Ok, so I’m happiest with Jamie, Natalie and Olivia, but these three are a pretty close second. This combo has been my meal many a nights – intentionally. There’s nothing like sitting on our patio, opening a bottle of wine, and enjoying a nice cheese selection with crusty, warm bread over a great conversation. Or while out – it doesn’t matter. I’ve happily ordered this

So this past holiday, Jamie decided to get me the ultimate Christmas gift: cheese of the month from L’Albatros, a gift card to Western Reserve Wines (plus an instant decanter for my full-bodied reds) and my very own olive tree to be paired with bread from On the Rise. Yes, that’s correct – for the next year, I am the proud  adoptive  mama of an olive tree on the Nudo Estate in the Italian Apennines (travel to hug my tree not included). I have never heard of such a gift (there’s no Sally Struthers for olive trees) and can’t tell you how excited I was to receive such a unique gift.

As part of the experience, you receive information telling you about your tree, the farm, the region and the producers. And then in the spring and fall, I’ll receive two packages from this year’s harvest. Which of course I’ll enjoy with my bread, wine and cheese.

Though the first batch of my extra virgin olive oil is still a few months away from hitting my palate, I have already enjoyed my first shipment of cheese courtesy of Brandon. He sent four generous samplings with incredibly detailed notes on its origin, pairing suggestions, storage tips and other fun facts. Truly – the amount of information and history he shares will surely impress anyone and makes you well on your way to becoming a mini cheese aficionado (or at least fool people into thinking as much).

And last but not least, I have been enjoying my cheese on a beautiful marble board Jamie found at Chestnut Hill Home in Chagrin Falls.

So there you have it – hands-down the best gift I have ever received given to me by the most amazing man I’ve ever met. What a combination.

My afternoon partners in crime have been my two beautiful daughters, Natalie and Olivia. With Olivia still being carted everywhere in her car seat, this is typically the easy time to be out and about. And thankfully Natalie continues to be a pretty good diner, as long as we eat early (like as soon as the doors open), bring something to occupy her and don’t overstay our welcome.

We have fully taken advantage of having the summer “off.” When I had Natalie, it was the dead of winter so we were often stir crazy. Not so this time around. As soon as Olivia turned the ripe old age of two weeks, we fled the homestead. We called grandma, girlfriends, aunts and daddy to come meet us. We’d often hit up parks, museums, farmers’ markets and Target first, then lunch, which was often al fresco (why tempt fate – we dine outside when we can when the minis are in tow).

A favorite has been Flour. We have sat at the same corner table on their patio at least three times this summer. Natalie loves the pizza, the staff is great with her and mommy can’t get enough of their cob salad with roasted shallot dressing and cheese. However, Flour has made a little snob out of her. She now insists on olive oil (or dip as she affectionately calls it) when she has bread. Don’t  insult her with mere butter.

L’Albatros was another hit, not necessarily with the kids but with mom and dad. We haven’t been there in awhile so it was nice to head back – though I couldn’t take advantage of what I really love about this place: the wine and cheese. That will wait for a date night in our very near future. For Jamie’s birthday, we went to The Natural History Museum coupled with lunch. Jamie inhaled the burger while I had the frisee salad with poached egg, lardons and pork belly – a seriously large piece of pork belly. In fact, it was too much for me. A few bites were all I needed. We ordered the bianco pizza for Natalie with fontina and rosemary and devoured the grilled peaches with prosciutto and tomato salad that the chef sent out.

Other afternoon delights included Taza, Fountain, Umami (though you could put this one in a variety of categories – it’s my husband’s hands-down favorite restaurant and we spend a lot of family time there. They are great with kids and will make a special kid-approved stir-fry).

While being a lady who lunches has had its moments and created great memories with my girls, perhaps my favorite lunchtime excursions have been playdates with our friends over pizza pie, simple picnics in the park and Natalie helping me cook lunch in our own kitchen. She makes a mean peanut butter, yogurt and jelly sammy with a side of Cheerios.

Zack Bruell announces the official start of the 2011 Tour de Bruell.  To take part in the Tour, diners should simply visit any Zack Bruell restaurant - Parallax, Table 45, L’Albatros or Chinato – between Memorial Day and Labor Day and ask for their Tour de Bruell ticket.   Each time a participant purchases dinner at one of the restaurants, they earn a stamp on their ticket.  In order to complete the Tour, participants will have to get one stamp at each Zack Bruell restaurant.

All fans that complete the Tour de Bruell will receive a commemorative t-shirt, featuring the 2011  theme:  “Get Your Zack On.”  From those individuals, 10 semi-finalists and their guests will be randomly selected to enjoy a complimentary wine tasting dinner at Table 45, featuring cuisine by Bruell and champagne offerings by Moët & Chandon.  In addition, one grand prize winner will receive the custom, in-home, four-course dinner for eight, prepared by Bruell.

The Cleveland Museum of Art’s annual Summer Solstice Party, now in its third year, is just around the corner – Saturday, June 25^th. The event will feature all-night music, food, drinks and dancing to celebrate the long days and hot nights of summer us Clevelanders have been so patiently awaiting.  But why wait until the 25^th to enjoy?

Starting next week, each Zack Bruell restaurant will offer its own unique multi-course, prix fixe Summer Solstice menu for one week, to promote the Summer Solstice party.  Chinato kicks it off next week followed by L’Albatros.  Here’s the official menu schedule:

• Week of May 31 (Tues-Sat):  Chinato
• Week of June 6 (Mon-Sat):  L’Albatros
• Week of June 13 (Mon-Sat):  Parallax
• Week of June 19 (Sun-Sat):  Table 45 (Table 45 will offer pre-party dining for Summer Solstice Party 2011)
• The cost for these Summer Solstice Menus are $35 per person

Chinato’s menu:

• 1^st Course: Lamb sweetbreads with roasted tomato aioli
• 2^nd course: Pappardelle with zucchini, chickpeas, arugula mint and pecorino cheese
• 3^rd course: Fennel-dusted cod with bell pepper and fennel risotto and basil butter
• 4^th course: Lemon cheesecake

L’Albatros’ menu:

• 1^st Course: Salad of Garden and Local Greens with Charred Tomato Vinaigrette
• 2^nd Course: Braised Pork Belly & Tiger Shrimp with Lavender Pork Jus
• 3^rd Course : Strawberry Clafoutis

The actual event takes place on 6/25 at the museum starting at 6 p.m. and lasting until 2 a.m. General admission tickets are $125 for CMA members and includes hors d’oeuvres plus open bar from 6-8 p.m. From 7:30 p.m. until 2 a.m., general admission is $60 per person, $40 for CMA members, and free admission for CMA members at the Fellow level or higher and includes appetizers and cash bar. And from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m., advance tickets are $15 per person, $20 per person at the door and includes snacks and cash bar.

While I’m really hoping to attend this event, there’s a good chance I just may be in labor (though if I go, UH is just around the corner…). Unless you’re also nearing the end of your pregnancy and the notion of staying up until 10 p.m. is a foreign concept to you these days, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t go. It has quite the reputation of being one of the best summer parties in town! And thanks to the CMA and Zack Bruell, I have two tickets up for grabs to attend from 10 p.m. on. To be entered into the random drawing, just leave a comment to this post (sorry – to be fair, Facebook doesn’t count, but I do appreciate the conversation there!) telling me your favorite thing about Cleveland summers.

Good luck and happy summer! You have until June 8^th to enter.

Here’s a recap of our recent Bruell eats:

On Saturday, I got together with my oldest and dearest friends to celebrate two birthdays at Chinato. Our husbands were there too, though you wouldn’t have known it until we left (boys on one side, girls on the other). For two of the couples, this was their first trip.

The night did start off a little shaky. There were 8 of us and they sat us in a table clearly meant for 6. Sure, we could have all fit, but we would have been packed like in sardines and no one wants to go through a meal without being able to lift your arms. That’s not conducive for an enjoyable night out (and knowing we were an 8 top is why I made rezzies nearly 6 weeks out).

The management quickly saw this was an issue and changed our table. Problem (easily and swiftly) solved. Unfortunately, the somewhat shaky service did continue throughout the night. I get it was crowded and I get it was a Saturday night. But I have to imagine we’d be a good table to have: fun group, lots of food, lots of alcohol and we weren’t in a hurry to get someplace. But there were small things throughout the night that made us all feel like it was a bother to wait on us and that our server had much better things to be doing with his time (forgetting to bring things out, rolling eyes when asking for oil for bread, rather condescending overall, etc.).

But on to what really matters – the food! And as all of our previous visits, the food was stellar. We started off with fried artichokes, mussels, involtini and ribollita for the table. For my dinner, I had my favorite fennel salad (seriously, I can’t go there without ordering this) and a half order of the pappardelle with creamed cauliflower, pecorino and peperoncini (love how there is zero cream in this velvety sauce).

Everything was top notch and happily devoured by all. If you haven’t been, I recommend going soon. And despite the off service this night, we have enjoyed wonderful service on past visits.

For our 4^th wedding anniversary, we went to Parallax. Now this has long been a favorite of ours since he first opened. We love sitting out front during the summer, cocktails at the bar, and the main dining room, too. And they have some of my favorite sushi in town. But I have to say, this was my first trip to Parallax were I didn’t leave wowed and completely content.

I started with the yellowtail, jalapeno, mango chirashi with avocado sushi rice, followed by the beet salad and finally the udon noodles with rock shrimp & pork belly (miso black cod – as always – for Jamie).

I stand corrected. I was quite content and overly smitten with my entrée. Plenty of pork belly and shrimp swimming in mounds of noodles. I was happy. But not so much with my two starters. The beets weren’t cooked enough and the chirashi was just bland (which was surprising given its accompaniments).

But everyplace has off days and perhaps this was one of them. Because like I said, we’ve been big fans for years now and one experience like this won’t change that.

Finally, dinner with friends at L’Albatros. My favorite outing of the three (meal wise) because of two things: Brandon and cheese. Zack is truly lucky to have found Brandon and us Clevelanders are lucky Brandon chooses to call Cleveland home (side note: read more about how Brandon Chrostowski ended up here in Fresh Water). Service was excellent as was the food. And if you’re a fan of cheese, you simply can’t leave until you have let Brandon share some of his favorites with you.

While the cheese is always my favorite part of my L’Albatros experience, I did also greatly enjoy my oysters and braised leg of lamb. And the overall atmosphere is my favorite of all three.

1. What five things should be in everyone’s pantry? Kosher salt, rice wine vinegar, white pepper, coriander (either fresh or dried), red pepper flakes. I generally prefer everything to be a little spicy.

2. What is your favorite spice to work with? Coriander because of its versatility.

3. First job? McDonald’s

4. Why did you become a chef? Became I love food and I hate paperwork.

5.  What’s it like working for Zack Bruell? How much liberty do you have with the menu? Zack is great to work for. He trusts me to execute his concept and expand upon it. We see eye to eye in terms of flavor profiles, so it is a very good relationship.

6. Favorite restaurant in Cleveland and which one do you miss? My favorite restaurant in Cleveland would have to be Bar Cento. The combination of the perfect French fry and great pizza is hard to beat. They also have amazing salads and I cannot wait until it is ramp pizza time.

7. Where did you grow up? Favorite meal from your childhood? Akron. Swenson’s hamburgers, creamed chicken.

8. You’re having a dinner party, top five songs on your playlist? I have no top five because I’m not really into set playlists. I prefer something more like Pandora because you never know what will come on. It would be some combination of Wilco, Erykah Badu, My Morning Jacket, Hall and Oates, and Calexico.

9. What book are you currently reading? What show do you never miss? Since my girlfriend, Colleen, is getting ready to have our first child any day, there has been a lot of baby books. Other than that, I read a lot of cookbooks, currently it’s Momofuku and Real Cajun by Donald Link. Right now we are watching Rescue Me and Nip/Tuck on Netflix.

10. If you could be any other person for a day, who would it be? Somebody with a boat, someplace warm and doesn’t have to work.

11. If you had 2 minutes with LeBron, what would you tell him? Remember that you are just a basketball player – a great basketball player, but just a basketball player nonetheless.

12 What’s your favorite thing about Cleveland and what drives you nuts? I love the selection of ethnic restaurants and markets. What drives me nuts is the lack of quality fried chicken and barbeque.

13. What is one dish at L’Albatros everyone needs to try? Escargot for an appetizer and the 1/2 roasted chicken for an entree. Both are classic brasserie dishes.   We use the same snails that they do at Charlie Trotters, Daniel, and Le Bernardin, so you could say that they are good quality.  For the chicken, we use a red wine and tarragon brine that makes it incredibly moist with great crispy skin.

14. Favorite cooking trick we could use at home? Making different pickled vegetables is a great trick for home cooks because they are easy and affordable to make, and they add an exciting layer of flavor to dishes.

L’Albatros Croque Monsieur Recipe courtesy of David Uecke, Chef du Cuisine (serves four)

• Brioche bread sliced (½ inch thick)

• Smoked ham sliced thin

• 4 tbsp whole grain mustard

• Swiss cheese sliced thin

• 4 tbsp whole butter

Method: Spread whole grain mustard on one side of each slice of bread.    Place one slice of Swiss cheese on each side of bread, on top of mustard.  Add five slices of ham per sandwich.  Put sandwich together and butter outsides of bread.  Cook in medium size nonstick pan or griddle until golden brown.

Goat cheese sauce:

• 2 cups heavy cream

• 1 cup fresh goat cheese

• ½ tsp ground fennel seed

• 1 tsp salt

• ½ tsp white pepper

Method: Cook in medium size saucepan.  Heat heavy cream until it begins to simmer.  With a whisk, slowly incorporate the goat cheese.  Season to taste with fennel seed, salt, and white pepper.

To finish sandwich, top with goat cheese sauce.  Place under broiler until sauce browns slightly.

This post was sponsored by Heinen’s. Glenn, the beer specialist at the University Heights store, not surprisingly suggests a good lager with this sandwich. “Although many beer styles will go very well with this classic sandwich, I would suggest Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Oktoberfest,” he explains. “This medium bodied amber lager has a malty base that is perfect with smoked ham. Although this beer is lightly hopped, it will not interfere with the subtle flavor of the goat cheese sauce. This beer’s dry finish will compliment the overall recipe.”

He adds that by finishing this sandwich under the broiler until the sauce browns slightly, allows the light sweetness of this malty beer to be distinguished.

But why wait till then to celebrate the longest day of the year (and the museum’s newest galleries)? From now until Saturday, Bruell is offering a 3-course, summer solstice menu for $30.

Menus:

Table 45: warm fig and arugula salad with champagne vinaigrette; Latin marinated hanger steak with boniato root mash, summer gremolata and plantain chips and ginger; and lemongrass panna cotta served with mango chutney and white sesame tuille.

Parallax, L’Albatros and Chinato: these 3-course menus will be created daily by the head chef.

Long live summer!

For as much as I enjoy cheese, whether at home or dining out (I prefer cheese at the end of my meal versus something sweet), I’ve never participated in a structured cheese tasting. That is until L’Albatros extended an invitation for a few bloggers to participate.

Now, if you’ve been to L’Albatros, I don’t have to tell you about the food and how truly wonderful it is. You know this (and if you don’t, you’re missing out). And if you’ve dined here, chances are you’ve met Brandon Chrostowski and have already been wowed by their impressive cheese selection (the best in Cleveland) and his extensive knowledge. Well, imagine an entire evening of this.

We participated in the Italian cheese and wine tasting last week. For two hours, a group of 50 or so listened to music, sampled light hors d’oeuvres, and were taken on a trip throughout the regions of Italy where we enjoyed wines and cheese hand selected by Brandon, a certified sommelier, fromager and trained chef — a triple threat (read more about Brandon here).

The eight cheeses we sampled include: La Tur, Casatica di Bufala, Salva Cremasco, Pecorino Sardo, Testun al Barolo, Monte Veronese Malga, Taleggio Bergamasco and Blu del Moncenisio – plus carefully selected wines to accompany each.

Brandon won us over after our first visit to L’Albatros shortly after they opened. And this tasting just amplified what I like best about him. He’s knowledgeable, but not in a pretentious way. And he’s a wonderful storyteller who genuinely enjoys passing on his learnings and sharing the back story of each cheese- where it comes from, interesting facts, etc. So each guest walks away with something other than a new favorite cheese.

My personal favorite cheese of the night was the very first course, La Tur. This incredibly creamy cheese comes from Piemonte. It might just be one of the best cheeses I’ve ever tried. I was also impressed with the Testun al Barolo, but I truthfully don’t know if it was the floral hints of this cheese I liked so much or the great lengths Brandon went to for us to try (one hard-to-pronounce volcano  kept his order in Italy, and the horrible weather down south, where the only cheese monger in the US he was able to locate resides, was also affected by Mother Nature).  I actually enjoyed each course, with the exception of the last one – mostly because I’m just not into bleu cheese.

The staff was quite generous with the portions – for both the wine and cheese. They regularly came around to top off the wine and offer more cheese (though trust me, no one needed it). Like I said, we were guests, but the cost of this tasting (and most of their tastings), is $50. And I can tell you that is an incredible deal given all that you experience during the two hours. At the end, you have the opportunity to buy any of the wines and/or cheeses (I bought the vin santo del chianti, castello sonnino, Montespertoli. I didn’t care for the blu cheese it was paired with, but surprisingly liked this dessert wine).

The only thing I would have liked with this pairing was perhaps some greens or even sorbet about half way through, just to break it up (it is a lot of cheese, even for me, and you need something to cut through it all). But truly, even without, this was an impressive tasting and I highly recommend experiencing first-hand.

Parallax

The next day, I took a client to another of Zack Bruell’s restaurants: Parallax in Tremont. I’ve been impressed with this restaurant since the day he opened it. It’s always spot on and one of the best restaurants in town. We sat outside and I took advantage of it being a Wednesday when they offer the full sushi menu: sashimi combo of yellowtail, white tuna and tuna, plus a cup of the leek soup. I’m a fan of nearly everything I’ve tried there, but the sushi is among my favorite in town. Always fresh, inventive and completely satisfying. Sushi is available for lunch at Parallax everyday, but only a limited offering – except on Wednesdays. The entire sushi menu is available for dinner each night.

Bruell’s Seared Sea Scallops with Thai Curry

Add olive oil to sauté pan over high heat.  When smoking, place sea scallops in pan with butter.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook for 30-40 seconds on each side until golden brown and caramelized.  Remove from the pan.  In the same pan, add curry paste, brown sugar, coconut milk and fish sauce.  Whisk together over high heat.  Finish with chopped cilantro.

Roasted Eggplant with Fresh Tomatoes, Feta and Mozzarella Cheese Pomegranate Reduction (adapted from Table 45’s current winter menu)

Ingredients

Eggplant

Method: In a bowl, toss the slices in olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper. Roast in a 375 degree oven until tender and cool in refrigerator. When ready to serve bring to temperature on the grill or oven.

Yogurt Sauce

Method: Add all the ingredients together and incorporate well; hold in refrigerator.

Pomegranate Reduction

Method: Place the pomegranate juice and vinegar in a small pot.  On medium to low heat reduce the mixture till little less than half.  Once reduce transfer reduction to another container and let cool.  The pomegranate Reduction should be thick where it can be slowly drizzled onto a plate.  If the mixture has been reduced too much you can always add more pomegranate juice until in thins up to where it can be drizzled.

Plating: Layer eggplant in the middle of the plate. Take sauce and drizzle along the outside of the eggplant. Garnish the top of the eggplant with feta cheese and tomato salad. Drizzle with pomegranate sauce.

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This post was sponsored by Heinen’s. When making these dishes at home, the wine experts have two recommendations:

• For the scallops: ZAZA, a  serious Rosé from Spain that could almost be called a light red.  Abundant berry flavors and surprisingly full body makes this a Rosé to get excited about.  ($9.99/bottle)
• For the eggplant: Alexander Valley New Gewurztraminer // Perhaps the best-value Gewurztraminer from CA. Perfumed aromas and pear and spice flavors make this organic-farmed wine great with Asian foods. ($8.99/bottle)

After meeting Farmer Lee Jones and learning about the Veggie U initiative, plus the fact that program was in jeopardy  locally due to lack of awareness and funds, I knew this was something we could try to help and something that would resonate well with you – my readers. Truthfully, I was hoping we’d be able to support a few classrooms (each classroom requires $200). But that didn’t happen. Instead, according to my contact at Veggie U, you guys saved the entire program in Cleveland, raising a total of $3,820 – with 100% of the donations going towards the kids! More importantly, that’s 84 Cleveland schools, 171 classrooms and 3,840 students that will participate and learn about eating healthy, sustainable agriculture and combating adolescent disease and juvenile diabetes starting March 1. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

I cannot thank you all enough for your incredible generosity and taking the time to donate. It is greatly appreciated by so many, especially those 4^th graders and their teachers. You guys simply rock and have truly made a difference. Hopefully, this is something we can continue each year and impact future students.

I also realize we were able to raise more because so many helped to spread the word – via good ol’ fashioned word-of-mouth, tweets and Facebook. Thank you – just look at the difference it made. I especially want to thank many of our bloggers and media. We have a wonderful blogging community here and it’s one I’m very proud to be part of. It’s one that’s incredibly supportive, both of each other and of our city. A special thank you to I Heart Cleveland, Live to Cook at Home, Heidi Robb, Confessions of a Cohabitant, Chef’s Widow, Cleveland’s a Plum, A Girl About Cleveland, Local Food Service, Bite Buff, Cleveland at Heart, Great Lakes Design Collaborative, Garden, Grocery, Gadget Girl , Cooker Girl, Metromix and Michael Ruhlman.  And our local food reporters/editors Joe Crea and Debbi Snook at the Plain Dealer. They took an immediate interest in this effort and shared with readers.

Finally, we would not be having this conversation if it wasn’t for our chefs, restaurant and store owners. I shared the idea and almost everyone got on board and offered their support to make it even better. We all know this group is responsible for making us some seriously good eats. But they also have some seriously big hearts and are an incredibly supportive group. They made it interesting and because of their generosity, people donated even more (let’s face it – that was some prize any foodie would covet!). We started out with roughly $1,400 in restaurant gift cards, and after the initial post, additional restaurants contacted me wanting to participate for a total of nearly $2,000 in restaurant gift certificates! These awesome establishments include: Western Reserve Wine Tartine Momocho Lola The Greenhouse Tavern Heinen’s Blue Canyon The Flying Fig Fire Erie Island Coffee Fahrenheit Miles Farmers Market Jekyll’s Kitchen Moxie Touch Supper Club Parallax L’Albatros Chinato Crop Bistro North End Hyde Park AMP 150 Muse (The Ritz-Carlton) The Chocolate Bar Michaelangelo’s John Q’s Steakhouse Melange Bistro on Lincoln Park.

So who was the lucky winner? Congratulations to Suzie Martens. She was chosen via Random.org. You are going to be eating very, very well for quite some time and are the envy of a lot of Clevelanders (including me!).