impromptu family style dinner - april 3rd - SOLD OUT

impromptu family style dinner - april 3rd 2011

dinner's at our house, casual and comfortable
3 courses paired with wine or beer
reservations required - first come first served
this sunday, april 3rd - 5:30pm reception | 6:00pm dinner
$45 per head donation - gratuity always appreciated
48 hour notice of cancellation required - cash only please
email to make reservations
please feel free to pass on
10 available seats

menu to be posted later today

southern flourish

a while back, a good friend of ours (lesley graham, also of homemade grits) asked us to navigate online readers through one of our Prelude Dinners for a publication she contributes for,southern flourish. she wanted full disclosure... and we gave it to her - dogs and all. enjoy.

how to pickle

for one quart of cucumber dill pickles

ingredients
two large english cucumbers. half cup kosher salt. one cup hot water.
half cup apple cider vinegar. four cloves garlic. teaspoon whole black peppercorn.
pinch red chili flake. two teaspoons mustard seed. two sprigs fresh dill.

how to
slice cucumbers into quarter inch wheels and combine with salt in bowl. refrigerate
for one hour. combine all other ingredients into second mixing bowl and allow brine to
marinate while cucumbers are salting. leave brine at room temp. remove cucumbers
from refrigerator and rinse completely. transfer cucumbers to ball jar or other sealable
container and pour brine to cover. the pickles are ready to eat in one hour, but are best after 24 hours.

please keep refrigerated.

wishing you a happy and healthy 2011. ryan + jen hidinger

morel season has begun

it's that time of year again, morels are starting to pop! it's still a little early so all we made out with was about 3/4 of a pound - just enough to have for dinner for two. it was also jen's first time hunting and let's just say the girl has a gift.
cluster of gray morels about 2 inches each!
it's a little addictive, once she found her first patch, it was hard to pull her out of the woods.
the prize for two hours in the woods, a beautiful bowl of fragrant mushrooms.
so what did we make? i had to work with what we had at the house... cabbage, garlic, shallots, spring vidalia onions, cream and apples. a big bowl of creamy goodness!

dinner 28

the game plan! our dinners go through a series of adjustments before we are finished. often the menu we write changes before we send out the invite due to the flux of ingredient, so we make notes and move forward.
spring has sprung!

starting off with a farmers market salad of arugula, french breakfast radish, watercress and creamy herb vinaigrette.

the ricotta dumplings. fluffy little pillows that are a nice lite way to incorporate cheese into a dish.
we served the dumplings with a salsa of sorts. olive oil poached grape tomatoes that marinated with garlic, spring green onions and thyme.
warmed up in a pan with some mushrooms and fresh basil.
mussels are one of those perfect ingredients that need little to make them shine. a little housemade bacon, basil, roasted tomato broth and toasted bread.
braised gum creek farms pork belly with roasted carrots, spring vidalia onions and riverview farms grits.
jalapenos for dessert? just a little! moist meyer lemon cake that we soaked with a little syrup we made from the leftover juice. a spoon of soft whipped cream, a scoop of tart raspberry sorbet and a sprinkle of candied jalapeno. sweet tart and just a touch of spice.

thank you brian, amanda, spencer, alison, david, ciara, michelle, christina, robert and dawn!!!

where has ben been?

some of you have been asking "where in the world is ben?!". well, he is working hard at local 3, the new sister restaurant to muss & turner's. they're busy but worth the wait. check them out soon!

sunday, march 13th - SOLD OUT

sunday, march 13th 2011

spring vegetable salad, herb buttermilk dressing

ricotta dumplings, french horn mushrooms, herbs

mussels, housemade bacon, sherry vinegar, roasted tomato broth, basil, toasted bread

spring vidalia onions, house smoked ham hocs, roasted carrots, pork belly

meyer lemon cake, raspberry sorbet, candied jalapeno

sugar-coated radical

if you are looking for something new and different to try on sunday mornings, visit sugar-coated radical. they have a great selection of housemade pastries and fair trade chocolates. we visited them this morning and were blown away. there was also a coffee van in the lot waiting to serve you. check out rattletrap atlanta street coffee too!

kimball mill dinner

last sunday we hosted a prelude dinner for some new great friends of ours who are opening up their own restaurant, kimball mill. each partner brought their significant other and also shared their time with the very lovely duo of love is love farm, joe reynolds and judith winfrey. each course was a surprise and we were excited to have them try some staplehouse grub.
getting organized! six courses is hard to pull off without ben in the kitchen, so we geared this dinner more in the appetizer direction. decide what plates for each course, check to see what last minuet details need to be prepped, and of course a budweiser!

first course. sashimi of tombo (or hawaiian albacore). a little preserved meyer lemon, mustard oil instead of wasabi, den chan shoyu and a ginger vinaigrette marinated kale that looks much like a seaweed salad.


the soup got a little jackoson pollock, but delicious nonetheless. carrot soup, avocado, housemade sour cream, chili oil and peppercres.

football season seems like years away, and sounds like it might be! so we did a dish to help encourage labor talks. fried springer mountain wings with celery salad, roaring 40's blue cheese and my housemade secret wing sauce.
mixing it up... hot to cold... rose to beer. i think it's important to keep the palate excited. next course was berkshire pork pate with dijonaise, pickled okra, crystal organics turnips and arugula served with crackers. we paired the terrine with victory golden monkey, an american belgian style beer.

hi brian.
hi judith.

originally this dish was going to be pork spare rib, but my riverview farms package was mislabeled, so we ended up with shoulder steaks. we changed it up and made a berkshire pork hot pot. radishes, scallions and mushrooms in a garlic, soy and ginger broth. i also made a broccoli kimchi sidecar to eat with it (above).

that's a lot of food, so to wrap it up, a meyer lemon and lime semifreddo paired with a cava.
cheers to my sister kara who joined us in the kitchen for her 2nd staplehouse dinner. you'll be seeing a lot more of her soon enough!

i think this says it all!
thank you joe, judith, jesse, karen, matt, rachel, miles, leigh anne, brian and stacey!
dinner is now over and we pop another bottle to drink with this bowl of warm chocolate ganache and crispy housemade bacon dip sticks.

down the hatch! it's just one of those things that happens when you are in the company of good food and good people.