The weather has been warming up, until the middle of this week, at least. When it’s warm, I want to grill things, and I decided, with my wife’s prompting, to do shish kabob one day. This is a great meal to grill as you can do everything on skewers, minimizing the need for dishes to be dirtied. Continue reading
A few weeks ago, I got an email from Dave at Nando’s Peri Peri. It was a somewhat typical email from a company asking for a link. Well, so far, my only links listed on the blog have been to non-commercial sites. It was a nicely worded email, though, and not a form letter. I replied that I didn’t want to start adding to my links with commercial links, but that, after looking at the website, the sauce sounded pretty good. Continue reading
Earlier this month, my wife and I decided to make our way to Pittsburgh for a weekend. It’s only about a 4 hour drive, and it’s just a nice city. I went to school there in the 80′s, and had step-family there in the 70-s and 80s, so I have some history with the city and enjoy going back when I can. Continue reading
For my readers that I’ve lost, the last month has been hectic! I’ve had a bunch of computer issues, mostly with harddrive issues. For a quick update, the Jim Dandy BBQ competition that was going to happen in June is … Continue reading
was recently contacted by Hanna of the American Table Culinary Tours about their September 2007 tour of Memphis Barbecue.
I corresponded with Hanna about the American Table Culinary Tours is a nonprofit company that wants to promote culinary history. Their goal is to work with culinary students for internships and to simply promote cooking history. Continue reading
This coming April (2007), my wife and I are celebrating our 4th anniversary. We decided, on our first anniversary, to not get each other anniversary gifts. Instead, we go somewhere for a long weekend together.
So far, we’ve gone to Cincinnati (close by, but still fun to stay in a nice hotel and enjoy the city), Chicago and, believe it or not, Pigeon Forge. Pigeon Forge is not my favorite place, but we had a really nice cabin with incredible views, so that part of Pigeon Forge was actually very nice.
This year, we’ve chosen New York City. My sister lives there, and we’re going to visit some with her, do some shopping on 5th Avenue, and enjoy a long weekend in the Big Apple. Yes, I’ll likely try R.U.B. or Daisy May’s, or both, but we’ll also hit Carnegie Deli and a couple other spots.
I’d really like some help, though. For one meal, I want a really great restaurant. There will be 3 of us going, and what I’d most like is a restaurant where we can sit at the chef’s table. I’m asking for help from any of you that either are in a restaurant where this is available or can get me some connection to get to sit at the chef’s table. The dates are April 26, 27 and 28, 2007.
If you can help, email me or leave a comment. If you even just know of a place, let me know. I’d love to review it, especially if you’re a chef wanting to get word out on the food blogs. I wouldn’t even turn down a comped meal, but I’m not trying to be greedy. 
Continue reading
I was hoping to do some cooking last weekend, but the weather didn’t cooperate. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that, but the one type of weather I don’t like to cook during is rain, especially freezing rain! We got about … Continue reading
Day 7 of my sourdough started brought a lot of bubbles! I think it’s on its way now. I can detect a slight acidic/sour smell, but not a bad smell at all. When I mixed in more water and flour, the starter was kind of pillowy, definitely not just a bowl of flour and water.
In my opinion, it’s a real starter now!!!
Now the question is… When will it be ready to use? Continue reading
Frankie is an Italian who puts Italian cooking with American barbecue/grilling skills. He was kind enough to share his recipe and log of making his version of smoked pork shoulder. His site, Barbecue for All, is worth visiting, and he’s added an English section to it for those of us that can’t read Italian. He even writes with a bit of an accent! I like to think I go all out to make some things, but wait until you see this!
This one is a long entry, but well worth it! Continue reading
Hopefully, I’m not boring you all with my sourdough starter attempt. It’s a simple way to try to make a starter, and, after having read more about starters in books like The Baker’s Apprentice, I probably would do it differently if I hadn’t already begun.
However, you should be able to see the bubbles starting to form in the starter. There were a couple on day 4, more on day 5 and even more on day 6! I think it’s working, though it may be a while before it’s a stable starter. I’m going to keep going until I think it’s either failed or is ready to try out. Continue reading
I’m keeping up with my starter, but not doing as well keeping up with my posting, so I’ll try to catch up tonight with days 5 and 6. Here is a photo of day 4′s starter. It’s getting there, keeping a better texture and starting to seem to have a bit of a sour smell, in a good way. Continue reading
T his past weekend, as I mentioned in my beef stew post, I made some European hearth bread. The recipe was a bit different from what I’ve used for baguettes; it used less yeast and allowed more time to rise. … Continue reading