Dinner at New Sammy's

New Sammys Cowboy Bistro
2210 S Pacific Hwy, Talent, OR
Tel: (541) 535-2779

A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY DINNER for a special friend, at one of the best restaurants I know.

Green salad with dried sour cherries and feta cheese

Lamb stew with mushrooms and risotto

Rose ice cream cone (upside down) with caramel sauce and raspberries

Rosé "Pink Floyd", Chateau Miraval, 2007
Vin rouge de Marsillac, Philippe Teulier, 2006

A splendid dinner.

Salad

Ashland, Oregon, September 6—

IT WILL BE IN THE NATURE of this blog to be repetitive; that probably applies to most blogs. I apologize for this now; I'll try never to repeat the apology.

It never takes long when we're on the road before we miss our salads. This time we brought oil and vinegar along, and one of Nancy Skall's delicous Walla Walla onions, and yesterday we visited the Saturday farmer's market here and bought a head of lettuce and a bag of small lettuce; and, at the community supermarket, a couple of avocados.

I diced up a bunch of red-and-white ("French breakfast") radishes to add some texture and complexity, and made the usual vinaigrette but without garlic, since Lindsey was making garlic toasts. Alas I couldn't find decent salt in the cupboard; we settled for run-of-the-mill. After I brought the salad to the table, though, Margery, who had been looking for something else, found the Italian sea salt I'd bought last year, so that got added at the last minute. What a difference good salt makes!

Dinner was a "lamb-burger" at one of the local brew pubs; okay, not much more than that.

Pizza ordered from away

NOTHING TO BRAG ABOUT here; we ordered pizza to be delivered. First, of course, a considerable discusison concerning parameters:

Obligatory: dough; tomato; cheese; anchovies;…
Forbidden: pineapple, chicken, ground beef…
Permitted: garlic, artichoke, peppers…

Of course it all came as unexpected; we'd begun with Martinis and such. Can't be helped.

Lunch at New Sammy's

New Sammys Cowboy Bistro
2210 S Pacific Hwy, Talent, OR
Tel: (541) 535-2779

A TRIP TO A WINERY this morning: Cowhorn, out near Jacksonville, here in southern Oregon. It's a small young vineyard-winery operation, with a total production of less than a thousand cases in 2006, its second year of production. We tasted Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne, and Syrah; the dedication is entirely to Rhone varietals and Rhone-type wines.
The dedication is also to biodynamic production, and the winery is associated, through one of its owners, with Demeter® USA, "the only certification agent for Biodynamic® farms", as its website points out: so from now on you're going to have to put that little encircled "r" after the word biodynamic.
In any case (and there are very few cases) the wines were delicious, delicious to the point that we actually bought a couple of bottles for special occasions later on. And then we went on to New Sammy's for lunch.

Here is Charlene's garden, or rather a corner of it, out behind the restaurant, which is in the country about halfway between Ashland and Talent, Oregon. It's not a great photo; I took it with my telephone. And it doesn't begin to convey the garden's fragrance.
Charlene's cuisine makes great use of responsibly raised (or caught) beef, lamb, fish, and poultry; but it is rooted in, based on, the garden and its vegetables and herbs. Today I had ravioli, one filled with wild mushroom, the other not. The plate was a riot (meant in the best sense) of vegetables: red and yellow tomato, eggplant, corn, pepper, onion among them, each with its own bright flavor, all coexisting happily on the plate as they do in the garden, all contributing to a sensual delight.

Pinot grigio Collio 2006

Back to Piatti

BACK TO PASTA PIATTI (see yesterday) for another salad: this time "Caesar," in quotes because 1) no anchovy 2) no raw egg. I'm resigned to the latter; the stupid salmonella police have ruined things for all of us. But why no anchovy? Bogus; bogus.

On the other hand I just came home from what may have been the definitive performance of Othello. I think I'll never go see another production of it. I hope to write about it, and other plays seen this week, over at The Eastside View: it's two weeks now since I've been there.

Tuna and beans

Ashland, Oregon, Sept. 2—

THE USUAL BREAKFAST and a fried egg; half a pastrami sandwich for lunch; a long drive; dinner at Pasta Piatti, an Italian restaurant around the corner.
The menu's too long, I think; it has to depend on bulk set-ups. But some at least of the produce seems fresh and local, the wine list is interesting, and the setting's nice enough, particularly if you're eating outside in pleasant weather.
I see now I ordered exactly what I had a year ago, tuna-cannelini salad: as then, the tuna nicely grilled but in two large slabs; deficient in chopped onion. I'm not sure a classic Italian salad like this is improved by the addition of sesame seeds, but there they were.
With it, a glass of Monica Argiolas 2005, very nice. It's a good wine list.

358 E. Main St., Ashland, Oregon; tel. (541) 488-5493; http://www.pastapiatti.com/

Pasta al pesto

WE'RE GETTING READY for another trip, a short one — a short week in Ashland, another in Portland. There'll be some interesting eating, no doubt. Today, though, nothing fancy: it's time to clean out the refrigerator. We had grilled Poblanos and broiled sliced eggplant; penne al pesto; and a nice Charentais melon for dinner.

The eggplant? It was Thérèse's invention quite a while back: slice the eggplant pretty thin — lengthwise is best, I think — brush the slices with olive oil, salt them, and lay them out on a cookie sheet; set them in a medium oven and bake until browned and a little crisp. You don't need as much oil as usual, and there's no bitterness.

Cheap Pinot grigio, comme d'habitude…