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From Recipes

Dinner Tonight: Roasted Beet and Potato Borscht

We had this tonight, and I confess we did dill instead of parsley as we had the dill and it needed using (parsley has a few more weeks longevity in these parts). Mr Hellman also smoked some beef short ribs over mesquite and then braised them in beer and onions to shred as a garnish alongside the sour cream. With a very inexpensive Mark West Pinot Noir and some fresh chevre on a toasted baguette, it was the perfect first-of-the-cold-weather dinner. Za vas!

From Slice

'Slice' Poll: Pineapple Pizza - Way or No Way?

Fresh pineapple, Canadian bacon, pepperoncini and green peppers on fresh mozzarella with a spicy tomato sauce and a garlicky crust was my birthday cake this year. Happy birthday to me, indeed.

From Talk

What kind of chocolate do you prefer?

I was a gourmet food buyer for a number of years and was so fortunate to have that exposure to so many different brands and types of chocolate. I think my ultimate favorite is anything made by Bernard Castelain; domestically I think Dagoba is doing a very good job.

It's funny, but as a child I preferred dark chocolate, the darker the better. Now as an adult I've come to prefer velvety lush milk chocolate. In my old age, the texture of an item has become just as important as the assault on my taste buds.

For those who are torn between the two, Omanhene makes a Dark Milk Chocolate that is pretty wonderful - and owner Steve Wallace is doing wonderful things while he produces it as well.

From Talk

How do you eat 10 courses?

tasting menus are usually proportionate--care has been taken to (hopefully) take you comfortably from course to course, both in timing and in flavor/portion development. as avaryne said, don't starve yourself all day; i find it wise to have a decent breakfast early in the day and keep filled up with liquids throughout till dinnertime. a ten course meal should take you at least 2 hours and maybe more. if there are no wine pairings offered (and i can't imagine such), it's always good to ask for recommendations. and when no one has a clue, you can't go wrong with a dryish sparkler.

while the portions won't be huge, wear comfortable clothes. and about halfway through, take a walk to the ladies/gents room. not to puke, just to stir the blood around a little. by the way, you can always do that to slow things down if a restaurant appears to rushing you through a little faster than you'd wish. not that they ever do that...

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From Recipes

Dinner Tonight: Roasted Beet and Potato Borscht

We had this tonight, and I confess we did dill instead of parsley as we had the dill and it needed using (parsley has a few more weeks longevity in these parts). Mr Hellman also smoked some beef short ribs over mesquite and then braised them in beer and onions to shred as a garnish alongside the sour cream. With a very inexpensive Mark West Pinot Noir and some fresh chevre on a toasted baguette, it was the perfect first-of-the-cold-weather dinner. Za vas!

From Slice

'Slice' Poll: Pineapple Pizza - Way or No Way?

Fresh pineapple, Canadian bacon, pepperoncini and green peppers on fresh mozzarella with a spicy tomato sauce and a garlicky crust was my birthday cake this year. Happy birthday to me, indeed.

From Talk

What kind of chocolate do you prefer?

I was a gourmet food buyer for a number of years and was so fortunate to have that exposure to so many different brands and types of chocolate. I think my ultimate favorite is anything made by Bernard Castelain; domestically I think Dagoba is doing a very good job.

It's funny, but as a child I preferred dark chocolate, the darker the better. Now as an adult I've come to prefer velvety lush milk chocolate. In my old age, the texture of an item has become just as important as the assault on my taste buds.

For those who are torn between the two, Omanhene makes a Dark Milk Chocolate that is pretty wonderful - and owner Steve Wallace is doing wonderful things while he produces it as well.

From Talk

How do you eat 10 courses?

tasting menus are usually proportionate--care has been taken to (hopefully) take you comfortably from course to course, both in timing and in flavor/portion development. as avaryne said, don't starve yourself all day; i find it wise to have a decent breakfast early in the day and keep filled up with liquids throughout till dinnertime. a ten course meal should take you at least 2 hours and maybe more. if there are no wine pairings offered (and i can't imagine such), it's always good to ask for recommendations. and when no one has a clue, you can't go wrong with a dryish sparkler.

while the portions won't be huge, wear comfortable clothes. and about halfway through, take a walk to the ladies/gents room. not to puke, just to stir the blood around a little. by the way, you can always do that to slow things down if a restaurant appears to rushing you through a little faster than you'd wish. not that they ever do that...

From Recipes

Barbecue Lamb Shanks

these were amazing! although it's tricky finding shanks in BBQ season (who woulda thought that they only butcher part of the lamb in the spring...), this was the perfect way to render them tender and flavorful without a braising pan. went splendidly with a full-throttle cabernet.

From Serious Eats

Watch It with Us: 'The Next Food Network Star' Season 5 Finale

Both seemed personable, both seemed knowledgable. In the end, Melissa seems more comfortable in front of the camera, while Jeffrey's bobbing and repetitive gestures felt awkward. As the more camera-friendly person, Melissa will be more pliable in terms of molding her towards opportunites beyond this season.

I really don't believe gender or race had anything to do with the winning OR losing.

From Serious Eats

In Season: Cucumbers

My family also made vats of the sour cream cucumbers-and-onions every summer; they usually added fresh dill.

When I discovered just today that my dill tastes remarkably like diesel fuel, I opted to try a little toasted & ground cardamom seed. Nice, and they went very nicely with the Indian food we had for dinner. I'll do them that way again, definitely.

From Talk

What one food mag should I get?

Food & Wine usually has just the right combination of recipes, articles, and product info. Gourmet takes itself a little too seriously for me. Bon Appetit can be great, but has a problem with advertisements--count the full pages devoted to such and then look at the total page count. And publishers wonder why we've turned to the web.

I also like Cooking Light, as much for the lifestyle content as recipes, which I confess I have a tendency to "fatten up". I used to adore La Cucina Italia or whatever the title was, but the new publication just isn't it.

Food Arts is great fun, if you can nab a free sub; otherwise, it's pricey. Fine Cooking is also a little spendy for what you get. Cook's Illustrated lost me entirely when the first line of their "Red Wines for the Holidays" article began: "Now, none of us drinks red wine..." Ahem. If that's the case, I can ask the guy next door who sits outside with his Mountain Creeks and a flyswatter.

From Talk

What foods do you use as health remedies?

i use to teach cooking classes with the food-as-remedy tie in. the most popular was one i did in the throes of winter called "Cooking to Beat the Cold(s)". it featured soups with ingredients that are rumored to have qualities that stave off cold and flu viri and/or build immunity such as Ginger-Shiitake Hot and Sour Soup, Kale and Potato Stew with Astragulus, Lentil Chile with Red Wine.

whether there's anything to it or not, ingredients go way farther than simple nutrition. your ability to fine-tune your health with a well-stocked medicine pantry is a godsend.

From Recipes

Eat For Eight Bucks: Paprika-Braised Chicken with Chickpea Puree and Crispy Shallots

Made this tonight and we absolutely loved it! Wouldn't change a single thing about it.

From Talk

Help me pack my lunch, please - a Super Challenge.

i lived for 3 months on popcorn and apples and the occasional chocolate cake. well, also some southern comfort, but i don't recommend that in a work lunch...

From Talk

New Baby food gifts

as a shower/new baby gift for friends, i often give a Month of Monday Meals. it begins on month two (after the initial thrill--and gifts--are long gone). sunday night i deliver a breakfast foccacia, fruit and coffee ready to be brewed; sub sandwiches, pickles, and chips, and for dinner charlie trotter's lobster mashed potatoes and a salad with dressing on the side. if mom is not nursing, a bottle of chard. the menu changes throughout the month, and if it's a real good friend, i might continue it longer than one month.

From Serious Eats

Weekend Book Giveaway: 'The Saucier's Apprentice'

when i was but a budding foodie, a girlfriend and i invited our boyfriends to dinner. we thought we were all that and a sack of lightly roasted hickory nuts dusted with sea salt, but the truth was, we knew nothing.

she prepared her pasta side dish just as the recipe described: with 6 cloves of garlic. problems begin when one doesn't know a clove from a bulb...

i was in charge of the main dish: a nice chateaubriand. didn't know a loin from hamburger, sadly, and didn't know that frozen meat took so long to defrost! for future reference, the rinse cycle on your dishwasher is not a good method for speeding up that process.

luckily these boys had a sense of humor. we all ended up in the backyard eating watermelon and doing shots of unicum.

ps. about 8 weeks later, we had watermelon wines sprouting from the side of the garage and the scent of garlic remained well into autumn.

From Serious Eats

Who Should Pay at a Birthday Dinner?

in our crowd, birthday dinners are usually held at someone's home. pot lucks or BYOs are almost never part of the plan.

if someone issues an invitation to meet at Restaurant XYZ for any celebration, i assume i'm paying my own tab. i would never presume to be paying for anyone else.

friends that get all het up about you "ruining" their birthday had unreasonable expectations. handling disappointment with grace is a worthwhile skill to cultivate.

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About kikihellman

Website:

Location: southern wi

About: well-marbled

Favorite foods: southern italian, asian, and popcorn.

Last bite on earth: it will be popcorn even if i have to gum it.