A great friend of this blog, and a huge supporter of Desert Island Foods®.com, Shauna's long anticipated book is now on the cyber-shelves. She's become a great email pal, and someone I've really gotten to respect and admire.
I haven't even read it yet, but I highly recommend it. How do I know? I know Shauna.
Welcome to year 3 of The Pragmatic Chef. I've decided to do something different this year- I'm going to post a joke every Friday...
Oh. Right.
In continuing with this great tradition, John in Chicago has sent in a doozy.
Have a great weekend, everyone! Thanks for reading.
Wow, another year has gone by. Though I haven't been able to post (or even cook) as much this last year, I still love talking about food and cooking.
Thanks to all of you who stop by regularly, and who have helped us continue to make Desert Island Foods®.com a success.
Keep cooking, and sharing your dishes and news stories!
I know, normally by April I'd be presenting you with the first ribs of the BBQ season.
I've been craving BBQ in the worst way, but with life being the happy bedlam that it is these days, firing up the smoker and spending the afternoon with spare ribs slathered away with Survival Spice™ just wasn't an option.
These are from a local joint called Hap's, that I like quite a bit. They do the real deal- rubbed, slow smoked in a blend of hardwoods, and they don't phone it in as far as their side dishes, either. They have a cool website, go check it out.
Okay, it's easy, very reasonable in price, and it satisfied the Q Jones, but my smoker has been looking at me in a jealous way since last night.
Soon, old friend, soon.
Happy Friday, everyone. Another long yet hopefully productive work week will soon be behind us, time to start laughing!
Claudia has sent in a great Funny to get us chuckling- thank you kindly, ma'am...
Have a great weekend, everyone! I'm working on a newsletter announcing a spring promotion that we'll be sending out when I get a chance, so be watching your inbox. Uh, but don't hold your breath, exactly, I'm swamped...
Email me some pictures of your latest culinary masterpieces, if you've been cooking, which sadly I have not. Thanks for reading, and for your support of Desert Island Foods®.com.
John in Chicago sent along a link to a Chicago Trib article about a gadget I'd love to play with:
Just imagine: A holster grip like a handgun, a long thin barrel from which the smoke shoots out, and a wooden pipe bowl only Cheech and Chong could love. Among the top chefs brandishing The Smoking Gun, count Grant Achatz of Alinea and Charlie Trotter.
From the manufacturer's website:
•Excellent for finishing products that are cooked Sous Vide or other methods where food is not normally directly exposed to fire or smoke•"Marinate" foods in smoke before cooking
•Use classic flavors, such as mesquite, hickory, apple, cherry wood, or let your imagination take over with things like Lapsang Oolong tea, lavender, or clove.
•Also great for adding a smoky aroma to your dining area
I can't help but thinking that somewhere that someone is "infusing their dining area" with one of these and saying "Dude. It's Gnarly!!!!!!!!!!"
Whatever that means... thanks for the tip, John!
(Photo: RIck Lee
Wow. I followed an Instapundit link to something Glenn called produce blogging. When I clicked the link, I found lots of really cool food pics from a professional photographer named Rick Lee. I like the 'happy accident' of this inadvertant self-portrait:
In this first shot, that's actually me over in the corner. I caught myself in the mirror behind the vegetables without realizing it.
Check it out, I think it's really insprirational to all of us who aspire to take better food pics, and they're just flat-out cool to those who don't! Lots of pictures if you click on the first link, too.
Friday's here, so sanity is just around the corner. It's a long, long corner, to be sure, but I'm ever hopeful.
Don has sent in a good Friday Funny, thanks! If you have a good joke, a recipe, or pictures of food you've made that you'd like to share, email me!
Have a great weekend, everyone. Thanks for reading, and for helping Desert Island Foods®.com continue to grow.
You have stocked up on Survival Spice™ for the summer, haven't you?
I'm not a huge fan of a cheese-only lasagna, but this was good enough to give me hope!
This was a fairly basic cheese blend- mozz, riccota, and grana padano, which had more character that a straight parm. With ricotta, I always mix it with an egg or two and some grated cheese to keep it from being boring.
I also fooled around with not cooking the noodles beforehand, something I'm not a fan of, and I proved it to myself again- I think the noodles keep too much of the starch, so I'll go back to parboiling the noodles next time, or at least giving them a good soak in some hot water.
I still need to work on the cheese blend, though. I'm considering provolone, camembert, or even some mild blue cheese. Any ideas?
I was hardly disappointed in this, though. Hardly.
I'm working on a 3 cheese lasagna today, but for now it's a gratuitous beer picture I took of one of my favorite beers- Erdinger.
How was the weekend? Anybody cook anything good for Easter? Share some pictures!
Happy Friday, Fellow Food Fans!!! Hey, that's catchy.
This week's Friday Funny is from Don, and it's a good 'un.
Thanks for reading this week, and for your support of Desert Island Foods®.com. Have a great weekend, and cook something good, willya?
John from Chicago's been at it again:
pork chops stuffed w/ Speck, coated w/ pankos, & gnocchi in a sun dried tomato & garlic sauce. Speck is smoked proscuitto!plate dusted with "you know what"
Nice dish, John. And there's nothing redundant about stuffing pork inside pork, believe me. I don't think I've ever posted it, but I used to serve a pork tenderloin stuffed with hot sausage, and it was wonderful. Hmmmmm.... I need to make that, soon.
Thanks, John!
Summer's coming, and for me a classic summer sandwith is the BLT. Okay, I think it's a great sandwich in spring, fall and winter too, but a great BLT really shines on a hot day.
My prescription for decompressing at the end of a too-long work week?
Thick cut bacon, cooked slowly in cast iron, turned to perfection with an E-Z Hook®; some cold, crisp organic greens, vine-ripe tomatoes that actually smell like tomatoes, not some vaguely tomato-like substance that's been warehoused along with K-rations from World War II until duty calls, all cradled lovingly in 2 slices of all natural toasted whole grain bread. Slather some mayo on there if you want- better yet, make your own, but I don't need it.
Add a lounge chair, a cold adult beverage, and a good book. Repeat as necessary. Often.
