Our Virtual Feast, Part 2

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Classic Swiss Fondue

Elaine Turcotte, Director of Client Services

Elaine Turcotte, Director of Client Services, contributed this recipe, which is an old family favorite. This fondue is classic winter fare in Switzerland. Elaine says that you can use other Swiss cheeses, but Gruyere and Emmenthaler are the easiest to find. And try not to lose your piece of bread in the fondue pot; in Elaine’s house, if you lost your bread, you had to get up and sing. In Switzerland, it is rumored that if you lose the bread in the pot, you have to buy everyone a round of drinks.

Fondue is very filling. With just a green salad simply dressed with vinaigrette, and some fresh fruit for dessert, you have full meal.

Swiss FondueIngredients:

Fondue is traditionally prepared in an earthenware dish called a caquelon. You can use a fondue pot, an enameled saucepan, or any fireproof dish suitable for both serving and preparation.

Method:

  1. Rub the inside of the serving/prep dish with the cut clove of garlic.
  2. Bring the wine to a gentle simmer. Do not let the wine boil, as the heat will make the cheese tough.
  3. Gradually stir in the cheese. Watch the heat so the cheese mixture is barely bubbling.
  4. Dissolve the cornstarch into the Kirsch; add to the wine/cheese mixture.
  5. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, to taste.
  6. Serve over a small flame (candle, sterno, or alcohol burner), with the bread cubes and fondue forks.

Serves 4

Tip: It’s not a good idea to drink water with fondue. Dry white wine or tea are the recommended libations.

Spinach Salad with Beets, Gorgonzola, and Toasted Walnuts

A Barnes & Conti Classic Recipe from Our First Virtual Feast

Elyse Eberstein-Bennett (then Elyse Eberstein) was our Customer Service Manager a few years ago. At that time, she had been taking cooking classes, and became our salad queen. Here’s a rendition of one of Elyse’s especially festive salads. Elyse and her husband live in Southern California now, and they have a little girl just over one year old.

Spinach SaladIngredients:

For the balsamic vinaigrette:

Method:

  1. Mix the mustard with the vinegar, add a few grindings of pepper, a pinch of salt, and slowly whisk in the olive oil.
  2. Dry the spinach well. Put in the salad bowl with the beets and 2/3 of the onion.
  3. Toss with enough dressing to coat the greens well.
  4. Put in half the cheese and half the walnuts, and toss again.
  5. Top with the remaining onions, cheese, and walnuts. If there is any dressing left, serve it on the side.

Serves 6

Lamb Loin with Olives and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Kim Barnes & Don Bryant

Here’s a quick and simple recipe for an elegant entree. The lamb loin is very tender and is best served rare or medium rare.

Lamb and OlivesIngredients:

Method:

  1. Heat olive oil in a small saute pan. Add shallots and garlic. Cook gently without browning.
  2. Add fresh and dried tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add olives, parsley and capers.
  3. Salt and pepper lamb. In a separate pan, sear lamb loins in 1/2 tbsp. olive oil until browned well and finish cooking in a 375 degree oven for 5 minutes.
  4. Slice and serve with tomato-olive sauce and your favorite mashed potatoes.

Serves 4.

Brussels Sprouts Sauteed with Garlic and Anchovy

Joel Kleinbaum, Information Systems Manager

Joel is one of our resident Italiaphiles, and offers this classic Italian preparation for Brussels sprouts. Joel says this method will work on lots of different vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, artichoke hearts, even asparagus and green beans. Joel says if you’re using a green vegetable (other than Brussels sprouts), plunge it into ice water after steaming to hold the green color. By the way, the flavor of the anchovies melts into the dish; if you don’t like anchovies, you’ll barely know they are there.

Brussel SproutsIngredients:

Method:

  1. Trim any extra stem off the Brussels sprouts, and cut a little “x” into the stem end (this helps them cook evenly).
  2. Steam the Brussels sprouts until just tender when pierced with a fork (5-10 minutes or so, this depends on the size and freshness of the Brussels sprouts). Let them cool.
  3. When cool enough to handle, cut the sprouts in half.
  4. In a saute pan, heat the olive oil and garlic, and let the garlic begin to saute a minute.
  5. Add the anchovy and pine nuts, and saute until the garlic and/or pine nuts start to turn golden. The anchovy should start to melt into the oil.
  6. Add the Brussels sprouts and saute for 2 or 3 minutes. (Don’t let the garlic turn darker than a deep golden brown.)
  7. Just before serving, squeeze at least half the lemon juice over the sprouts, and leave the other half for the table.

Serves 4 as a side dish.

Roasted Pepper Salad with Feta Cheese

Kim Barnes & Don Bryant

Kim says you can serve this a side dish, add it to cooked pasta, or use as a topping on crostini for an appetizer.

PeppersIngredients:

Method:

  1. Preheat the broiler.
  2. Cut the peppers in half and remove the stem, seeds, and ribs. Place skin-side up on a heavy baking sheet. Brush with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and herbs.
  3. Place under broiler and cook until skins are evenly charred, rotating baking sheet as necessary. Remove from broiler and place in a plastic bag and seal. Let sit until cool.
  4. Peel the skins from the peppers and slice into thin strips. Place in a medium bowl. Add the feta cheese, balsamic vinegar, and thyme. Mix well and serve.

Serves 4 as a side dish.

Wine Recommendations

Truffled Lobster-Pear Tartlets: Try a white Burgundy or a California Chardonnay that is not too oaky.

Seafood Medallions: Oregon Pinot Gris or domestic or German Riesling (not too sweet).

Scottish Smoked Salmon Bannock: Eric says that single-malt Scotch works best. If you want wine, try dry Riesling, Pinot Gris, or a dry sparkling wine.

Classic Swiss Fondue: A dry white wine such as Macon Villages or Dry Riesling from Alsace are recommended.

Spinach Salad with Beets, Gorgonzola, and Toasted Walnuts: Wine is not recommended, it clashes with the vinegar in the dressing.

Lamb Loin with Olives and Sun-Dried Tomatoes: An earthy red such as Cotes du Rhone, Rioja or Tempranillo from Spain, or Syrah (Columbia Valley or Paso Robles).

Roasted Pepper Salad with Feta Cheese: Wine is not recommended because of the vinegar. However, Greek Ouzo or Retsina (white wine with pine resin, an acquired taste for non-Greeks) would compliment the feta cheese.

Grandma Rose’s Rugelach: Perhaps Slivovitz—a fiery plum brandy—is more or less traditional, but you might want to try a late-harvest Gewurtztraminer.

Barnes & Conti: 2006 in Review

2006 was a year in which Barnes & Conti developed and launched an exciting new program called Managing Innovation: Optimizing the Power of New Ideas™.

Barnes & Conti CEO Kim Barnes teamed up with innovation expert, David Francis, Ph.D., Deputy Director of CENTRIM (Centre for Research in Innovation Management) at the University of Brighton in the U.K. The program they developed was piloted this past summer in New York City and Munich, as well as in California this past fall, to rave reviews.

We continue to expand our global influence, especially in Europe and the Far East. Francoise Descleves of Equaoranda, our global partner in France, writes:

“Two weeks ago, Pascale Demont and I co-facilitated the first Exercising Influence® public workshop in Europe. This was a success, based on both the high evaluation marks we got from the participants, and from comments we received.”

Our global partner in Singapore, Antioch Consulting and Training (ACT), put together several hectic days of meetings with clients, training trainers to facilitate our Exercising Influence™ program, and more. Barnes & Conti trainer and CFO, Eric Beckman, will return to Singapore this winter for more of the same.

Graham Raspass of BSI Learning, our global partner in Australia, conducted our first Managing Innovation™ in Asia/Pacific. All in all, we and our global partners conducted programs in the U.S., Brazil, Puerto Rico, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, and Singapore. For 2007, we are in the process of developing a partnership with a company in Lithuania.

Kim Barnes’ book, Exercising Influence: A Guide For Making Things Happen at Work, at Home, and in Your Community, was recently revised and published by Pfeiffer, along with a self-study guide and leaders’ discussion guide to go with the book.

We delivered our first-ever podcasts—a pair of interviews of David Francis speaking about innovation management—on our website. We are also developing extensive online learning support for our popular Exercising Influence® program with CogBooks.

We look forward to telling you all about our new developments. Please watch for our upcoming newsletters in 2007!

Events, Trade Shows, and Happenings

Training 2007 Conference and Expo
February 27-28, 2007
Orlando, FL

Barnes & Conti will be an exhibitor at Training Magazine’s annual conference. For information about the conference, please go to the Training Conference website. We will be at booth 601.

SHRM Global Forum
March 19-20, 2007
Los Angeles, CA

Barnes & Conti will also be at the Society for Human Resource Management’s Global Forum. Please watch our website, as we’ll be posting information as it becomes available.

Upcoming Public Programs

Managing Innovation

Exercising Influence

Constructive Debate

Inspirational Leadership

To view the complete schedule and register for one of our public programs, click here
or go to: www.barnesconti.com/ppsched.php

Cyber SantaJust for Fun

A Sign of the Times

As a little girl climbed onto Santa’s lap, Santa asked the usual, “And what would you like for Christmas?”

The child stared at him open mouthed and horrified for a minute, then gasped: “Didn’t you get my email?”

Traveling Woes and Mistletoe

It was December 23rd. The airport was jammed, the weather was bad, and just about every other flight was delayed. The terminal was full of garish red and green, while cheesy Christmas muzak blared from the loudspeakers.

A man had been standing in line nearly half an hour to rebook his flight and he finally reached the ticket counter. As he put his luggage against the scale, his head grazed a large cluster of tacky, plastic mistletoe. Irritated, he snapped at the (female) attendant, "What’s this here for? You certainly don’t want irate travelers like me kissing you?"

“Sir,” said the attendant, “if you’ll notice, the mistletoe is not above me, but over luggage scale.”

“The luggage scale? Why is it hanging over the luggage scale?”

She winked and said, “We just thought you might want to kiss your luggage goodbye.”

Inflated Prices?

ReindeerOne December evening, a reindeer walked into a busy lounge, bellied up to the bar and ordered a martini. Without batting an eye, the bartender mixed and poured the drink, set it in front of the reindeer, and accepted the twenty-dollar bill from the reindeer's hoof.

As he handed the reindeer some coins in change, the bartender said, “You know, I think you're the first reindeer I’ve ever seen in here.”

The reindeer looked hard at the hooful of change and snorted, “Let me tell you something, buddy. At these prices, I'm the last reindeer you’ll see in here.”

To return to Part 1, click here

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