If you are looking for a Thanksgiving dessert that will absolutely knock the family’s socks off, this pumpkin creme brulee is the dish. Falling neatly in the middle between rustic family feast and haute cuisine, this dish is both familiar and elegant, featuring all your …
I was told once that the American food that most fascinates foreigners is the Thanksgiving feast. The immutable menu of roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie has become an image that those in other countries long to experience. I was surprised …
These are the mashed potatoes that were served at all family gatherings when I was growing up, and I’m pretty sure they are the best out there. I know that I have a certain amount of bias, seeing as these are the taters of my youth, but I can assure you that every person I have ever served them to has said to me something along the lines of, “damn, those are some good potatoes.” Continue reading Forget Family Mashed Potatoes
For those of us living in tiny homes, vans, buses, and the like, Thanksgiving can be a difficult holiday to celebrate. It is a lot of cooking to be done in that tiny little kitchen. We made it doubly hard on ourselves by opting not …
This here is Grandma’s Impossible Pie. We used to eat it every year at Christmas, and I have recently learned why: the “impossible” part of the name refers to how it must be impossible for such an easy pie to be so dang good, …
For me, this recipe is my childhood. Growing up this dish was, at least in my mind, Mom’s specialty. It was one of those special dinners that we didn’t have every week, but every time we did eat it, I wondered why we couldn’t have it every night.
Lightly breaded chicken pieces are cooked with lemon, onions, and thyme, and then served over egg noodles and topped with the delicious pan gravy. It isn’t complicated, it isn’t hard, but it is hard to beat. Continue reading Mom’s Lemon Chicken
Steak Bearnaise is without a doubt one of the best dishes out there. What on earth is more luxurious than a fine piece of grilled beef drizzled with a hot butter sauce? Flavored with tarragon, shallots, and white wine vinegar, bearnaise sauce somehow adds both …
Furutsu sando is a subtle dessert that celebrates seasonal fruits, tastes delicious, and looks beautiful–sounds like Japanese patisserie. Something like a strawberry shortcake, furutsu sando is a sandwich made with whipped cream, whatever fruits are ripe at the time, and, traditionally, Japanese milk bread. It …
Yakitori, literally “grilled bird,” is a dish of grilled chicken, and is serious business in Japan. Like other culinary specialties in Japan (think sushi, tempura, ramen), there are many restaurants that only serve yakitori. These yakitori joints are hyper-specialized, serving up every part of the chicken, but always grilled, typically skewered, and only seasoned in one of two ways: salt and pepper, or with a lacquer-like tare glaze. And usually served alongside a few cold beers. Continue reading Yakitori
There is something undeniably wonderful about eating a big platter of sushi out in the middle of nowhere. It just feels so delightfully out of place to set out a tray of sushi rolls in a place that is miles from any water, much less …