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Well here we are again. New Years Eve is just around the corner and its time to reflect on the past year and look forward to a new one. This New Year’s is even more special as it welcomes in a new decade. It’s hard to believe that it is already 2010. I remember being a kid thinking about how far off 2010 would be and what crazy modern technology we would have by now. With a blink of an eye however 2010 is upon us and 2009 is out the door. Looking back, 2009 could be
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Saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie this weekend and it made me think about my trip to England and Scotland a few years back. There really is a Baker Street in London and on the street you can now find a recreation of Sherlock Holmes house at 221 B Baker Street. It is a must stop for any Sherlock Holmes fan. Inside you can sit in Holmes study or even meet Dr. Watson himself. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was from Edinburgh, |
Houston is finally on the radar of the national culinary map. Everyday national food writers are asking themselves with surprise, what is this chef doing in Houston? This week all eyes in the Houston area turn to Tesar’s Modern Steak and Seafood in the Woodlands. While everyone else is looking there, I decided to visit the restaurant voted as the number one seafood restaurant in the US by Bon Appetit. Reef Houston was also voted one of the top 50 new restaurants in the |
Max’s Wine Dive in the current trendy Heights area of Houston has a great menu. It is a mixture of gourmet style comfort food with Texas influenced ingredients. The crowd is young and the place is packed with people. Yet, they try to take the pretentiousness away from the food. Waiters wear shirts that say Champagne and Fried Chicken. I couldn’t agree more. I love fried chicken and who says I can’t have champagne with it? It actually complements quite nicely. Welcome to foodiedom. Throw |
Tuesday night, domestic goddess and British best selling author Nigella Lawson came to Houston to promote her new book Nigella Christmas. She has starred on the food network with the shows Nigella Feasts and Nigella Express, as well as starred on the BBC in the UK. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would want a Christmas cook book. Perhaps I was afraid that the book would only be good for one meal a year. After reading through Nigella’s book, I was happy that I picked it up. She is |
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So it’s Sunday and football is on. What to have for lunch? Tired of grilling regular burgers and dogs? Why not take the burger experience to the next level and make grilled lamb burgers stuffed with goat cheese? Lamb has more flavor then a regular hamburger, and goat cheese compliments the lamb so perfectly. A nice juicy lamb burger with a bit of cooked onion and that rich creaminess that the goat cheese adds, this is guaranteed to take your burger experience to the next level. For mine, I take
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Thanksgiving has now come and gone. I hope you had a good one. I know I did. How many of us know about the roots of Thanksgiving and why we eat the dishes that we do? Like so much of history, much of what we learned as kids was not correct. For instance, did you know the pilgrims didn’t really wear buckles on their clothes? The dinner we were taught about occurred in 1621. However, Thanksgiving wasn’t officially declared a holiday until |
Any culinary journey to Michigan would obviously lead me to Homer in south central Michigan. “Homer is home” is the motto of this small village. For me, it was always my home away from home, as I only lived there until I was three years old. However, my father grew up there and we would return to visit our family. Homer is a place where the “Main Street USA” of yesteryear lives on. It is a small place and therefore change is not quick to take hold. What better |
Butternut Squash Soup is a great fresh start to a fall dinner. It is light, sweet, and has all the flavor of fall. The bright yellow color of the soup reminds me of the changing leaves on the trees. I just returned from Michigan, where squash in peoples gardens was being harvested everywhere. Seeing this inspired me to make this soup. I hope it brings the fall to your table. You will need:
1 Large Butternut Squash
2 Shallots
4 Garlic Cloves
3 Cups of Chicken |
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Halloween. Have just returned from traveling. First a visit to sunny southern California and then on to Michigan. Two different climates. In California, still warm and sunny with a hint of summer. In Michigan, the transformation of fall is well under way. The leaves have changed to bright yellows, oranges, and reds. The leaves have begun falling and gathering in large piles on the ground. The cool crisp air gives you the feeling that fall is truly here and you get a strong sense of
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In the first episode of Avec Eric featured on PBS, French chef Eric Ripert goes to Italy to hunt wild boar. However, since not everyone back in the states has access to wild boar, he makes a wonderful dish with pork tenderloin that we can all enjoy. It looked great on television so I decided to make the dish myself. The dish is pork tenderloin with wild mushrooms, cloves of garlic, and a sage jus. If you missed the show you can get the recipe on Eric’s site
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Stilton and leek soup is something that I hadn’t had before I went to England. We were out in the middle of the country at a pub called the De La Pole arms in Wingfield Village. This is a village that my ancestors settled around the 14th century. Today, there are only about 300 people that live spread out in the area, and Wingfield consists of the bare essentials. You have your castle, your church, and most importantly, your pub. We went to the church first and paid
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October has arrived. Can hardly believe it is here already. The food network fan site says its national vegetarian day. When I think of vegetarian, for some reason I always think of Vietnamese cuisine as they have a lot of vegetable dishes. They sauté spinach with garlic which I always thought was good idea and then they add tofu for protein. You can also do tofu curry or sweet and sour tofu. Black pepper fried tofu isn’t bad either. Anyhow, I wouldn’t make a
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Cooking can be considered a mirror of life. You get out of it what you put in. If you use sub par ingredients you get sub par results. At the same time, you can take a few simple ingredients and turn it into something magnificent. Great pizza dough can be made with just yeast, flour, sugar, olive oil, salt and water. Cooking like life also requires some hard work. You have to chop, cut, slice, stir, and measure your ingredients. Sometimes you add too much sauce or
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The winner results are in from the Great American Beer festival this weekend in Denver, Colorado. Beer Geeks here is the list of beers for you start trying if you haven’t already.
http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/pdf/winners/gabf09_winners.pdf
Congratulations to Dogfish Head for taking gold and silver in the specialty beer category and to St. Arnolds Brewery of Houston, TX. for winning the gold for their Summer Pilsner. |
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There is a lot of discussion now about the movie Julie and Julia. Most foodies that I have spoken with enjoyed the movie and found it light hearted and funny. Many critics seemed critical of Julie Powell herself, and how she was a far cry from being Julia Child. The Julie portrayed in the movie seems to be sweetened up a bit, from the foul mouthed Julie Powell portrayed in the book. Nonetheless, it has given people another chance to take a step back and look at the big
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Do you ever think about how to cook dishes you have eaten before? Tonight my wife wanted to have some Salmon for dinner. I like Salmon, but I don’t like to eat it all of the time. Salmon has a distinct flavor and it can be great or it can be terrible. With Salmon, I like to change up how I cook it each time to keep it interesting. There are many different varieties of Salmon. Tonight we had a Sockeye Salmon. It had a very nice deep red color to it. The easiest way to |
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Oktoberfest officially began this past weekend. Since I couldn’t make it to Munich I decided to make the trip to Addison, Texas where they proclaim to have one of the most authentic Oktoberfest traditions outside of Germany. We made the road trip from Houston to the Dallas area with the purpose to experience great German Beer and food. Luckily, we found both, along with the company of great friends both old and new. We found our home in the giant tented Beer Garden,
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Vietnamese cuisine can be a lot of fun if you know what to order. It is a bit more exotic and can be more healthy then your usual Chinese fair. I spent a year working in a Vietnamese restaurant learning about the food. Often Vietnamese menus can be a bit daunting, so here is your Vietnamese dictionary to help you sort it out.
Bo = Beef
Ga = Chicken
Tom = Shrimp
Thit = Pork
Muc = Squid
Do Bien = Seafood
Thap Cam = Combination Seafood and meat
Dau Hu = Tofu
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Las Vegas is a 24 hr city. Where do folks go to dine late night? The Peppermill is the place to go in Vegas after you are partied out. It is sort of the quintessential greasy spoon, but its Vegas baby, so this is not your waffle house. Everything on the menu is huge and pretty darn tasty too. From omelets bigger then your head, to burgers and steaks, they have it all. Once you have recharged your batteries, you can get your drink on again in the fireside lounge, which has the neon |
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