november challenge. curing.

October 15, 2011
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The eleventh challenge. We’re almost through the Year of Meat and a trip to France is so close for one of you. We’ve come a long way. We’ve salted, brined, smoked, ground, stuffed, packed and stretched our way through parts of pork, slabs of beef, flocks of chickens, dozens of ducks and hundreds of feet [...]

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Another Ideal Cocktail

October 13, 2011
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Oh, is it Thursday evening again? So soon? Another opportunity to dream up a cocktail for @CreativCulinary’s Happy Hour Friday. This one was fun. A friend recently sent me a recipe for something called the Ideal Cocktail, adapted from an early 20th century tipple. In common cocktail ratios, gin, sweet vermouth and Luxardo, the maraschino [...]

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Rock’n Rye

October 7, 2011
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One of the best reasons to participate in Creative Culinary’s Friday Happy Hour is the excuse to start on Thursday. After all, there’s testing, retesting, tasting, and reporting on results. This week’s cocktail makes the most of my favorite new liqueur. ROOT is an alchemy of ingredients – BIrch Bark, Smoked Black Tea, Cinnamon, WIntergreen, [...]

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time to develop

October 4, 2011
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In cooking, there are many good reasons to build in time – think of how a soup or chili tastes so much better the second day. How wild fermented yeast ripens and elevates (in every meaning of the word) your bread. How, overnight, a jar of fresh cream with a little buttermilk added becomes creme [...]

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A Spicy Cocktail – Jalapeno Margarita

September 30, 2011
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When Monica Bhide put out a challenge to make up a spicy cocktail, I grabbed the opportunity to play with some of my favorite ingredients. I love to make up cocktails, and always greet dinner party guests with a new concoction. It gets the party started. This concoction was inspired by one of my favorite [...]

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off to gascony

September 16, 2011
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I may be the luckiest person in the world. I am leaving for the airport in just a few hours. Tomorrow, Paris, and a day of crazy SHOPPING at Saint Ouen, Portes des Vanves and the other flea markets and brocantes around Paris. I’ll be on the lookout for terrines and plates and pretty things [...]

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october challenge. stretching.

September 15, 2011
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There are days in the kitchen that kick your butt. Tasks that ask you to stretch your skills. This month, we’ll be experiencing all the terrors and the thrills of the kitchen. We’ll be extending foods to make tasty appetizers. We’ll be lengthening the time we can keep foods edible, safely. You’ll be working hard [...]

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one last tomato project. making ketchup.

September 10, 2011
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It’s almost over, the canning year. Not that canning stock, making booze, and other preserving projects won’t continue, but the larder shelves are full. There are jars covering the dining room table. I’m measuring the space under the guest room bed. There’s just no more room. At least that’s what I was saying until I [...]

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canning grape juice from wine grapes

September 4, 2011
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Since returning from our vacation, I’ve been obsessed with wine grapes. Dennis eyes me suspiciously and says “no wine making, seriously, for heaven’s sake.”  And I don’t intend to become a winemaker, but I do like to blend wine grapes into fruity, tasty grape juice. How could I help but be inspired when we spent [...]

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