This is the question I find myself asking every day. More recently as I am doing a major renovation on the Palace. When I attended CIA (Culinary Institute of America) way back in 1995, I was taught that the restaurant industry standard is a minor remodel every 3 to 5 years and a major renovation every 10 years. I’ve always had that 10 year number in the forefront of my mind since I opened back in 2002. Never thought of how or when it would happen, it just kind of did……

I do not consider myself to be an expert in the restaurant business. I work hard and try to keep an open attitude to learn every day. My past experience with corporate restaurants and my professional training has always kept me thinking “That’s not good enough!” Since the beginning of the Palace, I have always worked towards improving the food and atmosphere to better serve our guests. I wanted the new interior to reflect that sentiment, great food in a casual, yet elegant space.

That’s easy enough, right? That’s what we tell ourselves, but it is super complicated. My wife Brooke is a detail person, I’m the ‘let’s do it right now and figure out the details later’ guy. So after many intense discussions, we hired Sherri Duvall, of Duvall Architects, the creative force for the entire project.

I remember, in the initial planning meeting that Sherri had a conversation with us about what we were looking for, and what our goals for the project were. Then she presented her initial interpretation of our vision. We were to meet a couple times and make revisions before moving forward with the project. We, as clients, were supposed to make a vision board and/or clip outs from magazines to show the styles we liked so she could formulate a design, then go through a process of refining that design into a final product. Too much in my fast moving brain, how can I get this done faster!!

I know this sounds a bit crazy, but with all the time and money involved, we decided to take the John & Sherri Duvall, principals of Duvall Architects, to Seattle to get an understanding of where I was coming from. Also, I was dreading countless creative meetings and the time consuming compilation of my vision for the design. What better way to plan a restaurant, than eating your way through Seattle and frequenting REI more than once. That’s another blog in itself.

Brilliant decision on my part! I recommend this for anyone doing a major design project. A week after we returned from Seattle, Sherri presented a perfect design concept for the restaurant. I have always wanted you, my customers, to get the feel of what it’s like to experience the Pacific Northwest where I was raised. Imagine hanging out in a rustic lodge with a nod to its industrial roots and an equal amount of sophisticated refinement and being served fresh seafood. That’s it in a nutshell. The best part, no multiple rounds of meetings, revisions, and no vision board!

Ahh yes, the feast is at its end! The kitchen & dining room strewn with dirty plates, pots, pans, serving platters, etc… I sit on the couch, relax. I hope that everyone in the room will go for thirds so I have less left-over’s to deal with. Maybe it’s the tryptophan or maybe I don’t have the courage to face the kitchen without a dishwasher. One thing I know for sure is dealing with leftovers is the last thing on my to-do list. Leftovers wait for us in the refrigerator to re-live the holiday cheer for the rest of the week. But what do you do when you run out of gravy?
Instead of leaving the scraps in the fridge, waiting for them to give you inspiration or food poisoning, which-ever comes first. Take the tasty pro-active approach. I have attached three of my favorite tried & true post Thanksgiving recipes that are low-fat, low calorie also.

Turkey Vegetable Soup
Ingredients:
4 cups ‘low Sodium’ Chicken Broth
2 cups diced turkey
3 TBL. Salad oil
½ cup celery, diced
½ cup carrot, diced
1 cup onion, diced
½ cup potato, diced
1 can diced tomato
1 each Bay Leaf
To taste Salt & Pepper
½ cup Cornstarch Slurry

Method:
1. Heat oil in a large, thick bottom soup pot. Add the celery, carrot & onion. Cook until slightly tender.
2. Add all the other ingredients except the cornstarch slurry.
3. Bring to a simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Adjust seasonings with salt, pepper & a dash of Tabasco.
5. Stir in enough cornstarch slurry to make the turkey & vegetables float.
NOTE:
STIR IN COOKED RICE AT THE END TO MAKE THE SOUP MORE HEARTY.
?CORNSTARCH SLURRY?
INDUSTRY TERM. PLACE THE CORNSTARCH IN A SMALL BOWL. ADD ENOUGH WATER TO MAKE THE MIXTURE THE CONSISTENCY OF HEAVY CREAM. MIX WITH YOUR FINGERS TO GET THE LUMPS OUT. USE WARM TO HOT WATER.

Dried Cherry & Turkey Salad / An American Place.
Ingredients:
2 lb diced Turkey Breast
1 ½ cups small diced celery
½ cup green onion, fine sliced
½ cup walnuts, toasted & rough chopped
1 cup cherries, sundried
1/8th cup mint, chopped
To taste salt & pepper
½ cup raspberry~walnut vinaigrette (low-fat)

Method:
1. Combine all the above ingredients in a Stainless Steel mixing bowl.
2. Serve over greens with a few slices of whole wheat toast.

Turkey Divane / Eating Well..
Ingredients
• 1 1/2 lbs Diced Turkey
• 1 TBL. EVOO
• 2 cups diced leek (whites only) Rinsed thouroughly!
• To taste salt & pepper
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 14-ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup low-fat milk
• 2 TBL dry sherry
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 10-ounce boxes frozen chopped broccoli, thawed, or 1 pound broccoli crowns
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat a 7-by-11-inch (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add leek and salt. Cook until softened but not browned, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add flour; stir to coat. Cook additional 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add broth, milk, sherry, thyme and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes stirring constantly.
5. Add broccoli; return to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan, mayonnaise & mustard.
6. Spread half the broccoli mixture in the prepared baking dish. Top with the turkey, then the remaining broccoli mixture. Sprinkle evenly with the remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan. Bake until bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
Per serving: 308 calories; 10 g fat (4 g sat, 4 g mono); 76 mg cholesterol; 20 g carbohydrates; 35 g protein; 4 g fiber; 712 mg sodium; 401 mg potassium.
Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin C (70% daily value), Vitamin A (35% dv), Calcium (30% dv), Folate (19% dv).
1 Carbohydrate Serving
Exchanges: 1/2 starch, 3 vegetable, 3 lean meat

Watch for my “4 things people do to Kill their Standing Rib Roast” for Christmas (Joking). I will post for Christmas as soon as I get ahead of my parties. Soon I hope..

This is, easily, the most common occurrence of turkey murder. This is reason why turkey gravy was invented. I think most people are confused and I can’t blame anyone with all of the random methods of turkey preparation out there. Here are a few of my favorites…
1. The bake in the bag method. ‘Hey stuff your turkey in a bag and forget it!’ Decent product but lacking in the personal attention that a good bird requires
2. Bake it upside down so the juices flow into the breast meat. I actually like this one; however it is a pain in the butt. Many problems can occur along the way, like the skin sticking to the bottom to the pan or burning the crap out of yourself while trying to rotate a hot turkey mid production.
3. Cover it in foil for the majority of cooking time & then finish baking it uncovered for the remainder. Good method but can lead to overcooking due to lack of observation. Not really necessary if you monitor oven temps and love your turkey! Baby the turkey and it will reward you with a delicious meal!
4. The fried turkey method. Great way to keep your husband off the couch and outside. If you employ this method, have a turkey breast in the oven for back up. I have rarely seen a proper turkey done with this method (Don’t get all defensive I know it can be done its just harder than it looks). Have you ever noticed that the turkey is prepped by brining or ‘injecting’ the bird first (Again you can’t kill a brined bird, case in point-see part 2 of this series).
a. This method is only for the passionate turkey fryers for the following reasons…
i. The left over grease. What do you do with it? By the way that grease is hot and dangerous. You Tube it. A lot of crispy porches! Honestly though, the possibility of a turkey explosion does have its allure.
ii. Storing the fryer all year long in the garage (I am personally phobic about stuff in my garage).
iii. It is a lot more difficult to make the turkey pretty.

For a perfectly cooked turkey follow the tried & true classic method below. Salt brined or not, this produces a quality roasted turkey every time.

1. Start with the raw turkey (brined or not). Tie the legs together with a piece of twine. This keeps it at a consistent thickness throughout, resulting in even cooking.
2. Oil & season the turkey inside & out.
3. Layer rough chopped celery, carrot & onions across the bottom of your roasting pan.
4. Stuff the turkey with celery, carrot, onion & some fresh herb, like thyme.
5. Place in a 325 degree oven with a remote thermometer in the ‘arm pit’ between the leg and breast.
6. Set your remote thermometer to 155 degrees with the temp alarm on. I don’t specify cooking times because internal temp will always give you a better result.
7. When the turkey reaches the 155 turn up the oven to 375 to 400 degrees and start basting with melted butter every 10 – 15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven when it is perfectly browned & 175 degrees.
9. Make sure to let the turkey rest for at least 20 minutes before slicing. Just enough time to brown off the left over veggies in the pan and make delicious gravy.

Perfect turkey? Yes. Complicated & difficult? No. The key is cooking to the proper temperature and keeping an eye on the ball during the cooking process with your professional thermometer.

Happy Roasting!

This is of the more common methods to kill the Turkey. The suspect buys the turkey. Next he leaves it in the plastic package in the fridge for a week. Then when the day comes to cook it, he removes the turkey from the bag, hits it with some S&P, maybe some butter and puts it in the oven. Being careful to read the package instructions for cook times , etc…

What kind of delicious bird does this produce? Lets review the following factors.
Evidence:
1. Red turkey probe is popped up (or not)
2. Golden roasted turkey with leathery, slightly shriveled
skin.
3. The turkey will be slightly dry to really dry.
4. Flavorless taste (good candidate for gravy).
5. The meat can be grainy.

Avoid this method at all costs. Proper turkey takes days of preparation. Check out my 4 day method. Yes, I said 4 days! Quit your whining its only a few hours.

Day 1. Thaw your turkey in the fridge or in the sink.
Pretty hard so far, loser.
Day 2. Easily the hardest day. You are going to need a
few things…
1. 5 gallon home depot bucket.
2. kitchen fork
3. 1 cup salt
4. 1 cup sugar
5. Ice water (enough to cover the turkey)

NOTE: You can’t kill a salt brined turkey.

Next poke the turkey all over like a frantic serial killer with the kitchen fork. Mix up the ice water & other ingredients in the home depot 5 gallon bucket and dunk the turkey in the bucket. If its under 50 degrees in the garage, cover it up and set it on the work bench like me. Otherwise you will need to purchase a cheap beer cooler… Done!

Day 3. Remove the turkey from the brine. Stuff the cavity
with chopped celery, carrot, onion, salt & pepper.
Rub the turkey with olive oil, salt & pepper. Place
in the fridge uncovered.
Day 4. Today, not 4 days ago, your turkey is ready to
bake. Don’t use the stupid red thingy and don’t
forget to baste every 30 minutes. Cook to an
internal temp of 165 to 180 degrees.