Tomatilla!

It is time to kick off the 11th installment of the Paper Chef. I am getting rather overloaded lately so I am taking up Stephen’s offer to host as well as judge this time around. I’ll kick it off by putting up the current ingredient list here, but he will pick it up and post [...]

It’s no secret that I’m fond of Indian food and that my family is too. As with everything I have my favorites and perhaps the single most favorite dish is from the inimitable Madhur Jaffrey.

It is to be found in her wonderful book, “Quick and Easy Indian Cooking.” I especially like this book because [...]

I’m stealing the title for this post from Pierre Franey, one of my all time favorite cookbook chefs. He really gets what it takes to make a meal at home for dinner several nights a week in contrast to so many cookbook chefs who seem to think I have three hours a day to devote [...]

I haven’t used it all yet. I test roasted some of the peanuts – they take a LOT of roasting in the shell. But the kids liked them.

I made some spicy pesto using one bunch of basil, a head of garlic, an ancho chile, olive oil, parmesan reggiano, breadcrumbs, lemon juice and salt. I [...]

I think I’m going to be a regular at the Oakland Farmer’s Market. I got two pounds of a mysterious asian green that tastes a lot like sorrel. I got six large fresh lemongrass stalks. I got two pounds of fresh basil and a pound of fresh thai basil. I got a bunch of cilantro. [...]

[[UPDATED]]I’m sorry for the delay in getting the roundup done. It had nothing to do with the fact that we had a record-breaking 19 entries all anchored in the spirit of doing a little something to simultaneously celebrate New Orleans and contribute a little. Instead it was to do with me getting a little overwhelmed [...]

In posting the Paper Chef Roundup. I have been extraordinarily busy and for once some of it has been more important than the Paper Chef. I WILL get the roundup posted sometime over the weekend…

The past week or so has been a bad one. New Orleans was one of my favorite cities for several reasons, but mostly because our visits there have all been for the right reasons and have been about people and relationships. Two weddings and a family vacation. Making new friends. Drinking good coffee. Eating beignets [...]

Thank you to everyone who took part over the weekend in Paper Chef and thank you for your donations as a result for hurricane relief. It was also a holiday, so we’ll keep taking entries until tonight. I’ll post my own (non) entry later today. Crawfish boil, jambalaya and greens…

So, in honor of the Paper Chef and virtual IMBB parties for this weekend I hurried off to the Oakland City Center Farmers Market at lunchtime, late because of work. I wanted things to go with beer, shrimp, sausage and tomatoes. Tomatoes would in fact be one of those things, so three pounds of organic [...]