior to returning to the Bluegrass State) are Chef Ashby’s commitment to high-quality, often (although not exclusively) locally sourced ingredients and his inventive preparations. He also has a casual demeanor about him and wants his food to be accessible and fun, which I sensed at the Food Show and saw even more in evidence that Wednesday night. Many long-time friends of the restaurant were in attendance for this inaugural cooking class. But the chef and his staff made me feel welcome and comfortable as a newcomer too. So comfortable, in fact, that – with no disrespect, Chef – I’m going to refer to you as Jeremy in the rest of this post :)

Before the evening’s proceedings got underway, I asked Jeremy if he’d be cool with me taking pictures, explaining up front that I’m a food blogger. He assured me I was welcome to, and even brought some of his demo plates to my table so I could photograph them.

I’m always fascinated to hear how chefs come up with their dishes. Once hooked up to his mike, Jeremy said he would talk a little about plating and mentioned that he tends to write menus as a series of ingredients. The first course: “octopus, shrimp and ahi tuna with Stuarto’s cilantro and roasted onion olive oil, honey ginger balsamic vinegar, baby beets, sweet corn ice cream and chile verde infused sea salt.” That may sound like a lot of ingredients for a salad course, but the clean, well-balanced flavors had me at first bite.

You can see the demo plate at the top of this post, on a slab of Himalayan sea salt. Here’s my diner's plate.

A thin raw slice of bright red ahi tuna forms the base of each plate. The white curvilinear pieces are octopus cooked in court bouillon (which Jeremy said is good for 2-3 uses). The tail-on shrimp were cooked in the same court bouillon, then halved lengthwise. Late-season baby candy-striped beets, sitting upright, were cooked sous-vide. The salad was dressed with a carefully selected, and light, combination of infused olive oils, vinegars, and salts from local Lexington Stuarto’s Olive Oil Company (owner Stuart Utgaard and his products would be featured later in the evening as well). And for temperature and texture contrast, the yellow bit in the middle is sweet corn ice cream, not only whimsical but utterly delicious!

Jeremy had promised a meal that would not resemble Thanksgiving, although he was definitely playing with fall flavors. For his second course, he took inspiration not only from autumn but also from a dish that once failed spectacularly on Top Chef, Butterscotch Scallops.* The menu described Jeremy’s version as “wild mushroom and scallop wellington, fuji apple, butterscotch, rosemary smoke, country ham.”

Demo-ing the dish before us, Jeremy seasoned a day-boat scallop with Stuarto’s Spanish smoked rosemary salt and seared it over high heat. Then he pan-roasted an oyster mushroom whole, which he chopped into duxelles and placed in the bottom of a puff pastry pouch and topped with the scallop to create the Wellington, which would be baked in the oven.

Next Jeremy caramelized the fuji apples with some country ham (from much-lauded Benton’s in Tennessee). For the “butterscotch” (which is just butter and brown sugar, he reminded), he added some butter to the pan drippings (which froths when added to oil and helps deglaze the savory browned ham bits), a smidge of brown sugar, and a touch of chicken stock to create a light apple pan sauce that reminded me more of the woods than of dessert.

To bring full circle the autumn inspiration and the smoked rosemary salt he seasoned the scallop with, each plate featured a quickly torched sprig of fresh rosemary. Not to worry – the mini fires extinguished themselves almost immediately. But they gave off into the room just enough smoky rosemary aroma to add another fun, and complementary, element to experiencing the savory flavors in this dish.

For the third course, Jeremy went old school with pasta carbonara, a dish he introduced as so often being made badly in restaurants that he wanted us to taste an authentic version. I’m not sure I’ve ever had it at a restaurant, although this “bacon and eggs with pasta and pepper” dish is one I’ve made many times at home, doing what I thought was a reasonable job of following Marcella Hazan’s recipe. I now know better.

The demo for this course spotlighted another of Jeremy’s local culinary friends, Lesme of Lexington Pasta Company, who made fresh tagliatelle. This two-year-old company supplies restaurants throughout Kentucky and has a retail spot that offers pasta-making classes where one can also sample wine and local cheeses.

Interspersed with Lesme’s demo, Jeremy rendered some guanciale (a bacon of sorts made from pig’s cheek, which he said is even more savory than pork belly) and added some razor-thin slices of garlic. The fresh pasta tossed with the pork, garlic, a bit of eggs, and some parmesan produced a dish that was one of the most eye-opening of the evening. As delicious as the guanciale was, the star by far was the fresh tagliatelle. Tasting it was a lightbulb moment when I felt like I finally “got” why people make a fuss about fresh pasta. A trip to Italy may not be in my near future, but a pasta-making class at Lexington Pasta Co. definitely is on my list for a future field trip to the Bluegrass State.

As if this dish wasn’t magnificent enough in its own right, if we chose, we could add a bit of truffle salt to cap off the dish. Stuart of Stuarto’s came around to each table with a sample, and how could I resist? The truffle taste sent the dish over the top, although there was already enough salt in this particular dish that the truffle salt made it almost too salty even for my palate. (Note to self: use these delicious salts sparingly.) Before I left that evening, I bought one of the infused olive oils Stuart brought with him, and after tasting Stuarto's espresso-infused balsamic and salt, which Jeremy was kind enough to share samples of with me (I used them in my Thanksgiving dinner here), I definitely want to check out the Stuarto’s shop in person.

Next up: Course 4, “horseradish crusted beef short rib, lemongrass braised endive, celery root, house-made ricotta, and pea shoots.”

Jeremy is a proponent of cooking sous-vide, and my takeaway from the evening is that he uses it because he genuinely likes the results achieved by this technique rather for any kind of novelty factor. (If you’re not familiar with the term, sous-vide – literally, “under vacuum” – means ingredients are sealed in a plastic bag and cooked at a constant low and well-controlled temperature in a water bath, usually in an immersion circulator, although Jeremy pointed out one could use a readily available and fairly inexpensive food-saver vacuum-bag sealer, a pot of water, and a thermometer to achieve the same results.)

An advantage of cooking vegetables like the baby candy-striped beets prepared sous-vide for the first course, he said, is that the vacuum seals in the vegetable’s innate flavors, as opposed to boiling, where flavor and nutrients dissipate in the water. (I’m still not sure the taste is superior to the flavor concentration you can get by roasting vegetables . . . but then sous-vide may work better for cooking veggies whole as he did with the beets, rather than sliced as I usually do when roasting. And it wouldn’t set off the smoke alarms in my house.)

For this course, Jeremy prepared the short ribs sous-vide, emphasizing that it allows even edge-to-edge cooking and that the fat in the short ribs would be evenly distributed in the meat as a result. Although I enjoyed the dish as a whole, maybe I’m just accustomed to a little more fatty gusto when I indulge in short ribs. My note-taking kind of fell off in the midst of the fun and as I was into my fourth taste of the accompanying wine pairings ($35 for 5 pours – all excellent and well matched to the evening’s dishes), but I think the endive (it looks kind of like a tongue in my photo of the demo plate below) was prepared sous-vide as well. Although the bitter taste of fresh endive definitely mellowed during its sous-vide bath, it was a little hard to cut.

One of my favorite components of the short rib dish was the house-made ricotta Jeremy demo’d for this course (you can see it more clearly perched atop the short rib in the pic of my diner's plate farther up). Ricotta is one of the simplest and quickest cheeses to make from scratch (as I learned from an unfortunately short-lived cheese-making group I once joined). Diners were invited to come up to the demonstration table for this one, and I was glad to see I wasn't the only curious onlooker.

Finally, dessert. Jeremy told the assembled group that Azur doesn’t have a pastry chef, so he just likes to play with flavors and textures. And play he did, creating this plate of “pomegranate panna cotta, flexible chocolate, mint emulsion, caramel powder, cinnamon granola soil, chocolate truffle.”

Jeremy demonstrated how to make a straightforward panna cotta, making it look simple enough a home cook could tackle it. At the other end of the spectrum, he turned to some chemical compounds from his “molecular gastronomy” toolbox to turn caramel into powder and crème de menthe into a creamy emulsion (alas, I wasn’t quick enough to get the chemicals’ names written down correctly). For the pièce de résistance, he applied some liquid nitrogen to take chocolate in direction I hadn’t before tasted. A colorful, fanciful course to finish the evening with. Along with the excellent 20-year-old Port that accompanied it, it was definitely enough to keep my tastebuds – and curiosity – engaged, full though I was after the previous four courses.

Chef Jeremy was kind enough to stop by my table, chat a bit, and answer my questions at several points during the evening. When I commended him on his presentation style, he thanked me and said he tries to keep things casual during his demos, but was also finding it a little hard to be out front rather than in his usual spot in the kitchen as the dishes went out. At the end of the evening, he invited his young kitchen staff into the dining room to introduce and thank them, and the diners erupted in applause for the fine meal we had treated us to.

Azur – which Jeremy quipped at the Incredible Food Show stands for come “as you are” – has a loyal following in Lexington. Like the chef himself, the restaurant has a laid-back vibe to it, even as the kitchen is putting out innovative, high-end dishes. The combination is a great recipe for accessible adventure. Although I would happily dine at Azur again at any opportunity, the tasting-menu-plus-cooking-class format (Jeremy said he plans to offer more of these either monthly or every other month) was a great introduction to not only the quality of Azur’s food but also where it’s coming from – both the carefully sourced ingredients themselves and the mind that conceives of how to make them taste good, assemble them in unique combinations on a plate, and delight his diners. Whether he’s exploring modernist techniques or harkening back to artisanal preparations, Jeremy Ashby is a chef with boundless culinary curiosity and an underlying generosity of spirit. I loved the magic carpet ride of my first evening at Azur, and I can't wait to be swept away again.

*Dale Talde’s Butterscotch Scallops got him eliminated on Season 4, although when challenged to redo the dish during the All-Stars season, Talde redeemed himself with a version that guest judge Anthony Bourdain said Talde successfully managed to “un-f--k up” the dish. Jamie Lauren in the Top Chef scallop arena, not so much.

A Very Eggy Thanksgiving

Despite a couple of kind offers, I chose to stay home and dine solo this Thanksgiving, in the company of my favorite kitty. Freed from the responsibility of cooking for other people’s palates, my menu options were so wide open it took a while to figure out what to fix. One of the multitude of holiday cooking shows I’ve watched recently mentioned that although turkey may not have been served at the first Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, lobster and venison likely were. Aha! A starting point. I had a couple of lobster shells left from the recent sale at Lobsta Bakes of Maine, and I could pull a package of venison out of my freezer.

For my Autumn Seafood Stew, I made lobster stock with a chunked onion, the stalks and part of a bulb of fennel, four evacuated corn cobs, a healthy handful of fresh sage, and two lobster shells. I filled the pot with almost enough cold water to cover, then half a bottle of white wine. Trouble was, that was a lot of water and the lobster shells themselves didn’t give off much flavor. Next time I’ll try to remember to add some fish trimmings (or do what I did today to tweak the leftovers – I bought some lobster stock from Kevin at Lobsta Bakes – he has more fish trimmings and lobster shells to work with than I could ever hope to). Last night I took about a third of the stock, added clam juice, fennel seed, celery seed, and dried chipotle pepper and reduced it significantly, then added the other half bottle of wine and reduced some more, until it finally started to taste like something.

I fried a couple slices of Eckerlin’s double-smoked bacon, sautéed fennel, onion, garlic, and corn in the renderings, then quickly cooked some oysters. Part of this mélange went on my dinner plate and the rest, along with shrimp, lobster, and roasted red pepper, went into the reduced stock to which I added a bit of cream and brandy – a definite boost to my rather weak stock.

For my meat course, I went with an old favorite, venison carpaccio, which, I am thankful to say, went in a delicious new direction this time. First I thin-sliced a couple of these butterflied steaks.

I had in mind to do a little taste-testing with my carpaccio, so, using the corn as a colorful divider, on half the venison I used fleur de sel and Banyuls vinegar from Le Bon Vivant, along with some Meyer lemon and blood orange olive oils I’ve been hoarding since my trip to California last year. On the other half I tried three products from Stuarto’s Olive Oil Company I came across on my Wednesday night trip to Lexington: wild mushroom and sage infused olive oil, espresso salt, and espresso balsamic.

I will have much more to say about the magnificent dinner/cooking class I attended at Azur Wednesday night. For now I will mention that Azur chef Jeremy Ashby used Stuarto’s products in several of the evening’s dishes, and Stuarto’s owner Stuart Utgaard was on hand to talk about his products and offer some for sale. The first time I happened onto chef Ashby was at the Incredible Food Show in Lexington in October, and during his demo there he raved about one of Stuarto’s olive oils that he described as being an excellent all-purpose finishing oil. It was not available either at the food show or on Wednesday at Azur, but I had a moment to ask the chef for a recommendation. When I told him I planned to make venison carpaccio for Thanksgiving, he suggested the wild mushroom and sage oil (which I purchased), and then his eyes lit up. They weren’t among the products Stuart brought that evening, but Jeremy went into his kitchen and came back with these samples of Stuarto’s espresso salt and espresso Balsamic. Thank you, Jeremy! I would never have thought to mix espresso flavors with my tried and true carpaccio, but these were amazing, giving the dish a whole new dimension and depth!

I topped the seasoned venison with capers, sliced garlic, and, in place of my usual parmesan, shards of sheep’s milk cheese from another KY Proud company, Good Shepherd Cheese.

This dish made me so happy I didn’t think twice about not having turkey for Thanksgiving :)

It just wouldn't be right to have a holiday dinner without dessert, and I came up with one that entailed hardly any work. Last weekend at Jean-Paul's Paradiso, I picked up some house-made pumpkin sorbet.

I love chocolate with pumpkin, so I made some ganache. If you’ve never made your own ganache before, what are you waiting for? It is dead simple even if you, like me, are no pastry chef. Just chop some chocolate (Joy of Cooking says 8 oz.).

Bring some cream to a boil (Joy of Cooking says 3/4 cup).

Remove the cream from the heat and stir in the chocolate. That’s all there is to it (although I like to add a splash of Grand Marnier to mine). It keeps well in the fridge, and a few seconds in the microwave will return it to a creamy consistency. Don't let the fancy-sounding French name intimidate you – this recipe is almost impossible to mess up.

I drizzled a little ganache on the pumpkin sorbet.

Because it was a holiday, I added some toasted pecans. And then, my best idea of the evening hit me: I added a bit of that espresso salt from Stuarto's! What a magnificent match with the chocolate!

So there you have it, how I holiday cook when left to my own devices. And I enjoyed every moment of solo, stress-free self-indulgence. Of course I missed being with family and friends. But this just wasn’t the year for it. I’m still in overly protective mode since Scout returned from his 2-1/2 week walkabout and didn’t want to go off and leave him for the long weekend. But I am happy to report he has bounced back from his ordeal – so much so that today he went outside for the first time in a week. You can bring the kitty indoors, but Scout is one kitty you just can’t take the outdoors out of.

Thankfully, he came back in too.

Wishing you all the best of holiday weekends, and if you’re out shopping, please shop local and handmade.

xoxo, eggy