• WHITE PAPERS by BLEU STOCKINGS

  
  A Booklist for Bleu Stockings
  by Branding Salon
  
  What is a Brand?
  by Rachel Cost
  

Edible Celebrations in Mendocino

Posted on | December 29, 2008 | 5 Comments

I was thumbing through a winter issue of New York Magazine a couple of weeks ago. thinking about what I REALLY wanted to eat for a holiday meal, and happened upon an eye-popping photo of a bowl of bourride – to call it a fish stew does not do it justice – this one brimming over with mussels, clams, crab, little scallops and chunks of white fish. The flavors of Marseilles mingle merrily in one bowl – fennel, orange, tomatoes, leeks, saffron – topped with a creamy garlicky sauce called rouille.

That week I had also been following the travel blog of a chef buddy, François de Mélogue, as he made his way west after opening a New York branch of Flex, the Prince Edward Island waterfront shack serving 22 versions of mussels. Check out the menu here: http://www.flexmusselsnyc.com/ Little did I suspect that François, wife Lisa and pooch Lucy would show up on my doorstep to cook this very same dish as a Christmas gift. I am now convinced that dreams really do come true! (Flex is a cute name for a mussels restaurant, non?)

Lo and behold another tempting treat appeared via an email announcement from friend and culinary diva Margaret Fox. Margaret is the brilliant culinary director for our local super market, and I do mean ‘super.’ For a small market they have big ideas, selling organic produce from local purveyors, wild mushrooms foraged from the coastal forests and aging artisanal cheeses for the North Coast chefs so they are just right. Margaret has taken the store to a whole new level, featuring the dishes from top chefs’ cookbooks in the deli and bringing in special edibles for the holidays. This year Margaret offered something really divine, a hand crafted Buche de Noel made by local French-trained baker, Melinda Ellis. This traditional Yule log is made from a vanilla bean genoise cake, soaked in espresso syrup, filled with meringue buttercream and glazed with bittersweet chocolate ganache and almonds. The finishing touches included woodland accents of marzipan leaves, pistachio moss, meringue mushrooms and dragee dewdrops. The remnants now look more like a leaf-littered forest floor. Visit Margaret here: www.margaretfox.com.

I wish you incredible edibles throughout 2009 and encourage you to indulge in a little joie de vivre on a daily basis. May your dreams come true.

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