Cooking presents two ways in which to experiment. You can experiment with ingredients, and you can experiment with cooking methods.
Chicken, as I’ve noted, can get boring very quickly. You can bake it, roast it, fry it, and grill it, but in the end, chicken still tends to taste like – well, chicken.
Then I noticed beer-can chicken, and the method looked so easy, but so much fun. And it was. Positioning Continue reading
As I’ve mentioned previously, chicken salad is one of my lunch-time staples. Almost without fail, Sunday nights are devoted to preparing my tried-and-true chicken salad for the work week ahead. That said, everyone can use some amount of variety. So, in the spirit of variety, I decided to try a different type of chicken salad. My sense of lunch-time adventure obviously knows no bounds.
This recipe, like the other chicken salad, comes together very quickly, and is perfect served cold. But unlike the other recipe, this Asian version has a little more punch to it Continue reading
Tagged Asian, Asparagus, Chicken, Ginger, Ina Garten, Salad, Vegetables
“We have not an hour of life In which our pleasures relish not some pain, Our sours some sweetness.” — Philip Massinger.
Why does sour get such a bad name? The word is practically synonymous with misfortune and unpleasantness. A business deal goes sour. A friend develops sour grapes. A neighbor becomes a sour puss. You can’t help but develop a sour disposition. In fact, under these conditions, your whole outlook on life may turn sour.
These expressions are hardly novel or recent. Sour has held its pejorative crown for centuries. The expression “sour grapes” dates back Continue reading
Within my circle of friends, two of us cook. Which gave Jamey, the host of our weekly poker game, an idea. He would volunteer to host a cook-off between Eric and I – a Top Chef Deathmatch as he billed it. As part of the competition, Eric and I would be charged with creating an appetizer and an entrée in ninety minutes, which our friends would then collectively judge and critique. As part of the rules, Eric and I could bring our own proteins and rely on our girlfriends as sous-chefs. We could also help ourselves to any ingredients and cookware we found in Jamey’s apartment. The competition had yet another element. The four judges would be bringing Continue reading
At a dinner honoring forty-nine Nobel laureates, President Kennedy looked around and pronounced that this was the “most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
That Thomas Jefferson was brilliant is undeniable. He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He founded the University of Virginia. He was a renowned horticulturalist, botanist, and architect. He was an accomplished inventor, designing the Lazy Susan, a folding chair, and a pedometer, though he refused to pursue a patent on any of them.
That Thomas Jefferson dined alone is more suspect. Continue reading
With over thirty posts on my food blog, you might think that lunch at my office would be diverse and interesting. That my leftovers from the night before would offer an exciting mid-day meal. You’d be wrong.
Though some days offer exceptions, lunch at my office is unabashedly routine – which is not to say it’s bad. Quite the opposite. I couldn’t possibly have chicken salad sandwiches with the frequency I do, if I didn’t love my recipe. And because my recipe provides enough chicken for the week, it’s one less thing I have to account for while I’m at work. Chicken salad also has the advantage of being relatively light (so no post-lunch siestas), and offering a good source of protein (perfect for those afternoon workouts).
This is my (very) tried and true recipe. Continue reading
Homemade chicken stock is so much better than anything you might buy in the store. Use it for making couscous, rice, risotto, and Continue reading
I started this food blog nearly a month and a half ago. Yet, in all that time, I never made anything for dinner. That is, there no were entrée posts. Until now.
A whole roasted chicken offers something for everyone. There’s a beautiful center item for the table, Continue reading
