What are you drinking this holiday?

A little props to me for my latest article at culinate.com regarding procuring the perfect holiday wine to keep your sanity intact and your family sedated. Click here for my intoxicating advice!

photo from culinate.com

Gosh, I'm so flattered!!

Not to toot my own horn, but since I haven't been giving myself near enough credit lately, I am very excited to have my first real (not to diminish Eat.Drink.Think., but these guys paid!) online article published at the great online food magazine, culinate.com, which discourses on one of my favorite summer subjects: deliciously crisp and brilliantly pink rosé wines. Plus there's a couple of my go-to recipes you can click to so you can further enhance your experience. Click the link above to go to the article, and be sure to check out the rest of their site. They're doing a great job of feeding my food addiction!
Thanks to Kim at culinate for the opportunity....it was a blast!

'queing it, Spanish style!

Pressure. It either brings out your best, or it makes you crumble like a 2-day old donut. Last night at my sister's house, she had it going like she didn't have a care in the world, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was hosting (along with her sous chef, husband, and tender of the Weber kettle Dave) 11 food fanatics and a photo shoot of her paella for a soon to appear article on the great local food blog Culinate. In attendance, besides your humble reporter and his partner in crime w, was the editor of Culinate, Kim Carslon and her husband and chief webhead James Berry. Also salivating at the prospects were good food friends Jeff and Kathryn, plus the owners of up and coming PDX food mecca Foster and Dobbs, Luan Schooler and Tim Wilson.

Oh look, dahlings, it's our cook!







The paella happily simmering away

w and I arrived, several bottles of rosé in hand, to find things simmering along nicely. They had already popped a couple bottles of pink stuff, the mise was done, and the cooking tool was fired up. See, this paella that my most creative sister was cooking up was being cooked on Dave's near collectors vintage 25-year old Weber kettle. Talk about patina. Anyway, we were snacking away, the chatter was flowing, of course mostly food related, the rosé going down like koolaid for adults. Then sis Kathleen swung into action, laying down the pan on the Weber grill, throwing in a few choice ingredients including Paul Bertolli's smok-a-licious chorizo from Fra' Mani, and in about 25-30 minutes, we were plate deep in some serious Spanish goodness. Steaming hot, a thin layer of the elusive socarrat adding a crusty layer of complexity.

The finished product right before it mysteriously disappeared.....into our bellies!!!




Her good friend and pro-photog Steve Bloch was snapping away pic after pic (sorry, you have to put up with my usual half-ass efforts!) as we gathered around the table and tucked in to this most satisfying of rice creations. A few more bottles of wine were emptied, well deserved praise was issued, our tummies were getting stuffed, but there's always room for dessert, right? We finished the night with Kathleen's signature rhubarb crisp, and Kim and James brought these CRAZY homemade ice cream sandwiches. Creamy, rich vanilla ice cream tucked between two homemade oatmeal cookies. Off the hook!

My new definition of happiness: Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches!


Once again driving home with that happy glow, thanking the gods of food for all that is good!

Online inspiration!

Sorry for the paucity of postings lately. Nothing too exciting food wise has passed my lips lately. Well, except for these amazing roasted fresh sardines and we had at Castagna Café last night. It's on their appetizer menu, and they were spectacularly savory in a sizzling pool of olive oil, garlic, and pine nuts. Also had a beautifully spring-like watercress soup that by itself would have been enough, but of course The Handsome One ups the ante by floating a few deep fried morels that taste like little earthy croutons. Yum! Plus I've been way busy getting ready for next weeks escape to the land of Euro-food.

So while I have no big food news, it doesn't mean you can't have your appetites whetted elsewhere. Here's a couple more blog sites that I've been hitting regularly:
Beyond Salmon is a very entertaining site by Boston food writer/cooking instructor Helen Rennie. She usually features a great recipe to go along with mouthwatering pictures of her creations. I haven't tried any of her recipes yet, but they all read like they'll be excellent. If any of you try them, I'd love to hear back.

I also have been feeding the food jones at Culinate, which is a locally produced online food magazine with a national focus. A great variety of food related articles, insight, recipes, cookbook reviews, etc. Nice graphics, pics, and more ways to kill time at work...er, search for inspiration to enhance your homelife.

Check 'em out, and starting Sunday the great vacation blog of '07 starts with visits to the Piedmont and Cinque Terre in Italy, then five days eating our way through Paris. Once again giving it up for you!!