Spicy Chocolate Chip-Hazelnut Cookies recipe and cookbook review: Season by Nik Sharma

March 1, 2019

#Season #ABrownTable #NikSharma #ChronicleBooks #chocolate #cookies

Nik grew up in India, then lived in the Midwestern and Northeastern U.S., and finally settled in California with his husband from the Southern U.S. All of those influences are very present in his food, and it makes for the most delightful fusion. I was thumbing through Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food, oohing and aahing, flagging recipes to try. His spiced, roasted potato salad called for paneer and chourico as ingredients, but listed page numbers for their recipes. I’d never made cheese before and was delighted that he thought it was simple enough to be just a lead-in recipe. I hopped right in the car to go grab a gallon of milk to get started, and I’m so glad I did! It really was that easy. I can’t tell you how many recipes I’ve passed by in Indian cookbooks if I wasn’t going to have time to pop by a specialty market. That wont happen again! But that’s just background preparation. His dishes have wonderfully complex, deep flavors, and are creatively inspirational. This book was a joy to explore.

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Jen’s West African Peanut Soup and a stunning knife

February 22, 2019

Twenty-something years ago, when we were still newlyweds, I asked my husband if there were any favorite foods he had that I wasn’t making. He thought for a minute and said, “Yeah. Peanut soup. When I was in basic training, we had it once when we were out on leave, and it was one of the best things I’d ever eaten.” Huh. I’d never heard of peanut soup before.

It’s a West African dish, filled with all kinds of nutritious stuff. I had to make it. It was amazing! I kept it constantly in the rotation, tweaking it to my heart’s content, because it’s just as delicious as it is good for you. Perfect.

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Blintz Soufflé recipe and cookbook review: Little Book of Jewish Feasts by Leah Koenig

February 15, 2019

#ChronicleBooks #LeahKoenig #LindaPugliese #LittleBookofJewishFeasts #brunch #blintzes #souffle

Leah Koenig’s flavors are amazing! Just delicious! Little Book of Jewish Feasts is just a little bigger than my hand. There are 25 main dishes in it for holidays. There are no sides in it, but she does make some recommendations. The dishes are so special and are pretty easy. Some of her techniques are unusual, but absolutely brilliant for making a dish appropriate for feeding a crowd. We’ve loved everything we’ve tried and totally recommend it!

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Can We Talk About Wine Beer? B’s Beer Buzz

February 4, 2019

#Beer #Wine #Tasting #DogfishHead #DogfishBeer #RahrBrewing #NewGlarusBrewing #FortWorth #Dallas #Texas #Wisconsin #RodeoGoat #PecanLodge #TopGolf

We picked up a case of Dogfish Head’s Christmas pack back in December. My husband handed me a beer and I took a sip. Whuuuuut is this? It’s got all the fabulous hoppiness of their IPAs, but it tastes like someone poured a little Syrah in it. Wine beer!

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Jen’s Buffalo Joes – as in the meat, not the sauce ;)

January 28, 2019

Oh January, how I love you! After 5 fast-paced months, good old sleepy, relaxing January shows up, and I have very little to do. I love to really take advantage of it by getting double workouts in every day (well, 5 days a week), and go freezer diving for the dinner centerpieces. What do I find in that freezer? A lot of healthier cuts of meat that my well-intentioned self buys if I go to Costco hungry, and then they sit in the freezer waiting to become something.

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Jen’s Smoky, Cheesy, Bacon & Chicken over Spaghetti Squash with Lots of Complementary Vegetables. Mmmmm.

January 21, 2019

It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, National Hug Day, and my birthday! And yesterday was National Cheese Lover’s Day. Time for a combination of two wonderful things: cheese and smokiness. I fell in love with a pasta dish from a recipe card that came with a Pampered Chef pan years ago, and have adapted it to my taste over the years. It’s pretty distant from the original, but that was the inspiration. Glorious inspiration. I hope you love it!

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