Prime Cuts

Recently I saw in the New York Times a story of Thomas Keller’s last meal with his father. The article was fascinating, and captured exactly how I feel about food. Food is a way to show affection, share life experiences and create memories. And it got me thinking, what would I have as my last meal? Out of the thousands of meals I’ve had in my life, and the hundreds of thousands of meals I haven’t, what would be the ultimate? Would I go for an exquisite meal at El Bulli or stick with the simple comforts of home cuisine?

Having no idea which direction to turn, I asked my friends.  The response was overwhelming. Each answer was incredibly personal, unique and most were linked to a story.

My friend Justin said “anything cooked by my grandma I would spend my last meal surrounded by my family at grandma’s table. Yup. For sure.” Spending time with family, you know I back that.

A peer, who I served with on PRSSA’s National Committee, surprised me with his thoughtful response. “French onion soup to start. For an appetizer, go for an avian theme and serve foie gras with a cinnamon rub atop two pieces of buttered cinnamon toast and scrambled quail eggs. For the main course, a veal and crab leg medley with sides of asparagus and potatoes au gratin. Warm blackberry cobbler topped with strawberries for dessert. Finish with black coffee.” Okay, I’ll admit, that sounds pretty incredible.

Two friends said they’d delve into their food allergies. Kayley would brush aside her gluten allergy to indulge in a loaf of fresh baked bread, and Lisa would head straight for the dairy aisle with nothing but thoughts of cheese on her mind.

But after hearing from so many of my friends, I still couldn’t answer my own question. So I turned to My Last Supper by Melanie Dunea (I highly recommend for its beautiful pictures), which features 50 top chefs and each of their last meal’s recipes.

But the book only confused me more. I was complicating the process. And then it occurred to me — the one thing I ALWAYS ask for when I go home. This is going to sound ridiculous…so drum roll please…

…..My mom’s toast

Allow me to explain. For every meal my mother prepares, she takes my likes and dislikes into consideration. And as silly and/or sweet as it may sound, she prepares even the smallest meals that way. Every dish is full of love, even if it’s just bread and butter.

Now that’s a last supper I can toast to.

What would your last supper be?

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Photo by: basheertome

We’re very happy to announce the newest version of Prime Cuts.  With this update comes both a completely new logo and blog design.  Both the logo and blog were designed by Coffee House Ideas.  We worked really hard with Eric and Justin Rasmussen to ensure that the logo and new design matched what you’ve come to love about Prime Cuts.

Realizing that most of you connect with us via an RSS reader, we wanted to call your attention to the updated design.  If you haven’t stopped by the actual website in a while, head on over and take a peek.  We’re really proud of the updates and are still continuing to make several tweaks and other updates.

I really like the changes and was getting bored staring at the same blog day in and day out.  I’m curious to know what you think.  Do you like it?  What’s ONE thing you want to see around here?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Today Joseph explains what we’ve been up to over the past few weeks as well as sharing another passion he has besides cooking – ice fishing.

You have probably noticed that recently we haven’t been posting as frequently, well Justin has been involved with a lot recently… even for him.  He is transitioning to a new job where he will be working more than ever before in addition to all of his responsibilities at the steakhouse; planning a move to Boston; planning a wedding; and oh yeah, working as much as ever every day.  For me, I have been working the steakhouse as I always do, throughout the craziness of the Holiday season, and now that the holidays are over and the cold of winter has begun to set in I have been involved in another passion of mine… ice fishing, yeah that’s right.

I will start off with a quote from myself sometimes found posted on the front door of the restaurant in wintertime “Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse will be closed Mondays Jan, Feb, and March to observe the 2009 ice fishing season.”  The date changes, as does the accompanying picture of whichever staff member, and a freshly caught fish.  I began ice fishing when I was in college about 6-7 years ago.  I had always wanted to ice fish but never knew anybody else who did, or could teach me how, until I met up with an old friend from my high school days.  We began the season with a bang, catching loads of trout bass and pickerel.  I loved it right away! I knew I would because I don’t mind the cold.  I don’t ski or snowboard, I love fishing, and I usually have more time off in the winter, its perfect!

I fish for sport approximately 95% of the time, rarely keeping my catch.  When I go I am always respectful of my surroundings, leaving nothing but footprints wherever I fish.  When I get out, my favorite fish to catch are Northern Pike, Largemouth Bass, Pickerel, and Trout.  Trout are one of the few types of fish that I prefer to catch to eat and the type I fish for the least frequently.  Ice fishing and ice fishermen/women have a reputation for being a bunch of drunks who dirty up the ice and kill all their fish.  While this can be true I feel that the true fishermen, (there are a lot of them, myself included) respect the fish and their surrounding environment.   I belong to a fishing forum online called iceshanty.com and represent the Massachusetts team.  It is a great place for local ice fishermen to communicate about ice thickness, what’s biting and where, and to plan trips for groups to meet up and fish together. All of the guys I talk to and read posts from on the forum all share the same passion and respect for fishing and all that comes with it.

There are many great place to ice fish in Massachusetts.  I love fishing at the many lakes and ponds in the Berkshires, surrounding Hill towns, and right here in Northampton.  I would have to say that right now the Connecticut River Oxbow is my favorite place to go ice fishing.  It is also minutes from my home and restaurant.  Many a mornings in the wintertime I can be found cooking my breakfast on the ice, before work.  I love the peace and tranquility of it and I have a pretty good catch record to boot.  My largest catch through the ice was a 37” Northern pike that weighed 13 pounds, and I caught it on 6 pound test fishing line, through a six inch hole in the ice.

Over the last few years, I have gotten many of my friends and co-workers from the restaurant out on the ice with me.  Several of my prep cooks, my kitchen manager who is from Guatemala, and even a waitress!… once.  Many of them fish with me on a semi-regular basis, us having the same days off when the restaurant is closed and all. Ice fishing is one of those things that you just have to love, in order to do it on a regular basis.  I am glad that I discovered it when I did, and glad to pass it on to my friends and coworkers.  It’s an excellent, peaceful time to be outside, obviously you have to dress warmly, but the sun on your face, a couple friends, a portable grill, some camp chairs, and a few fish biting and you have yourself a recipe for a great winter day.  I just love ice fishing, it is something I was born to do, and while the wintertime can be a slow time for businesses, I stay busy and wake up earlier than I do any other time of year.

Oh, and by the way, many more posts are coming.  This is not an excuse to be slackers, we apologize, and are right back to grinding, with a great list of content coming.

To conclude I will use another quote from myself, also found on the front door of Caminito: “see you on the ice”….

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Earlier this morning we noticed that the feed wasn’t updating properly and the last post showing was from October 30th.  Right after then was when we moved to our new theme and made a lot of changes to the site.  When we made the changes everything appeared to have been working fine.

There have been about 15 posts since then that haven’t dropped into your RSS readers.  The problem is fixed now and you should have everything from this month as well as everything new going forward.

We value all of our subscribers and apologize for the technical error.  Please take some time and check out all of the posts from this month which you may not have read yet and let us know what you think.

Enjoy!

Notice anything different around here?  We hope you like the new changes.  We wanted to streamline all of our media and make it more accessible to you.  We are going to continue making improvements over the next couple weeks.  As we make these changes, please let us know what you think either in the comments, email us, or hit up Justin on one of his networks (listed on the right).

Oh yeah, and one more thing: we finally have a logo! Let us know what you think!

Thanks for the continued support.  We hope we keep bringing you quality content that is helpful and informative.