The Right Wood

Anyone involved in barbecue will tell you a good combination of woods produces a subtly-smoked roast that not only falls off the bone, but is tender enough to shred easily.  Involuntarily in fact.   All the more so when the meat is laced with a mustard-based sauce, making the quintessential Carolina Pulled Pork. By the…

All Dressed Up

What if you took chips and salsa, a combination so pedestrian and somewhat inauthentic Taco Bell has a version, and gave it major enhancements, taking care to make everything from scratch, down to pulling your own tortilla chips from the oven?  Then you’d have chilaquiles, a flavorful and satisfying dish much more likely to be…

Warning: Causes Blackouts

Now that you know, are you ready for all this chocolate?  Be advised, it’s relentless.  Start with a velvety chocolate cake, fully as rich and moist as is any devil’s food cake you’ve tried.  Top that with a creamy chocolate pudding, cooked on the stovetop, then chilled to concentrate its cocoa goodness. Mercy?  Not likely;…

My Goodness, My Guinness!

Just how did it find its way into that soup?  No doubt with a sparkle of Irish inspiration, as it most likely didn’t take Dubliners long to discover the local stout made a great and flavorful addition to stews.  Probably minutes after Arthur Guinness released his first brews 250 or so years ago. Naturally, as…

Streets of East L.A.

Chances are, if you send someone out for tacos in L.A., you never will get your food.  Sure, the initial purchase will be made, but something will happen between then and when the meal is supposed to arrive.  Too much temptation.  Those aromas intoxicate, causing one to lose all other thoughts. It’s likely the buyer…

Good Pick!

This crisp weather is ideal for encouraging apples to ripen to perfection on the tree, soon to be eagerly gathered by the basketful.  As with most outdoor activities this time of year, the chill simultaneously invigorates and brings anticipation of a warmup indoors somewhere.  What better way to encourage that coziness than to take the…

Hail, Caesar!

Not Caesar Augustus, but Caesar Cardini, the restauranteur who invented this salad at his establishment in Acapulco, Mexico in the 1920s.  By legend, Cardini ran out of ingredients for a conventional salad at a particularly busy moment and, instead of giving in, he persisted and improvised with whatever the kitchen had on hand. This included…

Why, ‘Ere’s a Chippy!

A right proper one, too. Definitely a fortunate coincidence if you’re in the UK.  If you’re not, though, and the closest chippy, British slang for a fish and chips joint, is nowhere in sight, don’t despair.  Once again, the Cook’s Country Cookbook keeps the kitchen well-supplied.  Their preparation of Fish and Chips furnishes a welcome feast…

Good Morning!

It certainly will be when you wake to the smell of this week’s entry emerging from the oven.  A generous ribbon of cinnamon runs throughout Morning Buns, imparting a warm, soothing sweetness that embraces not just the tongue, but also the nose, aromatically, long before it.  All the more  meltingly delicious when the butter that…

Various Limes

Indeed, today brings Chicken Posole, as well as the limes that make it so delectable a soup.  There’s the citrus, of course, which contributes a vibrant zing, a sweetly tangy melody that boosts the other flavors.  The fruit’s qualities are familiar and require little additional elaboration. However, another sort of lime is significant too.  It…