Glassblowing

I absolutely love trying new things – food, places, experiences, just about anything.  My personal opinion is – “it could be my new, most favorite thing in the world and how will I know unless I try it?”  So when my wonderful friend Mary presented me with the opportunity to make my own Christmas ornament at the Tulsa Glassblowing Studio – well, you can just imagine my elation.

We met Alex, our instructor for the morning, on a bright Saturday.  He walked us through the gallery and working studio and answered our endless questions.  Even though it was brisk outside, it was nice and toasty in the studio, with the ovens and kilns running.

The Oven

He showed us, step-by-step, how we would make our ornament and the different factors that shape each piece.  We started with a “blob” of molten glass on the blowing rod and heated it in the oven – slowly spinning the rod at all times – until it was soft enough to work with.  We then rolled the liquid glass through a pile of colored glass shards (I chose multi-colored and Mary chose black & white), melted it all together, and repeated the process.  Interesting tidbit – regardless of the color of glass shards chosen, when you heat the glass in the kiln, it all appears to be a bright orange but once it starts to cool, the true colors appear.   After the glass was melted together (spinning constantly) we had to roll the glass on a metal table to cool and shape it into a cone.

Firing the ornament

 

Now came the hard part.  You had to keep spinning the rod while Alex used giant tweezer-looking tongs to slowly pinch the blob of glass.  Alex would direct us on when to blow on the tubing to make a more round shape.  After it formed a round shape (more or less) we then scored the glass so it would release from the rod.  The bad news was mine broke when it released from the rod.  The good news was that I got to do it all over again!

Still in progress

 

 

The Final Product

 

After successfully creating an ornament, it then goes into the drying oven to finish curing.  The whole process took about 30 minutes from beginning to end and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  The possibilities are endless and I can easily see how one would get caught up in creating all kinds of nifty things – vases, sculpture pieces, martini glasses, wine glasses – well, the list is endless.

The Tulsa Glassblowing Studio is located at 19 E. Brady (on Brady between Main and Boston).  They offer classes for ages 13 and up, demonstrations, and tours.  Most artwork is also available for purchase.  Check them out on Facebook or give them a call at 918-382-0085. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pinot's Palette

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And so, without further ado......this week's post.

I come from a family of extremely talented people – my Granny, my mother, my aunt April, my cousin Sophey, just to name a few and you would think that some of that talent would be passed down in the gene pool.  You would be wrong!

Recently, a group of my dearest friends gathered at Pinot’s Palette for a little artistic endeavor.  I’m sure you’ve seen these establishments all over the country – The Paint Bar, Bottle & Bottega, Sketch & Sip, etc.  Here in Tulsa it’s called Pinot’s Palette and the premise is pretty basic – its paint by numbers (without the numbers) while having a glass of wine or beer.  They provide all the materials and you follow along with the instructor to create your own “masterpiece”.  It sounds simple enough but for OCD people like me, it was a nervous breakdown waiting to happen.  Thank God they served wine and I am not even kidding!  We started off by painting the background colors and that was pretty basic and simple and I was going along okay.  But then – we had to mix our green paint with “about half of your yellow” and paint some stems.  It took me a good 5 minutes to determine I had exactly half my yellow paint mixed with my green and then another 10 minutes to determine how many stems I should paint and how they should be placed.  Meanwhile, on either side of me – Mary’s all “just paint some stems, it doesn’t matter” and Rebecca’s all “just be free and paint what you feel”.  And as bad as it was for me – my poor, dear, sweet friend Britni was near tears because her background wasn’t blended just like the instructors (Britni makes me looks like a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of person).  But before long, we got the hang of it and started flinging paint on our canvases like we were modern-day Picasso’s. 

The highlight of our evening (or should I say, the lowlight) was the table behind us.  For a few brief moments I felt like I was in an episode of The Real Housewives of Tulsa.  I’ve never experienced so much liposuction, botox, and implants in one concentrated area as I did at this event.  And for awhile there, I felt our table and TRHOT table were bound to end up in an all-out brawl.  But I knew we would be the victors because a) we weren’t nearly as inebriated as them and b) we had Jenn S on our side. 

The whole evening lasted about two hours and in all honesty, I would probably do it again – nervous breakdown and all.  It really was a lot of fun and it’s a great way to get to know someone or just spend some time with people you care about. 

They offer classes for all levels of skill, including children 6 and up.  Which, to be honest, is probably way more along my skill level.

Visit http://www.pinotspalette.com/cherrystreet for more details, to review the schedule, and to sign up for a class.

Underground Supper Club

I have made no secret of my love for food and the dining experience as a whole.  I think when all the elements work together – the food, the atmosphere, the location, the company – it creates an intimate experience like no other.  For example, I once shared a meal in NYC with my very dear friend CJM.  It was close to midnight.  The restaurant was small and dark.  The warm breeze blew in from the open patio doors.  He had the rustic vegetables and I had the octopus.  On the surface it would seem like just another meal but all the elements came together to create such a decadent dining experience, I’ll remember it forever.

I had the same experience again this past Wednesday.  Back in the spring I stumbled across a two sentence blurb about Tulsa’s Underground Supper Club.  Well obviously I was intrigued – how could you not be?  The premise is pretty simple – about once a month 20 diners gather together (chosen by a lottery system) and a chef prepares a meal of his choosing.  But it’s so much more than that.  It’s an experience like no other.

After entering the lottery on three previous occasions I was finally selected.  The theme for our evening would be “The Curious Chicken” and all components of the meal would feature either eggs or chicken.  To add to the illicit and secretive feel of the event, you are not informed of the location of the dinner until 24 hours before the event.  How exciting!!

Our event would be held at the Campbell Hotel (http://www.thecampbellhotel.com/).  The Campbell Hotel was originally named The Casa Loma and was built in 1927.  After many years of being in disrepair, it was completely renovated in 2011 and was featured in the Designer Showcase that same year.

My date and I arrived at the Campbell Hotel promptly at 6:00pm for the Cocktail hour.  The cocktail for the evening was The SOCIAL fizz – a nice mixture of Makers, white vermouth, bitters, solerno, and egg whites.  We mingled with the other diners for the evening and found it was a fascinating mix of ages, professions, and personalities.  While we mingled we were also offered a tour of the hotel.

Precisely at 7:00pm we were escorted to the ballroom and seated for dinner.  All guests were seated at long banquet table lit with candles; soft music playing in the background.  I found myself between a gentleman who makes his living buying and selling coins and gemstones and a man who handles wealth management.  Other diners at our table included an author, a furniture salesman, a few accountants, the chairwoman of the board of directors for a hospital, a stay-at-home mother, and a postman, just to name a few. 

The first order of business was the introduction of the chef – Marcus Vause, former executive chef of the recently closed Brasserie on Brookside.  His new venture will be the opening of SOCIAL at 7^th and Boston (in the lobby of the OG&E Building), hopefully in April of 2013.

The second order of business was to have all first-timers stand and recite the supper club pledge.  I kid you not!!  We even received a lapel pin.  I was so excited!  It was like Fight Club for Foodies.  And once the dinner service started, I felt like I was in an episode of Top Chef – the presentation, the chef describing each course, the way we all discussed the food – it was spectacular.

Our first taste of the evening was an amuse bouche (a bite-sized appetizer).  It was an empanada filled with chicken, beans, and rice and topped with a dab of guacamole.  As soon as I tasted it I knew we were in for a culinary adventure. 

First Course – Oysters & Caviar.  This wasn’t your traditional oyster.  The dish was served in an oyster shell on cubes of warm lemon gelee (chicken bouillon and lemongrass blended together).  The ‘oyster’ was actually a chicken oyster which is a small, round piece of dark meat located near the thigh.  This was topped with a touch of caviar.  When eaten in one bite it did have the taste of an oyster but not the texture.  It was amazing!  And you might as well get used to me saying “it was amazing” because I think I’ll be using that term a lot to describe the menu.  This was paired with a Riesling.

Second Course – Tortelloni.  The tortelloni was served on a piece of crisp pork belly resting in a broth of calvados consommé and pressed apples.  The tortelloni was stuffed with a nice mixture of chicken liver and gizzards (yes, yes, I know how you people feel about organ meat but deal with it!  It was awesome!).  When you would take a bite of all the elements – bacon, liver, gizzards, and apple – it was the perfect combination of flavors.  This was one of my favorite dishes and it was paired with Angeline Chardonnay.

Third Course – Breast & a Wing.  This was not what I expected.  The chicken breast was a small strip of breast plated on the curried squash, topped with crisp skin.  The textures all worked together to make a really interesting bite of food and the curried squash was to die for.  It was more of a puree and the curry brought a nice balance to the sweetness of the squash.  The wing was cut in the “lollipop” style, meaning the bone was stripped clean except for a cluster of meat at the end.  It was fried crisp and then plated on top of a dollop of pomegranate roulade.  To sum it up – it was the most elegant, delectable, buffalo wing I have ever tasted.  This course was paired with Stoller Pinot Noir.  When they cleared my plate, the only thing left was the bone.

Fourth Course – Short Rib Leg.  I will admit, by the time we got to this course, I was starting to get really full.  The short rib leg was a deboned chicken leg, split and then stuffed with brisket.  It was then served with smoked beech mushrooms, corn sponge ‘cake’, and onion marmalade.  The chicken had almost a BBQ feel to it and the mushrooms really added a special element with their smokiness.  This dish was paired with a red blend. 

Fifth Course – Orange Blossom-Chile Sorbet.  The fifth course (yes, fifth!) was a delicious palette cleanser.  It was just a dollop of this amazing orange blossom sorbet with a light chili drizzle.  The sorbet had such floral undertones; it is what I would imagine eating honeysuckle ice cream would be like.  It really was so refreshing and I probably could have eaten twice as much as I was served.

Sixth Course – Cardamom Yolk.  The banana cream was like a really rich egg custard but the way it was plated, it looked like slices of bananas (which makes perfect sense now that I type this sentence).  Each slice had a drop of cinnamon cream on top and the whole thing was sprinkled with cinnamon puffed combs.  The cinnamon puffed combs were coxcombs that had been finely diced, fried crisp and coated with cinnamon and sugar.  This was served with a steaming cup of Turkish coffee.  It was absolutely the perfect ending to a perfect meal and I don’t even drink coffee!

We were seated for dinner at 7:00pm sharp and it was 10:15pm when we finally ended the evening.  It was such a decadent, illicit, sexy evening.  The food, the wine, the people, the music, the location, the whole thing was…..well, amazing. 

After it was all said and done, it was one of those rare moments when everything comes together – the meal, the drink, the location, the company – and a meal turns into an ‘experience’.  As we were leaving, these were the words of my date: “this is by far the coolest thing I have ever done in my adult life”.  I think that sums up the evening perfectly.

*Normally I try to include pictures that relate to each post but this is a special case.  I don’t want to give out too much information because the more people who know about this fabulous event, the less my chances of winning the lottery the next time, but on the other hand I want to share this wonderful experience.  It’s such a quandary – share the news or keep it all secret.  Much like Fight Club, the first rule of Supper Club is don’t talk about Supper Club.  But that’s not really the case.  The host of this extraordinary event wants to spread the word about the great culinary scene in Tulsa.  Such a dilemma!

Winterfest / Pop Up Shopping

Although you wouldn’t know it by the recent spate of warm weather we’ve had – it’s almost time for Christmas!  Which also just happens to coincide with Winterfest and the Pop Up Shops – how convenient is that??

Just exactly what is Winterfest you might ask?  Well, it’s Tulsa’s take on NYC’s Rockefeller Center and it’s awesome.  This is the 5^th year of Winterfest and for many; it’s become a holiday tradition.  You can skate under the stars and enjoy the scenic Tulsa skyline, all while watching free entertainment – on the outdoor stage, not the people, although I think people watching is all kinds of entertainment.  This year the rink has grown and expanded, taking in most of 3^rd street in front of the BOK Event Center and if you get a little chilly, just pop into the warming tent for a few minutes.

Along with the ice skating, you can enjoy a horse-drawn carriage ride through the streets of downtown, grab some snacks (soup, grilled cheese, s’mores, coffee, hot chocolate, etc) and on Saturday December 8^th, the Holiday Market will take place in the lobby of the BOK Center.  The holiday market will feature hundreds of vendors selling seasonal gift items, so you can surely finish up your Christmas shopping.

Visit http://www.bokcenter.com/events/winterfest-2011 for more information, a detailed listing of live entertainment, and a complete calendar of events.

The other thing I love about Tulsa in the winter is the return of Pop-Up Shopping.  Now in its second year, pop up shopping gives holiday shoppers an alternative to the nightmare that is 71^st & Memorial and provides some really unique gift ideas.  The shops are located inside the lobby of four buildings in the area of 5^th to 7^th and Boston to Main.  Some retailers this year include The Dog Dish, Bison & Bear (great men’s gifts), Candy Castle (where else can you find candy cigarettes?), The Tulsa Zoo and Theraganics, just to name a few.  You will also find some entertainment to go along with your shopping – Steve Liddell is scheduled to perform on December 19^th.  And word on the street is that you will find a certain jolly, fat man every Wednesday as well.

Find out more at www.decodistricttulsa.com