Tilefish and fish cakes My cooking week began with blueline tilefish. Before getting involved in a CSF (that stands for community supported fishery which is like a CSA share but with fish and shellfish), I hadn’t ever heard of tilefish. Tilefish is a mild, white, flaky fish found along the east coast. Its diet of …
Anthony Bourdain. His death shattered me. He had gusto. Cook, writer, publisher, traveler and best dinner guest ever, I’m sure of it. My first introduction to this talented and fascinating man was his article in The New Yorker, Don’t Eat Before Reading This, back in 1999. Damn, has it been that long? A year later, Kitchen …
Last Sunday, I made slow cooker barbecue beef short ribs. I consulted two recipes—this one and this one—to come up with my own version so I could use what I had in the pantry instead of running to the store. Here’s the barbecue sauce recipe I developed for two pounds of ribs: 1/2 large onion, …
I’m noshing on rye scones with smoked gruyere and caramelized onions fresh from the oven as I write this. Scones get a bad rap because the ones you find in Starbucks and other bakery cases can sometimes be dry. But thanks to sour cream, cheese, butter and lots of caramelized red onion, these are divine. …
It’s been a week of leftovers and meals out except for one night when I made an old favorite – southwestern turkey and sweet potato skillet. Heat olive oil in a big high-sided pan and start adding these ingredients, letting each set cook before adding the next. ground turkey chopped onions, red bell and poblano …
Even on a chilly winter day, iced coffee is my preferred morning beverage. Since this spring has been feeling more like summer lately, my iced coffees are even more refreshing. I like just a hint of sweetness in them so I add a bit of coffee syrup. I used to order coffee syrup from up …
My spring celebration continued last Sunday with a ramp, mushroom and linguiça tart. The original recipe didn’t call for linguiça but I wanted to punch it up. Linguiça is a Portuguese pork sausage made with garlic and paprika. I order five pounds at a time from a place up in New Bedford and store it …
While they’re in season, I’m getting local strawberries everywhere—in our CSA share, from Produce Box and Bella Bean Organics, and even from the supermarket. I made a delicious strawberry crostata last weekend following a New York Times recipe for the pastry and another recipe for the filling. Crostatas are easy because they don’t require much …
On a warm Sunday, I heated up my kitchen for several hours making an Italian-style beef stew recipe from Fine Cooking. It was supposed to be Italian-style beef and porcini stew, but neither my local Food Lion nor my local Lowes Foods had dried porcinis. Boo. I subbed fresh shiitake mushrooms and, luckily, had some …
I missed chatting with you last week. We spent a long weekend in the mountains of North Carolina so no blogging for me. We hiked Table Rock, the Chimneys trail in Linville Gorge, Hawksbill and, the highlight of the weekend, Profile trail up to Calloway Peak. Man oh man, that was a slog, but a …
Grabbing the Gusto 