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Last Minute Thanksgiving Ideas: Mashed Potatoes with Root Vegetable Puree
I don’t know about you, but for me Thanksgiving is about everything but the turkey. Every Thanksgiving is the same. You grab a little turkey, a little stuffing, some cranberry sauce, and your essential mashed potatoes with gravy. Then, you stare at all the other sides – macaroni and cheese, perhaps some roasted brussel sprouts, [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Honey and Ginger Glazed Carrots
Carrots are such a sadly overlooked vegetable. Although they are a kitchen staple, their flavor is so often lost in making stocks, soups, and braises. We rarely appreciate that good fresh carrots have a sweetness and aroma all their own. You may be able to find many different varieties at your local farmer’s market – [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Haricot Verts with Glazed Pearl Onions
Glazing is an excellent technique for bringing out the flavor of firm root vegetables such as carrots, turnips, and pearl onions. Here sweet glazed pearl onions are paired with haricot verts – thin and tender french green beans – for a fresh, light alternative to green bean casserole for Thanksgiving. It’s so quick and easy, [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter, Herbs, and Mushrooms
This time of year, the markets are full of fall root vegetables: beets, turnips, rutabaga, and my favorite, sweet potatoes. I love them roasted, mashed, french fried, or made into a pie. Here I use them to make gnocchi. Now these little babies take some work, but the results are really worth it. They keep [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Eggs Benedict with Rosemary Pork Loin, Orange Hollandaise and Wild Arugula Salad
We’re all pretty familiar with your standard Eggs Benedict: two poached eggs over a slice of Canadian Bacon or ham, on a toasted English muffin, luxuriously topped with Hollandaise sauce. Well here is a fresh take that makes use of leftovers from Saturday evening’s pork loin roast. Combine them with with farm fresh organic eggs [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )How to Make Hollandaise Sauce
Classic Hollandaise sauce contains three key components: egg yolks, clarified butter, and lemon juice. It’s made by whisking egg yolks together with a little water in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water until they are thick and frothy. Then the bowl is removed from the heat, and warm clarified butter is slowly [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )How to Poach Eggs
Poached eggs have such a great number of uses, and there is just something about a perfectly poached egg, that’s just well…perfect. Aside from Eggs Benedict, they are a classic component for Frisee and Lardon Salad, and are delicious with Roast Pork and Ramen Noodles too. They are actually not that difficult to make. Here’s [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )The Difference is in the Brine
Why bother to brine a pork roast, a turkey, or a chicken? Well, there are two reasons. The first is that all three of these meats generally don’t contain a lot of intramuscular fat and therefore tend to dry out when you roast or grill them. Brining helps the meat to retain its juices, even [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Pulled Pork that Practically Cooks Itself
I ordered a pork shoulder through Basis Foods a couple months ago. The online store estimated each one at about 8 or 9 lbs. But when it arrived from Mountain View Farm it was a whopping 13 lbs, and…it was frozen. So I popped it in my freezer because unless I had a special occasion [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )From Tragedy, a Bittersweet Reunion
Today, I’m writing from the heart rather than my stomach: When she was only 3 years old, my aunt Wan Ying was separated from her family. During World War II, my grandparents fled unrest in their home of Rangoon, Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar) by temporarily returning to my grandfather’s home village, just outside the Guangzhou, China. [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )All Aboard the Sous Vide Bandwagon
Okay, so I have been accused of being a little bit of a gadget girl. But you can’t blame me, it’s genetic. Sources have informed my that my own father has been known to order computer equipment, then have it shipped to my sister’s, whereupon she would bring it over as a gift. My dad [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Easy Pickled Jalapenos
Forgive me father for I have sinned (I imagine the late James Beard to be looking down at me with disdain from his kitchen in the sky). It has been two weeks since my last post, and in that time I have twice eaten takeout pizza, and once I even had Taco Bell. But it [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Steak & Kidney Pie, or the Dinner that Wasn’t
“…not too much kidney…just enough to give it that touch of bite…and lashings of steak, oooh, and it’s good steak too!…ooh.” – from Jeeves and Wooster, Season 1: The Hunger Strike. Is it possible we watch way to much Jeeves and Wooster? Perhaps it’s a sign, that after the ‘teenth time of watching Tuppy Glossup [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Home Cured Bacon Makes the Best BLTs
Bacon, oh delicious bacon. There is no other food I can think of that inspires people to the same degree of epicurean lust. In one Jim Gaffigan standup routine, he spends a good two and a half minutes extolling the joys of eating bacon in its many forms. One waiter at work shared with [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )A Big Bowl of Red – Grassfed Steak Chili
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to represent the restaurant at Chelsea Market’s NY Chilifest 2011. I along with representatives from our other two restaurants in our group, spent several hours ladling out some damn good chili and schmoozing away a Sunday afternoon. It was the first public cooking event I participated in [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )BBQ Wings with Braised Greens and Cole Slaw
Collard Greens, Lacinato Kale, Savoy Cabbage, Leeks… These are just some of the things I had lingering in my fridge from my last delivery from Basis “Good Food to You”. Since you can click the link and check them out, I won’t say too much on the subject except that it’s kind of a cross [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Maple Glazed, Southern Style Cornbread: a Delicious meeting of North and South
Have a bite of this with your morning coffee! I am obsessed with cookbooks, as I am sure most avid cooks and food bloggers are. From my slowly growing collection I make lists and lists of recipes, techniques, and new things to try. I especially love when the author gives us a little glimpse into [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Flipped Flop: Fresh Spaeztle and Chicken Soup
Cooking can be very frustrating when things don’t work out as planned. Last week I was so excited about finding fresh cranberry beans at my local market I had to pick some up. Along with that I picked up some kielbasa, a chicken, and some basics: onions, carrots, celery, herbs etc. It was unseasonably cool, [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 5 so far )Carbon Steel Fry Pans, Oh Yes I Do!
Non-stick pans skeeve me out. Teflon and other high tech coatings may be relatively harmless, but only up to a certain temperature, at which point they start to give off toxic gases. I also haven’t met a non-stick pan that doesn’t scratch or peel, whatever promises they make. So then you have to replace it [...]
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