Archive for March, 2010

• For one of the best olive oils, go Single Estate ~ Recipe: Asparagus, endive and orange salad with raspberry vinaigrette

  Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

  Not that a bottle of olive oil from different olive groves is a bad thing at all, but when you can obtain an olive oil from a single estate, you truly have found liquid gold. Having had olive oil from all over the world, one of my favorites that I can get here at home [...]

• I “wood” bake in this ~ Recipe: Orange macadamia nut bread

  Monday, March 29th, 2010

  First there was metal. Then glass. Then silicone. And now…wood?? Leave it to the fabulous French to invent a product that not only works well in the oven, but has flair and style too. When shopping for this week’s finds I stumbled upon a most marvelous product from the Panibois Company located in [...]

• Don’t let a kitchen fire ruin your day

  Friday, March 26th, 2010

  No matter how careful we are in the kitchen, you never know when a small accident can cause a bit of trouble in the form of a kitchen fire. Better than a traditional fire extinguisher, Fire Gone will stop fires fast. Just hold the can 3 to 4 feet from the blaze and spray across [...]

• Plunge in flavor ~ Recipe: Grilled dates with mascarpone and pancetta

  Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

  You’ve heard of the Terminator; well now comes the Olivator. Not quite as scary as Arnold Schwarzenegger, it’s an easy to operate plunger that delivers great flavor to your favorite pitted olives. But it’s also a fabulous tool to stuff ripe juicy figs, sweet cherries or succulent dates.
  Spooning soft cheeses, chocolate, and other messy foods [...]

• The truth in couscous ~ Recipe: Cinnamon and raisin couscous

  Monday, March 22nd, 2010

  I love authenticity. And I am spoiled by it too. Take my trip to Japan for example. After having beyond heaven on earth sushi, I didn’t eat it here for several years. My encounter with pineapple during my most recent trip to Hawaii has left the tropical fruit off my plate for now.
  While researching products [...]

• Fiercely protect your knives (they are, after all the workhorse of your kitchen)

  Friday, March 19th, 2010

  One of the first things I do as a private in home culinary instructor is to head directly to where the knives are stored in my clients’ kitchens. The way some are kept are far worse than a horror movie. I’ve found them thrown naked in a drawer without any protective covering, shoved into a [...]

• Go deeply into the world of vinegars ~ Recipe: Wilted spinach salad with Cassis vinaigrette

  Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

  In many cookbooks a handy dandy pantry list is usually provided (I know, I just completed yet another one myself for my next book), listing all the staples that most cooks will need to stock to larder. Vinegars are almost always listed with the usual suspects: red, white, balsamic. Sometimes, authors get more creative and [...]

• RECIPE TESTERS WANTED for award-winning author ROBYN WEBB!

  Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

  YES, WE ARE CURRENTLY SEEKING 7 RECIPE TESTERS TO JOIN OUR ALREADY MAGNIFICENT TEAM TO TEST RECIPES FOR ROBYN’S COOKBOOK:  
   
  “21ST Century Taste Sensations: Comfort Foods That Fill You Up, Not Out” ~ Published by The American Diabetes Association, 2011.
  Robyn is an award-winning cookbook author with bestseller after bestseller with the American Diabetes Association publishing group.  She [...]

• No work cast iron skillet ~ Recipe: Cast iron Granny Smith crisp

  Monday, March 15th, 2010

  Last spring I had no fewer than 10 cast iron skillets from various clients in my home. My kitchen was turned into a workshop/lab for these distressed pans. Clients needed my wisdom to diagnose what went wrong. A few were so rusty, that orange was the new black. Others had so much [...]

• Get the scoop: solving your cooking for one needs

  Friday, March 12th, 2010

  Small amount cooking calls for small and efficient kitchen tools. Perhaps you only want to make a little bowl of pasta or just steam a few veggies. Why drag out a colander when you can simply scoop up your veggies or pasta with a combination of a scoop and colander?
  The Joseph Joseph kitchen tool company [...]