Sunday, February 6, 2011

Superbowl beans

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Our good friends Rick and Claudia always do a terrific superbowl party. They asked us to bring something - either bbq beans or a green bean ...
Sunday, January 16, 2011

The blender

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For several years I have had a jones for a Vitamix blender. Why? They are cool, they are easy to clean, they do a great job... However the b...
Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Boxing Day

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Our tradition during the Christmas Season is to have a Boxing Day party. So, while Christmas for many is a time of plenty and friendship,...
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The Bloody Mary Party

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This was a much more sedate affair than some of our parties. We had the Christmas Eve blowout the night before and were due to go to the Fou...
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Christmas 2010

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It all started innocently enough. Madame and I were in Bastrop for a wedding in September. In came a text saying, "My mother in law is ...
Sunday, December 12, 2010

Scones

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One of Madame's co workers has had a hankering for scones. So I was press ganged into making some. Luckily they are pretty easy to make....
Friday, November 26, 2010

What to take for thanksgiving?

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Our friend and uber hostess Deborah had us over for thanksgiving dinner yesterday. We knew it was going to be a feast but also wanted to mak...
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Fig, honeycomb and greek yogurt

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Yesterday evening we had Chef Dave Gilbert over to talk about his adventures as the Exceutive Chef at the American Pavilion in Shanghai. D...
Sunday, November 7, 2010

Pavlova Roulade

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I got the idea for this from some cooking show that we were watching and realized it could be a bit of a challenge. After all how often do ...
Sunday, October 31, 2010

Pumpkin Soup

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More from the Hallow-tini party. Since it was close to Halloween, we thought it might be nice to do a pumpkin soup using a hollowed out p...

White Chili

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Another Hallow-tini dish This dish is inspired by Cooks Illustrated magazine and incorporates some prettyy clever ideas. It uses both coo...
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Lasagne (for a crowd)

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There's much debate about Lasagne. Ricotta or bechamel? Ground meat/chili-grind? Cook/no-cook pasta. All beef or beef/pork/veal? Too man...

Mac and cheese

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Another dish from Hallow-tini . When I learned to make "mac and cheese" (or as it is called in England, macaroni cheese), I lear...

Infusing Vodka

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At the Hallow-tini party  we made some infused vodkas. The approach was that the guests would get a small measure of vodka (Titos) or Gin ...
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The Hallow-tini party

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We held a party for about 50 people last evening (October 30). The idea was to serve "martinis" where the gin/vodka were chilled (...
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Sunday, September 26, 2010

We had a dining room party

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We completely remodeled the dining room - resulting in the need for a formal party to celebrate. It was in honour of the designer who worked...
Sunday, September 19, 2010

A sign! Edamame Dip

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This was clearly meant to be. Alton Brown on Good Eats did a show on edamame in which he described an edamame dip. Then yesterday madame and...
Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Timing and the one critical component of the dish

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No recipes in this post! I was watching "Michael Symon's How to cook like an iron chef" the other evening. I was struck by a f...
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Sunday, August 1, 2010

Green Goddess Soup

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Madame and I went to a very good wine tasting at the Classic Cafe last Wednesday evening. As usual the restaurant did a very good meal, and ...
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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Ripening peaches

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I cant claim to have come up with this myself. Nowever  this method  is so good that I just have to pass it on. Place a dish towel on a ra...
Sunday, July 4, 2010

Summer pudding

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This is in the tradition of English puddings using the bounty of the season. It is also a handy way of using left over bread! I make it in a...

dulce de leche

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This sinfully good milk caramel is the easiest thing in the world to make. That is going to be a problem. When something that good is too ea...
Sunday, June 27, 2010

Fun with eggs

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I have to stay entertained while madame is away. The easiest and most troublefree way is to play with my food. So this morning I took a coup...
Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Spanish tortilla redux

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In a previous posting, I talked about making a Spanish tortilla (that potato egg dish that is a staple of Spanish cooking). In previous inca...
Friday, April 30, 2010

Antipasti

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2 new ideas/techniques this week. Well new to me. The first was inspired by Mario Batali and discovered here , the second done out of necess...
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Saturday, April 10, 2010

The Behmor 1600 Coffee Roaster

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Our old and trusty iRoast 2 coffee roaster has been ailing for a while. It wheezed to life only to stop half way through a roast resulting i...
Saturday, April 3, 2010

Naturally Slim

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I have noticed that my clothes are becoming a bit tight and that the lying scales are becomeing more mendacious by the day. The result being...
Friday, March 5, 2010

Duck egg omelette

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This started with a conversation with Dave Gilbert (he of many culinary adventures documented elsewhere in this blog and at Dave Gilbert...
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Friday, January 29, 2010

Simple chicken soup

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I have been feeling under the weather - with a cough/cold/sore throat. Unimaginably grumpy - poor Madame. So I thought maybe some chicken so...
Monday, January 25, 2010

Brining boneless/skinless chicken breasts

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As we have heard on many occasions, brining chicken is a good way to keep the meat juicy - especially for parts that are naturally dry - lik...
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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Mushroom Risotto

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At a conversation over dinner earlier in the week our friend Claudia was bemoaning the fact that risotto rather intimidated her, but she rea...
Thursday, January 14, 2010

Poached pear with Cashel blue cheese and pistachio brittle

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In the previous post I described pistachio brittle . This was for the pear/blue cheese dessert at this event .  We bought the cheese at Scar...

The Pistachio Brittle

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For the most recent underground dinner , we had a dessert involving poached pears, some blue cheese and pistachio brittle. Why pistachio bri...
Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Underground dining featuring Stellekaya wines

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It's been a busy week. On Thursday Dave Gilbert and I worked to deliver some appetizers at a charity wine event honoring Ntsiki Biyela ...