Although I take to the flames all year round, I'm an admitted wuss to the cold, and once January rears its ugly head, I find myself opting for the warm comforts of the indoors rather then manning the grill in the arctic ice land that lays outside. Staying in is no excuse to stop grilling though, and I've found many grilling recipes can easily be adapted for indoor cooking, given the proper equipment. While not quite as passionate of a debate as charcoal preferences, I've found people will defend their Foremans, panini presses, and electric grills to no end. Having tried all of the former options and beyond, I've concluded that a cast iron grill (I'm rather fond of...
Continue reading »
On Fridays, Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 drops by with Serious Grape. This week, red wines for the chilly weather. Photograph from TheBusyBrain on Flickr With much of the country in a deep freeze, it seemed like the perfect time to talk about red blends. Here in the United States, we are used to seeing wines with a single, particular grape listed proudly on the label, such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. Some think these single-grape bottlings indicate higher quality, and feel that if you have to blend your juice, then there's something wrong with it. Not true. Red blends have been made for centuries all over the world, most notably in Bordeaux, France, where the famous red...
Continue reading »
Farmer's markets all over the place--at the Ferry Plaza in San Francisco, in the Twin Cities, at the Greenmarket in New York City, and at Borough Market in London--are suffering from wintertime blues. Yeah, January's not the best time to be a locavore! But at the Ethicurean, Spanky Horowitz manages to have himself a good time at the market in Montreal anyway....
Continue reading »
Unless you're fortunate enough to live south of the tropic of Cancer, you're probably, like us, freezing your fanny off. The blogs on my blogroll are all offering up wintry recipes, and I'm getting warm just reading them.... Orangette's pureed up some celery root soup Fresh Approach Cooking is making ricotta-and-herb dumplings Simply Recipes' kitchen smells like dirty socks...[stuffed pork chops with kielbasa and sauerkraut] Joanne at thepassionatecook is nostalgic for Christmas [pain perdu (French toast) with apple & cranberry compote] World On A Plate is drinking chocolatey Mexican champurrado...
Continue reading »