"Overdone and Undercooked" Newspaper Columns©

“I forgot my lid.”

Lid?

Dave Senestraro of Brier confessed his faux pas.  Buoyant after appearing on live TV cooking his now-famous grilled veal tenderloin with roasted garlic masked potatoes in a brown sauce.

He broke into a hardy laugh.  Minutes earlier, he had been sandwiched between co-hosts Chef Kathy Casey and Channel 9 KCTS ON-AIR personality, George Ray.

Senestraro was one of the lucky few (of more than 200 entries) chosen to appear on the station’s 11th viewer cooking special, ”KCTS Cooks: On the Grill.”

“I would do it again,” the 44-year old said.  “I love the cooking shows and never miss them.”

His children, Aja and Ian, had pleaded with him to enter his recipe, which Senestraro said he discovered while trying to find a match for a Bolla Italian red wine.  His recipe now will be compiled into the latest KCTS viewers cookbook.

Wearing a navy-blue shirt and gray shorts, Senestraro looked calm and relaxed during the taping.  Minutes before going on air, Ray practiced saying Senestraro’s Italian name, and Casey revealed that they would have potatoes mashed before airtime.

Once the show started, Senestraro began to prepare the veal.  Casey observed that the dish was well-seasoned and that most home cooks are shy of the salt and pepper.

Program host, Chef Brian Poor, who also hosts a radio program called, “The Poor Man’s Kitchen,” finished brushing the grill down with a stiff wire brush.  He then wiped the grill down with an oiled cloth to keep the grill clean and well-seasoned.

He placed Senestraro’s tenderloins on the grill. Poor had his handy squirt bottle of water ready do to double duty by dousing any unwanted flames and keeping the grilling meat moist.

The meal was now ready for presentation.  Senestraro placed his grilled asparagus, artfully arranged next to the potatoes and veal.

Kathy and George eagerly awaited a bite.  George remarked on the rich colors and the wonderful presentation.

Senestraro said he learned the joys of cooking from watching his Italian grandmother.  He also learned from studying cookbooks and watching cooking shows where he soaked up all the experience he could

Animated and expansive Senestraro looks like a man who finds life very  good indeed.  His personal passion is one day buttoning himself into a chef’s jacket and opening a restaurant in Bothell where he would serve his own creations, such as grilled filet of salmon presented on a bed of fresh, pure raspberries, with cracked black peppers and topped with pistachio pesto-made with sheep cheese-instead of parmesan.

And that lid that he forgot?  The lid is actually a 2-inch metal cooking ring that, in the presentation, he uses to fill with the roasted garlic mashed potatoes.  He then smoothes the surface with a knife removing the ring.  This leaves a perfect circle of flattened potatoes, which is topped with the veal and morel gravy.

Fortunately, many mistakes are correctable, and Casey oiled a ramekin dish to substitute for his lid, and no one would have been wiser.

Dave Senestraro’s Grilled Veal Tenderloin

Serves 4

1 -1/2 veal tenderloin

4 to 6 thin slices prosciutto (the Italian word for ham sold in transparently thin slices)

2 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin oil oil

3 to 4 grinds of fresh black pepper

 2 to 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 to 3 pinches sea salt

Slice veal tenderloin into four medallions 1 to 1- ½ inches thick.  Wrap with enough prosciutto to go entirely around the medallion.  Tie with cotton string.  Place on a plate and sprinkle oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and pepper on both sides.  Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate at least an hour—grill over medium to high heat 2 to 3 minutes per side or until medium-rare to medium.

This week, Shanna takes the role of a classic crime detective to find the mystery—and the dinner—on the Spirit of Washington’s “Mystery Dinner Train.”

I had been a private gumshoe too many years to go for a comy gag like that. The train conductor had told me that what I was missing was inside the train.

I stood.  My eyes turned toward the mountains. I was looking for some short-cut that would lead me somewhere, anywhere, to the perfect Valentine for my schweetheart.

The conductor’s smile pulled the corners of his mouth out half an inch.  He reached inside his coat, prowled in a pocket, came out with a ticket. “Here.” He said, pushing the ticket in my hand. “Try it.”

Without looking back, I laughed at myself. I had time to turn around and see the words “Spirit of Washington” sketched across the locomotive. “Maybe, just maybe this could be THE Valentine gift,” I sighed.  The lightness had gone out of my step when I realized my Valentine could see through a brick wall as quickly as anyone.  This wears whiskers! I thought of all the past candy and cards. Enough already, I had to keep it a surprise!

I was looking for more than that fancy pants three-course gourmet meal.  I needed a little mystery to keep this romance alive! Just then, the Conductor handed me a brochure. Mayhem, intrigue, and a whodunit good time was available on a MURDER mystery train!

My eyes quickly swept the room.  I was sitting inside the Olympic railroad car built-in 1937.  People were boarding as the servers helped them find their dining tables.  I looked at them.  They looked at me.  My hunch says all of them could be the murderer! I would trust no one and suspect everyone!

I was breathing heavily with the effort of adding more honey butter on my roll.  I had already had plenty of the herbed cream cheese and salmon rillette.  It was a matter of minutes before the crisp romaine tossed with poppy seed vinaigrette dressing topped with fresh grapefruit, and toasted almonds were about to arrive.

I asked the waiter, Paul, for the recipe. He bared his uppers and lowers. He was more than glad to share:

MRS. T’s Poppy Seed Vinaigrette Dressing

¼ cup of sugar

1 ½ T onion juice

1 cup of vegetable oil

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp salt

1 ½ T poppy seeds

1/3 cup cider vinegar

Mix all ingredients except (the oil and poppy seed) in a blender until they are well mixed.  Add the oil slowly while continuing to blend when thickened stir in the poppy seed and refrigerate.

A young lady brightened with a smile stood up and instructed us all to wear our name tags for I.D. when they find the dead body.  She goes through the instructions fast, with technical terms flying like sparks from a train wheel.

I was lucky that night; we had a live crowd.  Not a dead beat in the group.  You could tell they were eager for the 44-mile round trip dinner experience to begin.

Suddenly a gorgeous raven-haired woman pushes her chair away from the table.   She is gagging. NO. She is choking. Her table mate’s complexion went pasty.  Suddenly the raven-haired beauty clammed up and started eating again.

Parts of it rang as wrong as a counterfeit quarter.

I whirled around, and there in the aisle stands a Detective. His teeth were smoky.  He shook my hand. I rubbed my fingers back in shape where he’d squeezed them into pretzels.

He wants to know if I was acquainted with a certain gentleman.

I told him, “Don’t push me around.  I might crack you one on the kisser.”

He went searching from table to table.  More suspicious characters started fighting.  Suddenly one of them staggered and went down into a withering heap.

The wheels of calamity were moving, but before I knew it, they had us debarking the train at Columbia Winery.

After a tour of the gift shop, where a quintet sang their hearts out, then a wine tasting we went for a tour of the winery.

Only we found more than wine barrels.

The plot thickened . . .

Cast of Characters

Spirit of Washington Dinner Train A 3 ½ hour round trip adventure including a wooden trestle built-in 1891 102 feet in height.  Seven vintage cars that have been completely restored showing scenic views with gourmet cuisine.

Gretchen’s of Course is a partnership of Schwartz Brothers Restaurants.  Guests are offered a three-course meal with an appetizer, choice of entrees, and dessert.  Northwest wines and beers are also featured.  They do all the food preparation, the staff, and the table settings

Columbia Winery  Enjoy a 45 minute stop at the winery. Including complimentary Northwest wines and a tour. Columbia is exclusively known for its Winemaker, David Lake. He is the only Master of Winemaking in the United States.

It’s a Mystery Be sure to share some personal information, and you might end up a murder suspect.  You get the chance to solve the murder, and booby prizes are awarded for the very good, the very bad, and the funny answers.

Shanna is a Northshore resident who enjoys sharing her stories and recipes with readers.  Her column appears regularly in the Citizen

I stopped on the top step of the Marriott Hotel entryway and sucked in as much fresh San Francisco air as I could.  In my hand, I held a check made out to me, Shanna, for $1 million.

Winning the Pillsbury million-dollar bake-off was as nerve-racking as a teenager out past curfew, as painful as a root canal and as difficult as preparing your taxes.

I ought to know, I can now afford to chuckle but up until this minute I vowed never to be so humiliated again.

You might think a cooking aficionado ( such as myself) would be thrilled and honored to participate in such a fantastic time-honored event. But cooking is not without its dark side.

This is what happened to me.  This is my story.

Last December, 100 Bake-Off entrants were notified that their recipes had been selected for the contest finals; which were held last month.  For me, this meant an expense-paid trip to the competition finals in San Francisco, the opportunity to win $1 million! And most importantly-national recognition.

If only my Aunt Maddie had lived to see this-she had won every blue ribbon at every state fair for the last 60 years of her life for her famous apple pie.  If she had found out, I put her recipe in the Pillsbury Million Dollar Contest she would have throttled me.  She was a mean old bat.

Only on her death bed, when all the relatives were lined up around the bed, did Aunt Maddie point her crippled, arthritic, 90-year-old finger at me.

At a whisper, Aunt Maddie said, ‘Tell the family the jokes on them (sickly cough.) The secret in my famous apple pie, (a very long silent pause) I never used apples (weak laugh). It was pears!” I tore out of that room and immediately sent the recipe directly to the Bake-Off.

I and a zillion others were flown straight to an oven, where the immense pressure began.  Immediately, when I saw the new crust-free, stainless oven, I became confused and disoriented.  There was no messy kitchen attached to it.  There were no toddlers hanging on my ankles, nor teenagers yelling that they refused to eat that slop another night.

I announced to the group that I could not cook under these sterile circumstances, and I threw down my apron ready to walk home a beaten woman.

If it wasn’t for Pills, the Pillsbury Doughboy, I–I don’t even want to think about it.   He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes.  Still, even as a crusty old man, he was a role model for millions.  He persuaded me to stay.  I rolled up my sleeves and began to dirty up that oven.  I threw flour in all directions. I greased the burners and started a smoke fire.  Finally, I was comfortable enough to cook.

Panic ensued anyway.  Even a cool-headed cook such as myself began to succumb to a culinary meltdown.  Unfortunately, I set my finished creation, Aunt Maddie’s Apple Pie, onto the chair to cool, then absent-mindedly sat on it after hearing this doozy from a co-contestant:

My personal new best friend, Veteran Pillsbury spokesman.  The Pillsbury Doughboy had died of a severe yeast infection and complications from repeated poking to the belly.  He was only 71.

My co-contestant explained to me (she is from Jersey), “Hey, get over it! You’re not his only friend, ya know. I hear Mrs. Butterworth, The California Raisins, Hungry Jack, Betty Crocker, The Hostess Twinkies, Captain Crunch, and many others gonna be thar to help deliver the eulogy.”

Lucky for me, and so typical of Pills good nature, one of the rules he created was to allow for making the recipe three times. I figured, good enough.  That is when I baked a new pie for the judges…it was the winner.

But naturally, I knew this would happen because a dessert always wins. One top winner will be chosen in each of the four recipe categories: Yada, Yada, Yada. BUT first place is always the fourth category: desserts and treats.

What judge is going to remember that simple shrimp taco when dessert is coming around the corner?  I know I’m not alone here because what it boils down to is what does everyone remembers about a meal–DESSERT!  What tastes best in a meal–DESSERT.  Why do you eat a meal–DESSERT.

I returned home to an ungrateful family.

“Shanna, don’t you think you’re crying over spilled milk,” my husband said.

“I can handle it!” I would holler. “Without Pills, do you think I would have won? Huh? Huh?”

I’m feeling stressed again.  Having money is nothing but work.  This is my last column. OVERDONE and UNDERCOOKED is POOPED and EXHAUSTED.

Besides, I don’t need the money.

You’re probably not going to believe this, but there are still some people in this modern-day and age who do not have any green to wear on the greenest of days, St Patrick’s!

My husband, such a little leprechaun really gets a kick out of giving you a pinch if you don’t sport green on St. Patrick’s Day

“Aye, my lassie, do not forget to wear your green tomorrow,”said my husband, his eyes shining.

“Oh, you’re cute, honey. What is in your closet that is green?” I said smugly.

He scrutinized me closely, squinted his eyes, and appeared with a closed box.

“What’s in the box?” I asked.

He was silent for a moment. Then he lifted the lid threw back his head laughed and punched me playfully on the arm.

I looked in the box.

I looked at him

I looked back in the box at last year’s clip-on cloverleaf design battery operated green bow tie that blinks incessantly.

Ouch!  How could I have forgotten? Holidays, our family abuses them.  We do not settle for a one-day landing.  We make all 30 days of the holiday month a crazed madness.

We decorate the house, eat only foods in holiday colors, and wear matching outfits.

The closets in our home each hold boxes marked with a holiday month.

‘Be careful up there on the kitchen chair!”

“It is way in the back,” my husband hollers, then turns around and hoops the box into my arms.

‘Settle down everybody.” I shout and rummage through the box, pulling out our daughter’s sun-bleached green three leave clover cutouts she made in pre-school.

“Oh, Mom, you’re not going to hang that up,” she pleads.

“Surely you jest,” as I point and gesture to hang them on the dining room chandelier.

Next came the accordion paper dancing leprechauns. They decorate the coffee tables. The green shamrocks go on all the windows. The pot of gold is the table centerpiece.  Then there is the door decoration, the Kleenex holder, the Irish piano music, and finally, the box is empty; the house is radiant.

Some people say there is no need for all this hooten n hollering. I used to react to that remark. 1.  by clearing my throat. 2.  shielding my face with my hand and 3.  slithering out of the room.

But no more. 

I will admit it. Yes, I am a holiday over doer.  I cannot just serve shamrock cookies and be done with it.

And this is where we’ve come to the heart of the matter.

Noone suffers more and is appreciated less than us Holiday Overdoers. There’s a lot of theories on why the American family has divided this way: those who Do and those who Don’t. 

But in defense of those that Do, it is like this: figuring that there are 10 (only 10!) major holidays out of 365 days of the year, well…Okay, a little teensy bit more if your throw in one-day holidays like birthdays and like Cinco De Mayo (May 5^th, for those of you who don’t know) because you cannot keep eating that delicious food day after day without the consequences of a new dress size.

It’s true we have a strange power that overcomes us.  I have talked to other Doers, and they all agree, it is natural.

So, even though we will be dining on corned beef, cabbage, and soda bread, I did not forget about you souls who acknowledge holidays quietly and with dignity.

I have the perfect recipe with just a dash of madness…Irish Coffee.

Irish Coffee serves as a pleasant punctuation mark to the evening.         

But please remember to have compassion for the rest of us on St. Patrick’s Day and ….please, wear green.

Slainte!

IRISH COFFEE

1 cup chilled whipped cream

¼ cup confectioners sugar

One teaspoon vanilla

4 cups hot, fresh coffee

4 ounces Irish whiskey

4 to 8 teaspoons granulated sugar

In a chilled bowl, beat cream, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla until stiff.  Place in the fridge.

Heat coffee cups with boiling water, rinsed, and drain.  Add one ounce (two tablespoons) whiskey and one to two teaspoons granulated sugar to each cup; stir.

Pour hot coffee into each cup.  Top with the whipped cream.  Serve Immediately.

This extra-rich and creamy after-dinner beverage is best served in your finest goblets.

If you’re like me and every minute counts for that extra sleep in the morning and getting up is just too hard, well here’s something that may change your mind.

The latest reports are that breakfast is your most important meal and that expressions like “Breakfast like a King” “Lunch like a Prince” and “Dinner like a Pauper” are good advice.

One reason why breakfast is so important is that it can make the difference between good humor or a contagious crank.

Active people need a hearty breakfast meal packed with protein to start the day.

Lunch should be light and mellow and if there is to be no late dancing afoot, dinner should be the lightest of all three meals.

Once your breakfast starts to become a lively imaginative meal, the morning will be something to look forward to and those hot summer nights will be cooler with a light stomach.

There are many scrumptious dishes for breakfast and here are just a few:

PORTUGUESE EGGS

Cut the top off a ripe, juicy tomato; scoop out the seeds and core. Season inside with salt and pepper, add a few snips of fresh basil.  Break an egg into the cavity and bake in a hot oven until the egg is set.

This method poaches the egg in the juice of the tomato which is very tasty and light.  Several can be done in one pan.

RICE CAKES

One and one-fourth cup rice, boiled, still hot

½ stick butter

2 cups of milk

¼ teaspoon salt

Two eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup flour

Stir butter into rice; add milk, salt, eggs; mix well.  Sprinkle in flour and knead into a soft dough.  Divide into ½ inch thick patties and cook on a hot griddle until both sides are brown and crisp.

If the rice cakes are not crisp enough, they can be dried out a little in a warm oven.  Make four servings.

GIANT EGG ROLL

Two eggs

¼ cup flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup milk

Two Tablespoons butter

Crisp filling (recipe below)

Slightly beat eggs with salt.  Add flour and beat until smooth.  Add milk and beat again until smooth.  Heat butter in a large heavy frying pan over medium-high heat until it bubbles.  Add batter. Transfer to a 350-degree oven and bake for 25 minutes.  Gently loosen pancake with a flexible spatula and slip onto a serving platter.  Spoon the crisp filling inside and roll the pancake up like a jelly roll.

Crisp filling; ½ cup bean sprouts, ten green onions cut into julienne strips, ½ cup cooked ham or chicken.  Fill above ingredients inside the giant egg roll.  Be imaginative and have fun with unusual fillings

BREAKFAST SHAKE

¾ cup plain low-fat yogurt or 1 cup buttermilk

¼ cup low-fat milk

1 cup fresh fruit, like mango or pineapple-the riper the better

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

Three ice cube or ¼ cup crushed ice

Place all the ingredients in a blender and process until well combined.  Serve immediately.

LOW-FAT BREAKFAST DANISH

1 cup low-fat cottage cheese

Cinnamon-sugar mixture

Four slices of bread

Divide the cottage cheese among the four pieces of bread. Spread the cottage cheese evenly then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Place under broiler for a few minutes till cottage cheese and cinnamon-sugar mixture hot.

Something strange happens to me when I spend a day without my…list.

Whassamatter?

Do you think I mean a grocery list?

Oh, no.  I’m talking about THE list.  You know, the one and only…” What-You-Have-To-Do-Today,” list.

Let me run you through a short lesson on list assembly.

Okay, let’s take today for instance. Today is Wednesday, Wednesday would be written in large, bold, block print (all capitals) at the top of the paper.

Then below that write “1.” followed by the most important thing you need to do that day.  Continue adding items, with each being a little less important than the previous one.

Well, there you go. OK. So the list is essential because without it I’am lost all day.  I have no direction.

My friend, Margo, finds it ridiculous that I use a To-Do list.

“For crying out loud, that’s why you have a brain,” she’ll holler.  “Just remember what you got to do.”

This from a friend, as she begs me to help her find her car keys, over the phone.

What can I tell you? Lists to me are like pet peeves to others.

You know how they collect them and then share them with you over and over like my friend, Margo. I’m sure she has broken the world’s record for the longest sustained continuous sentence of pet-peeve gripes.

Here let me go get my list and read it off to you. Margo’s biggest pet peeves: Hot jean zippers grabbed right out of the dryer, lipstick on your teeth, the grocery cart with wobbly wheels…I mean the list goes on and on.

Ah, but I digress.

I am awestruck by this sheer power of those folks who never write a list.  Margo can call it a hokey ritual but without my list I could not remind her to try this recipe.

It is as yummy as a box of chocolates, but it is also a low-calorie treat.

Enjoy.

LOW-CAL PEPPERMINT CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM CAKE ROLL

Spray a large glass (like you would use to bake lasagna) baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.  Line bottom with waxed paper and spray again.

Prepare one boxed package of light devil’s food cake mix.  Prepare cake mix batter according to package directions using 1 1/3 cup of water and three eggs.

Spread the batter in the glass baking dish. Microwave at medium (50 percent) for nine minutes, rotating dish at half-turn after four minutes; Microwave at High (100 percent) for 1 ½ minutes.

Let stand for five minutes. Meanwhile prepare a clean kitchen towel laid out flat and sprinkle generously with confectioner sugar. 

Loosen edges on the cooled cake pan and invert cake onto the towel.  Carefully remove waxed paper from the cake and sprinkle cake with confectioner sugar.

Start with the shorter end of the cake and roll it up slowly and gently in the kitchen towel to make a cake roll.

Place cake roll on a plate. Sprinkle cake roll with crushed peppermint candy on top of the confectioner sugar.

Serve slices with a scoop of low-fat ice cream and top with low-fat hot fudge.

It’s a pleasant, wet and rainy day, and I am standing in a semicircle of approximately 133 “you cut ’em” Christmas trees.

My husband is running with a sawblade in his left hand, a blue tarp in his right hand, and a translucent look in his eyes.  Evidently, he has spotted yet another tree that might meet his specific conditions.

My 7-year old daughter is lying on the ground at my feet, moaning deliriously that she is “tree sick.”  Her tiny limp body is lying quietly as she explains that after rows and rows of trees she can no long muster the energy to walk another step.

I don’t know about you, but when I go to ‘cut’em” I don’t waste a lot of time. I stride briskly to the most attractive tree standing and shout, “Here!”

Your professional Christmas tree cutter (husband), on the other hand, does not even think about cutting until he has conducted a complete tree study of the site-circling the selected tree warily, as though it were an alien space-ship, checking it out from every possible angle, squatting and squinting, finger in the air checking the wind, feeling the needles, analyzing the distance from the road to the truck, back to the tree…

And so, amid an atmosphere of unbearable tension, comparable to not being able to find your car keys when you are already late to that very important meeting, my daughter and I wait, and wait, and wait.

By now our daughter is trying to make snow angels in the mud and I am unbelievably letting her.  I see other families in the tree farm.  They’re staring intently at trees way off in the distance, but I think they’re staring at us.  We have been here so long.

I think about grabbing my daughter’s hand and pulling her up to her feet and taking her down the hill for our third cup of hot cider and her second candy cane, but too late, she has been entertaining the crowds by holding her breath as she runs up and down the tree rows.

The more time that passed with virtually nothing happening, the more excited I got about that cider.  I started down the hill when suddenly I heard a loud, long, whopping yelp that I recognized as my husband.

I turned to see him stand up, wipe tree pitch off his hands, and in a voice that would have made a gold digger stop, announced, “This …is the tree.”

There it stood in all of its glory-all 14 feet of it.

“That’s too big,” I said.

“Not so,” he said. “I will trim off the bottom.  You’ll see.”

“Don’t you remember last year?” I asked.  “It was too big, you did not trim enough.”

“Did so.”

“Did not.”

“Did so.

“Did not.”

“Did.”

“Not!”

Like anything else, success depends on the proper tools, so in the back of our truck is an assortment of many saws, blue tarps, gloves, rope and any necessity to fall Paul Bunyan’s tree.

“Quick, run back to the truck and pick out the yellowed handled two blade milliliter saw.  Oh, and by the way, grab me a cider,” he says with a big smile.

Rolling my eyes back in my head and shrugging my shoulders, I approached the tree surgeon punched him in the arm where he pretended to be knocked into the fir tree, and I headed to the car trying to consider the many, many complex factors involved in the “you cut ’em tree man.

This is, after all, a once a year experience.  And this tree-prepare to experience a heart tremor- was home cut.  How were we going to get it in the truck, let alone through the front door?  At least when I finally do get home I can make a nice hot cup of:

HOT SPICY APPLE CIDER

6 cups apple cider, 1 cinnamon stick, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon lemon rind, 1 can (2-1/2 cups) unsweetened pineapple juice.

Heat cider and cinnamon stick in a large pan.  Bring to a boil and simmer covered for 5 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered 5 minutes longer.

SIMPLY DELICIOUS EGGNOG

1 egg, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 cup chilled milk, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla.  Beat egg and sugar together.  Beat in milk and vanilla.  Serve cold in a tall glass sprinkled lightly with nutmeg.  Serve immediately

Note:  This column was published in Sandra Haldeman Martz of Papier-Mache Press, anthology “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays”.  Where I was welcomed by two different Barnes & Noble bookstores that held a booksigning and reading. 

If John Wayne were alive today he could play the lead in Mark Cave’s life.

Cave has the looks of a movie star and the heart of a cowboy.  His hands-on experience has led him to the premier position as winemaker for Paul Thomas wines.

“I started as a cellar rat,” the 6’5” Cave recalled. “Flipping wine barrels, scrubbing floors, washing out tanks and filtering the wine.”

Cave, 39, is still enjoying a day full of variety, but with the added twist of being accountable for the daily decisions of running a state- of- the- art production facility.

The stainless steel winery is a reflection of Cave’s own design and sits near Paul Thomas’s 220-acre vineyard in Sunnyside, Washington.

Paul Thomas Winery, one of the Associate Vintners group, includes Woodinville’s Columbia Winery and Covey Run.

Cave smiled as he stood on the garden terrace of the India House Restaurant in Seattle.  He was hosting a ‘winemaker’ dinner where his award-winning wines were being paired with the fabulous cuisine of Chef Tapan Bose, and new owner of the restaurant.

“Tonight we will enjoy some of our special wines, a 1995 Rattlesnake Red, a Pear wine and a 1993 Lemberger.”

“These wines complement so well the mouth-watering flavors of Indian food,” said Cave “…tomorrow, I may have to spend the day in meetings or I might have to fix a pump motor, or I could be in the vineyards kicking dirt clogs.”

According to Cave he will soon become a ‘slave to the grape’ in September when every day becomes 24-hour days preparing the grapes for wine.

Cave was hired in 1986 as an assistant to the winemaker and two years later became the winemaker for Paul Thomas wines.

Paul Thomas is a recognized producer of wines that reflect a combination of excellent fruit and expert winemaking that is why Tapan Bose, himself a wine connoisseur, creates food that is designed to complement Paul Thomas wine.

“Bose specialty, “Barah Kabab” (rack of lamb) is first marinated for 24 hours in olive oil, lemon, and fresh garlic.  Then it is covered in a paste of tomatoes, onions and yogurt.  After roasting it is brushed with ginger, cumin, coriander, and dry mango powder.

Originally from Calcutta, India, Bose is as animated as he is solemn. His enthusiasm for his re-molded restaurant, new chefs, new and updated menus reflect his energy and focused purpose.

“At India House everyone is treated as guests not as customers,” said   Bose.  Then, swinging his arms to take in his restaurant, he exclaimed, ”Look at this! A showcase of Indian art and architecture and I have an exhibition Tandoor kitchen!” The Tandoor kitchen used throughout India is a rounded-top oven made of clay.

“Our oven is always at 850 degrees and it is enclosed in glass for people to enjoy as they walk by,” he explained.

Bose instructed one of his chefs to prepare “Papadam” (Indian crispy bread). The chef took the dough and slapped it directly onto the inside oven’s wall and left it to bake. In seconds, it began to bubble and brown. The chef expertly peeled it off in one piece and then sliced it into quarters.

Meats are usually skewered and thrust into the oven’s intense heat.  A chicken half can cook in less than 5 minutes.

Bose’s recipe for “Diwane” (a mixture of cauliflower, potatoes, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, green peas, green bell pepper, eggplant, and frozen spinach.

Chop the large vegetables into bite-size pieces; add all the vegetables with a little water in a large frying pan (wok works well)steam until tender-crisp.  Add fresh ginger and finely chopped garlic.

Make an onion gravy by placing finely chopped onions in boiling water, boil until all water is gone and you have an onion paste left.  Add fresh tomatoes and a little vegetable oil. Set aside.

Next, make a tomato gravy with fresh and canned whole peeled tomatoes by reducing the liquid as you did with the onion gravy until you have a paste.

Combine the tomato and onion gravies stir into the vegetables.  Add to taste roasted cumin, coriander seeds, fresh turmeric, cayenne pepper and garam masala on top.  Serve.

The India House is the first Indian Restaurant established in the State of Washington and is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, including a Sunday Champagne brunch.

INDIAN SPICES

GARAM MASALA: An aromatic Indian blend of spices usually features cardamom, cinnamon, cumin and cloves.  Usually sprinkled directly on food near the end of cooking or just before serving.

CARDAMOM: The seeds are dark brown and very fragrant and a significant component of Garam Masala. Ground cardamom can be less flavorful. The whole seeds can be found in the Mexican food section.

TAMARIND: An important ingredient in Worcestershire sauce is widely grown in India.  It is a seed and a sour-sweet pulp. Its concentrate is a popular flavoring in India much as lemon juice is in the states.  Used in chutneys, a spicy condiment that contains fruit vinegar, sugar and spices.

TURMERIC: A root that belongs to the ginger family. It is used often in curries and pickles.

CILANTRO: Is the Spanish name for fresh coriander. It is a member of the parsley family noted for its medium green color and flat serrated leaves, its sweet seed is the spice, Coriander.

Back before microwaves and MTV (remember records?) there was a newlywed who thought she knew the whole kit and kaboodle of life.

She lived in Georgia surrounded by strange places and new faces.

Her new job at the local daily paper was to write obituaries, weather and TV highlights.

When the Family page editor’s pregnancy left an opening, she found herself writing a daily food column, which she crowned “Overdone and Undercooked” the title coming from her unique newlywed cooking skills.

Back before yuppies (where did earth shoes and psychedelic painted vans go?)  There was a married woman motivated by the curriculum of her new college town, she surrounded herself in exams, parties, philosophy, parties and midnight snacks.

The local paper was thrilled to run the new “Overdone and Undercooked” that had recipes for beer bread and advice on how to feed a crowd of 50.

That is when she ran into an incredible phenomenon – sell all your worldly possessions and travel till your money runs out.

Back before “state of the art” and “Let’s do lunch” there was a wife who ate her way through Mexico, half the U.S. states and 17 European countries.

By Venice when the gondola started to tip precariously and all the swimwear had shrunk in Mexico she returned home and ventured that wearing all the culinary classics on one’s hips would never start a new trend.

But it did turn “Overdone and Undercooked” into a gastronomical gourmet event and she became addicted to eating and showed no signs of breaking the habit.

After a decade of marriage, she was used to him being messy and he was used to her being chunky.  Next came pregnancy and motherhood. Before motherhood she had told her best friend that the friend was raising her three sons all wrong.

She would never ever feed her kids Lucky Charms, or give ‘em a nuki (pacifier) use plastic diapers or forget to pick them up at school. Now tears welled in her eyes as the new mom fell to her knees and grabbed her best friend by her ankles, begging for forgiveness.

Back before rural towns became cities she was still living in her bathrobe, no makeup and picking up last year’s tinsel, when something life-changing happened.

The door slammed.  It was at 8 a.m. Silence. Her twins started grade school.

“Now,” her husband patted her shoulder, “You can come work with me.”

So for the first time in six years, she grew fingernails, shaved her legs and finished a complete sentence uninterrupted. The first client that was rude, she told them she was going to count to three.

Back before her town had a freeway tunnel the wife/mom/head chef/bottle washer saw her babies had turned into a pre-adolescent with a very busy social life and a request-that Mom’s name not appear on any more volunteer lists. As she watched her children learn basketball and the tuba, she realizes that they were happy healthy children and it was time…

She went to her closet and pulled out the special trunk and in there she dusted off her old friend. She realized that she knew squat about the kit and kaboodle of life, but she had become a better cook!

And she had something she hadn’t had in a while-time. And tremendous energy and enthusiasm for a desire to share with the world the joys and enjoyment of the pleasure of the table.

“Overdone and Undercooked” is a joy to share with you, my new friends.

Together, we will consume enormous quantities of home-cooked goods and pitchers of delicious drinks.

We shall start this new adventure, this rebirth together with the most appropriate recipe –infant food.

The woman of today is an intelligent customer.  She is concerned with value and nutrition and many have shunned the preservative ingredients of canned baby food.

That’s why I always enjoyed easy to make and serve Food Cubes.  Don’t laugh!  These are the best way to help your baby have fresh food.  Warmly heat and eat.  All you need is a blender.

Try this excellent recipe today:

MEAL IN ONE FOOD CUBE

1 cup cooked poultry, meat, organ meat or fish

2/3 cup vegetables or fruit, raw or cooked

½ cup cooked rice, noodles or cereal

One cup (or less) liquid cooking water from vegetables or fruit juice.

Place liquid in blender.  Add other ingredients. Puree to desired consistency freeze in ice cube trays at once. Can be kept frozen for 1-4 months equals three cups, 16 food cubes or 4-5 meals.

The dryer buzzer was going off. The dog was whining at the door to be let out, the phone was ringing and I was lying in a horizontal position on the bed with my stomach sucked in and my breath held trying to get my jeans zipper zipped.

The doorbell rang.  That did it I would not realistically fit into those jeans so I flung them off and grabbed my good old elastic waistband sweat pants ran down the stairs to open the door.

No one was there — only a flyer wrapped around the doorknob for pizza.

“PIZZA!” I hollered as I slammed the door after the dog darted out.  I murmured, under my breath as I found myself standing in front of the fridge looking at my favorite food in the whole wide world: CHEESE!  After chocolate there is only one thing better-melted cheese.

Here are a few facts cheese lovers need to know.

Cheese concentrates a lot of food value into a small package. It contains most of the nutrients of milk, though in different amounts.  Nutrients include protein, riboflavin and calcium.  The protein in cheese is of the same high quality as the protein in meat, fish and eggs.

Cheese keeps best in the refrigerator.  How long it will keep depends on the kind of cheese and its wrapper.  Soft cheese-such as cottage cheese and Neufchatel are highly perishable. 

Hard cheeses such as Cheddar and Swiss keep much longer than soft cheese if protected from drying out. 

Leave the cheese in its original wrapper, if possible.  Cover cut surfaces tightly with waxed paper, foil or plastic to protect the surface from drying out, or store the cheese in a tightly covered container.

Any surface mold that develops on hard natural cheese should be trimmed off entirely. However, in mold-ripened cheese such as Roquefort, mold is an integral part of the cheese and can be eaten.  If mold penetrates the interior of cheeses that are not ripened by molds such as Cheddar and Swiss cut away the moldy portions or discard the cheese.  Freezing is not recommended for most cheese because they become crumbly and mealy when frozen.

Successful cheese cookery depends on brief heating at a low temperature. High temperatures and long cooking make cheese tough and stringy and cause the fat to separate out.  Also, some of the flavor is lost.

Cheese blends more readily with other ingredients and melts more if you shred or dice it first — one-half pound of cheese yields about 2 cups of shredded cheese.

Soft, well-aged Cheddar melts and blends with other ingredients more readily then less-ripened cheese and less Cheddar is needed because it has a more pronounced flavor. Process cheese also melts and blends readily but has a much milder flavor.

Melt cheese in the top of a double boiler over simmering water or add it to a hot mixture.  When making the cheese sauce, stir shredded cheese into the completed white sauce and heat only enough to melt the cheese.  When making a cheese omelet, add the shredded cheese after the omelet is cooked-just before folding.

Cheese can be melted under the broiler too.  Open-faced cheese sandwiches can be made this way. Place the sandwich so the cheese is 4 or 5 inches from the heat. Broil just until the cheese begins to melt.

Casserole dishes containing cheese should be baked at low to moderate temperature. To prevent cheese toppings from toughening or hardening during baking.  Cover them with crumbs or add the cheese just a few minutes before removing the food from the oven.

ROQUEFORT: Sharp, peppery, piquant flavor. Semisoft, pasty, sometimes crumbly texture. White interior streaked with blue-green veins of mold

STILTON: Similar to Roquefort yet milder with an open, flaxy texture and a creamy-white interior streaked with the same blue-green veins of mold as Roquefort yet it has a wrinkle, melon-like rind.

NEUFCHATEL: (New-sha-tel) Mild texture similar to cream cheese but lower in fat.

GOUDA: Mellow, nutlike, often slightly acid flavor semifort to firm. Smooth texture often containing small holes. Creamy-yellow or medium yellow-orange interior.  Usually has red wax coating and shaped like a flattened ball.

GRUYERE: (Grew-Yare) Nutlike salty flavor similar to Swiss but sharper firm smooth with small holes or eyes, light yellow.