I know I've been missing for while, and that's because I've been very busy.  Getting a cookbook ready for print is hard work.  I also work as a Freelance Marketing Specialist, and I am happy to say that business has really been picking up lately.  

Despite my lame, but honest excuses, I am proud to present my cookbook to the world!  Click here to view the Amazon page and purchase.  They are still working on the "Look Inside" feature at the time of this post, but this should be up soon.

I also have a couple of book signings planned, the first being on November 7th at AIWF's 7th Annual BBQ Cook-Off at Flamingo Gardens in Davie, FL.  The next at AIWF's 17th Annual Bali Ha'i, March 27th, 2011, held at The Kampong in Coconut Grove, FL.  I work with AIWF on marketing these events, and am pleased to be able to launch my cookbook at these great wine and food events.

As far as my kitchen goes, I have to admit with how busy things are right now, I've succumbed to eating a lot of Lean Cuisines, veggie burgers, and turkey sandwiches.  Not unhealthy, but I wish I could be cooking more.  With the holidays coming, however, I will have to make some exceptions for all the yummy delectables this season inspires. 

Until then, I hope you enjoy cooking from Wine in the Kitchen: Recipes for the Home Cook.  I am open to any suggestions or comments you might have about the book and recipes.  Feel free to email me.

Happy cooking!

There are a number of great names I wanted to title this post, such as 'Oh Fudge!', 'Finnicky Fudge', 'I'll Take You to the Candy Shop', etc...  but I promised myself I would stick to the actual name of the recipe for search engine friendly purposes.

Let me start by saying...fudge is hard!  Hard to make, that is.  Especially without a candy thermometer.

My first batch was based on a marshmallow-based recipe.  Everything about this turned out right, except that it was so grainy, the sugar crystals were crunching in my teeth.  It still tasted good, and I have to admit I ate a few pieces anyway.

The second batch I tried a more traditional recipe using milk and corn syrup.  I thought I was going about it right, but apparently my finger does not adequately function as a candy thermometer.  Plus, hot fudge burns!

So, unknowingly I poured it into the pan and waited...and waited.  I waited all night until this morning.  After I poked it with my finger, its gooey response convinced me to admit that I had failed.  My hub, eager to eat it, suggested that I bake it.  I laughed, since fudge isn't baked.  

I was about ready to make another batch and try again when I stumbled onto a Fudge Q & A online (believe me, there are a lot of these out there... fudge raises many questions).  Someone had asked if there was any way to salvage botched fudge.  

Turns out, there is!  I was delighted to learn that my fudge might get a second chance by reboiling it.  I was truly confused about the soft ball stage, which is quite common, so I feel better knowing it's not just me.  I had only boiled my fudge for a minute or two, when in fact, it takes anywhere from 5 to 12 minutes to reach soft ball stage.  

Without a candy thermometer, there is a way to know when it gets there.  It's called a cup of cold water.  Every minute or so, drop a bit of the boiling fudge into a glass of cold water.  If it clouds the water and spreads, it's not done.  If it drops to the bottom and disperses, it's not done.  The fudge itself will be thicker and gooier at this stage, and will ball up when it hits the cold water.  Now it's done!

Making fudge has been a really fun learning experience for me, as I do appreciate a good challenge.  I am tempted to try some more alcoholic fudges as well (such as Dessert wine, Amaretto or Kahlua), which might make it into my next book.  We'll see how the first one does.

The moral of this story is, fudge is hard to make.  It takes practice, and is very much about technique and timing.  But don't lose faith.

Chicken Cacciatore is a pretty easy dish, and makes for a good, wholesome meal.  It's an Italian dish also referred to as "hunter's stew".  Although it is quite stew-like, I like to keep it in the entrée section, instead of the stew section.  I think this is because stews seems like cold-weather foods to me, which I always make in a pot.  Chicken Cacciatore is pretty versatile, and I make it in a large pan at any time of year.  It's a personal viewpoint, you don't have to understand.

The basics of Chicken Cacciatore include chicken (duh), mushrooms, onions, and spices.  There are variations on the additional "green" ingredient, which might be green pepper, green olives, or peas.  Traditional Chicken Cacciatore does not use tomatoes, but I do, because I like it that way.  Plus, it works great with a dry, Italian red wine like Chianti.

Other Italian reds to try in this dish might be Barolo, Barbaresco, or Brunello (or Rosso di Montalcino, the less expensive baby version, which is also quite good).  Most anything made with Sangiovese or the Nebbiolo grape should work well.  You could even substitute the red for a dry Italian white, like Pinot Grigio.

Also traditionally, the chicken is doused in flour and pre-fried.  I skip this step by adding some flour into the sauce as a thickening agent.  The result is a tasty dish that can be served over pasta, rice, or polenta, or even scooped up with slices of fresh Italian bread.  Mmmmmmmmm.

Here's my recipe:

Chicken Red Wine Cacciatore

Makes 6-8 servings.

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons garlic, minced

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced

8 ounces white button mushrooms, sliced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 large onion, diced

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup Italian red wine, such as Chianti

2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, drained

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

• Warm oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.

• Add garlic and sauté 1 minute, until golden.

• Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, just until no longer pink.

• Stir in the mushrooms, green pepper, and onions, sautéing until the onion is translucent.

• Stir in flour until chicken and vegetables are coated.

• Add wine and bring to a boil.

• Reduce heat to medium-low and add tomatoes, oregano, salt, and black pepper.

• Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over cooked pasta, rice, or polenta.

Soup in the summer.  Not the coolest thing to make.  My husband groaned when I told him I was making soup.  Actually, he whined "whyyyyyyyyyyy?"  And I said "YOU KNOW WHY!"

Why?  Because I need to finish my cookbook, that's why!  However, I did manage to convince him to try some, despite the intense heat and humidity outside.  He actually went back for seconds.  So did I.

I think it's tough to go wrong with Baked Potato Soup, but I wondered if the wine would actually work in it.  Of course it would, though, as wine in soup is like a pea in a pod.  Turns out, it integrated just perfectly.  I used my standard béchamel-style wine recipe as a base and built it up from there.

I didn't use a lot of fattening ingredients, thanks to the subtle flavor contributed by the wine.  I used a little low-fat butter and less than half of the liquid used in the soup was whole milk.  I even used turkey bacon (because that's all I had), but I would still suggest real bacon, if you can swing it.

The only thing I would change, however, is when to add the bacon.  I spent time making some nice, crispy bacon, which I don't always do, in lieu of real bacon pieces (bagged) to save time.  I forgot that adding crispy bacon to liquid would make it soggy again.  I somehow thought that adding the bacon at the end would prevent this from happening.  It turns out, it only takes a couple of minutes of swimming around in soup to turn soggy.  Not good.

So, for the future, I really don't see any reason to stir the bacon into the soup.  BUT, topping the bowl of soup with crumbly bacon, along with cheddar cheese is a different story!  This I would recommend highly.

Although it doesn't always make an enormous difference in the end, I feel it's important for the authenticity of the dish.  No one will know that you substituted something else, except you.  

Matching wines from particular regions to a local dish also acts as a good guideline in deciding which wine to use.  I think it's important to use up leftover wines in your fridge, if possible, but try to plan out your dishes to match wines of the same regions, or something close to it.  

Orzo is actually an Italian pasta which looks very much like rice, but it's not.  So, I did have some Italian Pinot Grigio on hand, which is my favorite wine to use in cooking.  Technically, the climate of Italy and Greece is not all that different, and they are just a hop/skip/jump across the sea from each other, so this works just fine.  (Still, I have the nagging feeling that I have cheated!)  I told everyone that this is Greek salad, and in their feta/kalamata glory, no one questioned it.  

So, in the end, it's generally ok to use whatever you have on hand.  Just pay attention to the differences between dry wines and sweet wines.  There are a lot of savory meals which require a drier wine, as using a sweet wine could negatively alter the outcome of the dish.  And do try to use a wine from the same or similar region, if you can.

After a little hiatus in Key West, I am back with 'Red Wine Tortilla Soup'.  Before I left, I made 'Caribbean Chicken Stew' to get into the island mood.  Unfortunately, I became too busy to write about it.  Then the other night, I do admit that I made 'French Cassoulet'.  I am sorry for not reporting back, dear readers.

Well, despite that it's August, and you can cut the humidity with a knife, this tortilla soup is still fitting... Perhaps it's true that you must eat the right kind of hot foods to bear the heat.  

A woman basically told me this in Mexico when I complained it was too hot to drink alcohol, referring to the glass of wine I was considering ordering.  She suggested tequila for this harsh Mexican heat.  I believe that Mexicans, in their hot, desert environment have long since known how to cook with ingredients to beat the heat.

Then again, I wouldn't mind eating this soup in the dead of winter.  Nor would I have a problem drinking fishbowl margaritas on the coldest of nights.

My 'Red Wine Tortilla Soup' is made up of shredded chicken, tomatoes, corn, red onion, red pepper, and is topped with crumbled toasted corn tortillas.  Of course, the broth contains a Spanish red wine.  This is a very healthy soup for a hot summer/cold winter night.

The resulting concoction uses a base of light sour cream, light mayonnaise, and white wine, plus a few herbs and aromatics.  Integrating the wine to blend well with the mayonnaise was I think, the biggest challenge here.  

But now I really feel it's working well.  I've even eaten more of the salad on my plate than the leftover 'Chicken Cordon Bleu in White Wine Béchamel Sauce' (which is quite competitive)!

Other than this, I'm taking the day off from cooking any elaborate recipes to work on entering some recently made recipes into my book.

Here's a quick Rouxbe tip on the importance of drying your greens before tossing with dressing, something especially important with a creamy dressing such as this:

Not much trouble tonight with these Cordon Bleus.  Quite happy, in fact.  I even found a new use for an old wooden jewelry mallet....to smack the s**t out of the chicken!  To be honest, that was really the best part of preparing this meal.  I think I've been a little stressed lately.

The White Wine Béchamel Sauce was a trés magnifique pairing with this.  The only thing I'd avoid next time is using extra salt in the breadcrumbs as I did.  Really unnecessary with ham.  Ham is soooo salty, how can I forget?  Hadn't eaten much pig product for many years, so I am slowly adapting back into the world of edible pigs; still adjusting my stomach as well (though a little ham or bacon never seems to hurt)!

Behind that you'll see some salad.  Just a simple salad, how could anything go wrong?  But again, my 'Creamy Garlic Wine Dressing' basically sucks.  I used low-fat plain yogurt this time instead of low-fat mayonnaise.  I am facing a bit of a challenge creating a creamy wine dressing.  It's not the consistency that's a problem, but the balance of the flavor.  Note: This rant should probably be in the 'Salad' category, but I will keep it hidden in 'Entrées' for now, until I get the secret salad dressing formula down pat.

Nitey Nite!

I've always had a desire to become a chef, but people have consistently managed to talk me out of it.  They said that 12 hours on the feet in a hot kitchen on Christmas Day is enough of a reason not to do it.  And it is.  But I still could never bust my burning desire to really learn how to cook.

Although I've cooked as a hobbyist much of my life, I still wanted to learn secrets of professional cooking, even if I couldn't get paid to do it.  I wanted to know how the hell to use a chef's knife, what to do with a big, scary slab of meat, what are the basics for sauces?  Following recipes all of one's life does not teach you any of this, really.

There is a local cooking school that offers a 5-class basic culinary skills training course.  I believe it costs around $300, which isn't bad, compared to a culinary school like Le Cordon Bleu.  I was seriously considering taking this class (despite being broke), but I stumbled across something better.

Sometimes I feel weary of online training, as it's often not interactive enough, and I did wonder how something so active as cooking could be taught online.  Sure, we all watch the Food Network, but those superstars whip right through everything so fast, I have no idea how anyone follows along at home.

So, here is my new secret obsession, which I am now an affiliate of because I believe very strongly in it, and advocate for how much it's taught me so far.  Rouxbe Cooking School offers about 1,000 cooking videos, many of which are professional cooking techniques.  The videos are incredibly easy to learn from, as they are broken down into parts, and you can watch them 100 times if you need to.  They also offer videos on cooking recipes.  The video quality is exceptional, as if you are in culinary school standing right next to the teacher.  I really don't feel like I am missing anything by taking cooking classes online, instead of paying big bucks for culinary training to never become a chef anyway.

Here is a sample video, one which I found particularly useful.  If you do decide to sign up, be sure to do it from my site, because I get a little throwback, which will support my efforts to bring you 'Wine in the Kitchen'.  Rouxbe is generous to offer a 14-day complimentary trial to my readers, no credit cards necessary.  Give it a shot:

Rouxbe Online Cooking School & Video Recipes