Tuesday Tasting Menu 2-28-12

Tuesday 3-course preview February 28 - Celebrating Florence Parry Heide

Chef Dave's grandmother would have been celebrating her 93rd birthday on February 27. We thought a great way of celebrating the date would be to center this week's 3-course chef's menu around her.

Several times throughout the course of the evening we'll play an animated short movie of her book Sound of Sunshine, Sound of Rain which received an Academy Award nomination in 1984.

In addition to her passion for writing and connecting with children, she loved to host parties with new and old friends, and she celebrated everything with friends and family. She would have been the first to tell you that she was never at home in the kitchen, and always was anxious to get out of the kitchen and back to the party and friends.

There were a few dishes she mastered, and Chef Dave will be putting his own Liliana's spin on them to really bring them to life.

1st course

Cheese fondue

2nd course

Chicken "casserole"

Dessert

Rice Pudding with almond

Courses available separately

At almost every party she would have her copper chafing dish set out with cheese fondue and endless amounts of torn French bread to dip into it. Her recipe may have been mostly Velveeta, milk, and sherry, but it was the perfect thing to snack on when you were busy meeting new friends. (Don't worry - Chef Dave won't be using Velveeta in his version of her dish!).

Her chicken casserole (which originally started out as a veal casserole until her children objected) was one of her real successes in the kitchen, and the kids loved it. Chef Dave's sister Anne was a vegan for many years, and always said if she ever stopped being a vegan that would be the very first dish she'd have. Chef Dave is making it vegetarian with the chicken added at the end so that our vegetarian friends can enjoy it with tofu instead.

For dessert, we couldn't resist picking rice pudding, which she had tried to make every Christmas Eve. The Danish tradition was to have one almond hidden in one of the bowls of rice pudding, and whoever found the almond in their bowl won a special extra Christmas present. She was often disorganized in the kitchen, and one Christmas had completely forgotten to shop for the things to make it. So she made Jello brand butterscotch pudding instead. She had no almonds or nuts in the house, so she used a chocolate chip, which promptly melted in the still-warm pudding. The winner (Chef Dave's dad that year) had to show the darker brown streak in the pudding to claim the prize.

We'll make it the way it should be, and a few of the servings that night will have an almond hidden in them. The winners will be able to take home an autographed copy of her book Princess Hyacinth, which she had signed last October as she was getting ready to come to our Princess Brunch.