I think tapas has to be one of my favorite styles of food. I love small plates and lots of ’em. Plus, there’s always tons of garlic and pork in the food. Strangely, not everyone eats pork. As curious as this is to me, it’s a total bonus because it means there will be more pork for the rest of us.
Since they kindly add more pork to my life, I like to look out for vegetarians or vegans when I can. So I made up this excellent tapas or side dish recipe.
Inspired by my faithful companion, my cell phone and an abundance of green tomatoes from my garden, this green tomato chutney recipe is named 4G for its four “green” ingredients: green tomatoes, green apples, green chilies, green mint.
The only thing I like better than a food crawl is a cabana boy ’n‘ food crawl. That’s where I and my most favorite food pals lie around in complete comfort, sipping sauvignon blanc, while being fed the most delicious foods in New York City by hot nubile young men while other hot young things scamper around town bringing more and more treats. Maybe this should be called a cabana boy crawl NOT! ← THIS DOES NOT EXIST!!! (but don’t you think it should?)
He looked great and felt much better, but it was challenging for him when it came to eating out with friends. When you go gluten-free, you’re limited by what you can eat, especially when it comes to sweets because there’s a whole lotta gluten going on.
I’ve always loved to bake. Not because I have such a sweet tooth, but because it makes people really happy. So there’s always lots of gluten in my oven. But, challenged and inspired by Justin and knowing that there’d be more people with gluten allergies at the Brooklyn Flea, where the bake sale was held, I thought let me make something for those folks.
While chocolate has been very, very good to me, I don’t consider it a friend, especially when it comes to making chocolates. It’s made me stomp, scream and cry. I’m certain that at least half my gray hairs are from chocolate. Still I make chocolates because they delight people. So here is a recipe for the easiest way I found for hand tempering chocolate. The seriously easiest way is with a tempering machine, but that is not always an option.
I’ve been making this brownie recipe foreva! I started out using the recipe on the back of the Baker’s Chocolate box (who else can remember the disappointment when you bit into a block of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate? YUCK!). Back then, I’d chop up milk and dark chocolate Hershey’s bars to make them “triple chocolate”—Hey, we did not have a lot of chocolate choices back then. I thought I was very clever at the time.
When I was a kid my mom and I loved beets. Yes, even canned. It seems that almost everyone, including my brothers, hated them. I love how they came back into fashion even got trendy. Now everyone’s a beet lover like they were never hating on them. Sure… Sure… If I’d shown up with a roasted beet salad with a preserved lemon dressing topped with dukkah crusted labne balls I would have had to eat it alone.
OK, I admit it. I’m a cupcake SNOB! I poo-poo most of them. Too sweet. Too colored. Too much unnecessary crap on top. These cupcakes are for adults and kids who are looking for a more sophisticated CHOCOLATE cupcake experience. The predominate flavor is chocolate. The cake is tender. The ganache frosting is just cream and chocolate… as it should be. I did put a practically inedible silver dragee on the one in this photo, but that was just for the photo which for “food porn-ability” I deemed necessary. Luckily, there are many recipes and places you can get cupcakes where SWEET is predominate flavor experience. For the rest of you, read on.
This is my go-to chocolate frosting. I could give the person who came up with the idea of mixing chocolate and cream a big, sloppy wet one. This is what I put on my Chocolate Cupcake recipe.
While mushroom caps stuffed with a hearty shepherd’s pie filling, topped with mashed potatoes and Irish cheddar cheese was inspired by St. Patrick’s Day, it’s not really one of my celebrated holidays. I’m not one to run out and make a bunch of green-colored food, especially if the green color does not occur naturally. PLUS, I’d never, ever drink green beer (shuddering).
