Vic's on the River

Sometimes, it's all about expectations.

DH and I have been wanting to try dinner at Vic's on the River for a while now, and finally managed to the other night. I must admit - we both had low expectations. Vic's is located in a beautiful spot, right downtown on the Savannah river, but has a reputation for being heavily populated with tourists. And the last popular-with-tourists-but-not-so-much-with-locals restaurant we tried around here was so awful and so overpriced that it shall remain nameless. That said, Vic's is so well known we felt like we should really eat there to get a taste of it ourselves. (Pun intended, thank you very much).

Our expectations were lowered even a bit more when DH called for reservations. The conversation went like this:

DH: Hi, I'd like to make reservations for this evening.

Vic's: What time?

DH: Around 6:30.

Vic's: No, we don't have anything then.

DH: (silence, waiting for them to suggest an alternative time)

Vic's: (silence, apparently waiting for...who knows what)

DH: What do you have available?

Vic's: We could do 6:15.

DH to Vic's: We'll take it.

DH to me: That was weird.

Not a great start.

It didn't get any better when we were shown to our table, which very well may have been the worst table in the restaurant. Right in the middle of traffic, and awkwardly positioned so that anyone walking by would have to do a little Texas two-step not to trip over my seat. I asked for a different table, and the hostess said...no. However, I am nothing if not persistent, so when the waiter came by for the first time, I asked him for a different table. He was much more concerned with my happiness, and immediately moved us to a perfect little table right around the corner.

From there the evening was delightful. I was pleasantly surprised to find the extensive menu with very reasonable prices (I find Savannah restaurants a bit overpriced in general, but Vic's does not fall into that category). We had the calamari appetizer, wonderfully fresh and crisp salads, biscuits that I could live on for the rest of my life with butter and marmalade, crab cakes, sea scallops that practically melted in my mouth, and a bottle of fabulous pinot gris that just danced right along with all the seafood. The crab cakes and scallops were served with an amazing risotto, and my only regret is that I was far too full for dessert. Service was just right; we were given time to linger over each course, but not so much time that we felt neglected. Our server was friendly and knowledgeable, though not overly chatty. Total bill for 1 appetizer (big enough to share), 2 salads, 2 entrees, and a bottle of wine, including tax but not tip: $105.

I'm hereby declaring Vic's a must-hit for both locals and tourists. Happy eating!

Playing Chicken

First, a plea. On the very off chance the CEO or other key decision maker in Costco is a loyal reader of this blog, would you please, please put a Costco in Savannah? It's just a weird form of cruelty to not have one.

Since we don't have a Costco here, I have to beg visiting friends and family members to pack coolers in their cars and bring me long lists of items from their own local Costco. (My sweet grandmother is my usual victim, and she could probably recite my list from heart.) One thing I always request - the Goldkist Farms whole chickens, which come 2 per pack.

I'm continuing to clean out my freezer before we depart on vacation, so yesterday's challenge was making 4 (or more!) meals for 4 people out of 2 chickens and only things I had in the fridge/pantry (no more grocery trips this week!). Want to play along?

1) Make chicken stock out of one of them. Place in large pot, toss in onion, carrots, and celery (bonus points awarded for finding a way to use up the last of the celery in the fridge). Lots of salt and pepper. Throw in a handful of herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary). Bring to a boil and then simmer for 3 hours. Remove chicken, strain broth and cool in fridge overnight. Remove fat and freeze broth. Voila, homemade chicken stock is ready to go for fall soups.

2) Make chicken casserole out of chicken that was used for the stock. Allow chicken to cool after removing it from the stock, and then pick as much chicken as possible off the bones (you'll end up with roughly 3-4 cups of chicken). Cook 160z whole wheat angel hair pasta according to directions. Strain, and then put back in pot. Add chicken, 10 oz package of frozen peas (bonus points for using up frozen peas from the freezer), 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 can cream of chicken soup, and 1 can cream of celery. Add 1/2 cup of your chicken stock and mix well. Put in 2 freezer-safe 9x9 pans, sprinkle liberally with shredded cheddar cheese, cover with plastic wrap and aluminum foil, and freeze. Voila, 2 casseroles ready and waiting for a couple of crazy busy fall days when nice hot comfort food would really hit the spot. (Note: each one of these casseroles will feed 4-6 people).

3) Roast the other chicken. Wash and dry it, sprinkle the inside with salt and pepper. Stuff chicken with lemon, onion (this used the last onion in the house, double bonus points), thyme, rosemary, parsley. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 425 for 1 hour (for my 4.5 pound bird). Eat for dinner that night.

4) Get all the leftover chicken off the roasted chicken, and make chicken and black bean quesadillas for dinner the next night.

Whew. That was a lot of chicken cooking. But there you go - just a couple hours and a couple of chickens yielded me 2 meals for this week, 2 casseroles for a later dinner, and homemade stock.

Happy eating!

The Key to Key Lime Pie

I will confess - although I love to cook, I am not much of a baker. I have two stumbling blocks. First, I genuinely don't have a sweet tooth. Cookies, cakes, pies...these just don't tempt me. (Don't worry, I have my own weaknesses - friends and family know never to stand between me and a french fry). It's very rare that we have any kind of dessert in the house beyond popsicles, ice cream sandwiches, and frozen peanut M&Ms. Second, baking requires a level of attention to detail that I just flat out don't have.

Attorney Mom, on the other hand, IS a baker (as evidenced by her previously posted red velvet cupcake recipe). She's the one you always want to bring the dessert when you're having a dinner party. But her recent efforts to master key lime pie highlight exactly why it is that attention to detail matters...too funny! She guest posts again today, and let me be the first to tell you her key lime pie is (now) perfect.

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The Key Lime Pie Debacle

Earlier this summer, I was on maternity leave for my infant son. Wrested from my normal routine of office time each day (organized calm), and now faced with entertaining the aforementioned cutie, my toddler daughter and the two big dogs, plus daily mountains of laundry and lurking furballs, I decided to set a few goals just for me. One of these was to find and perfect a killer key lime pie recipe.

Now, this recipe is fool-proof and perfect, as long as you follow it! The first time I made it, it was for supper club. As the recipe looked easy, I waited until the day of to make it. As I pulled it from the oven, I noticed it hadn’t quite set in the middle, but the recipe promised me that it would set as it cooled. So I didn’t worry...until eight hours later, when I took it from the fridge and it still jiggled. Uh-oh. With an alternative dessert in hand, I took the key lime pie to supper club, praying that fresh whipped cream would hide the jiggle. Well, it would have, if the pie hadn’t run all over the plate! The very nice, very kind friends gamely ate the pie, but I owe them each a taste of the real thing. The culprit? The tricky can of evaporated milk that was masquerading as sweetened condensed milk in my pantry!

Some recipes call for using real limes, but I find this muddies the flavor. Also, I modified the recipe to include fresh nutmeg and brown sugar in the crust, which offers a nice counterpoint to the tart lime filling. Enjoy!

Crust:
9 graham crackers, crushed
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
5 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
½ cup fresh or bottled key lime juice

Topping:
¾ cup chilled heavy cream
Powdered sugar, quantity to taste

* Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients for crust together, then press into a 9-inch glass pie plate. Bake crust in middle of oven for 10 minutes and let cool in pie plate.
* Whisk milk and egg yolks together until well combined. Add juice and whisk until well combined. Pour filling into crust and bake in middle of oven for about 15 minutes. Cool pie completely and then chill, covered, at least 8 hours.
* Just before serving, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Add powdered sugar to taste.

Red Velvet

Here is the definition of a good friend: someone who remembers that once upon a time you mentioned in passing that you don't like coconut, and several month later when she brings fabulous cupcakes as dessert for supper club, she leaves the coconut off 3 of them just for you.

We have a guest blogger today: Attorney Mom, who has the BEST recipe ever for red velvet cupcakes. Serve them with a shot glass of milk at your next dinner party and people will love you.

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So, it's exciting to be a guest-blogger, but nerve-wracking too, as I'm entering the pages of my dear friend's fantastic, discerning-palate blog! Luckily for me, she fell for these cupcakes! Now, throughout my life, to my husband's great lament, I somehow missed the majority of my mum's cooking instructions, but I did manage to catch some baking tips. One tip, not to bake when it's raining, held true the first time I tried this recipe- my cupcakes were flat as pancakes! Because the family taste-test panel (husband, toddler and two big dogs) gave them a thumbs-up on taste, I tried the recipe the next day, and they turned out great- the texture of the cakes is incredibly smooth! And, while the original recipe calls for adding coconut to the cream cheese frosting, I suggest plain cream-cheese frosting as the coconut doesn't impart that much, or any, discernible flavor. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes (from Southern Living magazine)

1 3/4 cups self-rising flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, divided
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon red food coloring
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk divided
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 18 muffins cups w/ liners. Sift flour and cocoa into small bowl. Use electric mixer to beat 1 1/2 cups sugar and 3/4 cup butter until smooth in large bowl. Beat in eggs 1 at a time; add red food coloring plus 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with 2/3 cup buttermilk in 2 additions. Make well in center; pour in remaining 1/3 cup buttermilk, vinegar, and baking soda. When bubbles form, stir into batter.
Pour batter into muffin cups, about 3/4 full- Do not overfill! Bake about 20 minutes.
For frosting: Beat cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, and remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla until smooth; add powdered sugar, with additional quantity to taste.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

Can you guess what doesn't belong on this list?

Live starfish floating in the waves
Dirty shoe
Fiddler crab
Hermit crab trying to hide in a shell
Used kleenex
Pool noodle
Blackberry
Dollar bill
Cheese grits

If you guessed cheese grits, you got it! Now, can you guess the name of the list?

No?

Here it is:

"Things my toddler has put in his mouth in the last 96 hours and tried to eat."

That's right, all of those things apparently looked like a delicious source of nutrition, except the nice bowl of cheese grits offered to him this morning, which were met with a howl of outrage that I would consider that to be an appropriate breakfast, and promptly dumped on the floor.

GRRRRRR.

Here's my recipe for crockpot grits, which could not be easier, and so lovely to wake up in the morning and have breakfast waiting for you!

1 cup Quaker old fashioned grits (Not instant grits! And to my Northern readers: not polenta - that stuff is not grits, I don't care what misinformed folks tell you).
4 cups water
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons butter

Dump in crockpot right before you go to bed, set on low, and let it cook overnight (about 8 hours). When you get up, add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (or more if you like), give it a few good stirs with a whisk, and voila, you have enough for 4 perfect bowls of grits.

Add more or less water the next time you make it, depending on how thick you like your grits - this is just the right amount for me.

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I did make the linguine with shrimp scampi last night, and cutting the lemon juice in half was exactly right. Delish!

Survivor, Savannah Style

I was apparently traumatized by the Enchilada Incident, because I haven't cooked a meal since! We've either been eating burgers by the pool or rooting around for peanut butter and jelly. Now, however, I've refocused on cooking. We are heading out on vacation in 9 short days (not that I'm counting...), so I have temporarily abandoned meal planning. Instead, I am trying to use up all the odds and ends in our freezers and pantry, so that I can start fresh when we get home.

Cleaning out the freezers and pantry is one of those endeavors that always starts off well, when you're relatively well-stocked, and ends with you trying to make a meal out of pepper jelly, canned tuna, and unidentifiable cheese ends. Happily, we're at the beginning of the clean out, and real food is still on hand. I have shrimp in the freezer, linguine in the pantry, and lemons in the fridge, so tonight is...you guessed it...Linguine with Shrimp Scampi (from Ina Garten). This is a new recipe for me, but I've included notes from a couple people who have made it before.

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil
Kosher salt
3/4 pound linguine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
1 pound large shrimp (about 16 shrimp), peeled and deveined (editorial note: get wild shrimp!)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 lemon, zest grated
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons) (editorial note: 2 people have told me this makes the dish overall too lemon-y. I'm trying it tonight with half this amount)
1/4 lemon, thinly sliced in half-rounds
1/8 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Directions:

Drizzle some oil in a large pot of boiling salted water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the linguine, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or according to the directions on the package.
Meanwhile, in another large (12-inch), heavy-bottomed pan, melt the butter and olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the garlic. Saute for 1 minute. Be careful, the garlic burns easily! Add the shrimp, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and the pepper and saute until the shrimp have just turned pink, about 5 minutes, stirring often. (Editorial note: my husband thinks this is not quite enough time to cook shrimp if you have the big fat ones, and all the wild Georgia shrimp are big and fat right now, like little mini-lobsters. I'll cook them for more like 6-7 minutes, and you should too). Remove from the heat, add the parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon slices, and red pepper flakes. Toss to combine.
When the pasta is done, drain the cooked linguine and then put it back in the pot. Immediately add the shrimp and sauce, toss well, and serve.

Happy eating!

Uh-oh: Part II

The enchilada problem was solved without further drama. I ran into the grocery store on the way to get the boys and did what I should have done in the first place - bought McCormick enchilada sauce mix, and followed the recipe on the back of the package.

Lessons learned:

1) Some things are just not worth making from scratch. I've always grouped biscuits and yogurt into that category, and now enchilada sauce as well.

2) Enchiladas, if you just following the instructions on the McCormick mix, are actually really easy and tasty, and could be made ahead of time and then popped in the oven as needed (always a bonus). Not particularly unique or creative, but I think they've earned a spot on the menu rotation around here. Sometimes with meal planning I find I just need to be reminded of different options.

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If you haven't tried the frittata recipe I posted a few days ago, not sure it's a real winner. My mom tried it and said it was fine, but a little bland.

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Of the recipes I've had sitting in my file that I'm trying to clear out, not a single one has been a home run. Bummer, but at least they're out of here now, rather than trying to tantalize me with their false promises of deliciousness. I've been a bit more ruthless with the remaining pile and tossed quite a few. The remaining ones are all soups, so they've been given a breather until the fall.

Happy eating!