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Plantain Pancake + Pollo Criollo

I love using familiar ingredients in unfamiliar ways. All of the ingredients in this dish are familiar to the FOODalogue kitchen but they’ve never appeared together this way before. The idea came to me as I looked at the lone plantain (soon to turn ripe) in my vegetable bowl. Then I remembered the leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge. The wheels started turning, the cabinet doors were flung open and I started pulling out the rest of the ingredients. Continue Reading

Chicken with Sherry Vinegar Onion Sauce

This is another one of those dishes that started without a plan. A package of chicken thighs and no clue. But, after a little kitchen wizardry, the end result was worthy of a post.

Although my last post included a date sauce, I’m really not much of a sauce person. That said, I think what makes this dish especially interesting is the preparation of the sauce. Hint: Another title for this post could have been: “How to hide your vegetables in plain sight.” Continue Reading

Orange-Fennel Turkey + Polenta

I really love roasted turkey. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday meal and somewhere around midyear between the last Thanksgiving and the next, I start to crave a taste of the big bird. Fortunately, turkey parts are readily available in the supermarket.

Perhaps when you think of turkey, you simultaneously think of the-belly-busting meal we associate with Thanksgiving, but it doesn’t have to be that way if you don’t fill your plate with 12 side dishes!

This dinner which I prepared for myself was lovely…tasty and aromatically scented by the preparation and the finishing sauce.

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Culinary Tour 2010 • Colombia

Sadly, the only thing many people know about Colombia besides the fact that it’s in South America is its long history with drug-trafficking cartels. However, even with that blemish, Colombia has managed to contribute much to the arts and our popular culture today. Let me introduce  you to a few notable Colombians.

Have you seen the new TV show “Modern Family”? Sofia Vergarra is from Colombia. So is TV-movie star John Leguizamo. The concept and original production of “Ugly Betty” originated in Colombia. Other famous Colombians include Nina Garcia, fashion director of “Elle” and “Marie Claire” and “Project Runway” judge. Another is Rodrigo Garciá Barca, one of the directors of “The Sopranos” and “Six Feet Under” among other hit shows. On the music scene, Shakira, Juanes, and Carlos Vives have consistently been on the top of charts. There have been sports figures and beauty queens too. And who doesn’t know the paintings and ‘fat’ sculptures of Fernando Botero and the work of Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel Garcíá Marquez?

But, come, let’s talk about food…

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Thanksgiving Burger + Trimmings

I love Thanksgiving. The flavor palette of this holiday meal has me salivating for days before — and digesting/working it off for days after. But what if you could have all of the flavors of Thanksgiving and none of the trappings? And by ‘trappings’, I mean calories.

Imagine you had a shopping list of turkey, pumpkin, sweet potato, apples, raisins…wouldn’t you start thinking “Thanksgiving”?


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Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: La Fiesta del Pavo Borracho (The Drunken Turkey Party)

drunken turkey illustrtionThe guests ‘may’ be sober, but the bird is definitely juiced! It arrives with a few cups of tequila and Grand Marnier in its belly.


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Home-Made Mexican Chicken Sausage

This is an unconventional method for making sausage, but it resulted in a very tasty recipe.

Question: What makes a sausage? Is it the meat? the seasoning? the forcing? the casing? the shape? the cooking method? Or, perhaps, just because the cook says it’s sausage?

Although I’ve never made sausage, the other day I wanted to make sausage. I didn’t have a meat grinder or sausage casings. I didn’t even have a fatty protein. But that didn’t stop me. Continue Reading

A Birthday Story of Fried Turkey and Sides

Back Story: For Christmas Day dinner, my son wanted a fried turkey and went out and purchased the fryer. But we had a rain-out. Fast thinking and successful surgery to de-bone the carcass to get it cooked quickly followed and we ate a very delicious (though not conventional) roast turkey.


Fast Forward: March 8 is my son’s birthday. In our family, the birthday person chooses the dinner…the person closest by blood ties does the cooking…and everyone else shows up to eat and celebrate.  My son was still hankering for that fried turkey so that was his dinner choice. Thankfully for me, because that also meant the party would be at his house and that he would be handling half the dinner which was a big help since we were going to be 21 people.

Cell phones in hand to dial 911, his cousins and friends stood a good distance behind him cheering/jeering(?) as Jim lowered the turkey into the boiling hot oil.
45-minutes or so later, he pulled out a beautifully golden 20+ lb. bird.

It didn’t take long after that for the birthday turkey to look like this:

For me dinners like this are all about the sides. However, not wanting to go the traditional Thanksgiving menu route since we were cooking outdoors, I made 4 side dishes that could be served at room temperature. Two had a decidedly Mediterranean theme and two had a Southwestern twist.
From my Spanish and Italian roots, I conjured up a pasta that was made with long-simmering garbanzos, chorizo, tomatoes, green olives and dressed with olive oil and lemon.

This was a rice salad made with sauteed spinach and artichokes to which I added toasted pignolis, feta cheese, a LOT of lemon, and olive oil.

A big hit with the kids was the roasted sweet potatoes that were dressed with a vinaigrette made from fresh lime juice and lots of zest, honey, a little olive oil and a little chipolte (ssh, don’t tell the kids).
Corn, avocado, cheddar cheese, black olives, capers, scallions dressed with fresh tomato salsa and extra squeezes of lemon.

It was supposed to be just these 4 sides but not wanting to waste all those gallons of hot oil, my son threw in a few pounds of sliced white potatoes after he removed the turkey. They don’t look so good but they were might tasty.
The party ended with Carvel ice cream cake…some traditions die hard!
Truth be told: (1) While the turkey was very moist, I prefer a roasted bird. (2) I’m not telling you how old my son was on March 8th. I’m not that truthful!