Tomatilla! - Food, writing, publishing and life

Omnivoracious

2008-08-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

This little list has been idling around the food blogger world for a few weeks. I decided to take a look and I am sad to say that I have eaten 90 of these and know for a fact that I will never hit 100 since I have no intention of eating fugu and I'd probably skip the kaolin too - although I may have eaten it and never known since it IS an additive. For the record I have not eaten crocodile, vodka

Foodproof Launches

2008-08-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

Some friends of mine have launched a new food community site called Foodproof. What does that mean? This is a real social community with membership and blogs, forums, videos, recipes, cross connections and a lot more - and everyone gets access to everything in clever ways so you can make the site what you want it to be. I like the forums, the videos and just the general ambience. Note this is a

Zippy Gets Jazzed!

2008-08-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

It is with great pleasure that we have a guest post here at Tomatilla! My lovely spouse, Doc Gurley, has a wonderful medical blog (it helps to be a doctor - just imagine if I had a medical blog...OK, don't, let's just say it would be bad) and she has been doing her bit this past week to support research and healthcare for pediatric brain tumors. How? well read on - and then go visit her blog and

Recipe Search Now Working!

2008-04-28T12:40:00.000-07:00

I am so excited! My sharper-eyed readers will have noticed a little web form thingy over on the right hand sidebar that has three little entry windows that say 'first ingredient,' 'second ingredient,' and 'third ingredient,' with a button below that says 'Get Recipes.' Anyone who tried it found out that it did nothing.Not anymore!Now it searches a conglomeration of web sites that let people

Goodbye To Adsense (but not All That)

2008-03-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

I've used Adsense for adverts on this blog for a couple of years as a way to pay for hosting - it never quite has done that and it has also never really delivered ads that made much sense. And recently it stopped even doing that. Basically if this is what Google is relying on for all that money it supposedly makes then I would sell all my Google stock now (if I had any). Plus Google search is

Easy Lemon Curd

2008-02-20T17:38:00.000-08:00

VERY easy. So easy. Ridiculously easy. Almost as easy as opening a jar and MUCH easier than driving to the store...There are two ways to make lemon curd. One involves double boilers and careful stirring and sieving and many things that I don't care about. The other involves a secret piece of equipment to be revealed in a moment.Easy Lemon CurdIngredients2 Lemons1 cup sugar3/4 stick butter (3 oz.

Ilva's Bringing Paper Chef Back!

2008-01-28T11:22:00.000-08:00

OK, stop whatever else you are doing and rush right over to Lucullian Delights, Ilva's totally lovely food blog where she is relaunching Paper Chef. I am so happy that she has taken this on and while I will always think of it as my baby I have had to acknowledge that I can't run it anymore, so I am so very grateful that she has taken it on. We are in the ingredient nomination phase right now - go

Gluten Free Pizza, Free Association and Help

2008-01-24T17:29:00.000-08:00

Just for kicks - I am going to see if I can get some help. As you may know, I am close to building my wood-burning oven - but it now looks like I may have to come up with a GOOD gluten-free pizza recipe. In this case, good means NOT a batter you spread on a tray as in almost all the recipes I have seen so far.So here is a 'tag cloud of associations' and maybe someone will see it and get creative

Gluten Free Pasta - The Beginnings

2008-01-11T15:33:00.000-08:00

Now that I am experimenting with gluten-free cooking I have discovered one true tragedy. Real bread is an impossibility. Sure there are lots of recipes that SAY they have good bread. But the bottom line is that for REAL bread you need gluten. The gluten is what makes the dough 'thready' and that holds it together during rising and after baking. So now it is time to dig into some food science (

Happy New Year (maybe Gluten Free)

2008-01-06T09:46:00.000-08:00

First, Happy New Year to you all! I am determined that this year will be different, better and far more worthwhile. So a lot of changes are planned . I started out with the simplest - no New Year's Resolutions! In the past they have just been a way to feel guilty. No more....Next, we are rapidly becoming a gluten-free (as well as often vegetarian) household. It is looking likely that 1.5 of us

Paper Chef Update ...and all things Paper Chef

2007-12-18T10:49:00.000-08:00

Well, Ilva, over at the truly lovely blog Lucullian Delights, has decided to take on Paper Chef so that it doesn't die out. I'm really happy because she has always been one of its biggest supporters (and one of the best entrants). This way my little monthly event will carry on.For those of you coming over here from her blog or who have no idea what I'm talking about, below is a little potted

Food Blog Awards - Time To Vote

2007-12-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

This year, I was again honored to be asked to help judge the annual Food Blog Awards, the prestigious awards for food bloggers that were started four years ago (I think - maybe it was three - I'm getting old) by Kate at Accidental Hedonist and then taken over by the other Cate at WellFed.net.Anyways, I and some other fantabulous judges, just finished a LONG weekend of looking at food blogs and

Umm - not goodbye

2007-12-05T17:55:00.000-08:00

It seems that quite a few took my most recent post (just below) to mean that I was giving up the blog altogether. Don't know how they got that form my completely clear and lucid prose. ;-)In fact I am just saying goodbye to the Paper Chef (which lives on in Sweden - but I can't tell you how to participate - to the shame of my ancestors I can't speak or read Swedish). I haven't been able to give

Saying goodbye and giving thanks

2007-11-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

It is time for me to face facts. I no longer have the time or energy to keep Paper Chef going. I don't have time to even write short notes in what was - more than four years ago now - intended just to be a personal record that would help me remember how to repeat dishes I'd made that I and others liked.So, first of all, I would like to give a huge thank you on this day of thanks to all of you -

Paper Chef 26

2007-10-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

If I get started now I think we can pull this off! So....Paper Chef 26 ingredient nominations are now open.the current ingredient list is: Zucchini (courgettes), crawfish (crayfish), scallions (spring onions), cocoa nibs, italian prune plums, saffron, blueberries, olives, chicken, peaches, rosemary, five spice (the chinese blend of five spices), 'skin' (presumably of anything), basil, cod roe,

Paper Chef winners and more

2007-10-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

OK, despite all my intentions I am not getting updates done at anything like an acceptable pace. However, in an effort to keep moving, here are the official winner(s) of Paper Chef 25. Since we had a couple of single dish entrants and a couple of multiple dish entrants I am going to just decide to have a singel dish winner and a multiple dish winner this time around.As usual, it is practically

Lots of parties

2007-09-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

I know that I am holding fire on announcing a Paper Chef winner - especially since the next one is due to kick off pretty shortly! So that'll come later today.In the meantime I just need to record a few notes about things I have cooked recently so they don't slip my brain entirely. We hosted a few parties lately and I actually got to make some new things that came out well. So, in no particular

Roundup for Paper Chef #25 � The Home Edition

2007-09-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

I guess the theme song for this should be 'Home on the Range' rather than something less cooking related � but it makes me think of rather different things. Tradition and a relaxed frame of mind and a relaxed approach to life. Rather more 'slow food' than cowboy food perhaps.Here's how this edition of the Paper Chef event was set up: "The theme for this edition of Paper Chef is 'Home.' That means

A little more time

2007-09-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

Entries and recipes and photos are coming in for Paper Chef 25 and since I am stuck at work until late in the day anyhow, I am extending the deadline until the end of the day. Regular participants and lurkers already know that we don't pay too much attention to deadlines and rules around here, so this extension isn't much of a surprise.I realised that in futzing around with things here over the

When the gas grill is a lifesaver

2007-09-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

The short answer is whenever it's hot, which means most of the year here. But it is more complicated than that. For example, although my fancy new gas (propane) grill has a side burner, I wouldn't make it my first choice for boiling water. In fact it is used mostly for roasting coffee. But that means all boiled foods are out when it gets too hot to cook in the house.That in turn means getting

Dining Out Disaster

2007-09-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

While I wait for the Paper Chef entries to come flooding in, I'm going to resume blogging about other subjects. In this case the matter of going out to eat at restaurants. I do this less and less and especially less and less at fancy dining establishments. Why? Because I find it a worse and worse experience. The cult of celebrity has made truly high end dining so expensive that it cannot be worth

Paper Chef 25 Starts now - the Home Edition

2007-09-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

OK - a couple of hours late, but here we go...The theme for this edition of Paper Chef is 'Home.' That means that the fourth ingredient is 'something you already have in your home' - you can't go out and buy it - you have to look around and use something. If the cupboard is bare then you may have to make water the special ingredient! A reminder, the other ingredients are chile peppers, smoked

Phase 2 of Paper Chef 25 - the first three ingredients have been chosen...

2007-09-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

The final ingredient list after all nominations was: Chile peppers, zucchini (courgettes), crawfish (crayfish), scallions (spring onions), cocoa nibs, italian prune plums, saffron, blueberries, olives, chicken, peaches, rosemary, five spice (the chinese blend of five spices), 'skin' (presumably of anything), basil, smoked swordfish, cod roe, aubergine (eggplant), lard, sardines, caraway seeds,

Paper Chef 25 Ingredient Update

2007-08-31T11:13:00.000-07:00

Not a long post this time - just an update on where we stand. First off, the event will start properly next Wednesday, Sept 5th, when I'll announce the three random ingredients. Then on Friday September 7th I'll announce the 'special' fourth ingredient and you'll have until the following Wednesday Sept 12th at noon PST to make a dish using the four ingredients and write a post about it in your

Call for Ingredients - Paper Chef 25

2007-08-27T17:06:00.001-07:00

Come now people! This is not good enough. So far we only have eight ingredients nominated for Paper Chef. Admittedly, they are very high quality ingredients - just the kind a Paper Chef would use - eccentric, interesting, bursting with flavor. But really, I can't in good conscience pick three from eight! I barely need a true atmospheric random number generator for that!So far we have: Chile