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Video Sunday 11/25/07
2007-11-25 11:07:00
It's Video Sunday !!!!(Psst!  Turn out the lights and pass me some popcorn!)

Polenta!
2007-11-24 14:38:00
"Say what is polenta anyway?" Polenta is a cornmeal that has a coarse texture.  (at least that's the official culinary explanation, heh heh)  To me, this dish is a cornmeal mush.  The reason I say this is because in recent years, polenta has been glorified as this mysteriously exotic dish but it ain't---it's Italian country cooking, much like grits is American country cooking.  And you know what?  I love polenta for the very same reason that I love grits---the variety of flavors you can add to them will leave your head spinning.  "Have you tried my peanut butter & jelly polenta yet?"  "Uhhh..perhaps you've gone too far, my friend!""Well, what about my smoked eel & tarragon polenta?""Hmmm, you might have something there..."Well, you know what I mean. When it comes to polenta, experimentation should be the order of the day!  With that in mind, today's recipe is a basic pole...
More About: Lent

Snickerdoodles!
2007-11-23 14:21:00
Howdy folks!  Today's post is part of a food blog event being staged by my fellow blogger, Susan, on her Food Blogga blog.  Basically, Susan's asking all of us bloggers to get in the Christmas spirit by posting some Christmas cookie recipes and then linking to her site where she'll collect all the various recipes.  Sounds like a hoot!  If you're a blogger and would like to participate or even if you don't have a blog and want to participate go to Eat Christmas Cookies:  A Food Blog(ga) Event.My erstwhile contribution comes from my wife, Sweet Loretta, who is the master of all things baked in our house--- cookies, cakes, pies, she bakes it all!  The recipe?  Why, it's for Snickerdoodles , of course!  "Snickerdoodles?!  What the...?!"These Colonial cookies are Santa's favorite.  He once told me that on quiet nights in the North Pole, while going over his naughty-or-nice list, he likes to sit by the f...
More About: Doodle

Happy Thanksgiving 2007
2007-11-22 11:38:00
Howdy folks!  I want to wish each and every one of you out there a very happy holiday.  Here's hoping that we all had much to be thankful for this past year.  In keeping with the spirit of the day, here's a delightful Thanksgiving story that comes from the apples4theteacher.com site:How Indian Corn Came Into the World
More About: Happy , Hank

Sweet Loretta's Pecan Pie
2007-11-21 11:26:00
Thanksgiving just wouldn't be the same if Sweet Loretta didn't make one of her pecan pies for me!  The pie filling falls within the traditional deep South pie recipes and the crust is adapted from Nick Maglieri's excellent book, Perfect Pastry (1989 - MacMillan Publishing).To Make The Crust:Ingredients:1 1/4 cups White Flour1/2 tsp Salt1/4 tsp Baking Powder1 stick very cold unsalted Butter1 large EggCooking Procedure:In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt & baking powderTurn several times with a fork to blendCut the cutter into 1/4 inch sticks, reserving 2 pieces for use later in the recipeWith your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture until well blended & this dough has a coarse consistencyIn a small bowl, beat the eggPour the beaten egg into the dough mixture & stir with a spoon, taking care not to overwork the doughIt will take on a tough consistencySpray a 9 inch pie pan with non-stick cooking sprayTake a handful of the dough & place it in th...

Lentil Stew
2007-11-20 12:24:00
At this point in time, just before Thanksgiving, my house is in chaos.  My wife, Sweet Loretta, is up to her eyes baking pies and I'm working on my Thanksgiving menu ("Let's see... does Uncle Wally like the chestnut stuffing or the apple pccan stuffing... hmmm...").  So then, today's recipe is for a simple lentil stew; this is the kind of dinner that I make just before Turkey Day (i.e. quick & easy), thereby allowing more time for the tasks at hand.  And you know what?  I guess you'd have to classify lentils as one of the original "fast foods" as they cook a lot quicker than most other dried legumes!  Hoo Hah!Ingredients:2 TBS Olive Oil1 medium sized Spanish Onion, diced1 large Green Bell Pepper, stem removed, seeded & cut into thin strips1 small Carrot, peeled & diced1/2 cup fresh Corn Kernels2 medium sized Red Potatoes, peeled & cubed1 1/2 cups canned Crushed Tomatoes1/4 dry Red Wine5 cups Chicken...
More About: Lent

Apple Pecan Bread Stuffing
2007-11-19 13:09:00
There are tons of stuffing recipes floating around in the head of each and every cook this time of year... and we all have our special favorite stuffing recipe, eh?  This one, which combines apples and roast pecans is my trusted recipe which works well for me every Thanksgiving.  I think the sweetness of the apple plays nicely off of the earthy flavor of the roasted pecans.  Here's how you make this here stuffing....Ingredients:
More About: Apple , Bread

Video Sunday 11/18/07
2007-11-18 12:40:00
It's Video Sunday !!!!(Psst!  Turn out the lights and pass me some popcorn!)

Zesty Lemon Bread
2007-11-17 14:18:00
I've never been an able hand at baking.  It's funny but those folks who are great bakers are blessed with the gift of precision.  Me?  I'm more of a wang-dang-doodle type of cook who likes to go with the flow as I prepare food but you can't do that when you bake--as I've found out on several occasions!  Basically, I gravitate towrds the simpler breads like this here lemon bread and you know what?  Everything seems to work out fine.  Pass the butter, will'ya?Ingredients:
More About: Lemon , Bread , Zest

Food Blog Chatterbox 11/16/07
2007-11-16 13:21:00
Every Friday, I skim the cyber soup to find the top food related blog posts for your reading pleasure!This week we begin with The Salted Cod blog, which has a great post on the food documentary King Korn.  The scenario for the movie is described thusly:  King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat-and how we farm."  If you've seen King Korn or are interested in the movie, check out this blog post&nbs...
More About: Food , Blog

Chef Shaboo's Celebrity Chef Predictions for 2008
2007-11-15 12:38:00
Hello my little friends!  I am Chef Shaboo, a wise seer from the Kitchen in the Great Beyond!  Here are my Celebrity Chef predictions for 2008 ! In a bizarre twist of events the Food Network will purchase the Arabian broadcast conglomerate, Al Jazeera and produce a new cable channel called The Food Terrorist Network!  Some of the exciting new programs will be Pie'd! (Ashton Kutcher travels the globe throwing custard pies at unsuspecting celebrity chefs), Easy Entertaining in an Iranian Prison (Michael Chiarello offers up easy recipes to charm your cell mates), and It Crawled Into my Hand...Honest! (Alton Brown thrills viewers with unusual cooking techniques for genetically modified foods).  Other shows in the fall line-up will include an exciting new series called Ghosts In My Kitchen! Each week the ghostly spirits of Julia Child, Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey will suddenly appear in the kitchens of unsuspecting suburban families...
More About: Predictions

Stan's Rumpot Goulash
2007-11-14 13:16:00
Goulash is a dish of Hungarian origin.  The name comes from the Hungarian word gulyas, which means "heardsman."  The Hungarian version of this dish is a spicy beef stew made with chunks of beef, onions, bell peppers and lots of paprika and served in a bowl.  The Americanized version usually substitutes ground beef which is seasoned with less paprika and is often served over a mound of noodles or mashed potatoes.  The recipe here combines elements from both preparation styles; I added a little rum to shake things up a little and the cooked corned beef to give it a nice extra layer of flavor."Hey honey, what's for dinner?"  "Rumpot goulash, of course!"Goulash always brings back memories of my college days in Dayton, Ohio.  There was this Polish fella named Stan Polanski who lived on the floor of my dorm.  His family was from Connecticut and goulash was one of his favorite foods.  Stan used ...

Chef JP Makes Crawfish Remoulade
2007-11-13 12:10:00
Howdy folks!  The other day I was cleaning out some old boxes and I found a copy of a cooking demo I did on the Telecare cable channel show Real Food last year.  I decided to post that video so that you can get an idea of the style of food I used to cook in my restaurant kitchen.  (Yes, it's true, folks---TV really does make you look 10 lbs heavier!)  The dish I'm preparing is Crawfish Remoulade, a dish I've had many times in various parts of Louisiana.  Special thanks to my brother Marc for handing the technical hoodoo for the YouTube file upload and editing.
More About: Chef

Creole Bread Pudding
2007-11-12 12:58:00
One of my favorite desserts to make around the holidays is Creole Bread Pudding with a Grand Marnier sauce!  This particular recipe is my basic bread pudding recipe; it's based on the many types of bread pudding I've had while wining and dining in New Orleans over the years.  What I like about bread pudding in general is that it lends itself to experimentation.  Using my basic recipe as a template, you can then let your kitchen imagination run wild by adding  seasonal fruits and other "sweet tooth" items such as shredded coconut or chocolate chips.   Ingredients:10 oz French bread, cubed1/8 lb unsalted Butter, melted1/2 tsp ground Cinnamon1/4 tsp ground Nutmeg1 TBS clover Honey1 cup Raisins1/4 cup Pecan pieces, chopped coarse1 TBS Pure Vanilla Extract Avoid using the imitation stuff if possible1 large Egg1 1/2 cups Whole MilkExtra softened butter for greasing baking dishCooking Proc...

Video Sunday 11/11/07
2007-11-11 11:46:00
It's Video Sunday !!!!(Psst!  Turn out the lights and pass me some popcorn!)

San Francisco Ciopino
2007-11-10 11:28:00
The culinary heritage of cioppino can be traced back to a fish stew found in Italy called cioppin.  The Americanized version of this dish seems to have its origin in the following story:  During the thirties, in San Franc isco , Italian fishermen met at the docks after a day of fishing and cooked up a batch of stew which contained a variety of seafood.  All of the fishermen were expected to "chip in" and add some of their daily catch to the stew pot.  Cioppino was born!Ingredients:1/4 cup Olive Oil1 TBS unsalted Butter1 large Spanish Onion, chopped medium coarse1 cups Celery, chopped small 1/2 cup Scallions, chopped medium coarse2 Green Bell Peppers; seeded, stems removed & chopped coarse5 cloves fresh Garlic, diced fine3 cups dry Red Wine1 can whole peeled Tomatoes with juice (28 oz)1 can Tomato Puree (8 oz)4 cups Shrimp StockNote: For my stock recipe, go to Homestyle Shirmp Stock1 TBS ...
More About: Francis

Food Blog Chatterbox 11/09/07
2007-11-09 12:28:00
Every week, we skim the cyber soup to find the top food related blog posts for your reading pleasure!In the course of setting up the food blog directory on this site (The Chef From Hell Food Blog Directory), I've come across many food blogs I'd never read before.  One of these is The Great American Cooking Project which is a food blog with a historical and American cultural theme.  This week there was a great post on Slow Cooked Rice Pudding and a few other items of interest that I'm sure you'd enjoy.  The writing here is lively and engaging and the whole site is a hoot so stop on over and check it out!Another new blog I've been reading lately is Farm Girl Fare written by a gal out on a 20 acre farm in Missouri.  At this site, you'll find wonderful writing and photos that capture the rhythms of daily farm life as well as some great recipes.  One of the recipes I enjoyed this past week was Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip...

A & W Baked Ham
2007-11-08 12:24:00
It's a well known fact that when Thanksgiving rolls around each cook must stare into the mirror and wonder, "What can I make this year that's new and interesting?"  Some folks will choose to become food anarchists whereby they decide to make something completely off the wall like, say, a turkey stuffed with butterfly entrails, dandelion greens and an Argentine army ant paste.  But will that dish be a hit with your in-laws when they show up for dinner?  "Hmm, maybe you're right..."  Well, if you want to avoid making turkey and still want to make something that's a little off the beaten path then how about a fresh ham that's baked in root beer?  "Root beer?!"  Yes, root beer!Ingredients:4 1/2 litres A&W Root Beer (or whatever brand you prefer) at Room Temperature1 Fresh Ham (10 lb)Dry Spice Mix:2 tsp Bell's Seasoning(Note: If this is not available to you, substitute Gumbo File Powder)1 pinch Ground Cloves1...
More About: Baked

World Food News 11/07/07
2007-11-07 12:45:00
Our first item this week concerns a food item I've always enjoyed---hot sauce!  From the Physorg.com site:  "DOCTORS TEST HOT SAUCE FOR PAIN RELIEF!  Devil's Revenge, Spontaneous Combustion---Hot sauces have names like that for a reason.  Now scientists are testing if the stuff that makes the sauces so savage can tame the pain of surgery.  Doctors are dripping the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire directly into open wounds during knee replacement and a few other highly painful operations.  How could something searing possibly soothe? Bite a hot pepper, and after the burn your tongue goes numb. The hope is that bathing surgically exposed nerves in a high enough dose will numb them for weeks, so that patients suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal."  Read More...
More About: News , Food , World

Scarecrow Pate
2007-11-06 12:15:00
Here's a simple pate recipe that's a neat little item to have on hand for your holiday entertaining needs.  You can pair this pate with some exotic cheese and have a nice cold course that all those hungry folks can munch on while they're waiting for the turkey to be ready on Thanksgiving day.

Pasta & Bean Soup
2007-11-05 12:45:00
Join the Army & see the world!  Hoo Hah!  In a way, I can relate to that because I grew up as an Army brat.  Several tours of duty for my Dad brought my family to Europe where I tasted food far beyond my wildest dreams.  Some of these foods were practically in my backyard, so to speak.  I can recall when we lived in Verdun, France back in the mid-1960's we had a next door neighbor named Mrs. Bonafanti who was from Sicily.  She had a mountain of dark hair, dark eyes and a fiery temper.  Her favorite expression at any given time was "Uffa!" which can be loosely translated as "What the...?!"  Besides the bunch of wondreful fig cookies (Cosi di Ficu) she used to make at Christmastime, I fondly remember her incredible pasta and bean soup.  Each fall season, during the three years we lived side by side, Mrs. Bonafanti would make her Pasta Fagioli, the robust scent of garlic tap dancing up and down the ent...
More About: Bean , Soup

Video Sunday 11/04/07
2007-11-04 12:21:00
It's Video Sunday !!!!(Psst!  Turn out the lights and pass me some popcorn!) 

Food Blog Chatterbox 11/02/07
2007-11-02 10:07:00
Every week, we skim the cyber soup to find the top food related blog posts for your reading pleasure! The Raw Cuisine blog has an informational post on what going on with the issue of food irradiation.  Check out Nuclear & Agribusiness Cabal Work With FDA. The Tigers & Strawberries blog has a post titled Is Alice Waters An Elitist Food Snob?  It's extremely well written and covers various sides of the argument.  As I stated in a comment I posted, I admire Alice Waters' ideals but don't care for her desire to keep all of the credit for making Chez Panisse what it is today when over the years many folks labored to make that restaurant a legend.  Especially the folks in the kitchen.  At times, Waters strikes me as someone who wants to inherit the crown of James Beard (all knowing food seer etc.) but I ain't buying that particular bag of radishes.  As far as food elitism goes, our culture is rife with it; just look at the faw...
More About: Blog

Crawfish Diablo
2007-11-01 11:41:00
Crawfish Diablo was one of the most popular dishes I served up at my restaurants over the years.  The sauce is a dark jalapeno affair which is quite robust and brings on the heat without blowing away your tastebuds.  Let me push away the cobwebs of memory and see if I can remember exactly how I happened to create this particular sauce...    It was in 1986 at my first restaurant, The Bayou in Bellmore, New York, during a busy Saturday night's service.  Ah yes it's all coming back to me now...The kitchen at The Bayou was a long rectangular space with a minimum amount of elbow room---as a matter of fact, years later, I remembered what this kitchen reminded me of---  A childhood memory:  one day in New Orleans the Navy had a day where they took a bunch of us kids out for a ride on a submarine---while on the sub I got to see the galley where they cooked for the sailors & years later, while at The B...

World Food News 10/31/07
2007-10-30 11:05:00
 Ahwooooooooooo!  Happy Halloween folks!  Lots of scary news to report this week.  Let's see, where should I start...oh yes, this item on the usa daily site caught my eye:  "Eating Food Will Kill You!  It is now a proven fact that eating food—any kind of food—will kill you. No one who has eaten food in the past is alive today and everyone currently eating food will die. Therefore, those noble people who seek to save us from eating every kind of food that the earth provides should be hailed and saluted for their efforts to keep us alive."  Read more...
More About: News , World

Amish Cheese Spread
2007-10-30 10:30:00
With the Holiday season right around the corner, it's time to start thinking about some easy-to-prepare snack food that's great to have on hand when company shows up at the house.  Here's a dandy recipe for a cheese spread that sparks memories of an old Amish restaurant my family used to go to in Pennsylvania when I was a kid.  They would serve this up along with a relish tray that had corn relish, apple butter and a load of homemade crackers.  As I recall, the restaurant's cheese spread was made with cheddar but somewhere along the line I started using gouda cheese and liked the flavor so much I stuck with it.
More About: Cheese , Spread

Ozark Pumpkin Soup
2007-10-29 12:35:00
Halloween is nigh and after carving up a pumpkin, what's one to do with all that delicious pumpin meat?  Here's a soup recipe that was inspired from a visit to a cafe in Arkansas years ago.
More About: Soup , Pumpkin

Video Sunday 10/28/07
2007-10-28 12:30:00
It's Video Sunday !!!!(Psst!  Turn out the lights and pass me some popcorn!)

Sweet Loretta's Ragtime Pie
2007-10-27 14:37:00
There's pie and then there's pie.  And then there's even more pie!  More than once I have paused mid-forkful to give thanks for my marriage to a dandy pie-maker named Loretta.  As a matter of fact, before we recently retired from the restaurant business, Sweet Loretta (as I call her) had won the Best Pie in Long Island award from Channel 12, a popular local tv channel, three years in a row!  "Wow!  Is this the recipe that won?"  No, it is not the recipe that won.  That recipe goes by the name of Sleepy Hollow Pie, a heavenly concoction of pumpkin---the detailed recipe must remain a closely guarded secret as per the piemaker's request.  "Awwww!"  Do not fret, I have one of her pie recipes for you!  This one's called Ragtime Pie.

World Food News 10/26/07
2007-10-26 14:30:00
This week we begin with a tidbit from FT.com:  "Russia To Control Food Prices--Russia is introducing Soviet-style price controls on some basic foods in an effort to prevent spiralling prices from denting the Putin administration’s popularity ahead of parliamentary polls in December.  The country’s biggest food retailers and producers have reached an agreement, expected to be signed with the Russian government on Wednesday, to freeze prices at October 15 levels on selected types of bread, cheese, milk, eggs and vegetable oil until the end of the year.  Russia’s move is the latest sign of surging agricultural prices becoming an international political issue. Big retailers will limit their mark-up on those goods to 10 per cent.  China has also agreed to food price controls; Egypt, Jordan, Bangladesh and Morocco are increasing subsidies or cutting import tariffs to lower domestic prices. Rich countries are not im­mune: Italian consumer...
More About: News , World