Kitchen Six: Seriously Good Food

We all know the phrases/sayings/cliches about how lucky we are if we end up with one good friend. I am fortunate to be able to say that I have 5, not counting my sister. I've explained this so many times to my daughter, who is at the age where she experiences the "friend du jour" concept. My true golden friends are all ladies I met in college. My friend and roommate at Wofford, Heidi, will attest to my freshman assertion that we were there to form "Big Chill relationships."  We succeeded.

So, this is the year that we all hit 50.  Except one December baby, who quietly already celebrated hers and then tried to con the rest of us into thinking it was this coming December. (You know who you are.) Heidi hosted Leigh, Lourdes and myself at her home in Atlanta this past weekend for us to reunite, laugh, cuss like sailors, drink like hobos and generally bask in the glow of our 50 year old awesomeness! (I'm still 49, btw.)

I could go on and on about the weekend, but you are here because you like FOOD.  So, get this...Heidi and her husband Lloyd, along with friends, have invested in a restaurant in their neighborhood of the big ATL. They've been in business for a little over a year.  Their executive chef,  Jason Jimenez, has been named as one of Atlanta's "Up and Coming" chefs. He creates a menu features 6 appetizers, 6 entrees, 6 desserts, every 6 days.  

***KITCHEN SIX***

 

Leigh, Me, Heidi, Lourdes

 

It's like going to Cheers, but a lot nicer. The interior is upscale, yet casual and comfortable and hip. The staff all seem to enjoy being there and were in tune with their customers. To say the atmosphere is friendly is an understatement.  And, from what I've been told, the goal was to create an environment for neighbors to see each other and enjoy some really damn good food.  Having been there, I can affirm that they have achieved that goal.

Ok, let's talk about the food.  The best part, right?  So, we clearly set out to really explore this menu because we almost ordered everything on it.  Per Heidi's recommendation, we started off with the hushpuppies and pimento cheese.

The pimento cheese was served with homemade crackers which were wonderful. They were firm enough to stand up to the cheese but yet tender enough that they just melted in your mouth.  The cheese was topped with pickled peppers and homemade bread & butter pickles.  The flavor of the cheese was prominent, which is sometimes lacking in other pimento cheeses I've sampled.  When my buddy Lourdes bit into a hushpuppy, I thought I was in that "When Harry Met Sally" diner scene.  Yes, I'll have what she's having too.  They were phenomenal.  Everything you want in a puppy...super crispy, not greasy, the inside was tender and then spiked with shrimp and peppers. To take it one step further, they were served with a poblano cream.  Ohhhh, Jason...

In the midst of all this was the GA mule.  I can't even remember exactly what ingredients the Kitchen Six folks used to make this cocktail, but suffice to say, you need to order one. I had a Hendrick's and tonic because I haven't had it in forever. 

Lourdes and her GA mule.  It's like I'm sitting next to a movie star.

 Our fantastic waiter informed us of a special salad not on the menu that day.  We opted to have one to share.  It was beautiful.  Mixed baby lettuces, apricots, toasted almonds and a blueberry vinaigrette.  Simply delicious.

Leigh and Lourdes both chose the Roasted Chicken because Heidi said she doesn't know "what he does to that chicken" but it's so good.  They agreed.  It was served with cute fingerling potatoes and a grilled lemon. 

 Heidi selected the Pan-Roased Red Fish which, honestly, I don't know if I've ever had. The skin was so delightfully crisp and the fish was perfectly cooked.  Another winner.

 I decided on the Glazed Baby Back Ribs.  It was a toss up between these and the Beef Short Ribs.  The baby backs were served alongside grits and with a side of sauteed apples.  As the lady placed my plate on the table, she said "These grits are gonna change your life."  Instantly intrigued by that prospect, I dove into those grits.  They were indeed fantastic and I do, in fact, feel much better about my world! The ribs were great; nice and meaty and lean (y'all know how I am about fat on meat.) I'm not sure exactly what the glaze was composed of but it doesn't matter because it was just delicious and I wasn't there to dissect anyone's recipe!

Now it's time for dessert.  We took Heidi's advice again and ordered the Decadent Cake, which is a flourless chocolate cake and the Vanilla Pot de Creme.  Ok, I'm not a huge sweet eater, but good Lord, these were good.

This is the Decadent Cake.  I put a dramatic filter on this picture to illustrate to you the sheer gravity of this cake.  You can just imagine this showing up in a film like Casablanca. It's like a bite of the best ganache-y fudge ever. Chocolate fanatics would sell their souls for this cake. Like the grits, this will change your life. 

The Vanilla Pot de Creme is also pretty life-changing.  Rich vanilla flavor with a nut crumble and whipped cream on top.  One of us, who shall remain nameless, practically licked the bowl. 

The moral of this story is this:  if you live in, around or near Atlanta, you should seek out Kitchen Six.  If you find yourself visiting Atlanta, you should seek out Kitchen Six.  If you know people in Atlanta, you should tell them to seek out Kitchen Six. I think my friends (and their friends) and this chef have created a very special environment and exceptional food.  I wish we had something like this place in my neighborhood.  But, we don't, so I'll just have to get to Atlanta more often.  Heidi, just keep my room ready.  

Quick weeknight dessert

I have become almost obsessed with not wasting food, including leftovers.  Once upon a time, I couldn't have cared less about leftovers but Neil has gradually made me see the light. If I don't want to heat them up and have them again, I'll find a way to turn them into something else. Once a French baguette begins to harden, I throw it into the food processor and make bread crumbs. These keep really well in the freezer, BTW.  If making Neil's favorite key lime pie, I freeze the leftover egg whites for something else later. Leftover pork chops?  I make "house" fried rice out of them...and whatever else I can find in my fridge.

Recently, we had purchased some of those cute mini-croissants from the bakery.  These little guys are the perfect sandwich size for my daughter.  But, we had a few left in the container and they were just staring at me every time I walked into the kitchen.  A few days had gone by and I realized it was time to change them into something else.  After a bit of thought, I opted for a simple bread pudding.

I just tore the croissants into pieces. I placed them into an 8" baking dish and drizzled about 1 Tbs melted butter over.  Next, I mixed 2 beaten eggs, 1 cup milk, about 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp vanilla.  I sprinkled some raisins over the bread, then poured the egg mixture over.  You'll want to press down on the bread a bit so it soaks up the egg mixture. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes until the top springs back when tapped.

Neil and Vivi went crazy over this.  It was ridiculously easy to put together and it baked while we had our chicken enchiladas for dinner.  And, no croissants went to waste!

Simple, Sublime *Key Lime*

I met Neil in 1997.  He was born in Florida, but when I met him, he'd recently landed in SC after 15 or so years in the Norse Land (you may know it as Minnesota).  Over those years, he'd been back and forth to FL, since his parents had moved back down there.  As we got to know each other, I learned a lot of interesting things: practically everything in America was invented in MN ('cause they spend half the year locked up in their snowed in houses just thinking up stuff?), when racing jet skis on TV, wear bathing trunks with a drawstring waist (MOOON over Miami), Ducatis are the only motorcycles worth owning and most importantly, real key lime pie is NOT green.

Garnished with one of our teeny, tiny limes

Up until this point, key lime pie never really piqued my interest. At. All. But, turns out, it's Neil's most favorite dessert on Earth.  But, as he was making me aware of this, he also educated me of something I'd never heard before.  Real key lime pie isn't green.  Lime pie is green, perhaps.  Food coloring helps too. But a real key lime isn't the same as the big limes we all see on a regular basis.  No, key limes are tiny.  

See the size of these little babies?

Seriously, like the size of a ping pong ball and that's considered a big one.  And, key limes are way more tart than "regular" (Persian) limes.  In fact, these little green orbs will turn your cheeks inside out...that's how tart we're talking about!  So, Neil advised me of this:  if you see a "key lime pie" in a restaurant that is green, know this:  it's not real key lime pie. Just say NO.

Soaking up some sun

 Well, here we are all these years later and we're married and have a wonderful little girl. And, I've been making key lime pies for awhile now.  The first time, I bought a bag of key limes from the grocery.  Like I said, they are tiny.  So, I cut them all in half, clutched them in my fingers and juiced them one by one. When it was over, I could hardly unclench my fists and was convinced that I'd just given myself incurable arthritis. I vowed that as much as I loved Neil, this was his one and only homemade key lime pie.  

The life saver

Well, lucky for him, I was browsing around Williams-Sonoma one day and lo and behold!  I discovered you can BUY key lime juice in a bottle!  Now, this was a game changer, indeed.  I bought a couple bottles of (really) expensive juice and ran right home to bake up a pie. Months later, my sister was visiting and saw this primo juice in my fridge and said something like, "You know you can get this in the grocery store, right?"  Bahh wuhhh?  So, my little sister drove over to the Piggly Wiggly and returned with four bottles of key lime juice for the price of my two Williams-Sonoma bottles.  But, no worry...now we're in business!  I can make Neil's fave anytime I want.  Easily, inexpensively and all year long.  Good thing for him, because I was never juicing those little limes by hand ever again. Never, ever, ever, again. Period.


Fast forward to today.  I now have the most awesome juicing tool ever invented.  Good thing too, since this Christmas, my parents found a key lime bush that has been cross-bred with a loquat, so it can withstand colder temps than they have in Florida.  So, now we're growing our own key limes on the patio! I wouldn't be so excited about this if it were not for my juicer, especially since I'd vowed never to juice those things by hand again!  Of course, you just can't beat the bottled juice, but if you want to go old school and juice yourself, you must get one of these.  Plain and simple.

You just need this for any kind of citrus juicing...go get one!

 This weekend was St. Patrick's Day.  We were having corned beef and cabbage at my inlaws' house on Sunday.  The only thing I had on hand that I could whip up quickly that was remotely "green" was key lime.  I was able to harvest one of our tiny baby limes to garnish and the pie turned out terrific as usual.  The crazy thing is how easy this recipe is.  Most of the time, you use a graham cracker crust, which is quite delicious.  But one day at the grocery, I came across a granola crust, which I'd never seen before.  I used one for this latest pie and it was terrific.  In fact, it was better than a plain ol' graham cracker crust.  I think this will be my new "go to" for these pies.  

The low-down on key lime pie is this:  don't waste your time with "regular" lime juice, either juice your own little tiny key limes or buy the key lime juice...there IS a difference!  A half cup juice, 3 egg yolks and a can of condensed milk.  Mix until smooth, pour into pie shell and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.  

Another must-have:  egg separator

Good eggs are important

Look at that beautiful yellow!

Freeze egg whites in individual packages for future recipes

Then, cool for about 10 minutes before refrigerating.  Garnish as you wish, but rest assured, it wil be happily consumed decorated or plain Jane!

Garnish or dive right in...your call!