Do y’all remember those cases upon cases of Palisade peaches that Elli kept getting this summer? We told her to STOP hoarding peaches (“They don’t last forever, Elli!”), but they were just too delicious. She could not help herself. And the peaches continued to arrive.

Luckily, Chef Adam had a solution: JAM. “When I was younger, my family grew fruit in orchards, under the hot Damascus sun, similar to that of Palisade, CO. Every year, my mother and her friend Mariam Dardoush would make jam in the traditional Syrian manner. They would place muslin cloth on the cooked jam in wide, shallow pots and place them on our balcony to sit in the sun for a couple of days and dehydrate. The jam would reduce in quantity but grow in flavor.”

However, there IS a different between Syria and Colorado. “Unfortunately, I can’t leave my jam outside due to health issues and Colorado’s wildlife. I have personally seen bears outside my restaurant and home, and I’m sure they would love a sweet treat. Luckily, the convection oven does the trick.”

Chef Adam’s slow roasted jam made with Palisade peaches is heavenly, and thanks to Elli’s impulse gathering, we have plenty! Our bartender Lindsey created our Peach Cobbler cocktail using jam and cinnamon sugar on the rim, and it’s wonderful with our potato flour dinner rolls. The jam will also be a featured recipe in an upcoming Vail Valley cookbook, due to be published in the coming months (we’ll keep you posted).

Because of all this excess jam (and other delicious goods — Chef’s been busy!), we’ve created the Blue Plate Pantry. We will be offering Blue Plate jam, hot sauce, taqueria pickles and black BBQ sauce to take home. Stop by the restaurant to pick up a jar today!

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Don’t forget to make your reservation for our special Christmas (see menu) & New Year’s Eve (see menu) dinners! Spaces are filling up quickly, and you won’t want to miss what Chef & Elli have in store 😉

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About the Restaurant

The Blue Plate in Avon, Colorado, is the home and heart of Chef Adam and Elli Roustom. It is a place to gather and simply share a good meal with good people.Top-notch food and drinks without the fuss (or the giant hole in your wallet). Bring your kids and your hairy uncle alike, we cater to ALL. Fine dining with a casual twist, if you will. Read More…

In our quest for a fabulous winter wine list, the Blue Plate wine gurus (aka Elli with a little input from Chris) have been tirelessly swirling, swishing and sipping. Day after day, our wonderful reps have been stopping with wines of all sorts from all the best places. But, what makes a wine worthy of Blue Plate’s list? Elli values quality and variety. Our list is small in comparison to some, but there’s a wine for every taste (and at a reasonable price!).

However, one of the most prized traits for a Blue Plate bottle is its backstory. The story of a wine, its maker & vineyard, can make a glass that much more enjoyable. So many of our bottles have awesome tales to tell, but today, I’d like to tell you about one new to the list: Castello Trebbio’s Chianti Superiore.

This wine hails from the grounds of a historic castle, constructed in 1184 by the noble banking Pazzi family near Florence, Italy. Here, during the Florence Renaissance in 1478, the historic “Pazzi Conspiracy” was masterminded – a plot to eliminate the Medici brothers and overthrow the ruling family of Florence. Unfortunately (for the Pazzi family), they managed to kill Guiliano de Medici, while his brother Lorenzo escaped with his life. This all led to a war that nearly devastated Florence.

Today, the Castello del Trebbio is carefully managed by the Baj Macario family, who brought new life to the estate in the early days of their ownership, restoring the main building and several farmhouses. In addition to producing excellent wines, the owners welcome guests to stay on the grounds and tour the historic castle. So, next time you’re in Florence, have a glass at the castle for me…

BUT, as long as your in the states, you can taste Castello Trebbio at Blue Plate. The Chianti Superiore commands its most defining traits: fruity, fresh, and pleasantly drinkable. It is best paired with with Tuscan crostini, Tuscan cold cuts, main courses with meat sauce and roasted meat. And FUN FACT: the bottle is particularly interesting because the castle’s history is portrayed on the label in pictures. It’s a great way to drink in history with your wine pals!

To learn more about this wine & vineyard, click here.

Don’t forget to make your reservation for Christmas and New Year’s Eve at Blue Plate (spots are filling up quickly!) and keep an eye out for next Monday’s blog post on Facebook and Instagram!

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About the Restaurant

The Blue Plate in Avon, Colorado, is the home and heart of Chef Adam and Elli Roustom. It is a place to gather and simply share a good meal with good people.Top-notch food and drinks without the fuss (or the giant hole in your wallet). Bring your kids and your hairy uncle alike, we cater to ALL. Fine dining with a casual twist, if you will. Read More…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard the news about straws: These simple, everyday bits of plastic are terrible for our environment.

Why? Not only do plastics not biodegrade (and never fully DEGRADE), but the type of plastic (type 5) of which straws are commonly made is not normally accepted by recycling programs. This means that most straws end up in landfills to remain stagnant until the end of time, OR WORSE, are littered to pollute our beautiful lands and oceans.

But why are straws so bad? There’s so much pollution and litter in the world, how can this small bit of plastic make such an impact? The issue is the WIDE use of this nearly purposeless & insignificant object. In fact, nearly 500 million straws are used DAILY in the United States alone (and after travelling in SE Asia, I’d be surprised if the number wasn’t similar in that region as well! Woof).

Even to the comparatively small degree at which Blue Plate uses straws, I am ashamed to admit how many we mindlessly throw away on a daily basis. We put straws (sometimes two!) in almost every beverage. We use them as stir sticks & taste testers for cocktails and forget to reuse for soda refills. I’ve even seen a case of straws dropped on the ground and thrown away without being used at all (my face is growing hot as I type this)…

So, drum-roll please, the Blue Plate Staff has decided to take an ECO PLEDGE. We will NOT be serving straws in ANY drink starting today. If requested, we do have eco-friendly, compostable straws, but we ask you to think before you use, as nothing has zero environmental impact. We will be donating the leftover straws in our storage to the elementary school in Edwards for arts & crafts projects. In addition to this, we are converting all of our non-reusable restaurant items, such as our takeaway containers, to biodegradable paper products.

Throughout the rest of the season (and beyond), the Blue Plate restaurant and staff will be moving toward the goal of making the smallest environmental impact we possibly can. It’s a small impact in the grand scheme of things, but every small change adds up.

To learn more about the impact of straws on our environment, click here.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions for how we can decrease our footprint, please let us know! And keep an eye out for the blog post next Monday!

 

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About the Restaurant

As the temperatures dropped and the nights grew long,

Blue Plate’s bartenders realized that something was wrong.

“We don’t want to sip on the fruity drinks of hot weather…

Let’s come up with cocktails to make winter taste better!”

So, they muddled and mixed, tumbled and shook,

until the specialty cocktail list began to score a new look.

Lindsey mixed Breckenridge Spiced Rum with peach jam & ginger beer,

then rimmed the glass with cinnamon sugar, oh dear.

 

Meanwhile, Alex was thinking about snowflakes, so pure,

so into his martini went Godiva white chocolate liqueur!

Chris decided he wanted something more luxurious than merry.

“I’ll make a Manhattan with Luxardo cherries!”

After all the hard work, Kinsey needed caffeine,

so she blended whiskey and espresso for homemade Irish Cream.

So, come one, come all! (If you’re over twenty-one 😉 )

And taste their wintry concoctions of fun!

The new winter cocktails featured in this amazing poem are:

• PEACH COBBLER | Breckenridge Spiced Rum, peach, soda & ginger beer
• SNOWFLAKE MARTINI | vanilla vodka & Godiva white chocolate liqueur
• LUXURY MANHATTAN | Bulleit bourbon, vermouth & Luxardo cherries
• HANDCRAFT IRISH | homemade Irish Cream, Jameson Irish whiskey & coffee
• To see the rest of our NEW boozy creations, click here.

Keep an eye out for next week’s blog post, which will address our plans for a red & GREEN holiday season (cough, cough, we’re taking an ECO PLEDGE 😉 )

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About the Restaurant