It must have been a year ago when I stumbled into conversation outside the White Hart that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. terribleturnip was saying something sexy and terribly wise about food, perhaps to im_geva, and I interjected something charming and witty, some tidbit of foodie wisdom. I hadn’t meant to interrupt, merely to join in, still taking ( Read more... )

It's always a special moment when you realize that you're the recipient of karmic backlash.  It's humbling.  If you're paying attention, it's usually educational.  Sometimes, it's even possible to see the humor in it.  It happened to me most recently last week in the Des Moines airport as I began my fortnightly homeward journey.  As I sat in the ( Read more... )

So herself asks me if I can make hot buttered rum.  Silly question, but now I have it on my mind all day.  I haven't made it in a few years (for shame, I know!), so I had to dig around to find my recipe.  What I forgot about the recipe I like is that all the spices go into the rum, not into the butter/sugar mix, and I don't have time for that today ( Read more... )

OK, there's too much of my New Orleans trip to process all at once, so I'll settle for just one dinner, last Friday night at Irene's Cuisine.

Herself and I were wandering around the French Quarter, starting on Bourbon Street. It was a little too loud and obnoxious at the moment, so we cut down a side street, Orleans, I believe. We were drawn to the ( Read more... )

Faire season in Maryland has come to a close and the leaves are only now just changing, but I'm not ready to process all of that yet. Instead, let's talk food. ;-)

After a day of pinching duck confit and some heavenly braised cabbage into dumpling skins, I was ready for someone else to do the cooking. Dinner last night was at Sputnik, a ( Read more... )

Today is National S'Mores Day, and I have plans for some old-school s'mores in a friend's new firepit, but this has set the culinary gears in my head to turning...

What about variations on a theme? I found some interesting gourmet s'mores ideas here. I'm also thinking about Peeps. They're marshmallows, and would be really fun to skewer and ( Read more... )

My ichiban is home from camp, but last night my niban (#2) was off at a friend's for a sleepover. The whole family was expected at my house for dinner tonight, so I defrosted a passel of red snapper and orange roughy for dinner tonight. My grill was wooing me, but then a conversation with a very dear foodie friend in Philadelphia made me think ( Read more... )

I need a quick break from the task at hand, so I think I'll scrawl down an overdue report of some of the fine food I had this weekend ( Read more... )

The best part of making your own stock is what you can whip up with it. Prawns from Mother's Day begat a healthy pint of prawn stock, which sat in my freezer until tonight ( Read more... )

Having become a keltish groupie by default, I showed up at Herndon's Euro Bistro for their latest performance and a European wine dinner. (They're on SL tonight if you missed it!) The performance was marvelous, even before the band hauled Ginger Rose up to lead "Captain Jack and the Mermaid ( Read more... )