Hot Tips
The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg
There are many ways to hard boil eggs. I think my method is food-proof! Put the desired number of eggs in a sauce pan, cover them with cold water. Turn the heat on high until it’s boiling. Let the eggs boil for 1 minute. Next, turn off the burner and cover the pot and time […]
Continue ReadingKeep on Truckin’
The new craze – gourmet trucks driving around Los Angeles. They use Twitter to let their fans know where they can be found. It’s happening in San Francisco, New York, Portland, etc. I have been patronizing a certain taco truck in Pasadena for years. I have been there at 2 am wearing a black tie dress […]
Continue ReadingGrating Ginger
I discovered that if you peel ginger and store it in the freezer in a ziplock bag, it becomes very easy to grate. Also, you can always have ginger at the ready. Just thought you should know!
Continue ReadingBaking Debunked
My daughter, Zoe, got this amazing book called Baking by James Peterson. The book features over 300 recipes and 2000 illustrations. Good technique combined with thousands of step-by-step photographs set James Peterson’s Baking apart from other dessert books. Unlike so much work done in the kitchen, baking demands perfect chemistry and precision, and Peterson provides […]
Continue Reading2010 Restaurant Menu Trends
This is from the Food Product Design website. Locally grown produce, locally sourced meats and seafood, sustainability, mini-desserts and locally produced wine and beer top the list of nearly 215 culinary items in the “What’s Hot in 2010” survey. Rounding out the top 10 trends are nutritious kids’ meals, half-portions, farm-branded ingredients, gluten-free/food-allergy conscious meals […]
Continue ReadingBalsamic Vinegar Glaze
Balsamic glaze has become popular over the last ten years. It is a fancy, schmancy way of saying reduced balsamic vinegar. It is sometimes referred to as Balsamic Cream. It is deliciously sweet and wonderful to drizzle on so many things. You can put it on strawberries, ice cream, mozzarella & tomatoes. It is available […]
Continue ReadingGastrosexuals
According to Urban Dictionary, a Gastrosexual is: noun [countable] a person, especially a man, who uses cooking skills to impress friends and potential partners ‘Gastrosexuals are a new generation of men who consider cooking more a hobby than a household chore and use their kitchen prowess to seduce women.’ Bring it on!
Continue ReadingGarlic
My father will shudder at this post. He detests garlic and says he’s allergic… I do not like to run into chunks of garlic in any dish, especially when it’s raw. Instead of finely chopping garlic, I grate it on a fine microplane. This creates a garlic paste, which fully incorporates the flavor into the […]
Continue ReadingFrozen Grapes
Yesterday, it was HOT! I’m talking really hot – 105 degrees, plus 50% humidity hot. Southern California never has humidity. I know that anyone from the east or south would laugh. I guess if you jack up the humidity and throw in some enormous mosquitos and hundreds of other insects it might be similar. It’s […]
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