Pacific Tapas opens next Wednesday!

The news is in!

Pacific Tapas opens a week from today.

Chunk can't stop eating those plantains he is frying constantly. Don't tell him I said this, but Chunk is going to get the job as sous-chef, but he's not going to be able to fit through the door when he gets it if he keeps on like this.

Beautiful ocean views, delicious dishes mostly under $10, sensational sangria and stuff on tap. The new place is going to be red hot.

Heidi and I might trot down there when it opens up and poke our noses in for a bite. It's not as fancy as La Petite Rive, what with being in the old post office building in what passes for "downtown" in Littleriver (one word), so we are assuming it's a mini donkey-friendly environment.

In the meantime, we will try to keep Chunk on an even keel and enjoy our seasonal weather!

This photo is old -- it's GREEN here now!

Shed Horn Cellars this Saturday!

Hi!  Heidi here!

Monique thinks this isn't appropriate blog fodder, but while she's off doing her scrapbooking (I think THAT'S a silly hobby!), I thought I'd hop on here and let you know that La Petite Rive is hosting a Winemaker's dinner for the Wine & Mushroom Festival this Saturday night, November 13th, at 6:30 p.m. with Shed Horn Cellars wines and Michael, the winemaker and owner of the winery.

Michael's Dad was a bronco rider, which makes him horse people by blood, which is the next best thing to being miniature donkey people.

His wines have been winning lots of awards lately, but they wouldn't be paired with Troy and Mel's fantastic food unless they were deliciously drinkable and good with food. We don't hold with wine snobbery up here. We are all about enjoyment.

Shed Horn Cellars is in lovely Lake County -- just look at this lake!

And La Petite Rive has planned an amazing dinner to show off the generous pourings. Nobody should miss it because who knows if it will ever happen again?

Gotta run! Hope to see you up here Saturday.

--Heidi

It's officially Mushroom Season in Mendocino...

This giant grew in our meadow

 
November is the beginning of mushroom season. We LOVE mushroom season! The mushroom festival is only one part of the fun.

La Petite Rive is having a winemaker's dinner with Shed Horn Cellars here on November 13th in honor of the festival.

Not that we would know. I'm not going to take up any more room here on the blog complaining about the lack of donkey seatings at our on-site restaurant, a fabulous spot that features French homestyle cooking (which means delicious), married to local Northern California ingredients and techniques (which means wholesome and mostly organic).

I'm simply going to enjoy the mushrooms popping up in the meadows all around us and bask in the reflected glory of their savory little wonderfulness. Here in Mendocino we have mushrooms that won't grow anywhere else on earth, including the sweet candy cap which tastes like maple sugar. They are so sweet and fragrant, people up here make ice cream with them!

Interview with an Innkeeper

Now I'm not saying Claire is our favorite, but she DOES have a French name, like me, spelled the correct, French way (like me -- naturellement!).

We love her a lot. And so we are allowing her some of our precious space so that you, our beloved readers, can share the love.

Q. & A. with Claire

M:  How long have you been at the Inn? 

C: I have been here a little over 2 years, since July 2008. I was born and raised in Mendocino, left for about 6 years but decided to return home to the beautiful Mendocino Coast!

M: What do you love best about Mendocino? 

C: The sense of community, farmer’s markets, rain storms, huckleberries, and of course the ocean!

M: What's your favorite thing to eat at La Petite Rive? 
C: The garlic and onion soup. YUM! You may smell like it for the next couple of days but SO worth it!

M: Are you French?  

C: Not French…..Mostly Irish and Scottish with a wee bit of German and English thrown in there.

(Note: I am not French either. -- Monique)

M: What's your favorite thing about us? Is it our beauty or our personalities? 

C: I would say both. :) You are both so different and that’s what makes you you. And yes, you are both quite beautiful and elegant. Oh yeah, and my other favorite thing is that you both have freckles like me!!

I give

OK. I give. Even though there is no "donkey-seating" at La Petite Rive (just two seatings a night at 5:30 and 8 p.m.) even I have to concede that it's an awfully nice place.

And now that the weather is chilly at night, it's positively delicious in front of the fireplace in the farmhouse where they are located.

Five complete courses for under $40...wonderful local wines, homey, friendly, unpretentious ambiance...All set in this romantic, old farmhouse that dates back to the 1800s...

Not that Heidi and I would know anything about it! Not only don't we patronize the place (although we can smell it -- yum!) all we ever hear from the chipmunks lately is Pacific Tapas this, Pacific Tapas that.

Pacific Tapas. That's the name of the new place -- yet to be opened, yet to select a chipmunk sous-chef...Don't try to Google it. No website yet.

At least that's what those dizzy chipmunks tell me, between arguing with each other about the best way to braise!

They should be winding down, storing nuts for the coming cooler weather, and not fighting over sauces and reductions. Here's Chunk on a rare break. He's the favorite for the sous-chef slot at the new place, but don't tell him that.

Mouths are watering

It can't be helped.

With the smell of the kitchen at  La Petite Rive simmering succulent sauces wafting over on the soft Autumn breezes, the excitement building about the new restaurant, and those two crazy chipmunks cooking themselves silly over the sous-chef job,  is it any wonder Heidi and I are thinking about food all the time?

I'm not one to plump up for the winter -- in fact until we pick Halloween outfits I'm positively watching my weight -- but all of this frenzy about food is making it hard.

Chunk and Punk are all a-twitter because they think that the new restaurant will be opening soon and plans are afoot for dishes planned around mushroom season, which is huge here on the Mendocino Coast.  We have mushrooms you simply can't find any place else, what with our misty Marine layer and ancient redwoods surrounded by loamy soil. Even the sound of loamy soil makes me hungry!

And Chunk isn't helping things any by bringing over this photo of La Petite Rive's rack of lamb!

Rack of lamb with baked goat cheese and a Marsala reduction

But Enough About That!

Let's get back to me!

I mean really. How much chipmunk can anyone take?

Heidi thinks I'm crazy but I'm seriously considering our Halloween costume alternatives. Obviously, it has to be a duel costume. Not a costume to be worn together per se, but a costume with two parts.

Like Sonny and Cher, Captain and Tennille, Bush and Cheney...

Although those are all HORRIBLE costume ideas for mini donkeys. I'd better get back to work on my ideas.

And for the record, Chunk wants you to know that sous vide is NOT the kind of thing you would be eating if he gets the sous chef job. He shares the cooking style of La Petite Rive -- everything fresh and delicious and deceptively simple.

Oh good lord! Chipmunks again!!!??

Chipmunk Fall Madness

Punk contemplates pumpkin sous-vide

 Apparently, the cool, crisp weather makes chipmunks go a little bit nutty -- or at least chipmunk chefs. The chef wars have heated up between Punk and Chunk ever since they found out that a new restaurant was opening up around here.

Do they think about the fact that nobody is going to want what is basically a rodent as their sous-chef?

No, they do not.

What they think about is the best way to prepare some of that fresh pumpkin that is all over the place at this time of year. Punk, of course, is all about sous-viding it -- if that's a verb.

Chunk contemplates a snack

Chunk, as you can see from the photo below, is keeping up his strength while he thinks about a killer recipe to reveal fall's harvest in all of its glories.

I blame La Petite Rive. Ever since that place opened up here and started cooking breakfast for those chipmunks, they have gone plain, cuisine-crazy.

Where will it end?

Chuck's Big Announcement!

Dear Readers,

We mentioned last time that Chunk -- I mean Chuck -- had some big news for all of us. Now that it's official, he says we can tell you all.

Chuck is going to be a chef!

Yes, he's been enjoying the amazing cuisine so much at La Petite Rive, that he's been inspired to make a career change -- even in this economy. What impresses him most is how they take French classic techniques and add California-friendly touches -- while creating delightful dishes that incorporate the local bounty of Mendocino. 

Chuck has enrolled in cooking school and classes already started this week!

Of course, he is attending online. It's wonderful what opportunities the Internet has given Woodland Creatures.

Here is the photo he has given us to share with you, of him in his new vocation. Heidi and I are having a tiny disagreement about it. I think that I detect the hand of Photoshop being applied here, but Heidi swears I am being unkind and that Chunk always looks this thin...

I'd like to hear what you think. Does that white hat really take 10 pounds off of you?

Something Smells Fantastic at the Inn at Schoolhouse Creek

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining but Heidi is and you know how she gets. There's something amazingly delicious smelling cooking over at the Inn these days and you can smell it starting first thing in the morning.

I told Heidi it didn't have anything to do with that new restaurant that just moved in over there but you know Heidi, she always has to be right. She keeps talking about it and she won't let it go.

"Donkeys get hungry too," she says -- with her mouth full of course! -- "And just because they have two seatings a night doesn't mean they can't squeeze in a third donkey seating if they felt like it."

She's awfully persistent and she's got me thinking maybe she's got a point. We could just pop over around 10 or so, after they're done with the 8 p.m. seating. I'm not saying they have to cook us anything special --- we could just have a bite of whatever's leftover.

We aren't picky eaters and I know that carrot curry soup I smell would just about hit the spot. Heidi's fixated on the amuse bouche.

"You never know what it's going to be. I've heard it's always something fantastically divine!"

How does she even know that? How does she even know what an amuse bouche is?

Heidi escapes me sometimes.

That picture shows what the new restaurant looks like. See -- lots of room for tiny donkeys.