Sign is in place a Culinary Institute Wednesday. Photograph by Elizabeth Johnson-Kossick, CIA.

It took two or three crane trucks, lots of workmen and interested onlookers to get the new, 20-by-20-foot square Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio,  sign up on the newly expanded school this afternoon.

“It looks fabulous,” said one white-coated CIA student, taking photos during the placement. Under a hot sun, the sign-raising also raised some sweat on brows, but a light breeze started up just as the sign was finally being hoisted into the air.

To everyone’s relief, the breeze calmed down, so the sign, with a base made of perforated metal, didn’t try to take off. It was slowly placed in its final position above the front entrance to the San Antonio campus of the CIA.

Classes begin this month. The new school will be celebrated at an opening on Oct. 9.  Check out the CIA website for more information.

Sign approaches final positioning over front of the institute.

Photographs by Bonnie Walker

The setting at the San Antonio Country Club was elegant and the service excellent for a cookbook and kitchen shower I attended a couple of weeks ago.

The top attraction at such events is, of course, the radiant bride-to-be. On the food side of things, it was a tray of cookies on the refreshments table that stole the show.

This famous cookbook title decorated one of The Cookie Lady's frosted sugar cookies.

The sugar cookies, frosted with famous cookbook titles, such as “Joy of Cooking,” Julia Childs’ “Art of French Cooking” and “The Fanny Farmer Cookbook,” weren’t just there for looks.

“It took me years to develop that recipe,” said Sandy Kelso, co-owner of The Cookie Lady, at 1031 Patricia Ave.  As any cookie baker knows, as simple as a sugar cookie might seem, a perfect recipe is a masterpiece indeed. So, we didn’t push (well, not too hard) for Kelso’s recipe, as it is an important part of her livelihood.

Kelso partners with her daughter, Hallie Rodgers at the store. The business has been in operation for six years and in addition to decorated cookies, Kelso and Rodgers and three full-time bakers, plus other part-time staff,  make a full lineup of other cookies and baked goods, such as muffins and cakes. Their chocolate chip cookies are the top sellers, with the oatmeal, dried cranberry and white chocolate cookies coming in second. She also makes snickerdoodles, two other types of oatmeal cookies, pecan sandies and more.

“We don’t do any cake decorating. We bake the cakes, but send them out for the decorating,” Kelso said.

The frosted cookbook cookies go for around $1.50 each. Decorated cookies in general are between $1 and $2, says Kelso.

Kelso also gets big orders from companies such as USAA, plus weddings and other special orders. Without a doubt, Christmas is Kelso’s busiest time.

“By mid-November, we’ll be totally booked, but we do keep a waiting list,” Kelso says.

That’s more than two months away, but I’m getting in line now.

Contact Kelso at 210-342-6428.

Photograph by Catherine Boone

Saffron threads suffuse food with a dusky, exotic flavor and golden color.

Q. I love the color and flavor of saffron, especially in paella, but it’s expensive. Can you substitute other seasonings when it is called for in a dish, such as achiote or turmeric?     — K.W.

A. Saffron is one of the world’s more exotic flavorings, used since ancient times and difficult to harvest. The thin threads are pricey, but the flavor is really what makes it all worth it. It has a dusky perfume that suffuses anything from delicate rice dishes or hearty stews. It’s delicious with fish or chicken and a perfect seasoning for slow-simmered lentils or garbanzo beans.

If it is just a pale golden or slightly orange color you want to impart to food, and all you have on hand is turmeric, a pinch or two of this less-expensive spice, in dried form, is OK to use. Fresh turmeric (from the rhizome, part of the root system, of a tropical plant) has a more pungent flavor, and is good on its own terms, not just as a substitute for saffron.

Achiote (from annatto seeds, from a tropical evergreen plant)  is mild in flavor but will yield a more reddish-orange color. It is used to color some cheeses, for instance, as an alternative to artificial colorings that might cause allergic reactions.

The reason for saffron’s expense is first that while the saffron crocus grows in places throughout the planet, it doesn’t grow just anywhere. The stigma, or threads that are the female part of the plant’s reproductive system, must be painstakingly hand-harvested from the blossom of a type of crocus plant. But a little saffron goes a long way, and it’s a valued addition to any good cook’s spice cabinet.

Photograph by Bonnie Walker

When my husband and I moved into our house 20 years ago this month, our next door neighbors welcomed us with a short visit and a frosted banana cake. The cake was very good, and the friendship has lasted through the years though the neighbors, Don and Ruth Frantz, purchased a house a few blocks away some time ago.

When we met, the two were about to have their first and only child. Now 20, Brad is studying accounting at the University of the Incarnate Word.

Ruth was over last night to catch up, have some wine and Mediterranean food and watch a movie. During the evening she got a text from her son who now watches over his mom. He was checking to see if she’d taken care of the flat tire she’d had earlier in the day on her car, and if she needed a ride.  That was worth a smile.

Today, I thought of that banana cake as I looked at two very, very ripe bananas in my kitchen and argued with myself whether it would be: banana smoothies or banana cake? You see here which won out!

The recipe is from Southern Living’s “Our Best-Ever Cakes & Pies.” I had to cut this recipe in half and substitute half-and-half for buttermilk. I added a teaspoon of lemon juice to the half-and-half and used a teaspoon of baking soda and a teaspoon of baking powder. The single-layer cake turned out just fine.  I’m going to whip up the Luscious Lemon Frosting for the cake as soon as it has cooled.

Decadent Banana Cake

2 1/2 cups plus 5 1/2 tablespoons cake flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
4 large very ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup buttermilk
Luscious Lemon Frosting (recipe below) or frosting of your choice
Banana chips for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat unsalted butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add granulated sugar and light brown sugar; beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

Beat in mashed bananas at low speed. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at medium speed until just blended after each addition. Pour batter into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks and let cool 1 hour before frosting.  Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish, if desired.

(Cake, in photo above, has sifted powdered sugar over the top.)

Luscious Lemon Frosting

1 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 (32-ounce package) powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons half-and-half

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Stir in lemon zest and juice. (Mixture will appear curdled.) Gradually add sugar; beat at high speed 4 minutes or until spreading consistency. Gradually beat in up to 2 tablespoons half-and-half, if necessary, for desired consistency.

Makes 1 two-layer cake and frosting for a 2-layer cake.

From Southern Living’s “Our Best-Ever Cakes & Pies”

Pecan-crusted Fried Chicken is the featured main lunch dish at Citrus

Citrus, at the Hotel Valencia on Houston Street, stepped up to the Restaurant Week plate in fine style on Monday. On the $15 prix fixe menu was a salad of baby greens, tomatoes, pecans and olives that couldn’t have been fresher or more carefully dressed. The Pecan-crusted Chicken entrée, on mashed potatoes was full of crunch and good, nutty  flavor. It said a lot for this Texas-style preparation of chicken-fried chicken.

Citrus brought the meal to a happy conclusion with a trio of citrus and tropical sorbets that set the taste buds tingling.

This meal is featured throughout Restaurant Week for $15; a $35 per person prix fixe dinner is also on the menu.

Check out more restaurants participating in Restaurant Week, sponsored by Culinaria. The event goes through Saturday.

Photographs by Bonnie Walker

Becker Vineyards invites you to join them for their 14^th Annual Grape Stomp, Aug. 28-29 and Sept. 4-5.  This event is complimentary; no reservations required.

Oak barrels will be cut in half and people can stomp for fun. You can also purchase T-shirts and put your own “stomp prints” on them as a souvenir.

Concessions will be by Fired Up Wood Oven Baked Pizza.

Hours for the stomps:  Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. ;  Sunday, Noon-6 p.m. Becker Vineyards is 11 miles east of Fredericksburg off U.S. Hwy. 290 at Jenschke Lane .  830-644-2681.  www.beckervineyards.com

Saturday morning at Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard, south of San Antonio near Elmendorf, marked the first day of pressing the 2010 olive harvest.

About 500 pounds of olives were poured through a metal grid into the hopper (at right) as processing began in the barn at the orchard.

This is just the second year that the Italian olive press was put to work. As the green oil finally started flowing, at about 10:30 a.m., workers clapped and cheered, took photos and grabbed spoons for quick samples of brand new olive oil.

“It tastes amazing,” said Saundra Winokur, Sandy Oaks owner. The fresh-tasting new oil, smooth in flavor and bright green in color, flows from the nozzle of the mill into clean glass gallon jars (below right).

The jars are taken immediately to a cool room where the jar tops will go on and paper bags will cover each jar. The oil needs to settle in the cool, dark environment for awhile before bottling begins.

Most of the first olives picked this week were green.  As the harvesting continues early this coming week, pickers will be bringing in the rosy-colored olives. Finally, the ripe black olives will make it to the barn floor to cool on tarps, be separated from the leaves and then put into the mill.

“That way we can adjust the blend the way we want it for the oil,” said Winokur. Sandy Oaks will sell “limited edition” bottles of the new oil, or oglio nuovo, and put the rest into the blend for the regular bottles. Sandy Oaks also sells the dried olive leaves for tea.

Sandy Oaks’ orchard has more than 11,000 trees of many varieties, including arbequina, mission, manzanilla, arbosana, picual, frantoio, leccino and koroneiki. Visit the website for more information, as well as directions to the orchard and tree nursery, visiting and tour hours.

“Seeing is deceiving. It’s eating that’s believing.” — James Thurber, “Further Fables for Our Times”

Restaurant Week underway

Restaurant Insignia is one of the establishments lined up for Culinaria's Restaurant Week.

This week marks Culinaria’s celebration of Restaurant Week in San Antonio.  Guests will be able to sample food from great San Antonio restaurants at delicious prices. Three-course prix fixe menus will be offered for lunch ($15) and dinner ($35).

Check out Culinaria, formerly the New World Wine & Food Festival for restaurants and menus. These are a few of the restaurants that have signed up: Acenar, Antlers Lodge at The Hyatt Hill Country Resort, Auden’s Kitchen, Biga on the Banks, Bin 555, Bistro Vatel, Boardwalk Bistro, Boudro’s, Broadway Bistro, Cafe de Artistes, Citrus at Hotel Valencia, Coco Chocolate Lounge & Bistro, Kirby’s Steakhouse, La Gloria, Las Canarias, Maggiano’s, Paesano’s, Paloma Blanca, Restaurant Insignia, the downtown Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, The Grey Moss Inn, The Lodge Restaurant of Castle Hills, The Palm Restaurant, Tre Trattoria and more. For a full listing and more information, check out 2010 Culinaria Restaurant Week

Scott Cohen, founding chef of two new San Antonio restaurants, is now teaching aspiring cooks and chefs at Austin’s Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.

Cohen created the menus at Pavil Restaurant and Bar and Watermark Grill. Both restaurants are owned and operated by the Watermark Hotel Company. Formerly he was chef at the Omni La Mansion del Rio Hotel, on the River Walk.

Cohen brings more than three decades of traditional French culinary experience and a resumé that includes training in New York and France to inform his teaching.  Cohen will continue with Watermark Hotel Company’s two restaurants as the Company’s Culinary Creative Advisor and a member of Watermark Hotel Company’s Board of Directors.

Watermark Grill and Pavil Restaurant will continue day-to-day operations with chefs Tyler Horstmann and José Yanez respectively, according to owner Patrick J. Kennedy. Cohen will continue to assist with menu and staff development.

Located in the new Plaza Las Campanas mixed-use development at the southeast corner of Huebner Road and Loop 1604, Pavil Restaurant and Bar serves classic Parisian brasserie fare. Watermark Grill, at the intersection of Loop 1604 and Stone Oak Parkway (northeast corner) offers fresh sustainable seafood and a large, fresh raw bar.

Few things are hotter in August than Central Market’s Hatch Chile Fest, going on now through Aug. 31.   Roasted chiles, recipes, contests, special products and more are in store.

Chef Jason Dady and Central Market executive chef, Tan Nguyen help Central Market celebrate 15 years of Hatchmania on Aug. 31.

Dady and Nguyen each brings his own style to the dishes while using minimal ingredients and quick preparation. Dishes will feature Hatch Chiles and Chicken Thighs; Hatch Chiles and Shrimp; and Hatch Chiles and Watermelon. Pick up lots of tips and sample six dishes that feature everyone’s favorite chile.

6:30 – 9 p.m., Tuesday, August 31
Central Market, 4821 Broadway
$50
Call 210-368-8600 for reservations.

10 Ways to Use Chiles, including Chiles Rellenos, above.

Photograph by Bonnie Walker