| Entertaining in Full Bloom Irresistible Italian Recipes for Spring | | Posted Monday, March 12, 2007 3:10:51 PM by Blog57 Team | | (Family Features) - Capture the essence of Italy in your spring celebrations with these signature recipes created by Chef Michael Chiarello.Start with Michael's first rule of easy entertaining: save time and enhance flavor by beginning with great ingredients like pre-seasoned bread crumbs and high-quality canned tomatoes, such as Progresso crushed tomatoes. For more recipes, entertaining ideas and wine pairings, visit progressofoods.com.Michael Chiarello is the tastemaker behind NapaStyle (www.napastyle.com), Chiarello Family Vineyards (www.chiarellovineyards.com), Consorzio Flavored Oils, and is the Emmy Award-winning host of "Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello" on Food Network. Over his 20-year career, Michael has drawn on his Southern Italian roots and Napa Valley way of life to pioneer culinary and lifestyle innovations that inspire friends and family to gather around the table to create meaningful traditions.... | |
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| | | Chef shares rich Black Forest roots | | Posted Saturday, December 30, 2006 3:08:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | Walter Staib dipped a finger into the cream sauce he was simmering on the stove and gave it a taste. "Excellente," he pronounced, his rich German voice suddenly taking on a faux Italian accent. Sampling a forkful of trout a minute later, "Mmmm, delicious," he assured himself. Barely five minutes later, he swiped a fingerful of whipped cream that had been destined for the top of his Black Forest cake. "Quality control," he said with a grin. Ninety-nine miles from his culinary home of Philadelphia, chef Walter Staib was clearly at home here in The Record Kitchen. He's managed to make himself at home everywhere, from his historic City Tavern restaurant to the hundreds of restaurants he's helped create as a consultant. But his real home is what inspired his third book, "Black Forest Cuisine" (Running Press, October 2006), in which Staib takes readers deep into his birthplace, southwestern Germany's Black Forest, the mythical-sounding region that most people either misunderstand or generalize.... | |
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| | | THE MENU THE RECIPES | | Posted Sunday, December 17, 2006 1:13:46 PM by Blog57 Team | | The family will enjoy the wonderful aroma and delicious taste of Pork Tenderloin with Broiled Apples. Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup apple jelly, 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice and blend well. Place 2 pounds of pork tenderloin in a shallow roasting pan and brush with half the jelly mixture. Roast 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes. Place thin slices from 4 cored, unpeeled red apples on broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Brush with remaining jelly mixture and broil 5 to 6 inches from heat 5 minutes. Slice pork and serve with apples. Add sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, mixed greens and rolls. For dessert, fat-free ice cream. Plan ahead: Save enough pork for Monday. MONDAY | Heat and Eat Slice the leftover pork and serve mashed potatoes (refrigerated).... | |
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| | | Thanksgiving Countdown ~ Green Bean Recipes | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 11:45:38 AM by Blog57 Team | | I'm not a very organized person by nature. I have to work at it but one thing that I do love to do is plan meals. I enjoy looking for new recipes to try out on family and friends. I'm starting already to look for something special for Thanksgiving and today I'm turning my attention to les haricots verts, aka green beans! One of my all time favorite ways to fix green beans is the provenal way with tomatoes and garlic. It must be my Italian ancestory ~ I'll eat anything with tomatoes and garlic. Then again, growing up in the south, it's hard to resist those pecans! What a dilemma! Et voil: Haricots verts la provenale ~ Green Beans with tomatoes and garlic (in winter, I use drained, chopped canned tomatoes instead of the fresh tomatoes) Buttered Green Beans with Pecans ~ A recipe from Cajun Country Green Beans & New Potatoes with Bacon, Onions & Garlic Salade de Haricots Verts Green Beans with Mushrooms and Shallots Salade de pois chiches et haricots aux tomates et au basilic ~ A cold green bean, chickpea and tomato salad Green Bean and Fennel Salad ~ with walnuts and goat cheese and dressed with a mustard vinaigrette .... | |
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| | | Easy fixins | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 11:36:14 PM by Blog57 Team | | LINCOLN - When it comes to putting together a cookbook, often the most popular recipes are those that are not too difficult for the everyday cook and include ingredients most people have on hand.That's what Rhoda Holland and the rest of her eight-person cookbook committee kept in mind as they compiled the 2007 sesquicentennial cookbook, "Heavenly Helpings," for the First Presbyterian Church in Lincoln."Several people have commented they like this cookbook because the recipes are not complicated," said Holland, committee chairwoman. "They are easy to fix, which makes them popular for today's busy lifestyle."Along with 201 pages of everything from appetizers and beverages to main dishes and desserts, there's also "historical helpings," a section devoted to recipes from previous church cookbooks, published in 1906, 1914 and 1953.... | |
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| | | Book-club members like to 'read it and eat' | | Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 1:19:22 PM by Blog57 Team | | POINCIANA -- Books clearly feed the mind. And in booming Polk County, the Bookends club has found a way to celebrate that literary spirit and share a meal among friends. Last year, the book club, which has 10 members and meets monthly, added Ruth Reichl's The Gourmet Cookbook (Houghton Mifflin, $40). Compiled by the editor of Gourmet magazine, a former food critic for The New York Times, the tome is an anthology on how America cooks, which intrigued Bookend founding member Elaine Lavine. "It seemed like a fun thing to do," she says. "And it brought a new aspect to our get-togethers. It went over so well, we did it again." Recently, the group gathered at the home of Helen "Ezie" Wilgus to discuss Lidia Matticchio Bastianich's Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen (Knopf, $35).... | |
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| | | Encore in elegance | | Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 11:20:40 AM by Blog57 Team | | Nineteenth-century Italian composers placed songs at certain spots in the opera to give patrons a chance to get snacks like sorbet, a popular 19th-century treat. Called aria di sorbetto -- sorbet arias -- these songs were always sung by a secondary character and didn't advance the story. "Sempre grid," "Ever smiling," in Act II of "The Barber of Seville," is an example of an aria di sorbetto. Noted culinary historian/author Francine Segan is an avid entertainer and an opera music enthusiast who has combined her passions to create the "Opera Lover's Cookbook" ($35 Stewart, Tabori & Chang). It is a sensual journey of the culinary arts -- from soup to nuts -- woven into particular operatic motifs or keyed to works of renowned composers. Segan knows how to throw a dinner party to the tune of timeless opera classics.... | |
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| | | Giovanni's Italian Restaurant | | Posted Monday, November 06, 2006 3:22:32 AM by Blog57 Team | | Italians are known for their rich and unique family recipes handed down through countless generations. At Giovanni's Italian Restaurant, owner Gabriel Hernandez Madrigali says his food follows that tradition -- with a twist. "We've had these recipes in our family forever," he says, "but we're the new generation doing them." And by "we" he means his restaurant, which is also his family. Family works in the kitchen and he waits the tables and is the face of what he calls a "neighborhood restaurant." .... | |
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| | | Urban Indians look to old recipes to shed hot spices from curry | | Posted Friday, November 03, 2006 7:29:30 PM by Blog57 Team | | Former Indian model Divya Chauhan cooks a curry inside her kitchen in Bangalore in October 2006. She is one among many of a newly affluent generation in India making curries the way they tasted before chilies and hot spices were introduced to the subcontinent. The trend has grown as lightly-spiced Western dishes gain favor in India. .... | |
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| | | Marlyn Monette: Let the party planning begin | | Posted Wednesday, November 01, 2006 7:24:19 AM by Blog57 Team | | November has arrived and I'm sure you're wondering, as I am, "where has this year gone?" This month marks the beginning of the social season, as well as the special family rituals of Thanksgiving. Also kicking off this month on Nov. 16th is Les Boutiques de Noel, the Shreveport Opera Guild's fun-filled holiday extravaganza which officially ushers in the Christmas season in Shreveport. If you'll be doing any entertaining in your home, it's time to begin planning. For the past 30-plus years I have kept explicit records of our parties. It's not only smart to have good records, but it is especially rewarding looking back and reminiscing about special events of years past. .... | |
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