Valentine's Day at Madeleine Bistro

This is a bit more expensive than most things I post to this list, but Chef David Anderson creates some of the most amazing vegan food I have ever seen. Even as a confirmed carnivore, I love nearly everything he serves. If you are looking for special event for Valentine's Day, Madeleine Bistro would be a wonderful choice. -- Douglas

Greetings!

It's not too late to celebrate Valentine's Day at Madeleine Bistro. Please call us today to reserve a table for our very special six-course Chef's tasting menu. And please note that we will not be open for lunch for the week of February 9th through 13th, as we will be preparing for this special event.

Hope to see you soon!

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Valentine's Day Chef’s Tasting Menu

Saturday, February 14, 2009


Asparagus: Two soups sharing one bowl…

“Butter”-poached white asparagus, lemon-cardamom bubbles

Truffled shiitake mushroom tartare

Watercress, purple potato, radish, champagne vinaigrette

Pan-seared tofu medallions

Purple sticky rice cake, green papaya salad, Thai green curry sauce

Panko-crusted seitan schnitzel

Herbed spaetzle, smoked celery root puree, parsley coulis

Traditional carrot cake, non-traditional garnishes

Crème cheese frosting powder, grilled pear steak, golden raisin gel

Chocolate with orange variations

Chocolate twist, blood orange sorbet, gran marnier French toast, Earl Grey panna cotta

$125 per person

Price does not include tax or gratuity.

Reservations required.

Madeleine Bistro - Organic Vegan Cuisine
18621 Ventura Blvd, Tarzana, California 91356
818-758-6971 -- dine@madeleinebistro.com
http://madeleinebistro.com

In the garden - January 2009

In the garden - January 2009
Originally uploaded by dewelch

My gardening life has been a bit slow of late, but I took a few minutes to wander around and see what was happening.

This first picture shows some of the azaleas in the front garden beginning to bloom. Over the next month or so waves of pink will move through the geometrically planted beds. Once the bloom is complete, it will be time to trim everything back.

The roses are also starting to show some new growth. I have decided not to do a hard pruning of the roses this year as they had a pretty tough year in 2008. I will try and focus on watering a feeding a bit more this year, as it looks as if we will have a La Nina Winter this year. This means significantly less moisture this year and perhaps even a full-blown drought, complete with watering restrictions.

Bulbs have been coming up for the last month, with paperwhites already blooming, snowbells are probably next and I see that the daffodils are sprouting now, too.

We had some rain recently, thank goodness, but once that dries out it will be time to hit up some larger projects. We have to cypress trees in the back garden that need to be removed. One is small enough for me to do alone, but the other will probably require our tree trimming workers, just to be safe.

Event: Create a Beautiful Garden Using Kitchen Scraps!

Create a Beautiful Garden Using Kitchen Scraps!
Date: February 7, 2009 Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Location: Franklin Canyon Park Address: 2600 Franklin Canyon Drive , Beverly Hills , 90210 Driving Directions: Get Driving Directions Region: Westside/Beverly Hills Area Phone: (310) 858-7272 Admission: Free Website: lamountains.com Description: Explore one way you can help reduce global warming in this informative presentation on starting your own vermiculture. Norma the naturalist will show you how to use worms and food scraps to enrich the soil in your garden. 2 hrs Join us at the Sooky Goldman Nature Center in Franklin Canyon Park at 10am on February 7th, program will last 2 hrs. Franklin Canyon Park is located at 2600 Franklin Canyon Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90210 For more information please visit www.lamountains.com or call 310-858-7272 ext 131 Program sponsored by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and presented by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority Submitted By: Ed Davis Park in Towsley Canyon

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A late Fall in Los Angeles

Leaves
Originally uploaded by dewelch

After warmer than normal Fall, we have finally had several weeks of cooler temperatures, including some down near freezing here in the San Fernando Valley. This, along with some rain earlier and a lot of wind today has seemed to kick all the deciduous trees into leaf drop. We had a good 3 inches of leaves on the driveway this morning with more still falling. Probably by next week we will be ready to rake, blow and mulch as much as we can to dress the rose beds and others. What is left will be used to top off the composts bins and maybe we will just start a plain old leaf mold pile in one corner of the back garden.

We have made some very nice compost in our new bins, so I am greatly inclined to keep up the practice. All of our non-meat kitchen waste goes in for the "green" component with leaves making up the bulk of the brown. It isn't a perfect ratio, but it seems to break down over time.

I am hoping er see a bit more rain soon. January and February are typically our wettest months, but we haven't had much precipitation so far. Wish us luck. These long periods of drought are tough on the garden.

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