While I did, in fact, receive a digital camera for Christmas, I believe that the restaurant would have frowned upon me had I whipped it out and let the flash play havoc on their mood lighting; and thus, I bring you instead - Food Erotica:

Fire crackled softly from the wood-fire grill and brick oven across the room in the open kitchen of a cozy Connecticut restaurant. Orange-yellow light played on the hearth, and soft man-made bulbs cast a soft glow over the seagoing-themed decorations.

The bread was still warm. The butter was soft enough to spread easily, and melted into the bread quickly. The crust was perfectly crunchy, surrounding the moist, dense richness that begged to be engulfed, masticated, and sent to the depths of my stomach only to be followed by another bite.

The main course arrived - "Garlic and Dijon Encrusted Lamb Chops with a Rosemary Scented Port Wine Reduction", the menu had said. It certainly didn't under-deliver. The three two-bone chops were grilled to a perfect medium-rare, and as I took the first tender bite, the crust melted on my tongue; the juice flowed and the flavors melded into a luscious experience that filled the senses. It was perfectly paired with a late-90s Pacific Northwest Pinot Noir, which had subtle hints of black currant and the typical earthiness of a good Pinot. Served beside the succulent lamb was a "Smoked Gouda and Yukon Gold Potato Puree" which had a creamy smoothness between the small chunks of potato - it hinted at sour cream mixed with the cheese, and the small mixed greens which had garnished the top of the puree added small crunches here and there. Baby carrots and zucchini were placed symmetrically around the plate, and had been sauteed in just a touch of olive oil; they were fork-tender and when I smeared a bit of the additional rosemary-port reduction - which had been dotted intermittantly in the plating process - it added even more to the natural sweetness of the vegetables and caused my eyes to inadvertantly close as a quiet sigh escaped my lips.

Alas, nothing was meant to last forever; after my plate emptied, a delightful Creme Brule was set before me, accompanied by a snifter of Courvossier VSOP. The sugared top had been torched to perfection, and took very little effort to crack through with my spoon. The custard beneath was delicious; vanilla and cream and egg conjoined in harmony purely for my pleasure - rich and smooth and wonderful. The cognac took a moment to breathe in the snifter, and filled my nose with its pungent scent; it warmed me fully from throat to tummy and left a fuzzy feeling in its wake. Much as the lamb, this delectable dessert was gone far too soon for my liking, and I was forced to retreat from this haven of culinary magnificence.

I must certainly visit again...

i made king cakes

There are two parts of my brain. The passionate impulsive part and the scientific part.

The passionate part of my brain falls madly in love with recipes. It courts them with great fervor, spending hours upon hours day dreaming about what the recipe would be like. Writing its name plus mine in cute little hearts upon the back of my cook book covers.

In the mean time the scientific part of my brain wants to dissect a recipe. It wants to turn the recipe around, unscrew the cover poke around the insides and rearrange the inner workings. My scientific mind wants to know why a recipe works. Why choose this combination of ingredients or that? What does this flavor do with that? What makes the recipe tick.

Either way, between these two halves of my brain, I can’t ever seem to make any recipe that I see until I have thoroughly dissected it.

So! I want to make cheese fondue for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day. He's working late today and it's freezing outside, so I've decided that a roaring fire, fondue and a bottle of red wine would be perfect for him to come home to.

Last time I made cheese fondue, I made it with old cheddar, hemp beer (it was all we had, really) and swiss cheese.

Any interesting variations?

Hi everyone. I'm after some help!!
last week some friends had us over for dinner so I thought I'd return the favor by asking them over to ours on Friday. Only problem is they will arrive at 7.30 and I get in from work at 7! I thought I'd do spaghetti alla carbonara with salad and garlic bread, but I seem to do this every time i need a quick supper for friends!
So does anyone have any other ideas for a quick supper for four that i can either prepare before I go to work or won't take more than 40min when I get in (I want to be able to relax with a big glass of wine, it is a Friday night after all!)

Thanks again to everyone who helped me with the Red Velvet cupcakes the other day, they turned out great & were fun for my husband & our friends on V-day :)!

I have ANOTHER request (yeah, I'm annoying) though, that I'm hoping ya'll can help me on.

We're having a meeting Thursday night at work, so I wanted to make cupcakes for that too! My boss is vegan so I'll need some vegan recipes. I'd love to do something with chocolate (since I have this AWESOME cocoa powder right now I want to use), but I'm open to whatever. Cupcakes would be great, but I'm also open to cookies, some kind of bar cookie, whatever! Just something sweet :) & relatively easy to make (that wouldn't require me to purchase a bunch of ingredients, I have most "basics" for cooking already).

Thanks!!

Here is one recipe you might want to try if you like ooey, gooey oatmeal bars. I wanted to make some kind of cookies or something to use up a couple of bananas I had begging to be used, so during my recipe search I found this one for Oatmeal Cookies. I did make the banana cookies too. But since I love oatmeal cookies, I wanted to try these. And if anyone wants the banana cookie recipe, I'd be happy to oblige.
( photo and recipe here )

I bought a package of spring roll pastry and wondered if others had used it for other recipes. We have some chicken breasts and various other ingredients. Suggestions are requested.

I bought some good spanish chorizo a while ago and finally got around to using it. I jokingly call this "Dutch Paella", only because it is made in a Dutch oven, not a conventional paella pan. I have an aversion to single-purpose cooking implements.

Hey there food pornsters!

Well it looks like my Valentine's Day plans may be scrapped due to the crappy weather so I come to you requesting a recipe for a home made V-day dinner. Ideally I'd like to make some baked potato soup, but I would really like some protein to go with and I happen to have some chicken breasts in the fridge.

So here's the question:
Does anyone have a relatively simple chicken breast recipe that I can make solely in the oven (since my cook top with be occupied with the soup)? Maybe even a rolled/stuffed one? Suggestions for filling: asparagus or other veggies, mushrooms, and/or cheese. The boy simply adores gorgonzola but it's a bit potent for me, so maybe I could mix it with another, milder cheese?

Thanks guys!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6358595.stm

Not sure it appeals, personally! I like my pizza toppings fairly traditional, and this sounds a bit overblown.

i need to cook for about 30 people this weekend. i have never cooked for this many people, so i don't know how much i need to buy.

also i need help with what to cook. i was thinking beef stew because i could make that ahead of time- but i want a delicious recipe without a lot ingredients. need a side dish- i was thinking a simple pasta dish. a dish for vegetarians. and a dessert.

anyway and all help welcomed.

I've always been a big fan of barley, though i've only really ever had it in soups and stews (and cholent!) A few weeks ago I saw a packet of pearl barely on the supermarket shelf and decided I should give it a go - after all, i'm always looking for new store cupboard ingredients, and also ways to increase my fibre intake!

It sat in the cupboard until last night. I've been pondering using some for a while, but inspiration was lacking. So since I didn't have much in the way of fresh supplies - i'm due to go shopping tonight - I decided to give it a go with making stuffed peppers. I make these fairly often, but I usually use rice as the grain to stuff them with.

( Read more... )
Mmm, i'll definately be making these again! The barley was nutty and flavoursome, with a nice texture quite different to rice. The sweet roasted peppers, salty haloumi and roasted garlic gave enough flavour that I didn't feel shortchanged by lack of any other herbs or spices. It made enough for two servings, so i've just demolished the leftovers for lunch. Each time I had some crisp lettuce on the side.

I think soon I might go a more traditional route and use the barley with some nice lamb chunks I have in the freezer. But pearl barley gets the thumbs up!

Hey, everybody. I just joined here and have a quick question for y'all:

I'm making lasagna for my S.O. tonight (one of his favorite dishes) but here's the thing: He's allergic to gluten so I'm using rice lasagna noodles. I've never cooked with rice pasta before. We usually just avoid pasta altogether, except for the occasional batch of spaghetti, when I use spaghetti squash for his plate. Are these things going to cook at least similar to the way regular wheat noodles cook? Anything I should know before I get started on this thing? I'm planning on using them just the same as I would regular noodles but if there is something particularly weird about rice noodles, I'd love to know it ahead of time!

Thanks for any feedback, I really appreciate it!

So, the NY Times, by way of printing something anti-romantically inclined, yet about love for Valentines Day, in the Dining and Wine section put this story: "He Cooks. She Stews. It's Love".

It is about couples who "split" the work of cooking unequally, because one of them is the "alpha" cook, who is technically better in the kitchen, (or more bossy) with the other taking the subordinate role of "beta" cook. In the article, emphasis is put on male alphas and female betas, but there was some lip service paid to couples where the roles are reversed.

It got me to thinking. Because I have professional training and have worked as a cook, caterer, personal chef and instructor for years, I am the alpha cook--I guess that would be apparent by looking at my icon of me holding a sword. And while I try not to be a bossy twit in the kitchen, it still comes out sometimes anyway, so I wrote a blog post about it: "Confessions of an Alpha Cook" this afternoon.

What I am getting to is this--if you read either or both of the articles, what do you think about the ideas presented therein? Does anyone else fit into this sort of pattern, and if so, how and why? And if you don't, how do you manage perfect egalitarianism in the kitchen?

And if you eschew egalitarianism in the kitchen, why?

And, for those other alpha cooks out there--do you struggle with bossy behavior that is less than socially helpful or acceptable as I do? And if so--what works for you? What has worked for me has been learning to breathe deeply, take it slowly and a study of Zen Buddhism.

Meditation helps.

Even in the kitchen.

How to make "Electro Funk-Daddy Superstar Break"

It's a cooking demonstration video.

I think.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12565_beatbox-fame-game

Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes from Starbucks.  Happy Valentine's Day and more details here.

I tried to make cheesecake today, since my wonderful roommate's birthday is tomorrow. I used this recipe, which I followed exactly.

The darn thing collapsed. It's all sunken and cave looking. Very pathetic.

I've done some research on the science of cheesecakes, and I think part of my problem is that it was overdone, probably because my oven secretly connects to a demon dimension. (There are no cookies, only Zhule.) Also, because I used whipped egg whites folded in, they might not have been stiff enough to hold the thing up.

So, my question to you is, what can I do? Should I decrease my cooking time or decrease the temperature? Also, I read that adding a little sugar to the egg whites might give them some more structure. Would that help? Any other suggestions?