Philly

On the road again...  Indy to Columbus to Niagara Falls to Cape Cod - all in the space of three days.  Then two days on Cape Cod.  Some fun time.  Some not.  But at least we have the ex out of our lives.  Wednesday, October 26th we left Cape Cod - headed toward Philly.  The last time I was there was with my real father in about 1965.  A couple of days ago - LOL.  Connie'd been there on business a few years ago but hadn't experienced much other than a real Philly cheesesteak sandwich.  I wanted to see Independence Hall.  You see, my seven-great's grandfather was a fellow named John Hart.  He signed the Declaration of Independence.  And, one of my dear friends visited Longwood Gardens a few months ago and has been telling me since that I need to go there.  Then, I found out that another friend actually does a good bit of consulting there.  He's a nationally renowned expert on glass houses.  And, they've got acres and acres of conservatories.  Last, but not least, I was given the original Winterthur cookbook in 1989.  It's got amazing color photos of part of the collection.  I couldn't wait to see all three!!  And, I really was looking forward to a real Philly cheesesteak sandwich.

Connie got online and hunted for a B and B downtown Philly.  Way pricey.  Then, we looked at the amenities and parking was $30 a night.  Nope, not doing that.  I hunted for a hotel or B and B closer to Kennett Square.  Score!  A lovely place called the Brandywine Hotel.  We got a king room with a fireplace and a jacuzzi tub and it was VERY reasonably priced.  Ok, that dilemma solved.  Now, could we get the Cape house cleaned up and get to Philly and get our gear out of the car and get to a place called MaGerks to meet a friend of Connie's for dinner?  The secret here is that the sheets have to be washed, dried and put back on the beds before heading out of the Cape house.  About 4:30 a.m. I nudged Connie enough that he headed toward the couch with the comforter.  Into the washer went the sheets.  Time to clean up the kitchen and try to get everything just the way Barbara had it.  Finally, sheets in the dryer and Kate in the shower.  Then, Connie in the shower and the bathroom cleaned.  House vacuumed and car packed.  Last, but not least, a trip to the dump.  On Cape Cod they don't have trash service so everyone has to either pay for private trash pickup or take their trash to the dump.  Done and done.

Turns out MaGerks was about two miles from the one person I really wanted to meet and didn't get to - Chef Dennis.  Had we planned a bit better he couldn've joined us after his class.  But, alas, that wasn't to be.  MaGerks was wonderful.  We shared a pretzel with crab dip, two kinds of Philly cheesesteak sandwiches and fried pickles.  We were both exhausted after a VERY long day.

Thursday it was time to visit the Brandywine Battlefield right down the street from the hotel.  Then, we were off to Winterthur.  Finally, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  By the time we got all of that done we were in no mood to hunt for a restaurant for dinner and decided to eat at the Brandywine Prime located a hop, skip and a jump from the hotel.  Good choice on our part!

Here are a few scenes from the day:

This is the excavation of what was George Washington's home in Philadelphia.

This is the rim of the Liberty Bell.  Keep in mind that the bell wasn't intended to be seen, just heard.

The Declaration of Independence was signed here.

 On to Winterthur.  Our 25 minute ride to the main house through the gardens took more like 45 minutes.  Even though there weren't a lot of flowers blooming, it was gorgeous.

 Our garden guide.  What a hoot.  He retired and was home for a few days and his wife "suggested" he get a job. LOL.

The dining room.  The tankards below were made by Paul Revere.  Mr. DuPont rarely mixed any styles.  But, oh my gosh, did he ever have the collection of Americana!!

This is a knife rack.  Amazing.

This wallpaper was incredibly old.  When Mr. DuPont found it, it was too tall for the room.  So, instead of cutting off the wallpaper, he added to the height of the room.

 Part of the conservatory.  You saw the outside of this in the first photo.

This spiral staircase was rescued from a plantation home that was going to be demolished.

 The bar.  Needless to say, mine is not quite as fancy!

A cooler.  I know, can you imagine hefting that into the trunk to take to the college football game... 

See that car WAY DOWN AT THE END OF THE LOT?  That's how you avoid door dings.  It's called a Connie spot.

Friday morning we went to Longwood Gardens.  More on that later.  Friday afternoon we drove to Columbus and had more grandkid time - YAY!  Saturday morning it was time to drive home.  By the time we finally got home to Indianapolis, we were pretty hungry.  Being the frugal person that I am, I had some leftovers.  The eggs that we didn't use on Cape had been hardboiled and put in the cooler.  We had extra lettuce and celery.  And, most of my steak and green beans from Brandywine Prime had been packed in ice too.  It felt like the makings of a steak salad nicoise.  We even had leftover truffled french fries.  The only "newbies" were the mushrooms and the capers and the dressing. 

Hot Nicoise Salad

Ewww is probably your first reaction if it's not what in the heck is nicoise salad?  Hot conjours up visions of wilted lettuce and soggy stuff.  This is not that at all.  It seems, Gywneth Paltrow had a hankering for a nicoise salad on a cold, grey London day and decided to try a hot version.  Now, I knew she'd taken a tour of Italy with Mario Batali.  But, I had NO clue she could cook.  Seems she's written a cookbook called My Father's Daughter.  Based on this recipe, I may well buy the cookbook.  It was that good. 

I'm a huge fan of Salad Nicoise.  Tuna, anchovies, basil, tomatoes, olives, green beans...  Tossed with a great vinaigrette and some nice, crisp romaine.  It doesn't get much better.  When I saw this version, I was totally intrigued.  We were in the car so I immediately read it to Connie.  He was intrigued too.   

We were supposed to go out to dinner to celebrate my birthday which was coming up in a few days.  But, life intervened.  We needed to start cat food since we were almost out.  The menu at R Bistro - which changes weekly - didn't particularly appeal to me this week.  And, Butler was playing in the Sweet 16 at 4:30.  I'm an IU grad - that's Indiana University - but I served on the Kappa house board at Butler.  And, Mom went there.  And, it's one of the hometown universities.  Needless to say, I wanted to see the end of the game.  So, our R Bistro reservations were cancelled.  The gift certificate will be used another day.  We had all the ingredients for the Hot Nicoise Salad.  It needed the oven and not the stove.  Which was a good thing since I had most of the burners going making cat food.  And, the others were being used for slices of happiness.  Serendipity!

A couple of comments.  The photo showed the dish in a skillet, so my brain said it needed to be roasted in a skillet.  I don't have a large enough oven proof skillet to make four servings of this.  So, I made the full version of the vegetables and two servings of the eggs and tuna.  It was so good I wish I had the leftover tuna today!!  And, yes, I could have used a roasting pan...  This recipe called to me for a bit of truffle flavor so I added the black truffle salt and truffle oil.  Those by no means are make or break items.  We just happen to love the flavor. 

Hot Nicoise Salad
serves 4

Ingredients:

or with wine for the cooks...

1/2 lb green beans
1 c grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 c pitted olives (her recipe calls for Nicoise, we used Kalamata)
1 roasted red bell pepper cut into strips
1 2 oz can anchovies, drained and chopped
1/2 c torn basil leaves
1 T capers (my addition)
1/2 c plus 1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T truffle oil (my addition)
salt and freshly ground pepper
4 6oz 1" thick tuna steaks
4 large eggs
1/4 t black truffle salt (my addition)
2 T fresh lemon juice

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400.  Lightly steam the green beans just until they're crisp tender.  Put them in the skillet or roasting pan. 

Squeeze the tomatoes over the green beans.

Add the roasted red pepper, anchovies, capers, basil and toss all of that with 1/4 c of the olive oil. 

Crack the eggs into ramekins.  Nestle the ramekins into the vegetables. 

Sprinkle the eggs with the black truffle salt and freshly ground pepper.  Drizzle them with a tablespoon of the olive oil.  Lay the tuna steaks on top of the vegetables.  Drizzle a tablespoon of the olive oil over the tuna steaks.  Dust them with salt and pepper. 

Roast the salad in the center of your oven for 15 minutes.  You want the tuna steaks to be rare in the center and the yolks of the eggs to be runny. 

Whisk together the remaining tablespoon of the olive oil, the tablespoon of the truffle oil and the lemon juice.  Remove the skillet from the oven and plate the salad.  Drizzle with the dressing.

Adapted from Food and Wine.  Original recipe Gwenyth Paltrow.