I had salad on the brain this week. Last Saturday, my wife and I helped put on the second of two Olympian twelve-course dinners our church auctioned off last April. And by Olympian, I’m talking about the denizens of that mountain in Greece, not that piddly little sporting event held every four years. The theme […]
I cut things a bit close this week. My family and I had been on the road all last week for spring break and when we got back I had to come up with a soup fast. My first instinct was to go classic—a time-tested soup I could whip up in no time at all. […]
If something works for me, I stick with it, even if it sometimes seems a little weird. Earlier in this culinary adventure I turned one of my favorite salads, the Caprese (visit post)—a traditional Italian dish consisting of tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese—into a soup. It turned out great. This time, with spring officially upon […]
Anyone who’s read this blog more than twice (Thanks, Mom.), knows that my all-time favorite soup making appliance is the immersion blender. It’s great for pureeing soups, making salad dressings, tapenade, even smoothies. What the immersion blender doesn’t do is—slice, dice and julienne. For that I use my less favorite kitchen tool: the mandoline. Correction: […]
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. It’s the cheese. And yet the rot is what makes the stuff so good. I’m talking specifically about Danish Blue Cheese, one of the ingredients in this week’s soup. From what I understand Danish blue is a Scandinavian knock-off of Roquefort, although it’s milder and saltier. They […]
Does anyone out there have food in their refrigerator that they don’t recognize? It’s not a question of whether the food is yours or not. The container may even have your name on it. It’s just been in there so long you don’t quite know what it is. You start out with good intentions. […]
Annual holiday get-togethers always feature a grand cast of characters. This year the wise-cracking drunk, the overly sensitive cook, the gushing sentimentalist, the determined wanderer, the eager helper, the laissez faire parent and the bad conversationalist all made an appearance. And that was just me. Alas, I am still in the process of discovering myself. […]
Do you have siblings who overshadow you in all aspects of your life? Are they better looking, funnier, more successful, and just plain more likable than you are? Me neither. But if you asked those same questions of the tomatillo, you’d get a whole lot of head nodding. Not literally. It is, after all, a […]
This week’s soup began like so many others in this blog, at Caputo’s. This ethnic Italian grocery store has some of the best produce in town, even better than Whole Foods most of the time. Their stuff is interesting too. It reminds me of the Jon’s in my old neighborhood in Los Angeles. Jon’s had […]