Last night I met Emeril. He's in my tiny town doing a show on

the local organic agriculture and food product boom that's taking place here. I was in Claire's, our local and localvore restaurant having dinner with my kid and the bartender (a friend) introduced me to him. I've never seen Emeril on TV but he seemed like a really nice guy and he's way into what we're doing here. He has a crew of 25 with him. Pretty exciting stuff for a little town in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

Here are some of the businesses he's visiting/filming:

http://www.clairesvt.com/

http://www.jasperhillfarm.com/

http://www.hardwickagriculture.org/

http://www.vermontsoy.com/

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/

Did you invite him to your place? What's on the menu at the moment?

September 6, but Don introduced me as the chef at the Brickhouse Cafe and Emeril said he'd heard great things about it. I immediately told him I"m not a chef just a cook and he laughed at that.

On the last day I served a white wine potato, leek and Cabot Cheddar soup with a salad of garden greens, a caramelized onion apple and Bayley-Hazen Blue Cheese Tart, Curried garden squash soup, roasted veggie sandwich on homemade french bread and a vegetarian salad nicoise. Also did a ginger pecan shortcake with caramelized plums and homemade ginger ice cream.

So you're resting up?

it's all about cleaning and putting things to rest for the winter for the next week or so. After that, I'm going to catch up on my reading and put my garden to bed, go to Maine for a few days. I'm looking forward to it.

(Pardon my asking; interested in travel!)

When will you open again?

bleu cheese tart? Would you care to share, m'dear? :hi:

I make a butter crust- for one 11 inch tart use 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour, a quarter teaspoon salt, one stick unsalted butter and a few tablespoons of ice water. I do it in the food processor. For the tart filling, slowly cook 4 to 5 medium size onions for 40 minutes until golden and meltingly soft. Add two thinly sliced granny smith apples. Cook until they're soft. Add salt, freshly ground black pepper and a bit of freshly ground nutmeg. In fully prebaked tart shell, put onion/apple mixture. Top with a cup and a half of crumbled blue cheese- Maytag would be great. I use Bailey-Hazen because it's made down the road and it's fantastic. Bake for 15 minutes in a 350 oven. Serve warm.

Just the kind of thing I adore! Thanx so much! :woohoo:

That sounds scrumptious. This is a keeper.

Is your local bleu softer than the Maytag? Or what?

Do you know? Must watch.

but apparently the one he's visiting is up north. Thought I might get to see him.

kitchen frequently to talk to customers and get feedback. He was also thoughtful and sincere and truly wanted people to have a great dining experience.

It was at Emeril's that I was treated to my first "degustation". For those that are unfamiliar, it is a 9 course dinner. Each dish is very small, but perfectly prepared. It can only be obtained for the entire table and takes about 3 or more hours to complete. It is a dinner meant to be savored and each bite remembered. It was, without question, one of the best meals of my life.

He seems a bit of a buffoon on TV, but I, like you, found him quite charming.

:hi: