In Defense of a Better Green Bean Casserole

Posted on 27 December 2007 under Food In The News, Holidays, Projects | 1 Comment

Over at the Toledo Blade, Mary Alice Powell has posted a column titled “Fruitcake Fan Won’t Back Down“. While expounding on the qualities of a good Claxton fruitcake (something I myself enjoy), she also, like, totally disses Grean Bean Casserole. Yeah I know, regardless of what the current TV ads show, pine trees do not like green bean casserole … While I do agree with some of what Ms. Powell wrote on the subject, I did feel it necessary to send her the following:

You wrote, “the green bean casserole, a combination of three canned commercial products, is an embarrassment to American culinary ingenuity and taste.” Ah yes, that could easily be said. But as with fruitcake, some of which is like eating a brick off a one-room schoolhouse, you don’t have to follow what’s generally accepted when making it. While the “classic” dish is, as a result of the TV dinner culture, a “peasant dish”, it’s definitely possible to upgrade the beast ala Ratatouille, i.e. both the movie and its Thomas Keller version of the dish.

For example, clean some fresh green beans and break them in half. Clean and slice a few shallots, and wash and slice some mushrooms. Make a bechamel sauce and add, say, a bit of fresh shredded Meunster and some salt and pepper to taste. Coat the shallots in a corn meal batter and deep fry them till golden brown. At the same time, sauté the beans and mushroom slices in some olive oil with some minced garlic. To serve, the beans and mushrooms go on the plate, topped with the sauce and garnished with the fried shallots.

No, I don’t have a photo. Looks as though I’ll have to make some of this to prove its worth.

A weekend project? Sure seems that way. I wonder what Dorcas Reilly would think?

Sneak Peak: The New Frog Leg Inn Menus

Posted on 27 November 2007 under Projects, Restaurant Chit-Chat | No Comments

It’s only been … ok, almost a year now I guess. Finally, the new menus for the Frog Leg Inn in Erie, Michigan are almost complete! The downloadable menu on the restaurant’s web site has looked like the inside of what you see here since March or so, but at the restaurant itself you’ll still get the old one when being seated. Now, not only are the new menu jackets in with the foil logo on the cover, the new content with both new and updated dishes is also almost ready for the printers. This project has been quite interesting, with Chef Tad providing the content and needing to approve everything design-wise … and at the same time, I also ended up with the input of just about everyone else at the restaurant as well! Really though, they’re a great bunch to work with, and they all do have very valid opinions in how they’ll be dealing with this new menu. We just hope patrons find this new menu to be just as cool to have around as we do. Wait till you see some of the new stuff inside …