Cedar Waxwings And Hollywood Junipers.

Here's a site for Hollywood Junipers, in case you didn't know what they were. And here's a site for Cedar Waxwings.

The other morning, while I was blogging, I heard several loud pops, in my octogon room. It was the Cedar Waxwings in the Hollywood Junipers eating the berries and flying into the windows. Check out the video here. Sadly, no video of the birds flying into the windows. The waxwings do this once a year. They all congregate and eat the berries on the junipers all at once. I wonder if they are fermented berries and the birds get drunk. My octagon room is a little turret on the northwest side of the house. When we built onto this home in 1995 to get bedrooms for all the children, we made this octagon room. just for a focal point and point for focus. It looks toward the sound. And I like to go into that room and pretend I'm in a special chaise. I want a chaise for that octagon. It's wonderful for sitting in and drinking a cup of coffee in the morning. It's wonderful for sitting in in the afternoon and just looking sound-ward. At Christmas-time, it is magical. Neighbors across the canal asked my niece one time about that room. Something like, "What do they call it?" I told niecy to tell them, "It's my occasional room. I have occasions in it. Like Christmas. When the tree takes up the whole octagon. The lights, the decorations, the memories all come back and slap me silly. And Easter, when dyed eggs drip from the conical ceiling. And Thanksfreakin'Giving, when we have Stuffed Turkeys hanging freely. Or the 4th of July, when we have our Confederate flags out. Mardi Gras -Purple and gold beads are flowin'. St. Pat's Day. Shamrocks, corned beef 'n' cabbage, and green beads. Halloween. Just try and take on my punkin'. My carved turkey in the pumpkin for Thanksgiving. It's my tradition. I started my own traditions. That pumpkin and Julia Child's Gateaux de Crepes are what I do for Thanksgiving. For the last year and years. I wonder if my family realizes this. I would want to impart to them the importance of family and occasions and tradition and the MEAL. I just hope I have. I would not want to leave this world without giving my children a certain joie de vivre. We have occasions. And we celebrate them all. Sit at the table. Hold hands. Embrace. Enjoy. Feast. Eat. Poetry.

Rosie Cooks Lunch For Herself Today. And, Damn, Was It Ever Good!

After being industrious yesterday and actually cleaning out my refrigerator, I was inspired today to clean out my laundry area and my hall closet/pantry. And believe me when I say I worked up quite an appetite doing this. I decided to fix myself a special lunch. Remember the other night when I caught, cooked,

and picked the blue crabs? Well, I'm having crab meat crepes with Grand Marnier sauce for lunch today.

Here's my starting mise en place: spinach green onion Block of delicious Swiss cheese given to Mr Hawthorne by Jason, who owns Corolla Pizza, deemed by many to have the best pizza on the Outer Banks. Round of unsalted butter we bought from the Amish Market in Yanceyville, NC. My crepes, leftover from last Thanksgiving (Julia Child's Gateaux de Crepes) (Yes, they were frozen. And no freezer burn, thankyouverymuch.)

Let's get started with my lunch.

Butter in the pan, then the torn spinach.

Cook down for a few minutes.

Now, here's a tip for you gardeners out there. Have you an asparagus bed? I know you're used to thinking asparagus is a spring crop. It is. But it can also be a fall crop. If you have a nice, healthy asparagus plant, cut down the foliage now. Within a day or two, you'll have new shoots. WHOOT!

I sauteed my asparagus bits.

Added in the spinach and the crabmeat, just to heat through. Don't mess with the crab meat. Leave it in nice big chunks.

Add in a bit of sherry.

Add in some lemon juice.

Now, I've prepared some toppings: green onions cucumbers red pepper tomato

I'm getting ready for my Grand Marnier sauce. Here, I have the juice of one orange.

And here are the main players: Grand Marnier heavy cream fresh orange juice flour butter

Melt butter, then add flour, and cook to get the raw taste of flour out.

Add in the Grand Marnier.

Add in the orange juice.

And finally, the cream goes in.

Stir constantly, until nicely thickened.

Here's everything waiting for assembly: crepes in the foreground crab meat/spinach/asparagus to the right Swiss cheese slices to the left back right - toppings of tomato, cuke, green onion, red pepper

Place the crab meat mixture in the crepe with two slices of the Swiss cheese.

Roll up. I got four crepes out of 6 crabs plus the additions.

Next, I picked the biggest crepe out (natch), and sauteed in buttah.

Turn over and it's lookin' good.

Plate the crab meat crepe and pour the Grand Marnier sauce over top.

Top with the fresh, diced, veggies.

Oh my.

Oh mymymymymy!

I'm at a loss for words. Because THIS? Is SO freakin' good.

Lunch At The Pearl Then I Do Seafood Crepes The Right Way.

As you know, Mr. Hawthorne and I are fond of going out to lunch occasionally. We like to try different restaurants, critique them, mock them mercilessly, and never go back unless we find one we particularly like. And there are a few we enjoy - a very few. We never go out to restaurants for dinner. Just too expensive, plus I don't like a heavy meal at night. Their lunch menus should be representative of what's for dinner, but at a lower price.

Yesterday, we decided to try out The Pearl. The chef, Marc-Jean Berruet, was one of the chefs at the cooking classes we attended at the North Carolina Aquarium last winter. His rather unfortunate choice for demonstration was bluefish, specifically, Beignets de Bluefish Timgad. As I commented in my post about the cooking class, the sauce was very good, but, like some people, you can dress blue fish up, but just can't take it anywhere. Bluefish is bluefish. Anyways, we've been wanting to try The Pearl and finally got around to it yesterday. It's a very nicely appointed restaurant - crisp white linens and full place settings - as in a dinner fork and a salad fork. A rarity indeed. There's nothing I hate more than when my waitperson comes to take my salad plate away and tells me to keep my fork for the entree, then I have to lick the dressing off my fork and place it back on the table. For crying out loud, would it kill you to bring me an extra fork? Our waiter was very attentive, but I don't like this new trend of not writing down the order. Your memory skills do not impress me. Especially when you forget the glass of water we ordered, then forget to bring a refill for my tea. Oh, and I shouldn't have to ask for a refill. You see an empty glass, take care of it.

Now, on to the meal.

Yummy rolls were brought out with butter mixed with Herbes de Provence. I refrained from asking the waiter if any of Sandra's "gerbils" were involved in the making of the Herbes de Provence. Only one complaint here: the butter was hard as a rock. Let the butter softened so you can spread it, plus you'd get more flavor from the Herbes. Next up, soup and salad, which we split. As I've mentioned before, Mr. Hawthorne and I judge restaurants to a great degree by their Caesar salads.

This Caesar salad did not disappoint. The dressing was superb, probably the best we've had outside of our own. The Romaine leaves were perfectly coated and the chef wasn't stingy with the croutons.

The lobster bisque was divine. Very intense lobster flavor. I sopped up every last drop with my roll. Mr. Hawthorne's entree was Truite Lorraine - trout with a nice herbed cream sauce with bacon, and pasta and asparagus. The bacon sauce was very heavy and extremely rich. Mr. Hawthorne liked it but said it would make dog sh ... no, hot dogs taste good, too. I thought it overpowered the trout. Now, get this. The trout was on the daily specials menu. And there were no prices on the specials menu. But when I see a specials menu, I'm always thinking special prices and good deals. When we got the bill, this trout was $16.00. Yes, SIXTEEN DOLLARS! Had we known this, we never would have ordered it.

I ordered the seafood crepes, reportedly filled with shrimp, scallops, oyster, and rockfish, baked in a creamy Mornay sauce with Gruyere cheese.

Sorry, but this sucked. I found 2 rubbery shrimp inside, 2 scallops, and 1 indeterminate piece of fishy tasting something-or-other. We know seafood and this seafood was not fresh. Very disappointing dish for me. The entire mess was smothered in the sauce. The crepe itself was indiscernible. I think it had dissolved into the mush of the sauce. When I eat a crepe, I want to be able to taste the crepe and I want a crisp texture on the edges. Sorry, Frenchie, but this assemblage was a whacked-out mess of a meal. Price: $13.00. (I could have sworn it said $11 on the menu. And when I checked the online menu, it said $12. Whatever, still too damn much.) Our bill yesterday, before tip, was a whopping $51.00. For LUNCH!!! This is ridiculous. Tea alone was $2.49. Ah, live and learn. So guess what I'm fixing today for lunch. If you guessed seafood crepes, you would be correct.

Last night, Good Neighbor Bob brought us a mess of crabs.

Mr. Hawthorne and I picked the crabs, then I coarsely chopped some leftover shrimp.

My extensive mise en place. In the foreground are my crepes I made for my Gateaux of Crepes from Thanksgiving. They freeze very well.

Parsley, chives, and baby bella shrooms.

The ingredients for my sauce: butter parmesan cheese brie provolone swiss heavy cream lemon orange nutmeg (That's my nutmeg grinder next to the salt and pepper.) salt & pepper cayenne Grand Marnier

First I sliced and sauteed my mushrooms in butter.

You know I have to put in my action shot of tossing shrooms.

Next I made a roux, butter and flour.

Added in salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg.

Then I added the juice of one lemon and one orange.

Add in cream until you have a nice sauce.

The brie goes in.

Season to taste.

Finally, a nice shot of Grand Marnier.

In another pan, I melted butter, then added the crabmeat, shrimp, and sauteed mushrooms. Just heat through and don't mess with the crab meat much. You want nice chunks and messing with it splits it up.

Here, I've added just enough of my cream sauce to bind the crab and shrimp together. You don't want it like Monsieur Berruet's crepes - all gloppy sauce and minimal seafood.

Put a few tablespoons in your crepe.

And roll up.

I added a bit more of my cream sauce along the top of the crepes, then topped with provolone and swiss slices.

I don't want my crepes soaking in a bath of sauce.

Baked in a 350-degree oven until everything was heated through and the cheese was melted, then sprinkled some chopped parsley and chives on top.

This was simply delicious. You could taste the crab, the shrimp, the lemon, the orange, the cheeses, the ... everything. And the crepe was distinguishable from everything else, unlike the other crepe which dissolved into a messy mass of mushyness. What can I say? Just seafood goodness. Now, remember I made puff pastry last week. I had some leftover and wanted to do something else with that today.

I floured my countertop and started rolling out the dough.

Until about 1/8 inch thick.

Then cut out little rounds.

Brushed with butter.

Peeled, seeded, and sliced a tomato and topped the rounds, then salted and peppered.

Added some sliced black olives.

Then topped with mozzarella cheese. Baked and topped with basil. Besides the savory puff pastry, I decided to do sweet, too. I had some strawberries which I sliced.

Then brushed with apricot jam.

OK, so my puff pastry didn't puff like it was supposed to. These were still really good. The reason my puff pastry didn't properly puff is possibly due to the fact that it was leftover, and I screwed up the layers of dough and butter and they got a bit mushed together, hence they didn't puff.

Still really good. You might want to try these as appetizers. You could use the storebought puff pastry. I won't mind, really.

And for dessert - tiramisu.