What's in this Issue:
Welcome to our
Tom Douglas Restaurants Summer Newsletter.
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From Tom:
Mom and Dad just celebrated 50 years of marital bliss and guess who got to cook? Jackie, Loretta and I flew back to Newark, Delaware, bringing Northwest favorites of Hamma Hamma oysters, Copper River salmon, Alaskan King crab and Penn Cove mussels. The first thing I did was enlist my five sisters for prep duty - my very own vegematics. While they worked, I slipped out to Las Margaritas, my favorite pizza joint in "downtown" Newark, home of the University of Delaware Fighting Blue Hens. Upon returning home I enlisted uncles George and Mart and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews to skewer pounds and pounds of shrimp and beef tenderloin which allowed me time to make the first pitcher of martinis. At this point "we" had much of the work done and I was feeling a little faint from the hot and sticky, humid weather. Nothing but red wine and Mom's BBQ chicken could get me back on my feet. Being the chef is hard work.
The morning of the party, the skies were filled with dark, threatening, rain-filled clouds. Our backyard BBQ for 150 people needed divine intervention. My mother went to church (she said) to give thanks for a happy marriage, but I think it was to pray for sun. Woops. Three inches of rain, 100 pairs of ruined shoes, 25 muddy kids and a mess of soggy hair do's later - a real Northwest BBQ feast was had by all.
Speaking of Mom, I was reminded of her again when I saw flats of local strawberries down at the Pike Place Market. Every year, we would buy boxes and boxes of "Sure Jell" (a pectin product) and make freezer jam from strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. I still think it's the best way to make jam. You retain the fresh flavors of the fruit and even enhance them by adding lemon or orange zest to the pot. The recipes that come on the box work perfectly. There is also a chart for every kind of fruit you can imagine so that your proportions are correct. No cooking, no canning, no worries.
I don't know about your house, but we just got TVFood Network on our cable system. Back in February, I filmed a show with Emeril Lagasse that never made it on the air out here. In the past few months I have been traveling cross the country almost every other week and have been stopped in airports, grocery stores and gas station by little old ladies and macho guys alike, all wondering if I'm that dude that cooked with Emeril. I had no idea how popular his show is. When I first met Emeril in 1990, he was a great cook, very handsome and very shy. Now he's the superman of TV cooking shows, selling everything from All Clad pans to Fetzer wines. Being on his show was kind of like being a guest on The Tonight Show... he has a live band, an audience of 250 adoring fans (more then half of them having waited over four years to get a ticket to the show), and a staff of 30 setting things up for taping. Things have changed! Some of my other favorites I have seen on the station thus far is that sexy Brit, Jamie Oliver the Naked Chef and Mario Batali's Tour of Italy.
For those of you who haven't heard, our cookbook Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen won the James Beard award for Best Americana Cookbook this past May. My co-author Shelley Lance flew to Manhattan to accept the award and enjoy the hoopla. Shelley and I have been working together since Cafe Sport days and she is a true food scholar. No one deserves m
