-The Corn Exchange Cookbook Captions for the photos in the book-
• Photo opposite inside left jacket flap- MJ cooking in front of her six burner Vulcan 1999.
• Photo on the next page is Bison roaming the prairie on the 777 Bison Ranch in Fairburn, SD.
• Opposite page is waitstaff photo at The Corn Exchange first New Year’s Eve 1998 and below that is MJ enjoying a horseback ride at Chico Hot Springs in Pray, MT, Fall 2003.
• Next page is the front of the restaurant 2005.
• Opposite Page MJ with shitakes grown for the restaurant from local purveyor Zita and below she is holding one of the many fresh salmons flown in she would filet for the evenings menu.
• Illustration opposite Title Page is of rose hips. They grow everywhere in the Black Hills.
• Photo opposite Preface is me at Pikes Place Market in Seattle, WA, Fall 1990.
• Preface Page xvii is of various business cards from places MJ has worked. Some are business cards she created. One is a reference letter from working/cooking for Brooke Astor and an article about La Petite Ferme where she also worked while living in NYC.
• Preface xviii, the top photo is the day of the fire May 8th, 1997, which destroyed the first Corn Exchange and half the block along with six other businesses. The photo below is what was left of The Corn Exchange after the fire.
• Preface xix is Carlos and MJ in front of The Corn Exchange the day after the fire.
• Preface xx is the day after the fire.
• Preface xxi is the rest of the photo from the previous page and a photo of the new location of the second Corn Exchange. What is wonderful about this spot is that it is located on the other half of the block that survived the fire. MJ always felt that without a great downtown, you don’t have a city. Her main goal after the fire was to be downtown, Photo taken 11/1998.
• Pages xxii and xxiii is a view inside the restaurant 2002 and MJ with very special customers who came every year to Rapid City to stay in the hotel caddy corner from the restaurant and would make reservations to eat there every night. They are holding a copy of Better Homes and Gardens which did a blurb on MJ in November of 2005.
• Preface xxiv is a black and white photo MJ created into a postcard for the first anniversary.
• Preface xxv is Carlos and MJ with a Jeroboam of Moet for the Corn's first New Year's Eve December 31st, 1998.
• Preface xxvi is MJ and her dear friend Lezlie Haggerty who worked with her at the restaurant and
at her specialty food store, The Potted Rabbit that was located next door to the restaurant.
• Preface xxviii starting with the top photo is construction at the new location Fall of 1997. The photo below left is MJ and Carlos in the kitchen with a tarte tatin which just came out of the oven. The photo to the right is of the inside of the original Corn Exchange where baked goods, savory and sweet were sold.
• Preface xxvix is the side view of Mt. Rushmore which is 23 miles from the restaurant.
• Photo opposite Soups is some local black hills asparagus MJ bought at The Black Hills Farmers Market. MJ resided as president for a term.
• Pages 8-9 starting with the upper left photo is Elizabeth Porter offering decaf or regular coffee to customers, 1999. We later updated our coffee service to a stylish silver pot on a tray thanks to her friend James Dean. The photo to the right is of employees Kara Murner, Steven Day and Hannah Harris before they joined the Shaving Club For Men, 2010. The photo below is MJ chatting with Marion Grote and Karen Goodsell in 2001, regular customers from the start. The photo to the left is of employee Patrick Duffy cleaning the windows. We started out with lighting candles in the window at night for dinner service to create ambience. MJ switched to three hanging lights after she took a trip to LA and found a charming lighting store across from Campanile on La Brea Avenue after a lunch. One of many drunken purchases to benefit the restaurant.
• Pages 10-11 starting to the left is Tammy Sellars our trusted front of house person for a period of time and a good friend of MJ’s. To the right is Denny and Elva Braum whom the cookbook is dedicated too. They were MJ’s dear friends and neighbors. The menu is from lunch which the restaurant ran with from March of 1998 to Labor Day weekend 2001. MJ felt dinner only would keep the restaurant afloat and she could focus more on the food. The sepia toned photo is of Robert Wharton (new president of the School of Mines) and his wife Carolyn, Vitner John Shafer and his wife Barbara, MJ, Ray Hillenbrand and his sister Mitzi Lally 2008. This photo was taken after they dined at the restaurant.The following year, Walter and MJ went to visit Shafer Vineyards and John in Napa and were treated to a fabulous tour of the winery and later lunch with him and Barbara.The photo below is of MJ and Chef Tom Valenti at The James Beard Awards in NYC 2004. MJ worked with Tom Valenti at Alison on Dominick Street where she was the Pastry Chef. The photo on the left is the Annual Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park in the Fall 1998.
• Page 18 is of Rachel Ray with employee Kara Murner. Rachel Ray visited the restaurant in October of 2004 for filming which aired in March of 2005.
• Page 19 is of Actor Bruce Dern and Chef MJ. Bruce was in town filming Nebraska and the cast ate at the restaurant during their filming 2012.
• Pages 20-21 are of employees Kara Murner (who not only cooked with me in the kitchen, waited tables and would be the manager of The Potted Rabbit) and MJ’s sister Lisa Carro with glasses on. They are getting ready to take out a shrimp dish for New Year’s Eve 2011. The photo to the left is the cover count for New Year’s Eve. It shows you the number of people that arrive for each time slot which helps the kitchen with the timing of food. This was something that was printed out from Open Table. An app that MJ used at the restaurant. She was the first restaurant to ever use Open Table in South Dakota.
• Pages 22-23 starting with the upper left is of MJ and Walter in the restaurant Fall of 2003. To the right is Walter and MJ on their wedding day June 1st, 2008. The photo below is with corn employee Megan Draine in the restaurant with customers which include Walter’s daughter Alyson Albasi to the right of her farther down is local artist, Bob H. Miller, Becky Jones and her sister Barb with glasses on. Fall of 2009. The photo to the right is of the interior of the restaurant, Winter of 2011.
• Opening Photo to Appetizers is of my potato and blue cheese tart which was featured in Gourmet Magazine, October 2003.
• Page 29 is of buffalo empanadas with chimichurri sauce. MJ’s friend and fellow foodie Andrea Lekberg of The Artist Baker in Morristown, NJ, was in town and helped with the food and shoot that day.
• Page 30 is of pheasant terrine served at the restaurant, a favorite appetizer.
• Pages 36 & 37 is of the Annual Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park in Custer, SD Fall 1998.
• Page 42 is at the Borglum Ranch.
• Page 43 is of Spring Creek, a favorite spot for Walter to fly fish in the Black Hills. The photo over it is of MJ taking a reservation while getting ready to filet a Red Snapper that was flown in for the nights special 2002.
• Page 47 is from a cheese class MJ took at Neal’s Yard Dairy located near Borough Market in London, Fall of 2015.
• Page 52 starting to the left is of MJ’s sister Lisa Carro, her father Clarence Adams and herself sitting at the much requested Table 8, 2007. To the right is MJ and her sister at the Beaujolais Noveau Night 1999. The black and white photo is of MJ’s mother Jeannie Underwood in her USO Dance costume taken outside of her home in Vashon, WA. The small photo is of MJ’s father with her brother’s Shane and Eugene Adams taken in Winner, SD, during pheasant season in the Fall of 1979. The photo to the bottom left is of MJ and her sister Lisa at their Aunt Edith’s apartment in Sioux Falls, SD, 1972.
• Page 53 is of Devil’s Tower located in Wyoming which is about 106 miles away from Rapid City.
• Opening Photo Opposite Entrees is Chicken Bistro, a restaurant favorite.
• Pages 62-63 is pan roasted quail with onion jam, a potato cake and local vegetables. MJ loves to cook quail and introduced it to Rapid City.
• Page 64 starting with the upper left are bison on the 777 Bison Ranch and below that is MJ feeding an orphaned bison calf on the 777 Bison Ranch.
• Page 65 is MJ standing on the South Dakota-Wyoming border. Four miles behind the sign lies Newcastle, WY where MJ attended junior high and graduated from high school.
• Page 72 is of Duck Pies which were made individually for service. MJ also served rabbit pies.
• Page 76 is of Braised Lamb Shanks topped with feta cheese and pomegranate seeds.
• Page 80 is of the landscape of eastern South Dakota.
• Page 81 is a selfie MJ took while hunting morel mushrooms for the first season/spring episode of Savor Dakota for South Dakota Public Broadcasting in the Spring of 2016. MJ was the Host and culinary consultant on the show for two seasons. It now airs on CreateTV.
• Pages 84-85 are from the dinner she did at The James Beard House in NYC, in March of 2012 with fellow chef Andrea Lekberg of The Artist Baker in Morristown, NJ. The photos include the menu design that Andrea created, one of the table settings and MJ and Andrea in the kitchen. The photo on the right side below is of MJ at a James Beard event she orchestrated back in 1987 when she was a volunteer and ran the “Meet The Author Event.” The event is for the launch of Pasta Classica, a cookbook by Julia della Croce. MJ is to the left of the table with bobby socks on.
• Page 90 is of the hand forged sign done by blacksmith Jack Parks that MJ drew up the designs for. This was hung up at the original Corn Exchange four days prior to the fire and was the only thing that survived the flames. It is now in her garage. Another first for downtown Rapid City was MJ creating a hanging sign or swing sign for the business. This lead to other businesses doing the same moving forward.
• Page 91 is heirloom cherry tomatoes being prepped for roasting in the oven.
• Opening Photo for Salads if of radishes from Union Square Market in NYC.
• Page 101 is a roasted beet salad with goat cheese and Cara Cara orange segments.
• Page 106 is at the Black Hills Farmers Market where Country Roads Garden purveyor Tom Bodensteiner and a Cory Tomovick are helping MJ serve a gazpacho soup she made for a Taste of the Black Hills Farmers Market, Summer of 2017.
• Page 107 starting with the top left is of a charcuterie shop in Italy during a Fall 2014 Cooking Class in Tuscany. Homemade Strawberry Jam in MJ’s kitchen with Mr. Skikkels help. MJ in the kitchen of the restaurant with a linzer tart she just pulled from the oven, 1999.
• Opening Photo to Desserts is of the flourless chocolate torte.
• Page 112 is of an Apple Tarte Tatin seen on a to-go platter. MJ often made them whole as a takeout order for special occasions.
• Page 120 is of the flourless chocolate torte plated for service.
• Page 122 starting with the top is MJ with her loyal employee Cecelia who washed dishes for many years at the restaurant. She did the work of five high school boys! The photo below to the left is MJ tasting a grape from Chateau St.Michelle outside of Seattle, WA, 1990. Bottom photo is MJ feeding a baby goat on a friends farm outside of Custer, SD the summer of 1997 after the fire.
• Page 123 starting with middle is MJ at Henry’s End hugging/kissing Opus One the restaurant mascot, 1994. Top right photo is MJ on her Sunday brunch shift at Tartine. A restaurant that was ahead of its time located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY. This photo was taken by friend and coworker John Lyons in 1992. Photo the bottom right is of MJ in the first corn exchange taken a few days before the fire.
• Page 127 Meyer Lemon Tarts.
• Page 130 photos of local strawberries being prepped for Jam.
• Page 134 A basket of pears from a market in Lisbon, Portugal, on a trip MJ went on in the Fall of 2016.
• Page 137 Gateau Basque topped with fresh raspberries. A great Christmas dessert.
• Page 143 Chocolate shortbread cookies.
• Page 144 Colorado Peach Jam resting in MJ’s home kitchen.
• Page 148 The photo to the left is of MJ outside of The Potted Rabbit. Her specialty food store with the letters Gastronomy spelled out on top of the shop. It opened December 12th, 2010. She is seen here holding the first issue of Lucky Peach Magazine which was sold at the shop. The small photo to the right is one of the items she made and sold at The Potted Rabbit, pheasant stock.
• Page 149 is a photo of the sun setting as it cast a shadow from the window onto the wall of the shop. The Potted Rabbit had a few tables for guests to enjoy an espresso and a pastry. MJ closed The Potted Rabbit 12/31/2012.
• Page 156 is of herb butter.
• Page 172 is of friend Marc Goodpaster and longtime tenant of one of the six apartments that were above the building. He is seen here taking down the hand forged Corn Exchange metal sign. It was taken down the day after The Corn Exchange closed, April 14th 2013.
• Page 173 is of MJ and fellow culinary student at The French Culinary Institute in NYC, spring of 1989.
• Page 174 is of MJ and good friend Lezlie Haggerty walking down the path to Petersham Nurseries on a visit Fall 2015 to London. Her good friend Barbara Bachman, who designed the cookbook is behind them on the path and snapped this photo.
-The End-