Category Archives: Food and Beverages

Winter white honey – remember that phrase and start buying it now because it is among the most delicious and amazing honey varieties in the entire world.  The name winter white honey comes from the color of the honey, which is derived from the wildflowers in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho that the honey bees use to create this nectar.  It’s white and creamy, not yellow or amber.  The flavor is unreal.  None of us have ever had anything like it.  We opened a bottle and soon everyone was laughing and dipping spoons in eating it like candy.

Earlier this week, my grandma came down for chicken tikka masala.  Tonight, it was take two, only this time, the chile seeds were partially retained in the sauce to increase the spiciness to the point it burned, but was enjoyable.  It was delicious.  This is definitely a permanent recipe we’ll be making several times a year.…

I don’t talk about my personal life often, but the few times things do come out about my past, it should not come as a surprise to know that my younger days were filled with something known in American cuisine as “soul food”.  Big, black cast iron skillets on a stove, with bacon fat drained off to save money, to be reused during cooking.  Fried chicken.  Sun tea.  Coleslaw.  Cornbread.  It’s the type of food that got poor folks by in the Great Depression, that was made in the farmhouses and back swamp shanties before Social Security was established.  It’s cheap, made with what is abundant, and took centuries to perfect.  It was the United States’ answer to the so-called Peasant Dishes of France.

Our Favorite Recipe for Blacked Chicken with Sun Dried Tomatoes with Romano Cheese, Cream, and Butter Sauce Tossed Into Fettuccine Noodles A couple of nights ago, we tried another recipe adapted from the famous Marcella Hazan Italian cookbook.  It involved a cream and butter sauce, and was one of the original versions of Fettuccine Alfredo…

We opted for an anti-social Superbowl Sunday, stayed home, worked on some projects that needed to be finished, and after they were done, ended up testing several dessert recipes including one from the old Betty Crocker cookbook and another from America’s Test Kitchen.  They both turned out extraordinarily well.  The peanut butter sandwich cookies are…

To my fellow Kansas City residents: You may want to head over to the Le Creuset store in Leawood, Kansas.  The sales deals are unbelievable and this is a brand that isn’t always easy to find at a discount.  Some pieces are marked down by 45%, if you buy more than $150 you get a…

A homemade beef stock is the foundation of so many recipes.  Yet, making homemade beef stock can take a big time investment, not to mention needing bones, meat, and other ingredients on hand.  One of the best tips I’ve seen came from the legendary cookbook author Julia Child, who found a way to treat canned…

For a late lunch this afternoon, we decided to make Marcella Hazan’s famous Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter.  This comes out of the Italian cookbook recommendation I made last week and can be found on page 152.  It’s not what you think of when you conjure up visions of a traditional marina sauce for spaghetti so be careful not to compare the two; they are different, though I am so fond of this incarnation that I find it hard to desire anything else.  If you prefer heavier sauces, this might not be your cup of tea.  You will never know until you try it.

The front page of Reddit yesterday had a Gordon Ramsay recipe for Scotch Pancakes with Caramelized Banana.  For my fellow Americans, that translates into a dessert made of buttermilk pancakes drizzled in caramelized bananas that had been flambéed in a dark Jamaican rum topped with vanilla bean ice cream.   [mainbodyad]Any time you combine fire with a drink made famous by…