We had a great time at the Chocolate on the Beach Festival this year, thank you to all who came and played with us.

This year The Culinary Madman Jess Owen, and his lovely wife, served up Chocolate Soup with Cocoa Dusted Churros.  Many in the audience requested the recipes, so here they are.

The Culinary Madman’s Chocolate Soup

Ingredients:

2C Sugar

2oz Water

1 1/2 Gallon Whole Milk

40oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

2 Pinches Salt

Roux (3/4 cup melted butter or oil, 3/4 cup flour)

1/2 Cup Vanilla Extract

Method:

1. Place water and Sugar in a heavy bottom large pot (at least 8 quarts) and cook on high until all of the water has evaporated.

2. At this point you will have to use your own judgement.  After the water boils out the temperature will continue to climb past 212F , this will allow you to caramelize the sugar for a deeper flavor if you so desire.  I must inform you that you have to be extremely careful, the sugar starts to caramelize at ~320F.  Stir the sugar slowly with a wire whisk so that it caramelizes evenly, but do not splash yourself because hot sugar does not come off your skin.  Let the sugar caramelize as light or dark as you wish.

3. Add in 1/2 gallon of whole milk.  Note: This step can be very dangerous.  If you chose to caramelize your sugar, the temperature can be in excess of 350F.  When the milk hits the hot sugar it will give off a lot of steam and expand rapidly.  Since you are adding a large volume of milk the temperature will decrease quickly, but watch out for the first bit that hits the pan.  Adding the milk so quickly will seize the sugar.  Don’t worry, this is normal.  Just keep stirring with your wire whisk and as the milk heats up the sugar will melt again.

4. Turn the heat down to medium to avoid scorching the milk.  When the milk is up to a simmer and the sugar is melted again, start adding the Chocolate chips 1 handful at a time.  Wait until the Chocolate is melted and fully incorporated before adding the next handful.  Repeat until all the chocolate is melted.

5. Add the remaining 1 gallon of milk and 2 pinches of salt.  Bring up to a simmer, stirring regularly as to not scorch the soup.

6. Now it is time to add the roux.  My preferred method is to mix the fat and flour in a 2 cup glass measuring cup.  After the flour has absorbed the fat I ladle some of the Chocolate Soup into the cup and mix.  I do this 3-4 times until my measuring cup is just about full and then I pour it’s contents into the Chocolate Soup.  This process helps to avoid lumps.

7. After adding the roux to the soup, briefly bring to a boil to take full advantage of the roux’s thickening power.  Then reduce the heat to low and stir in the vanilla.

8. Your chocolate soup is now ready to enjoy.  It is up to you if you serve the Chocolate Soup in a mug or in a bowl.

The Culinary Madman’s Cocoa Dusted Churros

Batter Ingredients:

2 Cups Water

2 Cups Milk

3 Ounces Sugar

1 tsp Salt

2 1/2 Cups Flour

1/2 Cup Cornmeal

4 Large Eggs

1 Pinch Cinnamon Powder

3/4 Oil

Method:

1. Pour the milk, water, sugar, salt, cinnamon and oil into a saucepan and bring to a boil.

2. While wet mixture is coming to a boil, mix flour and cornmeal together in a mixing bowl or stand mixer.

3. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and mix into a paste.

4. Let the batter rest for up to 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally to release heat.

5. Blend eggs in one at a time.  Make sure the egg is fully incorporated before adding the next egg.

6. Place your Churro batter into a pastry bag. If you don’t have a pastry bag you can use a heavy zip top bag and cut the bottom corner off.  Using a Star Tip is optional and the size of the hole will dictate the girth of your Churros and cooking time.

7. Heat frying oil to 350F.  Pipe the Churro batter into the hot oil, using a knife to cut the Churro to length as you squeeze the pastry bag.  Be careful not to splash yourself with the hot oil, Churros are not as tasty in the emergency room as they are at your house.

8. When the Churros are golden brown on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside, remove them from the oil and toss with a mixture of granulated sugar, cinnamon and Dutch Process Cocoa Powder (Hersheys Special Dark Cocoa Powder can be used).  The proportions of the sugar mixture is at your own discretion but I advise that you use the Cocoa Powder sparingly.  My preferred method is to shake the Churros in paper bags that contain the sugar mixture, double bagging is advisable.

9. Time to enjoy.

What are your plans for this weekend?  How would you like to come to the beach and meet a World Famous traveller?  The Seattle WeeHawk is Blitzing Ocean Shores, WA!

I just got this email in for the Ocean Shores North Beach Chamber of Commerce.

July 10, 2012

 

The WeeHawk is the mascot for the Seahawks 12^th man (the fans) and he has developed quite the following. Chris Johnson is the man behind the WeeHawk and when he was in town last year he procured a flag from the fireworks stand Shores Floors was running. This flag has been traveling with the WeeHawk and went with him to New York to be there on the 10th Anniversary of 911 where he was featured in a documentary.

Chris will be returning the flag to Malcolm and Kari McDonald of Shores Floors at a ceremony scheduled for Friday, July 13 at 4:00 pm at Shores Floors – 408 Damon Rd – just outside the ‘gate’.

  

Chris uses the WeeHawk to help publicize people, places and events and is offering to use the time he will be in town this weekend to help any chamber member who wants to barter for his service. He will trade his time and publicity machine for whatever you have to offer – ie; WeeHawk eating at the bakery, riding the mopeds, flying kites, etc.

Here are some comments Chris emailed when I asked about the kind of exposure he could offer:

 

:….WeeHawk’s exposure is global so I can’t put an exact number save for the fact that it’s in the multi-millions. The one link featuring WeeHawk was shot by a company called SportsBrand Media group out of Australia…they flew a videographer out here from England to do the feature on WeeHawk. This feature is being shown around the globe via various networks. WeeHawk has also been featured on National Radio (via the Big D and Bubba show). WeeHawk has over 5,000 Facebook friends but would have tens-of-thousands more if Facebook didn’t limit the number of friends one can have. WeeHawk is also on 3 NFL sponsored Facebook pages all averaging 4k likes each…in fact, WeeHawk is the cover-picture/profile picture for one of the pages -http://www.facebook.com/NFLTAILGATENATION?ref=ts…. .

 

The end result of the visit will be exposure on the Facebook outlets available to the WeeHawk via Chris Johnson.

  

Please join Chris and the WeeHawk on Friday, July 13 at 4:00 at Shores Floors.  

 

 

So give us a call to make your reservations to stay with us, enjoy some sunshine, and meet the Seattle WeeHawk.

This last year has brought us a couple of high points.  We were able to open the stairs to the beach, we won 1st place for Grandma’s Famous Clam Chowder at the Razor Clam Festival, and some of our favorite restaurant guests have come to visit.

We wanted to take this opportunity to show you our elevation drawings.  The new building will look amazing, hopefully we can break ground soon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thank You

Grandma’s Famous Clam Chowder Wins The Blue Ribbon!

WOW!  What an amazing day at the 6th Annual Razor Clam Festival in Ocean Shores, WA.  I cannot tell you how great it feels to win 1st place with Grandma’s Famous Clam Chowder.

I’m sorry it took a week to put up this post, but I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around all of the thoughts and emotions leading up to and including the event.

It’s Been A Long Year

Not to belabor the point, but I have had a very rough year since we lost our restaurant.  Not only did I lose part of my business, I also lost thousands of relationships and a career that I am passionate about.  I know that it is only temporary, but it feels like it is dragging on.

I miss going to work and having a great time with my co-workers and guests in the dining room.  I miss talking to my friends and catching up on what has been happening in their lives since their last visit.  Almost daily I look at the empty grass on the bluff where my restaurant should be and I remember so many great times I had, laughing, serving, entertaining, connecting.  I think about how I can’t wait to have that again.

It Almost Didn’t Happen

When we had the fire, as we were watching the restaurant burn, we knew it was going to take at least a year to get back up and running.  My beautiful wife Sara and I were already discussing how we could participate in the Chocolate Festival, Razor Clam Festival, Taste Washington, etc…

In February, we weren’t able to put on our Annual Wine and Chocolate Party for the Chocolate Festival, but we did get to participate as judges and performing Chef Demos.  Our Executive Chef, Andrew Bickar, did a Chef Demo on Saturday and Sara and I did a Chef Demo on Sunday.

As we were on the Razor Clam Festival Planning Committee, people kept asking Sara and me if we were going to participate.  Actually, they were telling us that they wanted Ocean Crest Resort to participate.  We talked about all of the logistical difficulties involved with trying to participate in a food centric event that serves the public when we didn’t have a commercial kitchen, but we also NEEDED to participate.  I’m not sure exactly how to say it, but serving our guests is a way of life for us.  It is our passion and something that brings us immense happiness.

Anyway… since we knew that we had to participate we were left with trying to figure out HOW to participate.  We needed a commercial kitchen, we needed a place to have the supplies delivered, we needed the service equipment, and we needed to figure out how to make 15 gallons of Grandma’s Famous Clam Chowder without having left overs.

Preparing

So the search was on for a commercial kitchen, without that we would have been dead in the water.  A special thank you goes out to George Lee and Cheryl Turner for making our participation possible.

The next step was getting the service equipment.  That was easily handled with a trip to a restaurant supply store in Tacoma.

Then it was on to ordering the ingredients.  Our food reps were able to handle most of the order, but it is not easy to find Carnation Evaporated Milk in #10 cans.  We thought we might have to look for a plan B, but we were able to get the milk at United Grocers.

Preparing the clam chowder base was… I’m not sure what word I’m looking for.  I had to modify the recipe slightly in order to not have left overs and get as close to the original as possible.  Sara and I were laboring away in the kitchen and then it hit me, that familiar smell  of chowder base cooking.  It was a smell that I didn’t even know I missed.  It brought back many great memories of walking through the kitchen of the restaurant.  They say that our memories are more closely linked to our sense of smell than any of our other senses, and my memories were washing over me like a tidal wave.  It was wonderful.

Now I’m going to let you in on a little known fact.  In 1956 there was a ship named The Seagate that ran aground just North of Moclips.  When the owner of the vessel abandoned the ship my grandfather took my uncles out to the ship in a little boat.  They boarded the vessel and salvaged various pots and pans and cooking utensils.  Grandmas Famous Clam Chowder had been prepared in those pots for over 50 years before the fire.  During demolition we were able to recover those pots and they cleaned up perfectly.  I was able to use those same pots to prepare Grandmas Famous Clam Chowder last week.  It may seem like a small thing to some of you reading this, but to me it was a very significant detail… for tradition.

In Closing

Serving Grandma’s Famous Clam Chowder to a crowded convention center was exactly what we needed, Thank You.

Grandma’s Famous Clam Chowder has received great recognition over the years, published in the Ford Times in 1989, awarded “9 out of 10 Clam Shells” by the Seattle Times Travel Editor, and raved about by Olympic Gold Medalist Apolo Ohno in the Denver Post “The Ocean Crest Resort in Moclips (oceancrestresort.com) has a great restaurant. Whenever I go there, I have to have the spinach salad and Grandma’s Famous Clam Chowder. It’s fantastic. Unbelievable!”

While winning 1st Place would be great any year, this year it means a lot more.  Faced with all of the pain, heartache and difficulty of the last year, we overcame every obstacle.  We don’t have a new restaurant yet… but we don’t know how to give up.

Read more:Getting up to speed on Seattle, Salt Lake City and Japan – The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/goaway/ci_14336615#ixzz1qkPkrTw6
Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Good Morning from Washington’s Winter Wonderland.

It has been a while since I last gave you an update on the progress of rebuilding the restaurant.  Unfortunately, other than a whole lot of planning, there hasn’t been much of anything to report.  Just before Christmas, the County approved our site plan.  We were told that our Foundation Permits would not be approved until after they returned to work, January 3rd.  Well… January 3rd came and went and at this time we still have only a site plan approval.  We just heard that the County anticipates approving our foundation permit tomorrow, let’s hope that the weather doesn’t put a wrench in those cogs.  At this point, if we get our approvals soon, we hope we can have our restaurant sometime in July.  This whole process is driving me crazy, I miss all of my “Restaurant Family” which includes co-workers and guests.

Well, there isn’t really anything we can do to speed up the process from our end.  Here are a few more pictures that I took this morning, I hope you like them.

There is something magical about the snow on the beach, maybe it is because we don’t see it very often.

Doesn’t it look inviting?

I have no caption for this one, so I just won’t write anything.

We hope to see you again soon.

Every year the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center puts on a fantastic Holiday Gala, an amazing night of fundraising.  Philanthropists from far and wide converge in Seattle for an extravagant evening of dining and dancing, bidding and giving.

The single largest fundraiser benefiting Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Gala is a black tie event featuring extravagant live, silent and cellar auctions, an elegant dinner and late-night dancing with more than 850 business and community leaders in attendance. The Gala has raised more than $75 million over the past 35 years to support vital research at the Hutchinson Center.

This year, Ocean Crest Resort’s own Award Winning Executive Chef, Andrew Bickar, was asked to participate with Seabrook in the Live Auction.

LAVISH BEACH LIVING AT SEABROOK
THE WEST COAST’S NANTUCKET IN THE ULTIMATE BEACH HOUSE
Escape to Seabrook, a unique coastal land
development dedicated to preserving and
promoting the natural environment. You
and up to 13 friends will stay two nights in
the Ultimate Beach House, designed by
celebrated designers Lew Oliver and Tim
Clarke exclusively for the nationally
renowned Coastal Living magazine.
Positioned to take full advantage of the
stunning Pacific Ocean views from three
levels, the Ultimate Beach House is only
steps to the beach. The house’s beachcasual
contemporary interior features a
gourmet kitchen, a large and open living and dining room with a large customforged
metal fireplace that will be the perfect setting for your weekend escape.
Chef Andrew Bickar, award-wining executive chef
of The Ocean Crest Resort, will create a
seasonally-inspired dinner featuring the beautiful
bounty from the coast of Washington for you
and your house guests. Your amazing meal will be
personally paired for you by Ron and Marianne
Lachini of Lachini Vineyards. They’ll bring their
top scoring estate pinot noirs, limited production
cabs and other delights from their personal cellar.
And tonight, you’ll take home a signed three-liter
bottle of their 2009 Lachini Vineyards Estate
Pinot Noir.
There is simply no home on the Washington coast that earns the “ultimate” title
more than this Coastal Living idea house. Come and experience it for yourself!
• Ultimate Beach House for two nights at Seabrook
• Dinner for you and your guests by Chef Andrew Bickar
• Wine pairings and visit from Ron and Marianne Lachini of Lachini Vineyards
Thanks to Seabrook Resort, Ron and Marianne Lachini and Lachini Vineyards,
Chef Andrew Bickar and The Ocean Crest Resort

This year’s event will be held at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel on December 3, 2011. The 36th Hutch Holiday Gala is held in the Grand Ballroom of the Seattle Sheraton Hotel with approximately 900 guests at $500 a seat, guests come from around the globe and it is one of the most successful fund raising events in the US. For more information on the 2011 Hutch Holiday Gala, please visit their web site at fhcrc.org/gala.

 Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Ocean Crest Resort.  It is a different year for us, we have been entertaining guests with a Traditional Thanksgiving Buffet for as long as I can remember.  My family has always enjoyed serving others and making their holiday special.

This is the first year that I will be spending the whole Thanksgiving Day with my wife in 15 years, and the first Thanksgiving ever that I don’t have to leave my 10 year old son to go to work.  The reality is bitter sweet.

Tomorrow I’ll be roasting a turkey at home and preparing some Roasted Yams with Balsamic Vinegar and Gorgonzola.  My wife is preparing Candied Yams, Corn, and Mashed Potatoes.  We’ll also be pulling together to create some Liquid Love in the form of Turkey Gravy.  I almost forgot to mention Aunt Maggie’s Apple Sausage Stuffing.  This stuffing was a favorite that out friend, and Ocean Crest waitress, Maggie Maskell would bring to our Holiday dinners.  Maggie was a great friend and she just loved our son.

Our table will be well stocked tomorrow with plenty of food for all of our family and friends.  There will be plenty of eating, drinking, and general merriment.  I’m sure that the house will be filled with the smell of good food and the sounds of laughter and delight that reminds us all of what is truly important.

 As we dine and talk about events past and present, we will pause to remember Maggie as the Stuffing gets passed around.  Then, at the end of the meal but before dessert, we will go around the table, taking turns to say what we are thankful for.

I am thankful for my wife, my marriage, my boys, my parents, my family, my friends, my health, my job, and for this time that I will have with everybody.

I am thankful for the first responders that kept the whole resort from going up in flames, I’m thankful that nobody was injured in battling the blaze.  I am thankful for all of you, my guests and my friends.  I am thankful that I get to be home this year, and I can’t wait to be celebrating with all of you next year.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

All I ask is that you look them over, tell us what you think, and share these through facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc…

Ocean Crest Restaurant Ground Floor

Ocean Crest Restaurant Second Floor

Thanks, we can’t wait to hear what you think!

First the good news, in this post are 36 pieces of a puzzle.  When assembles correctly you will be looking at the draft floor plan for the ground floor of our new restaurant.

What is the bad news?  Some of the pieces are turned upside down.

Here is the great news… the first person to correctly assemble the pieces and post the completed image to our facebook page will win a free 2 night stay for 2 in one of our Front Ocean View rooms.

In order to be fair, anybody who has seen the plans already are not allowed to compete.  Have fun!

You might be able to use my simple drawing from my last post for basic layout.

It’s been a while since my last confession update.  We hydro-seeded the bluff about a month ago and have been watching the grass grow.  The lack of activity on the site has been absolutely maddening for me.

Today however, we have geotechs on site.  They are drilling holes to test soil composition and stability.  You may click on either image for a larger version.

So… that is where we are as of right now.  We have been working with an architect and restaurant designer on the plans for the new building.  I have my own renderings here…

I should warn you… I’m a REALLY bad artist.