Category Archives: Eat

At The Torridon, hospitality ’tis grand

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In the craggy mountains of the Scottish Highlands, The Torridon is a jewel that sparkles with history, romance and genuine hospitality.

It’s the ideal place to experience, if only briefly, a slice of leisure and privilege, indulging in such activities as clay pigeon shooting, archery and Scotch sipping.

If you have ever had the good fortune of visiting The Torridon, you will be pleased — but not surprised — to learn that the property was named AA Hotel of the Year for Scotland for 2012-2013 at the recent AA Hospitality Awards.

The awards, judged by AA inspectors and industry professionals, are among the most prestigious in the British hospitality industry. Winners are recognized for excellence, success, a dedication to raising industry standards, and a commitment to the overall guest experience.

Sited on 58 acres of parkland overlooking a sea loch, The Torridon is set in a remote and lovely cranny in the western Highlands.  While the public spaces echo the hotel’s Victorian roots with opulent wood paneling and crackling fires, the 19 guestrooms are large, luxurious and comfy, with a fresh, contemporary feeling.

Niceties include Egyptian cotton sheets, duck-down feather duvets, flat-screen televisions, iPod docking stations, free WiFi, a tea and coffee maker, sparkling and still water, and Tunnock’s teacakes, a round shortbread biscuit covered with Italian meringue and encased in a thin layer of chocolate.

Fancy a sit-down dinner? The Torridon Restaurant has earned three AA Rosettes as a fine-dining establishment. (In the lounge, we enjoyed the option of ordering a large glass of wine or the regular pour. The regular is a generous portion, at least 6 ounces. The large is pretty much filled to the rim, which means your server will be walking very carefully to ensure your libation arrives intact.)

A night cap, laddie? The clubby Malt Whisky Bar features 350 varieties of Scotches. The next morning, enjoy a hearty Scottish breakfast.

Small and intimate, it’s a fine place for a family holiday or a corporate retreat. No worries about getting bored in a remote location. There are lots of activities on property and nearby to keep guests of any age and interest occupied. Outdoor options include hiking, kayaking and mountain biking. Guides and instructors, helpful and handsome, are on site.

Or stroll about the kitchen garden on your own, then swing by the barn to pet a shaggy Highland cow in the hotel herd.

The Torridon is romantic as well as rustic, which makes it a popular wedding and honeymoon destination, including celebrations for same-sex couples and their loved ones.

A friendly hotel manager told me about the wonderful wedding weekend The Torridon hosted for him, his partner and their families. I, in turn, waxed rhapsodic to my daughter, a bride-to-be, and now The Torridon is on her short list for the destination wedding she and her fiance are planning.

Rates start at £220 — that’s $349 USD — for a classic bedroom and breakfast, but vary by room type, season and length of stay.  The Torridon offers a variety of packages throughout the year, focusing on everything from family fun to romantic retreats and from adventure-filled days to relaxed evenings.  Current offers focus on Christmas and Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year. I can’t imagine a better spot to sing Auld Lang Syne.

Like The Torridon, Connoisseurs Scotland is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.  The hospitality group’s 30 members include four of the world’s finest golf resorts (Cameron House, Gleneagles, Turnberry and St. Andrew’s Old Course) and several outstanding city-center properties, including Prestonfield, one of only two 5 Red Star Hotels in Edinburgh; the newly refurbished Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle; and two destinations with Michelin-star restaurants, the sumptuous Inverlochy Castle Hotel near Fort William and the warm and elegant Kinloch Lodge on the Isle of Skye.

On Champagne Day, a toast to Charles Heidsieck

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Oct. 26 is International Champagne Day. Let’s celebrate by raising a glass to Charles-Camille Heidsieck, the visionary businessman known as Champagne Charlie, who traveled from France to America 160 years ago, forever elevating entertaining on this side of the pond.

Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve NV is blended from equal proportions of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, including 40 percent reserve wines, and aged for at least 36 months in chalk cellars excavated by the Romans in the 2nd century, a practice Heidsieck established in 1851.

The result is a deep golden champagne with persistent bubbles. It tastes of fresh bread and lush, exotic mangoes, with a frothy finish that is reminiscent of a creamy tart topped with ripe cherries.

I’d serve this as a welcome to guests, a liquid bellwether of a lovely evening to come, or perhaps with raw oysters as a first course. Expect to pay around $50 a pop for this bubbly.

You also should anticipate keeping a bottle chilled at all times in anticipation of having something wonderful to celebrate. After all, isn’t that what champagne is for? Thanks for reminding us, Charlie.

The Sweet Book of Candy Making is a dandy read

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Think of the world as a big, glossy lollipop.

If you can make lollipops at home, you rule the planet, right? The ultimate sweet deal.

You can be the king or queen of your kitchen — and the most popular folks in town — by crafting your own glorious candies from such humble ingredients as sugar, cream and corn syrup.

Learn easy-to-make, fabulous-to-behold treats in The Sweet Book of Candy Making (Quarry) by Elizabeth LaBau, a Los Angeles-based pastry chef and confectioner who is the guide to candy at About.com.

LaBau will tempt you with recipes for such classics as English toffee, chocolate truffles  and peanut brittle. Readers will be wowed by how simple many of these delights are to make. And if you goof, she includes troubleshooting tips for such culinary challenges as rescuing ganache.

Already, I am thinking ahead to the holiday and the homemade gifts I can make. Hmm. Sea salt caramels, embellished with chocolate? Red velvet fudge with cream cheese frosting? Or passionfruit marshmallows?

The biggest challenge will be giving away the treats before we fall on them like wolves, howling in a marzipan forest. Teeth bared. Drooling copiously.

Free spaghets at Buca di Beppo

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There’s no such thing as a free lunch. But occasionally, you can get a side dish.

Oct. 25 is World Pasta Day and to mark the special occasion  Buca di Beppo, the family-style Italian restaurant, is giving free spaghetti a twirl.

Thursday, all patrons who present a World Pasta Day coupon and purchase any Buca small or large pasta, baked pasta or entree will receive a free side serving of spaghets with their choice of meat sauce or marinara sauce.

But the freebie doesn’t stop there. Guests will also get a one-pound package of Rummo-brand Italian Pasta, uncooked, of course, to take home and cook at their leisure. (The fine print: the offer isn’t good with any other discount. Enough already.)

In addition to the one-day event, Buca di Beppo is serving up a family-style feast for four people for $40 through Nov. 11. The dine-in only deal includes salad, garlic bread and choice of spaghetti marinara, fettuccine Alfredo, baked ziti or ravioli al pomodoro all in a Buca large size, which is humongous.

World Pasta Day was rolled out in 1995 as an international celebration of pasta. In Roma. Where else?

Cocktails with Don Julio

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Typically, folks try to avoid repossession.

Unless it’s the cocktail hour and they are enjoying a Repossession, the classy mixed drink crafted from Tequila Don Julio 70 Añejo Claro, the clear spirit that is made from mature,  ripened blue agave selected by hand from the rich, clay soils of the Los Altos region in Mexico.

This cocktail serves up the crystalline flavors of premium tequila, with the freshness of pineapple and sweet bouquet of elderflower liqueur. It’s clearly more desirable than the repossession that follows missing a couple of car payments.

Don Julio makes a range of wonderful tequilas that can be enjoyed straight from the bottle, on their own. This cocktail doesn’t dilute the pleasure of the tequila and results in a lovely presentation. Here’s the recipe:

Repossession

Created by New York Mixologist, Leo Robitschek
Ingredients:
1 1/4 ounces Tequila Don Julio 70 Añejo Claro
1/3 ounce Elderflower Liqueur
2/3 ounce Fresh Pineapple Juice
1/3 ounce Fresh Lemon Juice
1/4 ounce Cane Syrup

Preparation:
Combine Tequila Don Julio 70 Añejo Claro, elderflower liqueur, fresh pineapple juice, fresh lemon juice and cane syrup into a cocktail shaker. Shake well.
Strain contents into a cocktail glass.

Ideal Serving Glass:
Shapely stemmed cocktail glass

Yield:
1 drinkie

Free food at ShopRite

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The deals this week at ShopRite are delicious. Free food!

I clipped coupons from the circular for gratis groceries, including staples many of us buy every week: a pint of grape tomatoes, a head of iceberg lettuce, a three-pound bag of yellow onions and a five-pound sack of white potatoes.

Not buy one, get one free. No mail-in rebate for free merchandise. Just plain free, with a $25 purchase.

Of course, every shopper in the store wanted in on the deal. But there were plenty of freebies to go around in well-stocked displays.

With all the money I saved, I treated myself to lobster for dinner, on sale for $5.99 a pound and steamed in-house by the nice folks in ShopRite’s seafood department. Who knew grocery shopping could be so yummy?

 

Stonyfield goes Greek and low fat

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I have always liked yogurt, even back in the day when if was a glumpy mess in a cup and you had to stir it up with the watery stuff on top.

Greek yogurt, a rich and creamy treat, is so far beyond those early products they are becoming a far-off memory, like the days before pantyhose. Greek yogurt now commands about one-third of the entire U.S. yogurt market.

Stonyfield, the leading producer of organic yogurt, has a new addition to its Greek yogurt line, 1.5% fat Stonyfield Organic Oikos. It’s made from 1.5% fat organic milk and is super yummy. It has a smooth, creamy texture and comes in Pineapple, Strawberry, Raspberry and traditional plain yogurt, which I think is a great substitute for sour cream.

If you are a label reader like me, you know Stonyfield is produced without any of the toxic persistent pesticides, antibiotics, artificial hormones and genetically engineered ingredients we don’t want in our tummies. But it does contain calcium, protein, Vitamin D and other goodies we do want. (Stonyfield also is committed to feeling family farms healthy and strong.)

Plus, the 1.5% fat organic Oikos is a great grab-and-go, a quick and nutritious breakfast, lunch or snack for those days when we are on the fly. And isn’t that just about every day?

 

 

A Landmark pinot noir

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We have missed our friend Matt and we want him to know how special he is to us.

So, we invite him to our house for dinner. No fatted calf mooing in the pantry. So, I’ll make filet mignon. With bacon, baby.

And for a special friend, I decant a special wine, the 2010 Grand Detour pinot noir from Landmark Vineyards in Sonoma, an elegant shift from the beefy Zinfandel or hefty Cab you might expect with filet. This thoughtfully crafted pinot plays perfectly with the salad as well as the beef, carrying us happily home to a dessert of lush, ripe strawberries and blueberries.

Expect a well-balanced blend of berries and plums. The wine is soft and round, with pleasing, earthy and slightly spicy notes. The finish is silky and lingering. Hmm. This also would be luscious with lamb.

Grand Detour gets a big thumbs up from my husband and Matt, too. Expect to pay about $35 for a bottle for this approachable, food-friendly special-occasion red. (Don’t forget, a special occasion can happen at any time!)

Written off red meat? Grand Detour would swim nicely with wild salmon or an assertive mushroom dish.

If you fancy a white, Landmark’s 2010 Overlook Chardonnay is a classy choice, with notes of fresh bread, citrus, vanilla and peach. Expect creamy tones, not too much oak and a huggable price point of about $20.

Trader Joe’s slices the hassle of making fresh pizza dough

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We love home-made pizza. Frozen pies tend to taste like the box. And takeout isn’t always consistent.

But making our own dough? Not so much fun.

Then my former Courier-Post colleagues Trisch and Brian Ferreira turned us on to Trader Joe’s fresh pizza dough. The dough is priced at a mere $1.19 for a 16-ounce bag. It’s easy as pie to roll out and it tastes great. So why knock yourself out making your own?

Just take the dough out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you are ready to roll it. I lightly flour a large wooden cutting board, then roll out the dough with a rolling pin, also lightly dusted with flour. You can coax the dough into a perfect round pie, but I usually make an oblong crust, more like a flatbread.

So what to top it with? The possibilities are limited only to what is in your fridge, pantry, garden or freezer.

I’ve made flatbread with dollops of fig jam, goat cheese and caramelized onions. The whole wheat dough was the base for a rustic pizza with red peppers, tomatoes, kalamata olives,  rosemary and manchego cheese–essentially bits and pieces from the refrigerator that might otherwise have gotten the heave ho into the garbage within the next day or so.

You also can grill the pizza. Lightly oil the rolled out dough and place it oil-side down on the grill. After it cooks on that side, oil the other side and flip the dough. Top with whatever you have a yen for and finish cooking.

 

Mannie, get your gun! Cabela’s is booming with new stores

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What do Rogers, Arkansas, and Christiana, Delaware, have in common?

Both locales are getting new Cabela’s, the iconic destination for hunting, fishing and camping gear.

Even though I have never so much as caught a fish, I have always enjoyed browsing at Cabela’s store in Hamburg, Pa. All those rods and reels. Meat grinders. Big beds for hunting dogs. A cafeteria that serves buffalo. (The meat, that is, not the big, shaggy beast.)

Closer to home, Nebraska-born Cabela’s is building a 110,000-square-foot stone-and-log stand-alone emporium to manliness at Christiana Mall, just north of Nordstrom. Ideal for his and her shopping! Customers can start hunting for buys there in 2014.

Founded in 1961, Cabela’s is in growth mode, with stores opening this year in Arkansas and Washington State. The Cabela herd will expand with seven stores in 2013.