On this New Year's Eve, I want to raise a glass to Billy's Ritz, which is closing after tonight.
Billy's has occupied an elegant, solid corner of downtown Roanoke for about 20 years. During that time, I surprised my mother on her birthday at Billy's, had many lively discussions about journalism and celebrated the marriage of two wonderful friends, all over some very fine food.
Good luck to the new owner of this beautiful space. And Happy New Year to all!
I admit that after weeks of baking and cooking for the holidays, I didn't feel like cooking a darn thing this weekend. It didn't help that the hubby is out of town on business, freeing me up to live shamelessly off leftover ham biscuits, frozen egg rolls and cereal.
Saturday, I finally headed to Fresh Market for a few prepared items, but the only cooking I accomplished was a portobello mushroom stuffed with creamed spinach from the deli case.
Sunday was even worse-- a bad meal at a chain restaurant near the mall, where the service was so poor I felt like getting up and leaving.
But now it's New Year's Eve and it feels like time to get those creative juices flowing in the kitchen again.
If Sherry doesn't respond by Monday, the free gift card to Provisions for the 1,000th person to comment on the Fridge Magnet blog will go to the 1,001st.
Just providing fair warning.
Next Wednesday's Front Burner column will have a rundown of the top food news from 2007. While I was preparing to write it, I jotted down a list of all the restaurants that have opened and closed around Roanoke during the past year.
The list was much longer than I thought (and way too long to print). Surprisingly, the list of eateries that opened was about twice as long as the "closed" list. So it seems that every time a restaurant closes around here, two more open to take its place.
Maybe this is why we've been lucky enough to see an increase in the diversity of cuisine around town. We have three Thai places, three Indian places, a Caribbean/Creole joint, three new barbecue eateries, a handful of sushi places and much more.
I'm sure I didn't come close to thinking of every single restaurant that moved in or out of Southwest Virginia this year, and that's where you come in. Tell me what I forgot. And while you're at it, tell me which new restaurant you think is the best of the bunch! Or at least the most beautiful, or the most likely to succeed...
...and what have I done?
Well, I have cooked. And eaten. And drank. And fed people. And then started cooking again.
I have baked sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, macadamia nut cookies and date cookies.
I have feasted on London broil, cocktail shrimp, pad Thai, crab dip, meatballs, miniature egg rolls, lobster amandine, pistachio-crusted salmon, chicken piccata, breakfast casseroles and much more.
I have torn open boxes of Frango chocolates and cans of piroulines; crates of tiny, liquor-filled chocolate bottles and bags of Belgian candy; pillowy sacks of brownie mix and pancake mix.
I have stocked my kitchen with cooking-themed gifts -- a pink spatula, a digital thermometer, a tea pot, a tea ball, a fridge magnet with measurement breakdowns, a tiny frying pan for melting butter or browning nuts.
About 10 days (and probably 10 pounds) later, I wonder which dish, which candy, which gift I treasure the most. But it isn't any of those tangible things. Instead, it was the chance to laugh with my dad over a plate of Thai food and to get in the kitchen with my mom and cook up a big meal like we used to.
Food would be nothing without fellowship. That's what the holidays always teach me.
But I cannot ignore the dishes I learned to make and the joy of eating them, too. Surprisingly, when I thought back on my Christmas holiday, I found that the easiest, most simple dish I learned to make was my favorite. And the most subtly sweet cookie I learned to make tasted the very best.
Here are my top two recipes of the holiday season. If you aren't tired of cooking yet, give them a try! And please write in and share your own culinary experiences this holiday season. Which recipe are you most likely to make again before next Christmas?
The folks over at Slashfood or the Amateur Gourmet might accuse me of making a milestone out of a mole hill here, but I don't care. While I was away from the Fridge Magnet blog last week, someone left the 1,000th comment!
Since the FM blog was first launched in March, we have chewed on a whole smorgasbord of topics, from Buffalo wings and pound cakes to new restaurants and service pet peeves.
I promised before I left for the holiday that our 1,000th commentor would win a very special prize. I'd like to announce that the 1,000th comment was left on Dec. 21 by Sherry, who wrote in to talk up the tasty home cookin' over at Thelma's Chicken and Waffles at Orange Avenue and Williamson Road.
Sherry wins a $25 gift certificate to Provisions! All she has to do is get in touch with me at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com to claim her prize.
UPDATED: We never heard from Sherry, so the prize goes to the 1,001st person to comment, Flo. Flo needs to e-mail me to claim her prize.
Happy New Year!
My plan for next week's Front Burner column was to write a little about oysters and other Christmas seafood and then move on to breakfast casseroles in the second half of the article.
But that's before I sat down to write and just couldn't shut up about the oysters. That topic, along with the oyster recipes I'm also running, took up all the space I had.
Thank goodness for Plan B: The Fridge Magnet blog!
Breakfast casseroles are one of my favorite ways to dial back the stress when I've got a house full of company. I wanted to share a couple of casserole recipes with you guys in the hopes that you'll find them helpful within the next couple of weeks.
There's nothing like the ease of waking up, walking into the kitchen, turning on the oven, pulling a pan of pre-made breakfast casserole out of the oven and popping it in. Voila-- you're back to the living room to watch the kids (or the kids at heart) opening their gifts.
Last night, I had my annual pre-Christmas freak out.
As much as I have always adored this holiday, I couldn't help but think about all the presents I still need to buy and wrap, the foods I still need to purchase and prepare for our annual gathering with friends, the cards I need to mail, the cleaning I need to do, and the logistics of spending equal time with four sets of parents in three different cities.
And I don't even have children!
At the risk of sounding like Carrie Bradshaw here, I couldn't help but wonder: Am I the only one who cannot get through the holiday season without a moment of sheer panic over all of the chores I need to accomplish before the big day?
During the winter, do we really all scream for ice cream? Or do we scream because it's freezing cold outside and the thought of eating something frozen makes our hair stand on end?
This is the very serious question that I pondered for tomorrow's Front Burner column.
The topic might seem a little out of season, but I truly wondered how so many ice cream parlors in the Roanoke area manage to stay open all year long.
As it turns out, a lot of people crave ice cream almost as much during the winter as they do during the summer. And it doesn't hurt that you can find some tantalizing and sinful holiday-themed treats this time of year.
As usual, I found it almost impossible to choose one entrant over the others for the Fridge Magnet's latest cookbook giveaway. The book is "Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.
How do you turn down a woman who has congestive heart failure? A guy who wants to strengthen his bond with his little sis by cooking her something healthy and delicious? A lady who wants to help her mother improve her eating habits in preparation for a double lung transplant?
You guys are killing me!
Each and every one of you deserve this book so much (except maybe Rich and Henry. You guys are ornery but we love you anyway). I wish I could obtain several more copies of the book so that I could play Santa and hand them out to everyone.
I have finally decided, however, to award this book to the reader who seems most dedicated and enthused by the cause: Corey Wrenn.
Corey is a graduate student at Virginia Tech who has been a vegan for 7 years. She is president of the animal rights group at Tech and is even a big fan of one of the authors, Moskowitz.
When I emailed Corey to find out if she is a she or a he (sorry, Corey, I know you get that a lot) her response email even had a picture of two cute, tiny little piglets!
Jeez, girl, you're killing me! Don't get me started on all the pork loins I've consumed in my lifetime.
I believe that Corey will really use this book. In fact, if we checked back with her a year from now, it would probably be dog-eared and stained with saffron and mole sauce.
Because Corey is also a member of a Roanoke vegan group that hosts monthly potlucks, I'm sure she won't be the only one to benefit from these recipes.
I'm going to share one more recipe from this book with all of you before I give it away to Corey.
And if you really are serious about changing your eating habits, I would encourage you to go online or to a book store and pick up a copy of the book for yourself.
