10/09/2006

In the Kitchen

Guests queried for taste

By Sally Ketchum
Local columnist

The truth is, like most people, I cook usual American everyday food most of the time for the family. If I'm eating alone? Good grief! Depending on what I yearn for, I might eat anything like a vegetarian boiled dinner without that ugly bone or a high quality frozen meal, pulled right out of the oven and eating it right out of the tray.

If no one is looking, I've had a steak and potato for breakfast (gearing up for the busy day, of course), and I've also had leftover sauerkraut, toast and coffee. To each his own, right?

But when we have company as we all do in northern Michigan, swim time or ski time, I go all out. Going all out starts with food preference questionnaires I write and send to expected guests. These are always individual questionnaires, to young members of the family, too, although parents add comments on their copies for the littlest guests.

These queries are usually four pages long, including room for answers. My rating system is 1-10, 10 being high or "I love it!" A few questions require brief answers, such as that standard doctor's office question, "Do you have any food allergies?" (I once served seafood bisque to a woman allergic to shrimp. She declined faster than Blue Fin tuna escaping a net.)

I start the list with breakfast choices of a general style, as in "coffee and toast," "modest meal" or "late brunch spread," working from there through beverages and common breakfast foods to bed and breakfast quality dishes. Then I follow, again asking for 1-10 ratings, with vegetables, meats, desserts. Also, I note my specialties or especially healthy dishes — or the reverse, calorie laden ones.

Why do I indulge in this eccentricity? Simple. I enjoy it. I really get a whole lot of fun making up the questionnaires and especially getting them back. Many of our friends have great senses of humor, and I usually get a lot of laughs out of the responses.

These things are on my mind just now because my California brother is coming to visit, his first visit to northern Michigan's woods in a long time. Under my instruction to "List 10 things you dislike," he answered: "Lamb, overcooked vegetables, too-rich sauces, too-late dinners, too-large portions, lukewarm food, dill pickles, rock and roll, ABC, NBC, CBS sitcoms and chicken livers."

Since he is also on (and off) the South Beach diet, I picked up a used copy of the book, and truly, I learned a lot about dieting in general and new ploys for any diet. I found the dessert recipes most interesting. However, I was not inclined to follow everything in the book's diet.

My belief that anticipation is half the fun also supports my outgoing questionnaires. My guests have choices and can anticipate not only getting some of their favorites, but also they are assured that foods in their 1-3 ranges will not be served. Since another one of my beliefs is that "nothing is set in cement," including their answers, I always include a couple favorites of my own family. After all, we are company at our own tables. There are small and pleasant ramifications of the quiz, too. There is, I think, a feeling of "cared-for" in my guests, sort of a take-off on Hallmark's slogan, "You care enough to send "¦"a questionnaire.

OK. There is a practical side to all of this, too. I find the questionnaires save on grocery shopping. Based on guests' answers, I can plan menus ahead, evening out expenses (prime rib means simple apple pie for dessert), shop sales and avoid over-shopping since my menu is in hand.

An aside: Americans eat too fast. If you have any doubt of this, ask a foreign exchange student from any continent. One year we hosted a German boy, and after weeks of anticipating America's Thanksgiving, obviously not a German holiday, he was downtrodden. After all the work that went into the feast, we ate in an hour and then there was football. He walked in the woods, mumbling something like, "It would take three hours to eat this meal in Germany."

This relates to my menu planning, since I have learned to lengthen table time; and, by gosh, as impetuous as I am, I serve guests meals in courses, often the first couple in the living room, coming to the table after an opening beverage and then a drink by request with hors d'oeuvres. I start food at the table with an amuse bouche — a tiny treat to interest the palate before the first course. As hard as it is for me, because I tend to rush things, I do not serve another course until a few minutes have passed from the finish of the last.

I have an enormous pleasure at the table with my guests. I've worked on a project from questionnaire to last chocolate straw with coffee, and it is usually successful.

James Thurber once wrote, "Seeing is deceiving. Eating is believing."

Seeing is my questionnaire. My feast is believing.

Potato Soup with Bacon and Blue Cheese

• 8 slices bacon
• 2 c. chopped onion
• 1 large leek (white and pale green parts only, chopped)
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 medium carrots
• 4 c. low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 large or 2 small potatoes, peeled, chopped
• 1 c. white wine
• 4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled

Sauté bacon in large heavy pot, drain and reserve. Spoon off all bacon fat, except two tablespoons from pot. Add onion, leek, celery and carrots to pot. Cover Reduce heat to low and cook until vegetables soften, about 15 minutes. Add broth, potato and wine. Bring to boil. Partially cover pot and simmer 30 minutes. Place cheese in processor. Add 1½ c. hot soup. Blend until cheese melts and mixture is smooth. Return cheese mixture to soup in pot and stir to blend. Salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into soup bowls. Crumble bacon into soup bowls. Serves eight small portions as a first course.

—Adapted from Bon Appetit, "Appetizers and Hors d'Oeuvres"

Sally Ketchum writes, cooks and entertains from the Upper Peninsula. Lately deer and raccoons have been enjoying her garden. They prefer corn and golden Swiss chard. She can be reached at ketchum1985@gmail.com or through The Record-Eagle.