Feast of the 7 Fishes; Liquid Chef; Holiday Sparklers; Apocalypse Chow; Hand Washing vs. Gloves

Laura Avery speaks with Peter Schaner of Schaner Farms in Valley Center about his fabulous citrus fruit. Peter carries pomelos, a sweet choice he calls, "the mother of all grapefruit." He also has mandelos, a seedy but delicious cocktail-size grapefruit, and everyone's favorite, Oro Blanco. Peter's grapefruits were featured in Suzanne Goin's new cookbook, Sunday Suppers at Lucques. It is a lovely work co-authored by Good Food alumni Teri Gelbman. For the recipe, see below.

Schaner Farm's Avocado and Citrus Salad with Green Olives

• 4 lbs mixed citrus fruit (about 1/2 cup citrus fruit segments per person)
• 2 Tablespoons finely diced shallot
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 ripe but not too soft avocados
• 1/2 cup pitted Lucqes, Picholine, or other green olives
• 1 bunch watercress, cleaned, tough stems removed
• 1 bunch fris-e (about 2 ozs), cleaned
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Zest some of the citrus to get 1 teaspoon fine zest. Using a sharp knife, cut the stem and blossom ends from the fruit. One by one, place each of the fruits, cut side down, on a cutting board. Following the contour of the fruit with your knife, remove the peel and cottony white pith, working from top to bottom, and rotating the fruit as you go. When the fruits are all peeled, hold them in your hand one by one, and carefully slice between the membranes and the fruit to release the segments in between. Discard all the seeds. If you're using blood oranges, don't cut them into segments; after removing the peel and pith, slice them into pinwheels and set aside in a separate bowl. (Otherwise, they will "bleed" on the other fruit.) You should have about 2 1/2 cups of segments in addition to your blood-orange slices.
2. Combine the shallot, 1/4 cup citrus juice (from segmenting the fruit), the vinegar, lemon juice, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Let sit 5 minutes, then whisk in the olive oil and the zest. Taste for balance and seasoning. Cut the avocados in half lengthwise. Remove the pits and peel. Cut the avocados into 1/4 inch slices and place on a plate. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper.
3. Place the citrus and olives in a large bowl, and spoon three quarters of the vinaigrette over them. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Gently toss in the watercress and fris-e. Taste for balance and seasoning. Add more vinaigrette if you like.
4. Plate half the salad on a large chilled platter. Nestle half the avocado slices in the salad, being careful not to flatten the greens. Arrange the rest of the salad on top, and tuck the remaining avocado slices into the salad, so you have a tapestry of colors. Place the blood-orange slices among the greens.

Laura also chats up Cliff Wright at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market as he searches for a casserole ingredient that "bleeds." He gives the cardinal rule that broccoli should never be cooked longer than seven minutes and gives us a fresh idea for Brussels sprouts.

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Dr. Will Clower is proud of all of the "Not One Ounce" campaign members that have worked on making their eating habits healthier. Reminding us that we've learned not only what to eat, but also how to eat it, he urges us to maintain those habits into 2006 and not be swayed by the diet fads that tempt us as we make our resolutions on January 1. We should continue what we've learned, apply it to our lives, and keep active during our days rather than worry about killing ourselves in the gym.

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Kim Haasarud, founder of Liquid Architecture, offers some fresh drink ideas for the holidays, helping us novice bartenders know what to put behind our bar. Kim suggests that we limit ourselves to serving one or two great cocktails, rather than trying to offer a whole host of choices. We like her invention of the Crantopia Martini.

Crantopia Martini

• 1 1/2 oz orange vodka (Hangar One Mandarin Blossom preferred)
• splash Cointreau
• 1 Tablespoon fresh cranberry relish* (not canned)
• 2 oz cranberry juice
• Rosemary sprig, optional garnish

In a cocktail shaker, combine the orange vodka, Cointreau, cranberry, relish and cranberry juice with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into martini glass. Garnish with rosemary sprig.

Note: If your cranberry relish is fairly thick and chunky, throw everything in a blender with a few cubes of ice. You can actually make about 4-5 martinis at once using this method. Blend until smooth and pour into martini glasses.

Pumpkin Martini

• 1 1/2 oz spiced rum
• 1 Tablespoon pumpkin puree
• 2 oz light cream (or half & half)
• 1 oz simple syrup
• Dash cinnamon
• Nutmeg or 3 cloves for garnish
• Optional: whipped cream, graham cracker crusted rim (for pumpkin pie martini)

In a cocktail shaker, combine the rum, pumpkin, light cream, simple syrup and cinnamon with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with dash of nutmeg or float 3 cloves.

For a pumpkin pie martini, make a graham-cracker crumb martini rim. Place a small amount of simple syrup in a dish along side a dish of graham cracker crumbs. Dip martini glass in the syrup, then into the crumbs. Dip several times to ensure coverage. Mix martini above and straininto rimmed martini glass. Top off with small dollop of whipped cream.

Mistletoe Martini

• 1 oz Glogg (non-alcoholic version)
• 1 1/2 oz vodka (regular or orange vodka)
• 2 oz sparkling apple cider

In a cocktail shaker, combine the Glogg and vodka. Shake well and strain into martini glass or champagne flute. Top off with sparkling applecider. Garnish with red apple sliver. (For a non-alcoholic version, make without the vodka!)

Spiced Apple Martini

• 1 oz spiced rum
• 1/2 oz Berentzen's apple liqueur (can also use Puckers Sour Apple)
• 2 oz apple cider
• 1 Tablespoon apple pie filling
• Splash of lemon juice
• Dash of cinnamon

In a cocktail shaker, mash together the pie filling with the rum and liqueur until apple pieces are pulped. Add the cider, lemon juice and ice. Shake vigorously and strain into chilled martini glass. Garnish with red apple slice.

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Jennifer Morgan of Colorado Wine Company in Eagle Rock has put together a great list of holiday sparkling wines for us, including some fabulous cavas for under $20 and some beautiful brut champagnes for considerably more.

• Gruet -Champagne' from New Mexico $13.99
• Opera Brut Champagne $10.99
• Veuve Clicquot Champagne $39.99
• Bugey Cerdon sparkling ros- (Gamay, Poulsard, off-dry) $17.99
• Avinyo Brut Cava, Spain $15.99
• Terre Serena Prosecco, Italy $13.99
• Parigot & Richard Cremant (Blanc de Blanc), Burgundy - $19.99
• Duval Leroy Brut Champagne 1996 - $42.99
• Col Vetoraz Prosecco - $14.99
• Paul Berthelot Brut Reserve Champagne at $30.99

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Jon Robertson has co-authored Apocalypse Chow with his wife, Robin Robertson, to instruct us how to eat well when the power goes out. Instead of eating ice cream and power bars, Jon presents ideas for how to stock up so that we can weather these experiences with our usual gourmet sensibilities.He's even put together what he calls "5-day wine-box", menus and supplies that can feed a few people for 5 days and fit inside a wine case.

The Five Day Menu
Day One

• Lunch: Comforting Corn Chowder; Beat-the-Blahs Basic Black Bean Patties
  Dinner: Red Rum Chili

Day Two

• Lunch: "Seeing Stars" White Beans and Greens Soup
• Dinner: Kitchen Sink Capellini

Day Three

• Lunch: "We're not in Provence Anymore" Salade Nicoise
• Dinner: Curry in a Hurry

Day Four

• Lunch: Composed Marinated Vegetable Salad; Texas Twister Caviar
• Dinner: Orecchiette with White Beans and Olivada

Day Five

• Lunch: Calm-Down Couscous Salad
• Dinner: "Duck and Cover" Tortilla Bake

The Five Day Grocery List

• Three 15.5 oz cans kidney beans
• One15.5 oz can black beans
• One15.5 oz can pinto beans
• One 8-oz can chickpeas
• One15.5 oz can chickpeas
• One16 oz can cannellini beans
• One15.5 oz can white beans
• One15.5 oz can black-eyed peas
• Four 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
• One 28 oz can diced tomatoes
• One 15 oz can corn
• One 15 oz can creamed corn
• One 8 oz can sliced white potatoes
• Four 16 oz cans diced white potatoes
• One8 oz can spinach
• One8 oz can green beans
• Two 15 oz cans green beans
• Two 16 oz jars three-bean salad
• Two 15 oz cans vegetable broth
• Three 4 oz cans chopped mild green chiles
• One 8 oz jar cured black olives
• One 8 oz jar kalamata olives
• One 4 oz can sliced black olives
• One 6 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts
• One16 oz jar salsa
• One 8 oz jar roasted red bell peppers
• One package shelf-stable tortillas
• One lb orecchiette
• One lb capellini
• One box whole-grain couscous
• One box soup pasta (pastene, stellini, etc.)
• One 8-oz carton soy milk
• One container bread crumbs

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Chef and Seattle-area food writer Sara Dickerman has written an article in the online magazine Slate about the controversy surrounding the wearing of gloves in restaurant kitchens. We invited her to Good Food to talk about the subject with us.