Before we head off to England (and a five day side-trip to Northern France) to visit the across-the-pond family, we wanted to leave you with a different option for your Christmas Day meal. Some families love making hard-core meals for Christmas Day dinner – meals that take hours to cook and include many courses or [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Cacio e Pepe, Europe, Food Commentary, Italian, Italy, Olive Oil, Pasta, Rachel Ray, Recipe, Recipes, Roman, Rome, butter, cheap meal, cheese, culture, easy, language, meal, noodles, pepper, quick meal, restaurant, savory, spicy, tourism, tradition, travel, vegetarian on Apr 29th, 2008
I think the title of this post says it all about my feelings (and others) about the famous Romans dish of pasta, traditionally spaghetti, with pecorino cheese and a good amount of freshly ground pepper. The name says is all – cacio, meaning cheese, and pepe meaning pepper. We’re not breaking any new ground here [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Cuba, Cuban-American, Fast Food, Pernil, Puerto Rican, cheap meal, cheese, crispy, easy, eating, gherkins, ham, lunch, mustard, pickles, pork, sandwiches, tradition on Apr 17th, 2008
Cuba is synonymous with a few things in everyone’s mind, and whether or not you’re a commie, a weak-willed socialist-sympathizing pinko, or even a right-wing pseudo-fascist, there is much to admire about that politically-isolated island nation. It’s long and storied colonial history, the amazing preservation of its architecture and fleet of intact 1950s Chevrolet, its [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Garlic, Italian, Olive Oil, Pernil, Recipe, Recipes, anchovies, cheap meal, easy, herbs, lemon, parsley, pork, skin, slow cooking, thyme on Apr 6th, 2008
One of the tastiest and cheapest things I can buy in my grocery store is a bone-in pork shoulder. When I saw that they were on sale for 79 cents (YES, that’s right) a pound, I figured I’d pick one up. For only two of us, I bought the smallest one I found [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Garlic, Italian, Mario Batali, Olive Oil, Recipe, Recipes, artichoke, cheap meal, cheese, chile, easy, lemon, meal, parsley, vegetables, vegetarian on Mar 29th, 2008
With artichokes on sale for 98 cents each (better than the rabbit we bought the other week!), I just had to pick a few up. For some reason, I only grabbed two thinking I would make an appetizer or a side-dish with them. Well, let me tell you, this slight adaptation of a [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Food Commentary, Recipe, Recipes, baking, cheap meal, cornmeal, easy, fried, fritters, healthy, important details, lemon, lower fat, parsley, salt, sauce, seafood, side dish, snapper, tradition, vegetables, vegetarian, whole fish on Mar 11th, 2008
Salt. Does this word get your stomach growling? Get your mouth salivating? Lips smacking? Make you want to just ‘dig in’? Probably not. But could we live without it? Most definitely not. Doing some brief research on this dietary mineral not only “schooled” me on its lengthy history, but it also made me majorly appreciate [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in California, Italian, Potato, Recipe, Recipes, breadcrumbs, butter, cheap meal, cheese, drink, easy, egg, flour, gnocchi, holiday, indulgent meal, quick meal, sage, sauce, travel, vegetarian, wine on Mar 1st, 2008
Last year, Amy and I spent a very enjoyable long weekend with her cousin and cousin’s husband visiting the Napa and Russian River Valley winelands. Throughout the course of the weekend we must have tasted fifty different wines at twelve or so different wineries, and I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I did not [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Italian, Italy, Potato, Recipe, Recipes, beans, bread, cabbage, cheap meal, healthy, kale, parsley, sausage, soup, stew, tradition, tuscany, vegetables, vegetarian, weather on Feb 21st, 2008
Continuing with more comforting winter foods, I decided one night to make Ribollita again. Traditionally, this Tuscan dish is usually made one day using whatever leftovers were around and reboiled (what ribollita literally means in Italian) the next for even more of a flavor power-punch. I also read that ribollita should take a total [...]
Read Full Post »
Get our feed by email
Download our podcasts
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our feed
