It's a restaurant in Yountville, Ca. in the Napa Valley wine region. Chef Thomas Keller owns the joint. It's a jazzed up little town that has a slew of big-time restaurants per sq. foot. The Mrs. set up up with a trip there (Napa) and south of S.F. (Big Sur, where we've gone several times before and is my preferred local, just south of SF, Montarey, Carmel, etc). While the place in Napa was great and the Wine Train was fun, it was the 'Martha Stewart' portion of the trip as far as I was concerned (good for a hen excursion). Down in Big Sur (at Ventana, dinner acroos the street at The Post Inn) is more my speed. That said, you'd love Yountville, nice town with so many great restaurants for its size.
Dammit I have to go do the great Northwest one of these days. It is so right up me and the GFs alley. And my roommate from college lives in SF and he's constantly nagging us to come visit. _
You'd love it. Once there, grab a car and you could do the whole kit and kaboodle in a week (2 days in Napa, 2 in SF, and 2-3 in Big Sur).
Ok, stop rubbing it in I feel like a dick as it is that I haven't gone What's on tap for the game? 2 of my kids are coming over to watch and some friends, I'm going Cajun Jambalaya. _
You the man when it comes to bbq, but if I may say, when I first got into being an apron queen, creole and cajun was the first thing I took a stab at. What kind of jumbalaya you making?…i.e. what's on hand? I gotta buzz out to go hit a ball. I'll check in a little later Amigo.
Has your bitch ass even attempted to cook a Tri tip? Or did you stick that wedge shaped piece of goodness up your shitter?
Ok let's settle. To be fair to Hayn, there are a bunch of cuts that are irregularly shaped that are impossible to cook uniformly from end to end. The Hanger Steak for one. Beef and Pork tenderloins. I've never cooked tri-tips myself but I know folks who swear by them and they are on a bunch of menus at top end BBQ restaurants. Edit: I just found a bunch of good looking tri-tip recipes. Challenge accepted. _
Like I mentioned, Tri tip is an under rated cut, that doesn't mean it's a top of the line cut by any means. In fact, at an average price of around ~$5/lb, you could argue it's a poor man's steak. Cooking it uniformly isn't rocket science either. I use the reverse sear method. Let it get up to desired temp (~115ish for med rare), using whatever wood for smoke (I prefer kiawe, mesquite), than sear it for about 2 minutes each side over the coals/wood. For me, comes out perfect everytime. But I ain't picky.
I lied, am going Creole and the GF asked me to swap out kielbasa for the andouille. She is a slave driver. _
Had to do the same thing making it over in Finland for friends - no andouille in sight. Hell, it seemed they put dill on everything ..even cereal ; )
I have not, it's been a few years. I've had Chinese sausage from Newton Mass, outstanding. That's hurtful. I think. _
Sooooo, its about to get colder than balls out. Which means grilling season closes down at the Dierking household. Any of you carnivores got any bright ideas about what to do about cooking steak indoors? I can't ever seem to get the broiler in the range hot enough. A miserable winter of catchers mitts isn't something I'm looking forward to.
