I don’t know about you, but when I find an exciting new (to me) ingredient, I like to drop it into as many culinary settings as I can to see what happens. Some ideas, like my “let’s make hot chocolate with red wine instead of milk!” notion, though, are rather ill-fated. Random combinations are not [...]
Who says a tuna casserole can’t be glamorous? (Or gorgeous, for that matter.) It’s simply a matter of choosing your cheeses wisely — scrumptious cheese makes for a scrumptious casserole. For this concoction, I was fortunate to have a complementary selection of cheeses on hand: herbed Brie, English Stilton, and Dutch Parrano (which is a [...]
Cabbages aren’t exactly the hottest item on the vegetable menu: they don’t have the slim elegance of a green bean or the curvy voluptuousness of an eggplant. From Sauerkraut to Asian cabbage-parcel soups, however, they do feature prominently in most world cuisines. (To achieve the latter, stuff a leaf, tie it off with chives, and [...]
Crab cakes, I think, are one of America’s great culinary inventions. ( I once had a coworker whose father hopped in the car one day and drove from Detroit to Baltimore to satisfy his urge for crab cakes. A few months after that, he called his son to let him know that he was slurping [...]
Continue reading about Yes, Even Crab Cakes Can Be Whole Grain
A whimsical name for a whimsical dish: pasta tossed with guacamole. I got the idea when I wanted to make guacamole but was out of corn chips. What to do? Use corn in a different form, I decided. I did. I also deepened the flavors of the dish by sautéeing the garlic and onion before [...]
What started out as a basic chocolate cake became much more fragrant and flavorful with the simple switcheroo of unrefined peanut oil for butter. Using maple syrup instead of sugar intensifies both the chocolate and the peanut, and you can add your choice of spice to provide a different dimension of flavor. In the end, [...]
There’s a time for crusts and ends and corners, but that time isn’t all the time. Sometimes you just want what’s in the middle without having to bother with anything else. If you’re a big pumpkin fan like I am, you might prefer no-holds-barred, maximum pumpkin, especially at this time of the year when it’s [...]
I’d heard of moussaka, but I’d never tried it before — whenever I went to my favorite Greek restaurant as a kid, I’d be too caught up in the Opa! saganaki appetizer to think about anything else. (Even now, I’d have to say that the lushest eggplant on the planet can’t really compete with shooting [...]
Continue reading about Lasagna in a Greek and Noodle-less Kind of Way
Let’s face it — most of us like what’s in the package better than the wrapping itself. (At least, when it comes to gift-giving and turkey-eating.) I say, why not just give in to the urge and go for the stuffing? It’s what most of us really want. Besides, you probably ate all of the [...]
