Eating in a box

Yes it's that time of year, everyone is going on vacation and holiday so I'm shutting down operations until the new year. It's a good time for me to recuperate and have a small vacation from my Sunday cooking. I'll be posting some stored up posts over the next few weeks, gadgets and talking turkey so stay tuned! I kept today's meal fairly simple because I was limited on time, but I also wanted to focus on each dish. Most of the bento was gathered from various issues of Southern Living that were laying around at my doctor's office. The recipes were all *almost* there meaning all great starting points but looking down at the ingredients they didn't look like they would taste remarkable in anyway. For the main entree we have a Portabello Pork ragu over Panko crusted Parmesan grit cakes. I re-worked it a bit and played with some of the textures and the spices because I wasn't quite happy with the results. The grits were a touch too bland for the for the the ...

Max's Wine Dive: that's their slogan up there. Seriously, a slogan like that will always get me to try a place. They weren't messing around, literally an hour before we starting the tables we were standing around had not yet been assembled. We're the *first* people this kitchen staff has ever served. I'm a bit speechless as they treated us like foreign dignitaries. It's nice to feel special and they really went out of their way to explain what they were about and show the perfect sampling of food that really underscores what you can expect if you went to Max's. The wine steward was great at explaining the wine selections and why he thought they paired well with the foods on the tasting menu. I'm under no illusions that this is what they want, folks to talk about how great they are. Keep in mind all of these events run a risk, if it goes bad then folks will blog about a negative experience. Personally, I'm not a critic, I'd rather say nothing than...