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Jun 28

Sweet Liberty


Independence Day! A day to celebrate freedom! Here’s hoping this post will make you freer to enjoy the holiday by helping to liberate you from the kitchen. For guests dessert is, pardon the pun, the topping on the cake, a sweet ending. For the hosts, it’s often the last hurdle to get over. If the meal is outdoors, that hurdle is higher.  In addition to presentation and serving, melting and spoiling become considerations.  If you plan a recipe that requires garnishing, labor and timing become problems too. The solution is to have a desert ready to be tabled in advance; if it can hold up for awhile and is easily served, even better. Read more

Jun 21

Sauce for the goose is…

Sauce for the Gander”; is an old saying. What should be added is that the sauce is, by doing double duty, saving time and money. A modern twist would be to say that sauce for the chicken is for the turkey; is for the pork; is for the veal. Actually, that may be in reverse order. The concept of substituting other meats in sauce show-cased dishes began during the ‘70s and ‘80s when eating veal became very un-PC.  Always more expensive, the resultant lack of demand, drove the price up, and veal off the home and most restaurant menus. However, there are many popular dishes that people still wanted Marsala and piccatta to name two. Chicken, presented skinless and boneless, became a happy stand-in. Read more

Jun 14

Side by side

Fathers’ Day already, and with the warm weather, it’s usually another occasion to cook out. After acting as busboy, dishwasher and sous chef for three generations of men in my family, while they grilled, I’ve concluded that for most men, grilling is less about cooking than it is about enjoying the company and the setting, and they have the right idea. They’re willing to watch over the starring entrée, but don’t want to fret over the sides, especially with guests present.  Those are better magically appearing on the table, but there’s no reason they can’t be ready in advance so those who do make them can relax and have fun too. Read more

Jun 7

Still in the soup

The morning after I wrote my last posting on summer soups, I turned on the T.V. to see Chef Mark Bittman recommending chilled soup as a dinner entrée on a hot day, and realized my idea might be in sync with a trend. In case it is, I decided to write the first of a few planned sequels right away, rather than wait until later in the season, as intended. The more you know, the easier it will be to take advantage of fresh produce as it comes to market, and to tap into all the resultant sales on related products that follow a trend. For this, they would be broths, herbs, seasonings, condiments, some dairy products like sour cream, cream, and shredded cheese, as well as salad dressings and breads; anything that goes with, or into soup, and that opens a whole world of possibilities. Read more