cdkitchen > feeddaily blog
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I've been eating a lot of Greek food lately. Maybe it's because I've recently discovered two fabulous Greek restaurants in my neighborhood on different ends of the Fancy Restaurant Spectrum. Maybe it's because the closest Greek restaurant is no longer the anonymous New York City diner on the corner that happens to serve gyro meat. And maybe it's because Greek food is somehow gluttonously filling while remaining somewhat . . . healthy?
by
Loyal readers of The Sweet Lowdown know that I'm not a huge chocolate fan. I've tried to extol the virtues of many other delicious dessert flavors in my column, but for some strange reason, it keeps coming back to chocolate. Sigh! The life of a pastry chef is sometimes so very dull. But this week I would like to talk about hot chocolate. It's not just for little Swiss girls anymore, it doesn't have to come out of a packet for a few perfunctory spins around the microwave, and it definitely doesn't have to be 100% chocolate-only flavored. You'll see what I mean in a minute...
by
Eeeww! That's gross! What's mincemeat? Is it minced meat? And why is there meat in my Christmas pudding anyway? Why would anyone want to put meat in their sweets? I know you've asked yourself these questions hundreds of times over the years. They burn inside of you every holiday season. What exactly is mincemeat? And why on earth would people want to eat it, whatever it is? In order to know mincemeat, we must first examine suet, one of the principle ingredients in mincemeat. Suet is the fat rendered from around the beef or mutton loin and kidney. It is...
by
Several years ago I hosted a dinner party themed around its main dish, such that the party eventually took on its own name among the attendees: "Beef, It's What's For Dinner." As you can guess, the main ingredient of the main dish was in fact, beef. But this was a dish I had waited to cook and a party I had waited to host until the weather warranted both. This is because it takes the heart of winter to for most of us to truly deserve a large, steaming pot of beef stewed in red wine with mushrooms, and onions. This was not just any beef stew, but the classic French...
by
Did you ever see that episode from the first season of Friends where the gang's Thanksgiving plans all get canceled? They end up staying together and Monica cooks. What starts as a simple gathering of "friends" for the holiday quickly escalates into a giant feast as everyone makes individual demands as to their favorite way to prepare everything from corn to sweet potatoes. In the end, the conflict over how to make potatoes results in a very flustered Monica and three types of that mashed starch on the table. Although we may argue over the best way to make the...
by
It could be the change of weather. Goodbye Indian summer, hello oncoming brutal winter. It could be the unusual number of natural disasters in the last year: tsunamis, hurricanes, mudslides, and earthquakes. And let's not even go into the general unrest in the world. Needless to say, desperate times cry out for the comfort of home. Little will take you back to your happy place quicker than the deep satisfaction found in a plate of some down-home Southern cooking...
by
First it was low-cal; then it was low-fat. Then it was no-milk followed by no-bread. It seems every five years there is some new evil in our diets that is making us fat or causing headaches and fatigue or digestive problems or any range of ailments. This is not to say our diets are not without fault, especially here in America. But it is highly unlikely that the entire populace is truly lactose intolerant just because blaming dairy is en vogue. So it is with bread.
by
Vegetables. Ahh, yes. Those things that kids push to the side of their plate and that parents beg them to eat. Some grown-ups still despise them. And many fancy restaurants serve them in microscopic portions to avoid having to deal with them. It's sad that vegetables still get such a bad rap. I myself never enjoyed them growing up. Most of what I ate back then came out of a can and had the consistency of baby food. Mushy and tasteless with a hint of butter and salt to salvage them; that's the way my mom tried to fancy them up. I loathed vegetables, as I found most...
by
With the air not quite so warm and the sun not shining quite so bright, the nice thing about fall is that you get a lot more done on the weekends. Good or bad, it is somehow a relief to wake up to a cool fall day and the knowledge you have a full day in front of you with nothing but the four walls surrounding you. On an autumn day you can get all caught up on your TIVO, you can finish the book that has been lingering on your nightstand, or maybe you can make friends with your kitchen again...
by
Around these parts, the weather quickly went from pleasantly cool and crisp to bone chillingly cold, or at least it felt that way. For those of us living in colder climates, when the weather changes so fast, it can be hard making a quick adjustment to the new temperature. To me it feels so much colder in November than further along in the winter when my body has had time to regulate. This is when warm comfort foods can come to the rescue, and I'll make a big, big pot of chili. Chili is the perfect meal for chilly late fall weather when the temperature goes south. That...
by
Can you imagine a world without frozen food? I pondered this very question after recently finishing Mark Kurlanskey's fascinating account of the frozen food pioneer, Clarence Birdseye. This book details an age where exploration and food preservation went hand in hand. As inventor and explorer, Birdseye, while living in the arctic tundra, came across a technological breakthrough that allowed vegetables to be quickly frozen in their fresh state, thus preserving their integrity after thawing.
by
Normally, I'm not a regular at the ubiquitous coffee chain you can find in every corner of America; I only go if someone else asks me to meet up there. I like to make my coffee at home first thing in the morning, before really getting started with my day. Even now that I am expecting, I still drink a cup of decaf in the morning, just for the ritual of a morning wake up drink. But there is one time of year I find myself making a coffee run a bit more often ñ the holiday season. Actually make that a Gingersnap Latte run! And the ubiquitous coffee chain is where I...
by
Ah, the potato. That glorious starchy tuber that is remarkably diverse. It can be baked, fried, shredded, diced, blended, whipped, and served whole.
by
Tortillas are one item that have become a weekly staple on my shopping list, just like bread. In fact, sometimes you are more likely to find a bag of flour tortillas in our house than a loaf of bread. Just like salsa, they have skyrocketed in popularity in the American kitchen as we have come to embrace Tex-Mex specialties like fajitas and burritos. In addition to the standard corn and white flour tortillas, I have found various other types at the local store that add interesting color and flavor to all those Tex-Mex standbys. Whole wheat, spinach, tomato, and...
by
I like to say "what if" and "why not" when I cook. The same curiosity and abandon often apply to choosing plants for our gardens. So, every year we plant one or two different vegetables or fruits just to see how they'll grow in our climate and what kind of yield we'll have with them. This year we experimented with Asian melons and sweet potatoes. The Asian melons started out beautifully. The seeds quickly developed into big plants with lots of fruit on them. My friend Lan told me that they would be delicious and I promised to share the harvest with her. But, at the...
by
Every well-equipped bachelor has tools. I don't mean hammers and screwdrivers, people. I mean kitchen tools. Those who are not well equipped in the kitchen tend to be, well, they tend to be tools. So here are ten essential tools that you bachelors need to avoid being a tool: 1. A decent chef's knife: perhaps more than anything else, you need good, quality knives. Good, quality knives are expensive, but they are worth it. If you can only afford one knife, however, the chef's knife is the one to go for. It is perfect for a number of tasks, from chopping to carving...
From The Editors At CDKitchen: Feed Daily
by
I've been eating a lot of Greek food lately. Maybe it's because I've recently discovered two fabulous Greek restaurants in my neighborhood on different ends of the Fancy Restaurant Spectrum. Maybe it's because the closest Greek restaurant is no longer the anonymous New York City diner on the corner that happens to serve gyro meat. And maybe it's because Greek food is somehow gluttonously filling while remaining somewhat . . . healthy?
by
Loyal readers of The Sweet Lowdown know that I'm not a huge chocolate fan. I've tried to extol the virtues of many other delicious dessert flavors in my column, but for some strange reason, it keeps coming back to chocolate. Sigh! The life of a pastry chef is sometimes so very dull. But this week I would like to talk about hot chocolate. It's not just for little Swiss girls anymore, it doesn't have to come out of a packet for a few perfunctory spins around the microwave, and it definitely doesn't have to be 100% chocolate-only flavored. You'll see what I mean in a minute...
by
Eeeww! That's gross! What's mincemeat? Is it minced meat? And why is there meat in my Christmas pudding anyway? Why would anyone want to put meat in their sweets? I know you've asked yourself these questions hundreds of times over the years. They burn inside of you every holiday season. What exactly is mincemeat? And why on earth would people want to eat it, whatever it is? In order to know mincemeat, we must first examine suet, one of the principle ingredients in mincemeat. Suet is the fat rendered from around the beef or mutton loin and kidney. It is...
by
Several years ago I hosted a dinner party themed around its main dish, such that the party eventually took on its own name among the attendees: "Beef, It's What's For Dinner." As you can guess, the main ingredient of the main dish was in fact, beef. But this was a dish I had waited to cook and a party I had waited to host until the weather warranted both. This is because it takes the heart of winter to for most of us to truly deserve a large, steaming pot of beef stewed in red wine with mushrooms, and onions. This was not just any beef stew, but the classic French...
by
Did you ever see that episode from the first season of Friends where the gang's Thanksgiving plans all get canceled? They end up staying together and Monica cooks. What starts as a simple gathering of "friends" for the holiday quickly escalates into a giant feast as everyone makes individual demands as to their favorite way to prepare everything from corn to sweet potatoes. In the end, the conflict over how to make potatoes results in a very flustered Monica and three types of that mashed starch on the table. Although we may argue over the best way to make the...
by
It could be the change of weather. Goodbye Indian summer, hello oncoming brutal winter. It could be the unusual number of natural disasters in the last year: tsunamis, hurricanes, mudslides, and earthquakes. And let's not even go into the general unrest in the world. Needless to say, desperate times cry out for the comfort of home. Little will take you back to your happy place quicker than the deep satisfaction found in a plate of some down-home Southern cooking...
by
First it was low-cal; then it was low-fat. Then it was no-milk followed by no-bread. It seems every five years there is some new evil in our diets that is making us fat or causing headaches and fatigue or digestive problems or any range of ailments. This is not to say our diets are not without fault, especially here in America. But it is highly unlikely that the entire populace is truly lactose intolerant just because blaming dairy is en vogue. So it is with bread.
by
Vegetables. Ahh, yes. Those things that kids push to the side of their plate and that parents beg them to eat. Some grown-ups still despise them. And many fancy restaurants serve them in microscopic portions to avoid having to deal with them. It's sad that vegetables still get such a bad rap. I myself never enjoyed them growing up. Most of what I ate back then came out of a can and had the consistency of baby food. Mushy and tasteless with a hint of butter and salt to salvage them; that's the way my mom tried to fancy them up. I loathed vegetables, as I found most...
by
With the air not quite so warm and the sun not shining quite so bright, the nice thing about fall is that you get a lot more done on the weekends. Good or bad, it is somehow a relief to wake up to a cool fall day and the knowledge you have a full day in front of you with nothing but the four walls surrounding you. On an autumn day you can get all caught up on your TIVO, you can finish the book that has been lingering on your nightstand, or maybe you can make friends with your kitchen again...
by
Around these parts, the weather quickly went from pleasantly cool and crisp to bone chillingly cold, or at least it felt that way. For those of us living in colder climates, when the weather changes so fast, it can be hard making a quick adjustment to the new temperature. To me it feels so much colder in November than further along in the winter when my body has had time to regulate. This is when warm comfort foods can come to the rescue, and I'll make a big, big pot of chili. Chili is the perfect meal for chilly late fall weather when the temperature goes south. That...
by
Can you imagine a world without frozen food? I pondered this very question after recently finishing Mark Kurlanskey's fascinating account of the frozen food pioneer, Clarence Birdseye. This book details an age where exploration and food preservation went hand in hand. As inventor and explorer, Birdseye, while living in the arctic tundra, came across a technological breakthrough that allowed vegetables to be quickly frozen in their fresh state, thus preserving their integrity after thawing.
by
Normally, I'm not a regular at the ubiquitous coffee chain you can find in every corner of America; I only go if someone else asks me to meet up there. I like to make my coffee at home first thing in the morning, before really getting started with my day. Even now that I am expecting, I still drink a cup of decaf in the morning, just for the ritual of a morning wake up drink. But there is one time of year I find myself making a coffee run a bit more often ñ the holiday season. Actually make that a Gingersnap Latte run! And the ubiquitous coffee chain is where I...
by
Ah, the potato. That glorious starchy tuber that is remarkably diverse. It can be baked, fried, shredded, diced, blended, whipped, and served whole.
by
Tortillas are one item that have become a weekly staple on my shopping list, just like bread. In fact, sometimes you are more likely to find a bag of flour tortillas in our house than a loaf of bread. Just like salsa, they have skyrocketed in popularity in the American kitchen as we have come to embrace Tex-Mex specialties like fajitas and burritos. In addition to the standard corn and white flour tortillas, I have found various other types at the local store that add interesting color and flavor to all those Tex-Mex standbys. Whole wheat, spinach, tomato, and...
by
I like to say "what if" and "why not" when I cook. The same curiosity and abandon often apply to choosing plants for our gardens. So, every year we plant one or two different vegetables or fruits just to see how they'll grow in our climate and what kind of yield we'll have with them. This year we experimented with Asian melons and sweet potatoes. The Asian melons started out beautifully. The seeds quickly developed into big plants with lots of fruit on them. My friend Lan told me that they would be delicious and I promised to share the harvest with her. But, at the...
by
Every well-equipped bachelor has tools. I don't mean hammers and screwdrivers, people. I mean kitchen tools. Those who are not well equipped in the kitchen tend to be, well, they tend to be tools. So here are ten essential tools that you bachelors need to avoid being a tool: 1. A decent chef's knife: perhaps more than anything else, you need good, quality knives. Good, quality knives are expensive, but they are worth it. If you can only afford one knife, however, the chef's knife is the one to go for. It is perfect for a number of tasks, from chopping to carving...