Cafe Ginger

I am looking out the glass doors eating a rather late lunch watching the dark clouds move in. I am dining in the beautiful Cafe Ginger formerly known as Café le Jadeite. The interior view alone makes me want the restaurant be a success. Sitting in the front area so I can work at the same time I eat, I am pelted by the sounds of the TV and Tony Bennett at once in strange stereo. I think at this odd time I am the only customer. The service has been by a hovering waiter that looks like he could be brothers to the ice skating champion Scott Hamilton except with a bit more blonde hair. At one point he sat at the next table to me watching TV with his knee frantically bouncing up & down. I didn’t order anything exotic just my classic favorite General Tso’s Chicken. It’s plated well with crisp fresh green beans and standard steamed rice and a spring roll. The chicken wasn’t spicy at all. I can see small pieces of the small red peppers that are usually hot. It was a total sweet syrup that when I brought a forkful to my mouth it left a trail all the way down to my plate. As I sat here clearing calls on my bb, the syrup got considerably thicker to the point I could hold rice & chicken on my fork upside down and it did not move.

3 Olives - Katy Texas

3 Olives is a new addition to the Katy dining experience. Jeff and Fauna Miller have a solid following from their now closed Bistro 829. Their focus now on the freestyle Italian restaurant & cuisine. There is a connected Italian import shop located behind the bar area for oils, spices and pasta. I waited for my husband at the dining area near the bar ordering a glass of merlot not having lunch or breakfast I went ahead & ordered an appetizer of spinach & artichoke dip made with 5 different cheeses including gruyere served on seasoned homemade crostini. This was the best spinach & artichoke dip that I have ever dined on. When I ordered my second glass of merlot I was informed that they don’t actually serve merlot by glass, I was drinking Placido Chianti which I did enjoy but they should have told me of the switch upon ordering. My husband made it just in time to enjoy two bites of appetizer. His iceberg wedge salad was served with a fantastic gorgonzola-pesto dressing with speckles of bacon minus the expected diced tomatoes. Our Pollo Bistro entrée would have made Paula Deen proud as the sauce was heavy on the butter. This was a flattened filet of chicken sautéed with pancetta & mushroom in a cilantro cream sauce. We finished off our dinner with a classic tiramisu square served with a strawberry on the side topped with small chocolate chips & chocolate drizzle. The white fill made of mascarpone and a heavy accent of amaretto. We found the service extremely attentive and numerous.

Thumbs Up

3 Olives

22764 Westheimer Pkwy # 600

Katy, Texas 77450

(832) 437-4062

The dreaded pressure cooker

I was rather excited about the purchase of my newest cookbook America's Most Wanted Recipe's by Ron Douglas. In the book cites the possible secret recipe for original KFC chicken. I had worked at KFC when I was 17 & did not really pay attention to what was going on in the back. I had to face the hot sun through the window & try to not be blinded. Anyway, shopping for a pressure cooker was limited to small pots with no instructions or a large digital one by Cook at JC Penney. I had to order one which took 2 weeks to be delivered. Saturday the large box was dropped off so Sunday I purchase my dead chicken. David read the instructions no fewer than 5 times. Recipes call for medium heat selection, new expensive cooker does not have a medium selection. Instruction book from Cook is in 7 languages and English is hard to understand. There are no recipes. When I google recipes, they mention medium heat. No mention of how much water needs to be added or if we add oil how much except 1 1/2 inches then they say cover the chicken in oil in one recipe from google. I ask David if we need to install pressure cooker outside in the event it blows up cause I am adding the oil. David looks at me & begs to go out to dinner eyeing the clock knowing our area is rolling up the welcome mat right then. We use the candy gage we already had & the boiling oil isn't getting hot enough to really fry or brown the chicken. David again wants to go out to dinner but I want to at least see this through. There are blue lights going off on the bomb but I want to venture where no Taffinder has gone before. We seal the pot after we loaded the slightly brown oil soaked chicken into the pot & David secures the hatch and we stand back and wait 13 minutes. Then we waited for some sound....no sound. David takes a utensil and stands back 5 feet to move the pressure lid thing and notice we are giving our cabinets a hot steam bath so note to self do not use under the cabinets. David again asks to go out, but I persist. Now at this point I had not prepared anything to go with the chicken just in case it worked out. We finally remove the secured hatch and lift out the oil soaked but falling off the bone chicken and have to use a rather large amount of paper towels to soak it. One of the chicken legs is broken in half so it must be a Chicago chicken hit at the kneecap. We throw together a salad & mac n cheese and eat. It is tasty but I am way too concerned about all the oil & not sure if it was hot enough in the browning to not be totally soaked in oil. So right now Darth Vader remains in the kitchen, he may be going into the outer space of the garage storage. When David wanted to know what to do with all the oil, I suddenly threw myself into bed falling quickly asleep. The kitchen fairy had cleaned it out by the next morning.

Morning Surprise

I noticed our horses were on a different side of the pasture this morning looking out towards the front. I face the same direction to see what they are looking at and see a visiting horse in the front yard out loose enjoying the fresh growing salad bowl in the front yard. I run outside in my nightgown grabbing a lead rope & arm load of hay from the hay barn. She approached me with eyes on the hay but doesn't let me near her. I run next door to my neighbor "Green Acres" and she comes out with a bowl of feed shaking nervously wearing her night clothes. So the two of us manage to get Sissy back into her pasture. "Green Acres" had someone water her pasture before the heavy rains & they had not locked or closed the gate. Sissy just happened to notice the opportunity for freedom this morning and took her fill of freshly blooming roses, cucumbers, and various grasses & bushes. Zsa Zsa Gabor could only lite her cigarette after her heart stopped pounding & we notice each others predicament in our nightgowns and run inside to our own homes. Naturally after helping "Green Acres" in the excitement our dog escapes out over the fence and I am back out calling for the large white furry horse Pandora. All before my first cup of coffee.