This year, the Phoenix Suns will take on the Dallas Mavericks at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, Saturday, October 9th beginning at 6:30pm.

Tickets are on sale online at ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, and at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden box office.  Prices range from $10 to $100.  Tickets to catch all the action in person are available by calling  calling 1-800-4NBA-Tix, online at Ticketmaster or in person at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden Box Office Monday through Friday from 10am – 5pm.

Jamaican Grilled Pineapple & Glazed Plantains

Serves about 12

With the summer bbq season upon us, and everyone itching for one of your famous burgers from your bbq, you’re sure to be raising the bar when it comes to grilling my Jamaican spiced turkey burgers.  Serve these on our favorite roll & some frosty beverages.

4 Lbs                    Ground  Turkey meat
.25 Cup                Jerk Seasoning Mix from your grocery store
6 oz                      Rum
1 ea                      Pineapple
4 ea                      Ripe Plantains
16 oz                    Your favorite BBQ Sauce. When I cannot use my own homemade, I prefer Sweet Baby Rays.

 Combine turkey, jerk seasoning, dark rum & mix well thoroughly incorporate. Cover & refrigerate for 4 hours or even better overnight.
Form patties into 10 to 12 seven ounce round patties. Place on wax paper lined tray.

Homemade DJD
Dry Jerk Dust Seasoning
2 Tbl                Onion – Grated Dried Chopped
2 Tea.              Dried Thyme Leaves
2 Tea.              Kosher Salt
1 Tea.              Allspice
¼ Tea.             Nutmeg
½ Tea.             Ground Cinnamon
5 ea.                Hot Peppers- Finely Ground
1 Tea.              Black Pepper
1 Table            Ground Ginger
1 Table            Granulated Garlic

Mix dry rub in bowl, transfer into airtight jar.
Wash peeled, cored and sliced pineapple into about 12 even circles. Lightly coat with olive oil & set aside until ready to grill.
Wash you plantains leaving peel on & splitting it lengthwise. Lightly oil the flesh side of the plantain
Now we are ready to grill. Go ahead and preheat your grill.
Whether it’s a gas or charcoal grill, make sure it’s hot. I always like to soak some flavored wood chips and add those to my fire right before grilling.
Clean your grill with a grill brush and wipe the grates with a towel. Lightly oil the grates on the grill and your turkey patties. Dust turkey patties with a small about of DJD on both sides and grill them over medium heat for 5-7 minutes per side, depending on the thickness and the temperature of the grill. At the same time you can grill the pineapple over medium heat. 3 or 4 minutes on each side, until lightly charred.  Move them aside & start grilling the plantains. Cook the plantains about 3-5 minutes over medium heat. Once they are golden brown, peel back the skin & brush with your bbq sauce. Try to get a nice glaze & carmalization of the sugars on the plantain, by applying thin layers of sauce frequently. Closing the lid on the grill will help achieve this
Everything should just about be ready by now. Serve by assembling the turkey burgers on your favorite roll; top it with the grilled pineapple slices & a small amount of the bbq sauce.

Serve the plantains as a side dish.

Enjoy!!
Chef O

Chris P. Olson
Executive Chef
Indian Wells Golf Resort

If you’re thinking about something for a light lunch or even an afternoon snack, how about something easy enough that can be made ahead & taken over to mom’s house this weekend.  If you have about one hour to spare one afternoon, try making my recipe of the month. It’s sure to be a pleaser…

Quiche with Bacon * Asparagus * Goat Cheese and Watercress Citrus Salad

Makes 1 nine inch quiche

Serves 6-8

4 oz- Minced Bacon

2 oz     Green Onion – White Only- Thin slice

8 oz     Washed & sliced Asparagus (top 2/3’s only)

2 oz     Oven Dried Tomatoes

Butter or oil as needed

12 oz  Heavy Cream

3 ea      Whole Eggs

3 ½ oz     Crumbled Goat cheese

1 Tbls  Mixed Fresh herbs, like basil, parsley, thyme.

1 – 9’’ Store bought savory pie shell, pre baked

Sauté bacon in medium pan until crisp.

Drain bacon & sauté green onions & asparagus over medium heat for 3 minutes.

Drain on paper towel with bacon

In separate bowl whisk together cream, eggs, salt & pepper.

Scatter the bacon, asparagus, green onion mixture over the pre baked crust.

Scatter the minced oven dried tomatoes, goat cheese & herbs.

Add custard mixture gradually, stirring it gently with the back of a fork to ensure filling has even coverage.

Set quiche pan on cookie sheet and bake in preheated 350 degree oven until knife blade inserted into center comes out clean.

This should take 40 -45 minutes.

Serve hot or at room temperature

Watercress Citrus Salad

4 oz washed and dried hydroponic watercress

1 ea      Orange – peeled, segmented and squeeze remaining flesh.

1 ea      Grapefruit- peeled- segmented and squeezes remaining flesh

Reserve fruit Segments for later use

4 oz     Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tea   Dijon Mustard

 1 Tbl    Honey

Salt Pepper to Taste

In bowl whisk together fruit juice, Olive oil, mustard, honey, salt & pepper

Lightly toss Watercress in dressing & top with reserved fruit segments

Serve along side your hot or room tempature quiche

 Every item can be made up to 2 days in advance & reheated before serving.

Midori Melon Smoothie

 3 Cups Orange Juice

1/3 Cup Midori Melon Liquor

2 Cups Minced Ripe Honeydew Melon

 In blender combine above chilled ingredients & blend well

 Add 3 Cups Chilled Champagne

Serve in your favorite glasses

Enjoy,

And please remember when dining at the IW Club, reservation are always appreciated & highly recommended.

 Chris P. Olson

Executive Chef IW Club

Serves 4

2 -8 Bone Lamb Racks- trimmed & cleaned- about 2-2 ½ pounds in weight

2 lemons, juice & zest of.

2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 cloves chopped garlic

½ tablespoon fresh thyme- minced

Cracked Pepper & Kosher Salt to taste

Rub lamb racks with extra virgin olive oil, lemon, thyme, salt & pepper, Cover & let marinate for 8-24 hours in refrigerator.

2 shallots, minced

3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups heavy cream

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 tsps. Fresh thyme

4 anchovies, minced

2 tablespoon whole-grain mustard

1 Bunches finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

 To make the sauce,

Sauté the shallots in the olive oil until soft.

Add the cream, garlic, thyme, anchovies, and mustard.

Simmer until the anchovies have melted into the cream and the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon.

Remove from the heat and add a handful of chopped parsley.

Hold sauce warm until your lamb is ready.

To make glaze

¾ Cup blackberry jam

1 Cup Worcestershire sauce

1 Cup tamarind paste or lime juice

Combine the jam, Worcestershire, and tamarind paste or lime juice in a small bowl

Salt and black pepper to taste 

Preheat a grill to about 350 degrees.

Season the lamb chops with salt and pepper.

Start lamb over direct heat to obtain a nice golden sear. Once lamb is “seared” lower heat or move lamb racks to an indirect heat area of the grill, turning once or twice. When lamb has reached an internal tempature of 90-100 degrees, start to brush on glaze, every 2-3 minutes. Once lamb has reached an internal temperature of 120-125 for medium rare.

Remove from heat & let rest.

Once lamb has rested for about 5 minutes, slice lamb into 4 double chops & place on warm serving plates.

I suggest a spinach- feta cheese mashed potato and a citrus pine nut grilled asparagus with this lamb.

Once lamb, starch & vegetable are on the serving vessel. Place about 2 oz of sauce for your lamb.

Enjoy,

And please remember when dining at the IW Club, reservation are always appreciated & highly recommended.

Chris P. Olson

Executive Chef

IW Club

HeBS, the hospitality industry’s leading full-service Internet marketing and direct online channel strategy firm, today announced receipt of two esteemed Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) awards:

1. Outstanding Integrated Ad Campaign for the Indian Wells Scavenger Hunt
2. Best Hotel and Lodging Mobile Application for The Allison Mobile Website

The Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards are presented by the Web Marketing Association to honor excellence in online advertising, to recognize the individuals and organizations responsible, and to showcase award-winning Internet advertising. Entries in the Internet Advertising Competition were judged on six elements: creativity, innovation, impact, design, copywriting and use of the medium.

“These IAC awards are further testament to the fact that today’s hyper-interactive travel consumers are no longer satisfied with hotel websites that offer stale visual and textual content. Interactive Web 2.0 functionalities engage travel consumers; mobile websites provide instant information and transaction capabilities via mobile devices for hyper-connected consumers. And these initiatives should be in every hotelier’s arsenal in 2010,” said Max Starkov, Chief eBusiness Strategist at HeBS.

These IAC winners understand that Web 2.0 and mobile initiatives are an integral part of the comprehensive de-commoditization strategy of the hotel. Travel consumers have no tolerance for dull or static content, and hoteliers must align the interactivity of the hotel website with the hyper-interactive behavior of today’s travel consumers.

Most people who visit Indian Wells, California, are probably drawn in by the four world class resorts, the spas and the lush golf courses. The resort community in the southern California desert became a retreat for celebrities after Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz opened the Indian Wells Hotel in 1958. Since then, city officials have worked to make Indian Wells a premiere destination in the Coachella Valley.

These days, city officials are keen on sustainability, and energy-use reduction has become a key goal for the city. I had the “tough” job of visiting Indian Wells last month for an LED City^® Council meeting, and while I was there I had the city’s management analyst Susan Weisbart give me a tour of some of the city’s LED lighting installations.

Indian Wells was the first California city to become an LED City. The LED City program helps municipalities speed up the adoption of energy-saving LED lights by connecting them with information they need to make informed decisions about installing LED lights.

One of the first LED lighting installations in Indian Wells involved swapping out incandescent lights that lit the outside of city hall and other municipal buildings with 12 Watt Cree LR6™ recessed lights. It’s a change that city officials say saves nearly $7,000 a year in energy costs. That’s not counting the maintenance savings of not having to replace burned out bulbs, since the LED lights they installed are designed to last 50,000 hours – or 17 years if they’re on 8 hours a day!

The city also has plans to replace the 50 Watt halogen lights illuminating the signature palm trees lining city streets with 11 Watt LED lights. Get this: The city estimates it can save $10,095 in energy costs per year once the project is complete!

The BNP Paribas Open, considered by many to be the “Grand Slam of the West”, is the fifth most-attended tennis tournament next to the Grand Slams. It is one of the few major events combining both men and women over a two-week period on the ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tours. Held annually at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, a state-of-the-art facility boasting a 16,000 seat stadium, the second largest in the world is one of the world’s most beautiful venues for watching the top professionals compete. In 2007, 303,398 people attended the event, making it the first tournament, outside of the Grand Slams, to ever pass the 300,000 mark.

Through the guidance of partners Charlie Pasarell and Raymond Moore, the tournament has attracted more than 250 of the world’s top men’s and women’s tennis stars annually including Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova. It enjoys elite status on the ATP (ATP Masters Series) and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour (Tier I) calendars.

This tradition of strong player fields including well-known champions, coupled with world-class tennis facilities and the idyllic weather and desert scenery of the Coachella Valley in Southern California, has fueled the tournament’s emergence as one of the most prestigious tournaments on the tennis calendar and one at which a great performance is extremely important to a player’s ranking and resume.

The tournament started as an ATP fund-raising event in Tuscon, Arizona before moving to Mission Hills Country Club in the Coachella Valley in1976 where it benefited from a successful five-year run. The event’s connections with the Coachella Valley were nearly broken, however, when the ATP considered moving it to a proposed tennis stadium to be built near Disney World in Florida.

Pasarell, a native of Puerto Rico who had been the No. 1-ranked player in the U.S., was an ATP Board Member and the Director of Tennis at the La Quinta Hotel. He lobbied the ATP Board to keep the event in the Coachella Valley and convinced the owners of the La Quinta Hotel to build tennis facilities adequate for the event. Pasarell’s efforts resulted in the tournament’s move to the La Quinta Hotel, a new 7,500-seat tennis stadium, and a commitment to make the event “even better” in the future.

When the event moved into its new home in 1981, Pasarell became the tournament director. It enjoyed success in the following years and had several noteworthy finals, the most memorable being the 1982 championship when Yannick Noah ended Ivan Lendl’s winning streak of 44 matches, just two short of the men’s record.

It was Pasarell’s goal for the tournament to grow into a major tennis event at which both top men’s and women’s competitions would be take place during the same time period. To fulfill this goal, he implemented a plan that was simple in concept but difficult in execution — to build the event’s popularity with the players, the fans, the sponsors and the media through great facilities, attention to detail, strong competition, and wide print and broadcast coverage.

During the six years (1981 – 1986) the tournament was held in La Quinta, it indeed became established as a very popular tennis destination for the players, the fans, the sponsors and the media. In fact, the event achieved such success that it outgrew the tennis stadium and facilities at the La Quinta Hotel. If Pasarell’s goals were to be accomplished, and if the event were to strive for “major tennis event” status, he needed to build a larger, more modern and permanent tennis stadium with enhanced facilities.

To construct the appropriate tennis stadium and facilities, Pasarell and long-time friend Raymond Moore established a company known as PM Sports Management, and created a team along with other investors (including Alan King) to design, develop and operate a luxurious resort hotel and tennis facility in nearby Indian Wells. Pasarell signed Newsweek as title sponsor and Indian Wells became home to the “Newsweek Champions Cup.”

In 1986, construction was completed on the 350-room Grand Champions Hotel (now known as the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort). Its centerpiece was a sophisticated tennis center with 12 courts including a 10,000-seat tennis stadium (with some 7,000 permanent seats), a 3,000-seat clubhouse court, two grass courts and two clay courts. Other facilities included a 3,000 square foot retail sport boutique, a 1.62-acre hospitality village and an 8,000 square foot convention center that also served as a media facility, a player’s lounge and a kitchen facility during the tournament. At the time it was completed, the stadium and facilities were truly state-of-the-art.

The new stadium debuted in 1987, which was also the first year that a top women’s professional competition (that year featuring Steffi Graf and Hana Mandlikova) was held in conjunction with the men’s event (though not concurrently). This foreshadowed the combination of the men’s and women’s competitions that was essential to meeting Pasarell’s goals.

The tournament received significant national and international attention when Boris Becker won the first two events (1987 and 1988) held at the new stadium. The tournament took another crucial step forward in 1990 when the ATP, then under the leadership of Hamilton Jordan, restructured the men’s tennis circuit and designated the Newsweek Champions Cup as one of the elite events on the ATP in the category now known as the ATP Masters Series.

The women’s tournament went through a somewhat different evolution. Originally a non-sanctioned event, it became an official Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event in 1991 in partnership with IMG. In 1992, the women’s event was honored when Chris Evert agreed to attach her name to the competition, making it the Evert Cup. In 1997, it was designated as a “Tier 1″ event, the top Sony Ericsson WTA Tour category.

Until 1996, the women’s event was held immediately prior to rather than concurrently with the men’s event. That situation changed, however, when the ATP and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour approved of combining the events. Thus the tournament, then with the somewhat unwieldy name of Newsweek Champions Cup/State Farm Evert Cup presented by Harman International, attained the lofty status of being one of only six Masters Series/Tier I-level tournaments in the world, including the four Grand Slams, that has a combined men’s and women’s event, a distinction it still holds today.

This success had its price as the tournament quickly outgrew the Grand Champions grounds. Pasarell now dreamed of a new stadium that would serve as a showplace for the burgeoning event.

The development of the Tennis Masters Series coincided with the completion of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in 2000, bringing the tournament a new name (Tennis Masters Series Indian Wells) as well as helping it reach new heights in attendance, prize money, television and print exposure, and international status. During its entire existence, tournament attendance has grown from 30,000 to more than 270,000; prize money has grown from $250,000 to more than $5 million; the television audience of the tournament has grown from 25 million homes to nearly a billion homes worldwide; and the facilities have grown from 7,500 seats to a 20-court, 54-acre complex including a 16,100-seat main stadium, two smaller stadiums, 44 luxury suites, nearly 6,000 box seats and first rate ancillary facilities.

One of the reasons for this growth was Pacific Life who signed on as title sponsor back in January of 2002 until 2008. The support of Pacific Life, and dozens of other sponsors, is invaluable to the continued success of the BNP Paribas Open.

Another boost to the BNP Paribas Open came in the form of an increased playing field, which spawned additional days and sessions creating a full two-week event. Now 20 sessions strong with both the men’s and women’s draws at 96, top players are in competition beginning the first weekend, adding to the excitement and the “Grand Slam” feel of the tournament.

The next chapter of the tournament was bigger than ever as Pasarell and Moore, with the help of new partners George Mackin and Bob Miller of Tennis Magazine and Patrick W. M. Imeson of Calim Private Equity, LLC, recruited a new team of investors including the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and tennis legends Pete Sampras, Billie Jean King and Chris Evert, to acquire International Management Group’s (IMG) 50% interest in the tournament.

The tournament, which had interest from several overseas investors, was kept in the Coachella Valley because of this powerful and strategic tennis partnership. In addition, the City of Indian Wells displayed their unwavering commitment to the event by purchasing 27 acres of land adjacent to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

The tournament rang in the 2009 New Year by announcing the addition of BNP Paribas, the premier sponsor of tennis globally, as the new title sponsor of the event. To close 2009, the tournament announced that Larry Ellison, co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation formed Tennis Ventures, LLC and would become the new owner of the event and the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Ellison, a tennis aficionado will continue rely on Pasarell, Moore and their staff to manage the event, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Together they will ensure that this tournament continues to be one of the best in the world.

December 31, 2009 By Tinou Bao

Roasted Root Vegetable Gratins

Ingredients:

¼ cup olive oil

2 ea medium Spanish onions

2 tbl minced garlic

1/2 cup grated white cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup goat cheese

1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoons allspice

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 Tbl kosher salt

4 whole eggs

2 cups heavy cream

1 pound russet potatoes,

1 pound garnet yams

1 pound butternut squash

.5 stick butter, melted

2 cups panko bread crumbs

2 teaspoons Spanish paprika

1 bunch finely chopped parsley

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil. Sauté sliced onions and garlic until soft and translucent. Remove from heat. Slice washed, scrubbed, seeded and thinly sliced vegetable. Thin with a mandoline and place into cream egg mixture. Add cooled garlic and onions to egg mixture. Toss well. Add nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and pepper, 3 cheeses and mix well. Add salt and taste mixture. The mixture should be just slightly salty. Add a little more if desired. In a bowl, combine butter, panko bread crumbs, chopped parsley and paprika. Stir well. Place potatoes mixture into a casserole dish, and top with panko crumb mixture. Wrap with foil and bake in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes or until fork tender. Remove foil and cook for 10 minutes uncovered or until crust is golden brown. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving

This will go great with just about any holiday entrée.

Have a safe New Years.

Chef O

Chris P. Olson

Executive Chef

Indian Wells Golf Resort