Lets Hear it for the Lemons!

This blog periodically hints at the fact that I'm from Santa Barbara.  I'm really lucky to live here and I definitely try and live it up by enjoying the lifestyle as much as I can.  What most readers don't realize is that while I was raised in Santa Barbara proper, I've lived in the neighboring city, Goleta, for the last 15 years (wow, I had to calculate that a few times to realize how long it has been!).  Goleta hosts the California Lemon Festival every year in October, and the park in which it is held is quite close to where we live.  It is really a great little festival and includes a really cool classic car show on Saturday.  2011 was the first year in a long time that the husband and I were able to go to the Lemon Festival together, and the first year ever for him to actually see the classic cars.  We really made quite a day out of it, strolling through the cars, eating some yummy treats and waiting in a really long line for the above treat, only to be told they were out of whole pies, so we had to come back and wait in the really long line AGAIN!  It was definitely worth it.  I highly recommend other Californians to visit Santa Barbara's lesser known sibling, Goleta, for the Lemon Festival and to get at least a slice of pie.  You won't regret it!

Full disclaimer: Usually I wouldn't post something about a pie I didn't bake, but my husband really wanted this up on the blog, he was so excited about this pie.  Now back to your regular (or not so regular) posts!

Restaurant Review: Bouchon

I really ate well for my birthday this year. It has been really amazing, since food has become our hobby, how much my tastes in birthday restaurants have changed. The first time I took the husband out to dinner for his birthday, we went to the Outback (that was his 30th birthday, so while we were at the restaurant, our roommate was getting the house ready for his surprise party, since I was too young to buy the beer!). I recently went through all our gift cards and found that we have 3 different Outback gift cards that we haven't used because we just aren't interested in that kind of food anymore. So this year, for my birthday, I enjoyed a small birthday lunch (stupid sales conference means that 2/3 of my office is always out on my birthday) at Olio Pizzeria, a fairly new and very authentic Italian pizzeria. All 4 girls at our table finished our entire meals, which is very unusual for our group, it was just so tasty! But the highlight of the day was definitely Bouchon. After much deliberation, I chose Bouchon for my dinner date with my husband the night of my birthday. We were pleased to find out that Bouchon was owned by the same team that runs Wine Cask, another of our favorite uber-fancy restaurants. Bouchon has many of the same aspects that we love about Wine Cask - fantastic wine list, unique menu items, knowledgable servers, and especially, their locally sourced ingredients. We started with the local crab cakes (no picture, but the menu describes them as being served with: "charred corn and microgreens salad, red bell pepper coulis, basil aioli and local avocado." These were delicious and fresh, with lovely completary tastes with the fresh items on the plate.

Now to the fun stuff with pictures:

My husband enjoyed a sea bass with carrot risotto and a fresh pea sauce. This dish was so intriguing. If you were to take a bite of the fish by itself, it would have been too salty to enjoy. But enjoying a bite with the risotto or the pea sauce, it was perfectly balanced. The texture of the fish was great, too - nice and crispy crust, but a soft velvety texture inside.

I had the grilled rack of lamb, which is lately all I have eyes for when I'm out at a nice restaurant. I believe that this was served over braised kale and a lentil pilaf with house made bacon, but the menu has changed, so I'm not sure of the exact details. This was just delicious. I love the rich earthy flavor of lamb - it is like beef has been kicked up with twice as much flavor. The only trouble with ordering lamb at fancy restaurants is that I have to avoid picking up the bones and picking every last little bit of meat off them like I do ribs at a barbeque - finger foods tend to be frowned upon a bit at these sorts of restaurants. Thankfully, I'm pretty skilled at using a knife & fork to get every last scrap! I also enjoyed the lentil pilaf and I'm going to start using lentils at home a bit.

Since we had cupcakes waiting for us at home, we didn't order dessert here. The restaurant instead comped both of my glasses of wine in honor of my birthday. We were really impressed with the service here and both of us agree that we like the ambiance even better than Wine Cask. We will be back for more special occassions, I'm sure!

Birthday Dinner at Opal

One of my favorite things about birthdays is that we always go out to a really nice dinner to celebrate. We never go out for Valentine's Day anymore, and we rarely go out at all now that I've been cooking so much at home, so it is a great treat to go out to a nice dinner. Dinner for my birthday this year was at Opal, a restaurant that I can't believe we hadn't been to before. Opal classifies themselves as California Cuisine, but maybe I'm just too much of a California girl, because I would just classify it as simply good food. I think of Californian Cuisine as usually foo-foo fancy dishes with far too little food on a plate. Opal has some really inventive dishes, but without too many unique ingredients, so you aren't confused about what you are ordering, and the portions are normal sized. They also have lots of fun cocktails. My husband got his usual martini, but I got a blood orange margarita (ironically, the same cocktail I got at my last birthday dinner!):

You might be able to see just past my husband that we were sitting at a table right next to the window, which allowed both of us to people watch on busy State Street during our meal. It was really interesting to see so many walkers, bikers, etc. in the early evening of a beautiful summer day. On to our entrees. I got the halibut special, as I pretty much knew I would, if halibut was available. This one had an Asian crust (sesame and furikake, I think) Mango Salsa, and mango sauce over jasmine rice (which soaked up the sauce quite nicely):

The husband debated among several dishes before deciding on the Chile Rubbed Filet Mignon. I pushed him towards this one because even though a was having halibut, which I love, I was hoping for a few bites of steak, too! His filet was perfectly cooked (we asked for it between medium and medium well, which is perfect for him, I should remind him to do that more often) and the rich flavor of the chile rub was great. I also really liked the relleno that came alongside, but that was no surprise, since I love all things relleno!

When we finished up, we knew we were going to need to get dessert, since it was a birthday celebration after all, and most of the desserts on the menu looked right up our alley. I was worried about which option my husband was going to try to steer me towards, since he has the stronger sweet tooth, but was pleasantly surprised when we both picked the same thing: A chocolate mousse cake special, for two!

This was very good, and very rich, of course. We probably only got through about half of this! The service throughout was very good. In addition to really working with us to get our steak prepared properly, they also reserved us a great table and then, for the most part, left us alone and didn't bother us, just kept our water glasses full and made themselves available if we needed them. I liked my birthday meal so much that I chose Opal for my team's reward lunch for work the next week with our office director. I got a bay scallop salad at that meal that was also fantastic. I think Opal will definitely be a recurring attraction for R&R in the future (watch out, J+K, we're going to have to take you here!).

Oven Roasted Tritip

OK, I'm definitely a Central California girl and LOVE me some tritip. It is a cut of meat that is rarely available anywhere else but in Central California and it tastes great on the grill with a salty dry rub seasoning on it. Those of us who live here know that is the only way to truly enjoy tritip. You don't mess it up with marinades or sauces, and you MUST cook it on the grill. Well, unfortunately, we live in an apartment that doesn't have any room for outdoor grilling, and grilling this on an indoor grill would probably give our smoke detector some issues. So I must oven roast my homemade tritip for now. Lucky for me, I have come up with a method that does the meat justice, and it comes out flavorful and juicy, just like a good tritip should. I know most people can't enjoy this delicacy themselves. Why am I sharing it on my blog, some may ask? Because I had a great dinner last night and I just wanted to share!

Oven Roasted Tritip (my recipe)

1 2 lb Tritip Roast

Very liberal amounts of barbeque seasoning salt (we use McCormick Broiled Steak Seasoning)

Garlic Powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Allow roast to sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes to get the chill off. There will be a large fat piece on one side of the roast, even if it is pretrimmed from the butcher. With a very sharp knife, remove the fat all in one piece, if possible, while removing as little of the meat as possible. When fat has been removed and set aside, season liberally (really liberally) with seasoning salt on all sides. Rub in well until meat has a good crust on it. Replace fat piece on top of one side of seasoned meat. Season top of fat with a light coating of garlic powder. Place on a baking rack (I use an old cooling rack and a cookie sheet) with the fat side on top. The fat will baste the meat while it is cooking. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes. The tritip will be medium well on the smaller sides and medium to medium rare in the thick middle. Remove the fat piece and discard. Allow to rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing into 1/4 inch slices. Enjoy alone or in a sandwich. Makes about 4 servings.

Santa Barbara Dining: Jill's Place

Living in Santa Barbara, we are truly blessed to have many unique restaurants with limited chains to compete with them. Since I have been cooking so much more at home, when we dine out, we've been able to really splurge. For my birthday this year, I really wanted to try out a local steak place called "Jill's Place." For those of you who read this blog that like to visit Santa Barbara, this is not your typical touristy restaurant. If you go to this restaurant, you are either a local or have been told about it by a local (me!). The restaurant is an unassuming building that is right downtown. It used to be a butcher shop (Shalhoobs, also a famous local establishment), but the daughter of the family (Jill) decided to open up a restaurant in the location when the butcher shop moved. The amount of food we got here was incredible. The two of us got cocktails (blood orange margarita shown here), I got a glass of wine, soup, salad, bread, steaks and veggies for under $100 with tip. And the steaks were big enough that we each had leftover steak for the next day. The quality, being from a butcher shop, was superb. This was the kind of steak that you knew was meant to be eaten medium rare. The pictures don't do this justice, since it isn't my awesome camera (we bring the little one to meals out), but this was a great meal for a great birthday.

Restaurant Review: Lucky's SB

Every once and a while, I think I will be throwing in pictures and comments from restaurants. Yesterday was my husband's birthday, and we went to Lucky's here in Santa Barbara (Montecito, the glamorous celebrity area of town, to be exact). This was a very special treat and pretty much my entire birthday gift for my husband. We don't treat ourselves like this very often. I wish I had more pics of the actual food, but we inhaled most of it. Our meals started with an Ahi Tuna Tartar appetizer which reminded me of Hawaii (I want to go back!). Our main entrees were NY Strip steak for each of us with clarified butter on the side for the hubby and peppercorn cream sauce on the side for me (we pretty much didn't touch the sauces, the steaks are just that good). Since the menu was a la carte, we chose our own sides, and we got the creamed corn (sounds like amatuer hour, but probably my favorite part of the meal) and onion strings (cooked in a way that they actually seem appropriate for such a high caliber restaurant). Much thanks to my friend & coworker who steered us in the right direction on the sides. You know who you are, and girl, you know your fine dining! They surprised us at the end with a fancy sundae served in a martini glass, which is unfortunately, the only real chance I got at taking pictures. We just aren't that patient when it comes to food. I did get a picture of one lone corn kernel that escaped my wrath (I ate every other kernel!) and we had the server take our picture, too. My husband loved his birthday, and I hope it helps him make it through the next couple of busy weeks we have ahead of us!