Holidays: The Magnum Opus
Menu planning for the last of this years’ holiday revels, finally celebrating with my parents and sis on Saturday…snowstorm notwithstanding. They’re arriving in the early afternoon and leaving in the early evening, so a full-on dinner menu would’ve been too much, a bunch of snacks and hors d’oeuvres too little. Here’s what I think will … Read more
Enough with the proselytizing, how about some actual cooking?
You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the complexity of flavors that develop. There’s a subtle heat, but it’s very well-balanced with the bright sweet and sour notes of plumped up apricots and tangy vinegar. I ate some right away with a couple of nibbles of a fantastic cloth-bound cheddar leftover from Thanksgiving. I’m psyched to plop this on a ham-filled biscuit, and excited to create some gift baskets with a jar of chutney, a nice piece of cheese and some homemade crackers.
A Tale of Two Dinners
This past Saturday, despite the densely packed grocery carts and hairy eyeballs from many a fellow food shopper, inspiration struck me at the grocery store. Wild Maine shrimp, the tiny little tender pink guys, were in the store, next to squid for $6.99 a pound. I bought them both, and set about planning a 3-course … Read more
Red roses, pink champagne…is this dinner or a Danielle Steele novel?
If I wasn’t such a space cadet, I’d be able to tell you what cheese I picked…I can say that it was an American ripe as hell cows’ milk round, coated in ash, with a flavor so, so…I don’t know what, but damn it was good! And it was only $4.95! Seriously!
Pea tendrils let down…
Most disappointingly, pea tendrils were nowhere to be found, but I did get my hands on some ramps, whose appearance in the market is so brief, you’d miss it if you blinked. Ramps, by the way, are delicate baby leeks that back a powerful spring onion kick. The other major substitution was monkfish for sea bass. The hunt for sea bass is what led me to 3 stores, but in the end, it worked out, because I found new treasures at each Whole Foods’. *Note to anyone who lives in Cambridge or the environs: the Prospect Street Whole Foods has little packages of morels! The ramps were discovered at the Fresh Pond store. I love Spring! I assure you that there is a ramps and morels recipe in the works as I write…
Molten Chocolate Cakes
Anyway, this is where I had my first molten chocolate cake, and many more to follow.
This is also where I met Vanilli- Fabrice somethingfrench, of Milli Vanilli one night.
Oddly, he was unashamed about bringing up the fact that he was Vanilli.
