Some food trends startle me. Growing up in the 70s in cities without Mexican restaurants–Rochester, NY, and Richmond, VA, I was unprepared for the salsa uprising that eventually upstaged all-American ketchup. I also confidently and so wrongly predicted that sushi in the grocery store would bomb. Who would ever buy a plastic tray of California [...]
Chic Pea Nuts
August 20, 2010
August 10, 2010
I like to think of recipe swapping as social research. What kinds of recipes do home cooks like to share? What makes a person say “hey, can I have the recipe?” Or even better, “have I told you about my favorite recipe, you’ve got to try this, it’s so easy.” For example, think of the [...]
July 19, 2010
Last summer at the Hobin family reunion in East Greenwich, RI, we watched a New England Irish-Italian family really work out the food. The array of side dishes and platters of salads and seafood and very not-Nashville delights was stunning. As you might expect from a clan of well-heeled partiers, the Hobins had reunion operations [...]
June 29, 2010
What are you doing with your local fresh eggs? We’re serving them over all kinds of vegetables.
June 22, 2010
We’ve been obsessed with smoking brisket since returning from a recent barbecue tour through the Hill Country around Austin, Texas. We’ll write about our home Texas barbecue shenanigans later (it’s a long, happy story). For now, here’s one important thing we didn’t expect to learn. Lardo, Texas style. Sure, we enjoyed plenty of the brisket [...]
May 17, 2010
A few weeks ago we made a batch of traditional Kentucky Benedictine to go with our Tennessee juleps for Derby day. No rocket science here, just cucumber cream cheese spread meant for little cocktail sandwiches. You have to salt out the moisture in the cucumber if you want nice spreading consistency. Otherwise, go for a [...]
April 24, 2010
The smoky boil continues to top our list of liquid smoke uses. The aroma in the kitchen makes us think that my uphill neighbor Roger has a fire going. No joke. Liquid smoke is the real deal and fantastic in this application. This smoky eggplant II is a simple mash of smoke boiled eggplant, olive [...]
December 17, 2009
We first recommended Shrimp Cocktail Salad for a holiday dinner. It also make a great crisp, cool, quick supper.
October 9, 2009
When R.B. showed me how easy it is to change my car oil, I remember thinking that’s all there is to it? I paid the dealer how much to do that? Corn dogs are the same situation. You may be asking yourself what sort of high tech equipment does it take to get a hot [...]
October 7, 2009
Why didn’t we think of this before? We had some excellent baba ganoosh at Kalamata’s Mediterranean Cuisine with the nicest hint of smoke the other day. When I asked the chef about it, he started in on a set of instructions including an indoor smoker contraption with wood chips. His hands were waving around like [...]
Get tips for making perfect skillet cornbread. It's the only bread to serve with summer fresh vegetable suppers. 
