No power? Eat well!

The morning after Hurricane Irene, my guy noticed something about me.

"You've got a nice, big manifold," he said.

It's true. I do.

Clearly visible under the hood of my Honda is a voluptuous triangle of metal called the exhaust manifold. It's the part of a car engine that channels the hot, spent gases of combustion toward the tailpipe.

My exhaust manifold is stamped with the image of a hand with an "X" over it, meaning that when the car is turned on, it's too hot to touch.

Post-hurricane, the little hand took on anther meaning: hot enough to cook on.

I keep my manifold wired up all the time now, just in case.

Cuz you can cook most anything on a manifold -- crab imperial, veal rollatini, nachos, s'mores, quail, poached fish, hot dogs, steak.

I got the idea from "Manifold Destiny," by Chris Maynard & Bill Scheller. It's a cool little book (downloadable, if you have the right stuff) that includes directions for wiring your car and recipes that swap out cooking time for driving time. A steak, for instance, requires 30 to 50 miles of driving.

Anyway, to read more about my nice, big manifold, and for a sample recipe, click here.

Happy Hurricane Sandy!

Amish cookbook giveaway!

The fall cleaning continues!

Today, I’m giving away “The Amish Cook’s Baking Book,” filled with recipes for comfort food such as Oatmeal Whoopie Pie Cookies, Peanut Butter Cake and Shoo Fly Pie.

Author Lovina Eicher is Amish, and while she does not use electricity in her kitchen, she graciously includes mixer speeds and such for those of us who do.

To enter, just post your favorite fall comfort food to inspire all of us to get back in the kitchen.

Here in Virginia Beach, the forecast is 80 and sunny. But we know it won’t last much longer.

Whole Foods Sneak Peek!

Tie on your walking shoes on and let’s take a tour of the nation’s newest Whole Foods Market, right here in Virginia Beach.

The store – almost the size of a football field – opens tomorrow at 10 a.m. I scored a sneak peek last night, so come, step inside.

The entrance is just past the wide, pillared front porch where cardboard boxes bulge with white, orange, green-streaked and wart-covered pumpkins, including one the size of a beanbag chair. Just inside the door, a mass of flowering orchids fills a corner where aproned floral department workers were getting set of Wednesday’s inevitable crush of customers.

A few steps away pyramids of pomegranates, pears, apples perch on wooden crates (made of salvaged and repurposed wood), the start of the artful, eye-popping produce section displays that Whole Foods is known for.

Sandy, the perky produce manager, notes that her department stocks 200 organic items and may local products (from no more than 100 miles away). Count among them Quail Cove Farms, Mattawoman Creek Farm and Pickett’s Harbor Farm on the Eastern Shore and New Earth Farm and Cullipher Farm in Virginia Beach. Sandy reminds us that everything can be tasted before purchase (and that bruised produce will be donated daily to the local food bank).

Within eyeshot is the “Cooking Virginia Beach” area where a chef named Luke will man an enormous butcher block table, on call to help cooks and non-cooks decide what to do with what they’ve bought. Walls of bulk spices, legumes, rices, artisanal salts, mushrooms surround the table and can be purchased by the teaspoon or by the pound, a policy aimed at making home cooks more adventuresome.

Seafood is next, and the most striking element is a sign over a gleaming – though still barren seafood counter – that promises Whole Foods fishmongers will, at no extra charge, cut fish to order, steam shrimp while you shop and even peel and devein them (nice!), shuck oysters and clams (goodbye soggy oyster gloves!), skin and debone fish, marinate seafood, pack it in ice or wrap it for freezing. So. Wow!

Next door at the meat counter, the carnivore’s gaze eyes will be instantly be locked on a gleaming stainless steel vault recessed in the wall behind the 24-foot long meat counter. Behind the glass, sides of cabernet-colored dry-aged beef are showcased like museum treasure, a perk that’s included in only a few Whole Foods stores. Also look for house-smoked bacon, scads of house-made sausages (all of it rated for animal-friendliness and none of it sullied by antibiotics or growth hormones).

Past a free-standing beer cooler the size of single-car garage and stocked with 400-plus types of beer stands the wine section. With 800 bottles, it seems diminutive (perhaps because the gargantuan Total Wine is within walking distance). One disappointment is that the Virginia Beach store does not offer the system that allows oenophiles to sample short pours before buying.

Beyond the bakery (think all buttercream icing and just-baked biscotti!), four enormous steam tables will hold soups, comfort foods, salads (organic, of course) while a border of kitchens offers wood-fired pizzas, sandwiches, sushi (even custom-made rolls), all ordered and paid for via computer kiosks, which will also archive your order so that the delicious combo you happened upon isn’t lost to middle-aged memory.

Around the corner find “The Porch,” unique to the Virginia Beach store. If you’ve seen the exterior of the store, it’s underneath that rotunda. With its wide-planked wood floor and beamed ceilings, it’s billed as a tavern, but in addition to up to 10 wines by the carafe or glass (the corks will be sent off for recycling and they’ll do the same with yours from home), seven local beers and one hard cider on tap, there’s coffees (certified organic), espresso and breakfast all day. Growler or Waffle Reuben, anyone?

Out in the parking lot, find an electric car charger and an ice machine that dumps ice right into your cooler.

And what about those prices? I toured the store alongside two of the area’s best-known coupon mavens who run the sites Momondealz.com and thecouponchallenge.com

Their take: “You don’t pay for toothpaste and razors so you can come to Whole Foods.”

A treat of a grocery store, for sure.

At 1800 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach. Open daily 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For opening week activites, click here.
 

Whole Foods: What's in store

What’s in store at Whole Foods newest store?

I’ll report back on my on-site sneak peek that takes place early next week, but for now, here’s what I hear:

Doors open Wednesday at 10 a.m., and since size matters, let’s start there. The place is 40,000-square-feet – that’s about the size of a football field.

What’s inside?

A couple of restaurants:

* Free Wi-Fi in the 40-seat indoor and 37-seat outdoor café with free Wi-Fi and a prepared-foods kiosk ordering system where the time-starved can speed through the ordering and paying process for items made in the Whole Foods Market kitchen using touch-screen technology.

* The Porch, a 47-seat, tavern style coffee bar and pub serving fresh brewed organic coffee, seven local beers on tap and pub food. The 100% certified organic specialty coffees will be sourced from 22 countries and 120 farms around the world and feature full service espresso and hand-crafted pour-over coffee.
The menu features stuffed waffles, hash, wings, sandwiches and daily specials.

A cooking classroom:

*The Cooking Virginia Beach department and program features butcher block workspaces, chalkboards, and touch-screen technology, where a Cooking Coach — Whole Foods Market team members with in-depth culinary knowledge — will help shoppers tackle seasonal meals at home.

All the Whole Foods basics:

* Prepared Foods section offering items made by Whole Foods Market chefs, seasonal spreads and more.

* Locally-sourced produce, Whole TradeTM bananas, mangoes and pineapples and cut in-house organic fruits and veggies.

* Seafood sourced locally and from around the world and certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). The department also has a color-coded rating program, in partnership with Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium, which provides shoppers with sustainability status for all wild-caught seafood not certified by the MSC.

* Floral department stocked with locally-sourced items, including Whole TradeTM roses.

* Bakery featuring conventional and kosher goods, gluten-free products, boutique cupcakes, a self-service yogurt bar and Italian-style desserts.

* The specialty department will offer hand-stuffed olives, beer-washed cheese and other gourmet items.

* Cultivate, the garden center, featuring spring varietals, hanging baskets, herbs, vegetables, bedding plants, local potting soil, compost, garden tools and heirloom and organic seeds.

* The full-service meat department, with butchers cutting in-house, offers organic pork and chicken sausages and locally-sourced selections, raised without the use of antibiotics or added growth hormones that adheres to the Global Animal Partnership 5-Step Welfare Rating System.

* 365 Everyday Value products from organic milk to frozen veggies and more than 2,500 items on sale daily.

* A vast selection of value wines, a large bulk area and Whole Deal coupon book to offer shoppers great prices.

Located at 1800 Laskin Road.
 

What Mitt Romney ate

The men strode into Cotton Southern Bistro earlier this week, seemingly straight from the movie “Matrix,” – dark suits, sunglasses and serious.

The sequence of events that followed included a bomb-sniffing dog, Moon Pies and a long, long motorcade.

The suited men arrived at the restaurant near the North Carolina border seeking intelligence on a matter of national import: If Chef Jeff Brown was awarded the mission, what sort of lunch would he serve Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his 35-person entourage during Wednesday’s campaign stop in Chesapeake.

Immediately, Brown recognized the opportunity to let his Southern roots shine – he’s a Chesapeake native who used to hunt quail in cornfields on the very spot where his restaurant now sits.

Brown quickly drew up a five-point plan that included “Porker BLTs” made with country ham, Eastern Shore Better Boys and a dollop of Duke’s; “Hillbilly Gobblers” with turkey and applewood-pepper bacon; Dixie Chicken salad with local spinach; sides such as pickled okra (a daredevil move, to be sure); and a Moon Pie trifle.

“Cotton flair, that’s for sure,” Brown said.

Clearance was granted, and Brown arrived at Tidewater Community College at the appointed time bearing the fanciest box lunches he’d ever assembled.

But first the meals had to pass muster with the bomb-sniffing dog, a highly disciplined animal that impressed Brown.

“He was a good dog,” Brown said. The lunches were “loaded with bacon and ham and not even as much as a slight drool!”

With all the backstage action, Brown missed the speech. He met the candidate was gracious, even ate some okra, and autographed a hat and a menu.

Brown, an independent voter, said Romney seemed like “a level-headed, normal guy you would want living next door. Very genuine and seems to really care about the state that America is in.

“Just a good fellow.”

Ten hours after Brown and his staff began preparing the lunches, they watched the motorcade drive off into the distance.

For Brown, who left Chesapeake to study at the Culinary Institute of America, it was a “country boy does good” moment.

But the best part?

Romney and his people took all of the leftovers.
 

Savor this dining week

Every city’s got one.

Heck, over in Portsmouth, Chef Sydney Meers even proclaims a couple of PoNo Restaurant Week each year (events that encompasses Stove, his Port Norfolk restaurant, exclusively).

Here’s a new one.

Now through Saturday, Hilltop Dining Week features fare at palatable prices from 18 restaurants in the Hilltop section of Virginia Beach. Think two- or three-course prixe fixe meals for $5, $10 or $20 dollars.

Plus, get a “A Taste of Fashion” tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 18) at 5:30 p.m., at TASTE, Hilltop East. It’s a fast-paced, fashion-forward fashion show featuring fall and winter styles from Shops At Hilltop merchants including Busy Bees, Dan Ryan's, Double Take, Frances Kahn, Jody G., Esme, Whalebone Surf Shop and The Bahama Shop.

Which restaurants are involved?

1. Azars Mediterranean
2. Baker's Crust
3. Baladi Mediterranean Cafe
4. Beach Bagel Bakery
5. Blue Fin Japanese
6. Blue Turtle
7. Boardwalk Fresh Burgers & Fries
8. Cobalt Grille
9. El Taco Loco
10. Fire and Vine
11. Fruitive
12. Just Cupcakes
13. Malbon Bros. BBQ
14. Mei Zhen
15. Nawab Indian Cuisine
16. No Frill Grill
17. TASTE
18. The Melting Pot

Reservations are strongly encouraged, but walk-ins are appreciated. To make a reservation, diners should contact restaurants directly.

Details at available here. Menus are available here.

And the apple cookbook winner is . . . .

Congratulations to  . . . . . .

LemonyZest, who bought a whole pork loin and cut it up into chops and roasts, a job all in itself!

Then, the plan was to pan-seared pork chops with a hard apple cider-grainy mustard-cream sauce and serve them over rice to soak up the sauce.

Sounds good to me! Congrats, LemonyZest! A copy of “The Apple Lover’s Cookbook,” by Amy Traverso, is coming your way!

And, just in case you missed it, fellow food blogger Nicki made up a scrumptious apple treat in no time flat. Click here to see how she did it.

Thanks to all for entering, all the cooking plans sounded divine. Don't despair if you didn't win.. More cookbook giveaways to come! Five came in the mail just today!

Note to LemonyZest: Please send me an email at lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com with your mailing address

Is Tip Creep coming to town?

 I slogged along in the waitstaff ranks in the era of 15 percent for good service.

Cup of coffee at Shoney’s might get me a nickel on the napkin. A pizza pie at Village Inn, a buck. Maybe two.

A nice dinner at the Seafare III in Kill Devil Hills, NC? Almost always more than that. For the lunch buffet?

Less. Every. Single. Time.

Never mind that we refilled those iced tea glasses 40 times.

Enter: Tip Creep.

That’s not one of my former customers (although who among the service sector hasn’t run into a Tip Creep?)

Rather it turns out that up in The Big Apple, diners are experiencing “tip creep,” where waiters, cab drivers, salon stylists and coffee baristas now expect 25, even 30 percent.

The “slow shift toward ever higher tips will continue, begging the question: Where will it end?” writes Chris Erikson in the New York Post.

“Ten percent was the norm back in Eisenhower’s day, and it’s taken 50 years to reach the point where 25 percent isn’t unthinkable. How much longer before we’re seeing a suggested gratuity of 40 or even 50 percent?”

Read the whole article here.

I’m wondering: is Tip Creep creeping into Tidewater?

Another giveaway, really!

Another cookbook giveaway? So soon?

You bet. In fact, I’m adopting a new policy of giving away one cookbook a week, the title to be divulged in Wednesday’s Flavor section’s “Cook it” feature.

Love apples? This week I’m dishing “The Apple Lover’s Cookbook,” by Amy Traverso.

It’s a gorgeous, glossy, illustrated, award-winning hardback with tempting recipes such as Apple and Chestnut-Stuffed Pork Loin with Cider Sauce and Cider-Baked apples, an incredibly simple dessert or side dish (with the recipe below). It pains me to have to part with it.

How to win this tasty little treasure?

Inspire your fellow cooks by divulging what you’ll be dishing this weekend. I’ll pick a winner on Monday, when I'll welcome Monday morning quarterbacking!

Meanwhile, here’s what to do with that big pile of fall on your kitchen counter.

Cider-Baked Apples
Serves 6

6 large Pink Lady or Jazz apples, about 3 pounds total
¼ cup chopped pecans
¼ cup chopped sweetened dried cranberries
1 cup fresh apple cider
½ cup packed light brown sugar
2 cinnamon sticks, each broken into 2 pieces
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and set a rack to the middle position. Prepare each apple by first slicing off the top ¾ inches, stem and all. Set aside the tops. Core the apples with an apple corer, then arrange in an ungreased baking dish. Divide the pecans and cranberries among the apples, stuffing them into the hollowed-out cores. Cover with the reserved tops.

In a small bowl, stir together the cider and brown sugar. Pour around the apples, then add the cinnamon sticks to the pan.

Cover the pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to bake. Check the apples every 5 minutes to monitor progress. They will be done when tender (test by poking with a sharp knife), but not yet splitting their skins. They should need about 15 minutes total. Transfer the apples to individual serving bowls and let cool for a few minutes.

Remove the cinnamon sticks from the pan, and pour the cider sauce into a pitcher. Add lemon juice, then pour the sauce over the apples and serve warm or at room temperature.

Source: “The Apple Lover’s Cookbook,” by Amy Traverso, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 2011, $29.95

Cookbook winners! Everyone's a winner!

Soup can rolling pins? Apple pie baked on the dorm room heater? Steaks, burgers, eggs and even spaghetti Bolognese made in a popcorn popper? That day-long progression of cooks?

No wonder all you enterprising epicures got into college!

The best part about reading the entries in the “Kitchenability 101” cookbook giveaway was the can-do spirit of the cooks. And isn’t that one of the hallmarks of kitchen happiness – improvising?

I find myself improvising more and more with ingredients, cooking vessels, heck, sometimes even with dinner guests, and all seems to turn out well.

Perfection. So overrated.

Anyway, I couldn’t pick a favorite entry so I’m giving everyone a cookbook. (Pictured is just a small slice of my stash!)

If you submitted an entry, send me an email at lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com

Include your snail mail address and what genre of cookbook you prefer, such as baking, barbecuing, fast dinners, vegetarian, gluten-free, etc.

I’ll get them out to you asap.