As much as I love food, I dislike following recipes. I do occasionally take guidance from outside sources, but the true joy for me is doing it ‘my way’. The creation process ranks right up there with the result.
Soy Chicken is a good case-in-point. I’ve had it a couple of times in restaurants but never made it. So, I spent a couple of minutes online to get a sense of the flavor profile, then I closed the laptop — and went for it! Continue Reading
Oatmeal…it’s NOT just for breakfast anymore.
I must confess that I’m not a big fan of oatmeal. I don’t dislike it but I don’t crave it either. I eat it 1-2x week because (a) it’s purportedly a cholesterol inhibitor and (b) it varies up my breakfast selections. The other day I had it for lunch. Continue Reading
This may not be the prettiest photo in the album but it’s surely a tasty and simple dish. While the ingredients and flavor profiles are familiar to the FOODalogue kitchen, it wasn’t a planned menu.
In fact, it started because I had no plan for dinner. So I looked in the freezer. I don’t normally keep an overly stocked freezer so I generally know exactly what’s in it, but I was happy to find a pork shoulder steak I’d forgotten about. The rest fell into place easily. Continue Reading
Don’t you just love when a familiar food is presented in a unique way? I do. I’ve been making these crowd pleasing bite-size fritattas for parties for many years — in fact, I started making these when I was catering parties in NY under “The Pleasure of Your Company”.
Followers of FOODalogue know that I generally don’t follow recipes, even my own. However, there are a few that I’ve relied on and have carried with me every time I moved. Drunken Turkey is one. This is another. Continue Reading
The term gastropub originally defined a British pub that served food, but they’ve come a long way baby! It’s the latest restaurant craze, popping up all over the place. Remember when everything was a ‘bistro’? Or ‘trattoria’? In New York, for example, there are German, French, Asian, Belgian, Australian, American, Irish and English gastropubs. I’m thinking the new definition should just be “restaurant”. 
I went to an exceptional one in my area last evening and since you all couldn’t be with me, I wanted to treat you to some of the items on this gastropub menu. We relished every morsel, talked about it all through dinner and way into the evening — and then again over breakfast! Continue Reading
So…as I was saying yesterday, I went for a walk in a local nature preserve with a few friends. It was perfectly timed to end at ‘happy hour’ so that we could go immediately into cocktails, dinner and a little card playing. We got our lungs full of fresh air, saw (and heard) lots of birds, a couple of turtles swimming around and one ‘gator.
When we made the date, we decided to do pot-luck and, as I said, I knew what came in the door would be delicious and more than enough. In fact, they left with doggie bags almost as large as what they came in with. Come see what a pot-luck looks like around here… Continue Reading
If your friends appreciate food and cook well, there’s no element of surprise (or disappointment) with pot-lucks. So when I invited a few friends over for a walk in a nearby nature preserve, followed by drinks, a ‘pot-luck’ and an evening of card playing, I knew there would be none of the traditional covered dishes, casseroles or jello salads.
Tomorrow I will post the whole dinner but for today I wanted to spotlight the first dish of the evening. It was inspired by a gift mix of exotic mushrooms and the truffle products that I received from Marx Foods, an online purveyor of exotic and organic products. Continue Reading
I’ve seen reference to ‘meatless Mondays’ on the internet but never paid much attention to it. Lots of meals in the FOODalogue kitchen are meatless. It doesn’t matter the day. But, today is Monday and I went meatless…so why not?
This meal started with leftovers from our Mothers’ Day antipasto. We had bocconcini (tiny fresh mozzarella balls marinated with sun-dried tomatoes and basil) and kalamata olives, among other things. To that I added cubed fresh zucchini, garlic, fresh grape tomatoes and few other ingredients. It’s a simple dish, yet very illustrative of the pasta/veggie dishes I love. Continue Reading
The FOODalogue kitchen has always been a ‘no-sugar’ zone. I don’t use it in my coffee or other beverages — and I’m not known for making sweet treats. In fact, the pound of sugar I have for guests who request it has been in the cabinet for probably longer than its shelf life (oops). But, I recently discovered gourmet flavored sugars and felt compelled to try them. Back in February I posted Green Bamboo Rice + Sweet Onion Sugar Shrimp. Since then, I’ve been haunted by an expresso sugar I saw in the store and just went back to pick it up (along with a ginger sugar that seemed tasty). Continue Reading
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