When I moved to France last year, I smoothly transitioned into my new, ready-made French family. It didn’t replace my own family back in the USA, but it made for a soft landing here in this new land. As with most family units, at the centre of the new family was the matriarch, Kate Hill. All others were spokes from her wheel hub: her sister, Steph, who was my primary source of info on all things french, my translator, my negotiator; Elaine, an…
Keeping in mind that the first picture of each post becomes a thumbnail on a facebook post, and a few people have let me know that the three dead ducks in my kitchen sink were a bit much, I thought I would start with these lovely beans, tarbais from southwestern France, ordered from D’Artagnan, which are the heart of the cassoulet. For this uber challenge there was little question of what I would make. I had only eaten a cassoulet once,…
It occurred to me, as I looked over the last month of Charcutepalooza challenges, that I had the opportunity for some extra credit, to sort of prove the point of the whole experience you might say. I knew I had to prepare for the grand finale, the December challenge, which for me was going to be to prepare that mixed bag of meats and beans, a cassoulet. But I also had, hanging out there, the challenge from the very beginning of the year,…
My husband, Frank, and I are big fans of the pizza at Pizzaria Mozza, Mario Batali’s joint venture pizza place (seems a little too subtle to describe it as such- it’s actually a bustling and buzzing West Hollywood happening place) with Nancy Silverton and Joe Batstianich. So, when in New York a couple of years ago, we decided to try Otto, his New York pizza place (also a little to common a describer…). I tell you all this because it was here that…
Well, most of you know how I feel about chicken. So when I read about this months challenge, I thought seriously of rillettes- something I knew I would love to eat. However, I realized I had only boned a chicken once, and I don’t think that was a very nice experience. Obviously, this was something I had to master, to overcome- like my fear of heights…. And I considered this to be a good excuse to by a new boning knife- the glorious boning…
While in college, our oldest son, Josh, was a musical theater major, and the favorite character he ever played was Sweeney Todd. And, as you might expect, since we started grinding meats for Charcutepalooza there have been many references in our house to the play, and the music, and even Johnny Depp has come up a couple of times… but I digress. Now, to have the opportunity to make a meat pie! I could almost feel the whoosh of the bodies sliding…
What better place to serve a hot dog than a Fourth of July Barbeque? The menu almost writes itself- and the hot dog is the star of the show! As always, as commited as I am to the Charcutepalooza project, I felt pressed for time as I shopped for the dogs, so I was overjoyed to find that Whole Foods had Korean style short ribs ready for purchase. Cutting out that small bone was a cinch, and I now have…
As I struggled to pull together my June Charcutepalooza post this week, trying to force some personality to show through the words, I knew what fed my blogger’s block. My mother, my original kitchen mentor, died last week. It happened quickly, as she sat down to a dinner she had prepared for my dad and his friend. She was in her 87th year, and remained active to the end, playing, and winning, duplicate bridge the day before. These are all things to…
I don’t know for certain that I don’t like chicken sausage, but I assume I don’t because I really don’t like chicken all that much. So, faced with the task of producing a poultry based sausage, I immediately went looking for alternatives to chicken. One simple Google search later I was overjoyed to find several mentions of an Italian sausage made with duck and pancetta- whoo hoo! Fat, flavor and spiciness! The first step in the process had to…
You would think that after more than 40 years of cooking, I would have learned by now that it is imperative that one read through the recipe thoroughly before committing to the project. This is not, however, the case. On hearing the Charcutepalooza challenge to “smoke”, I immediately announced to the family that we would be having Lox and Bagels this month! Then life got in the way- job change, medical issues, normal business, Spring Break for the little ones,…