~C~ is for Cooking!

DIVA DISASTER - A WEBER THANKSGIVING

2010-06-25T16:20:00.000-04:00

Good Afternoon dear Chefs.. It was Thanksgiving 1996 and a horrible snowstorm reared it's ugly head just the day before. I was expecting 23 dinner guests. The menu was Thanksgiving customary. Turkey and all the trimmings; potatoes, vegetables and dessert. Everything was prepped the night before. Stuffing made and refrigerated, potatoes peeled, vegetables cleaned and ready to go; I had baked

DIVA DISASTER - LESSONS LEARNED THE HARD WAY

2010-06-18T15:58:00.004-04:00

Good Afternoon dear Chefs... Today, is the DIVA Disaster post and most fittingly, I want to address the whole Julie & Julia thing. Here's my take on it. Yes, Julie Powell transformed herself into a marketable entity. Through her story, we revisited the life of a very talented woman, Julia Child; that perhaps without such creativity on Julie's part, we would only know Julia Child as one of the

IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME...

2010-06-17T00:32:00.002-04:00

Good Evening Chefs.... I've been so busy lately and I cannot believe I haven't posted in six days. Shame on me! Hope you are all doing well, eating well and just overall feeling great! I don't know what it is about Barbecue Ribs, but that has been my most popular post and thanks to all of you that have commented and left me messages. Since I don't write your usual "cooking/recipe" blog,

DIVA DISASTER - YOU CALL THAT A MEATBALL?

2010-06-11T13:35:00.001-04:00

Good Morning Chefs... Let's recap...As you probably already know, Friday's posts are dedicated to a series, known as D.I.V.A Disasters. They are short stories that talk about things that have gone wrong in my kitchen, whether it pertains to a specific dish or an food incident that occurred after the fact. What is it with people? I've eaten over friends' houses countless times; same goes for

THE SPICE RACK

2010-06-10T02:27:00.001-04:00

Happy Thursday Chefs.... Spices, which are different from herbs, when handled and added properly to food create aromatic and taste enhancing properties. Most of us are oblivious as to which ones to use for what dishes, how to get the most flavor out of spices and how to determine when spices are stale. Let's begin with the difference between herbs and spices. HERBS and SPICES...What's the

WE'RE HAVING MUSTGO!

2010-06-07T09:44:00.002-04:00

Good Morning Chefs.... Today I would like to share with you an eating tradition that's incorporated into my household and I am not making any remote reference to muskrat. However, since they are omnivorous, they would actually make a suitable dinner guest at my table. But enough about them.... Mustgo dinners take place all over the world, you could have had it tonight. It's just that we

DIVA DISASTERS - BARBECUE RIBS

2010-06-04T23:30:00.006-04:00

Good evening Chefs; Hope you had a wonderful dinner tonight! Today was my scheduled day to post on this blog but I was hoping to have done so a lot earlier than this. I was definitely dragging my feet as my creativity level dropped as the hours swooshed by. So here I am, finally, with the same mental block I had earlier, but I am determined to post successfully.... As I wrote my

COOKBOOK COMBAT

2010-06-02T15:57:00.007-04:00

Good Afternoon Chefs... I am not one to pass up a good cookbook; and my definition of a good cookbook is one that uses everyday ingredients, the recipe prep times are reasonable and the recipe itself can be modified to different tastes. They are mostly recognizable concoctions, food you have definitely heard of and handled and should be easy to follow. Now I do not consider a cookbook for

SEXY SALAD

2010-05-30T16:25:00.001-04:00

Good Afternoon Chefs and Happy Memorial Day! I never thought I'd call salad sexy but here's an analogy that earns this food its surprising adjective. When I wake up in the morning, Im just plain ol' lettuce. Limp, uncolorful, blah! After a shower, that lettuce is looking a little more alive. Once I add some color to my face and moisturize my skin, I'm almost there. A spritz of something

~C~ is for COOKING Introduction

2010-05-30T16:17:00.002-04:00

Hello Readers and Fellow Chefs....and yes, I mean you! Whether you've been professionally trained or you prepare daily meals for your family, the moment you step into that kitchen and cook a meal, Voila' you are a Chef! By definition a chef is "a cook in charge of a kitchen,head cook; any cook." We all get in that kitchen and wait for the moment of creativity to strike. Some of us, like myself,