cooking

Once again, I�m a Canbassador. That means I receive a couple shipments of stone fruit, more than enough to preserve, and I share my results and recipes with you. I already received a large box of dark red cherries and will be working on peaches next. Dark red cherries have an intense flavor, they hold up well with other strong flavors and with that in mind I made two different recipes--Bourbon Cherries and Cherry Vanilla Balsamic Shrub. I�m afraid I didn�t pay as much attention to the recipe for Bourbon Cherries as I should have, and they will need four weeks to �settle" so I will not be trying them for bit longer. I also froze some cherries, which is very easy to do. I just washed and pitted them and put them in the zip top bag, and froze it as flat as I could. The cherries don�t seem to have stuck to together. And I dried a small batch of cherries in my toaster oven, but it took a very long time and I�m not sure I�d do it again. By the way, if you have a large amount of cherries...

Years ago I wrote about Monet�s Palate , a charming film narrated by Meryl Streep. It delves into the life of Monet at his home in Giverny. Monet�s passions were painting and gardening, but he also clearly enjoyed the pleasures of the table�eating, drinking and entertaining guests. A new book, Monet�s Palate Cookbook is less about historical and sometimes antiquated and inaccurate recipes left behind by his cook, and more about his life in Giverny. It covers his approach to gardening, eating and entertaining with plenty of recipes of course.  The book begins with his passion for good food, then moves seamlessly into his kitchen garden and many of the fruits and vegetables that were grown at the time, as well as the specific ones that were grown in his garden and details about how they were propagated. But the majority of the book is dedicated to recipes. The recipes are inspired by Monet�s kitchen garden at Giverny, but fresh and modern. Some of them refer to favorite dishes serve...

Cherry Vanilla Balsamic Shrub, Bourbon Cherries & Pickled Cherries Once again I�m participating in two events that dovetail rather nicely. This Saturday is Can-It-Forward day hosted by Jarden Home Brands and they have generously sent me some canning supplies and are offering a giveaway of a coupon for a case of Ball jars (see the end of the post for how to win). I�m also a �canbassador� for Sweet Preservation , helping to share the joy of preserving fresh fruit from Northwest Cherries and the Washington State Fruit Commission. Fresh fruit and canning supplies! It�s a match made in heaven.  Jarden is the maker of Ball , my go to brand for canning supplies. I use their jars, labels, lids, bands and pectin. They are now making some additional colorful stuff like mix and match lids and bands and Sip & Straw lids for wide mouth jars. I�ve always been a fan of Ball canning supplies, they are readily available, well priced and the brand also offers some great resources, in particu...

If you want to be a food writer, I highly recommend that you read Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob, but if writing a cookbook is your goal, you�ll also want to check out The Joy of Writing a Great Cookbook by Kimberly Yoirio. This no nonsense book takes you through every step of the process with tons of examples. Yorio has been a cookbook publicist, agent and co-authored several books, so she speaks from personal experience. From building your platform to proposals to social media this book really covers it all.  Ready to go? Use the book as your guide, then enter to win a cookbook contract , sponsored by Page Street Publishing Co. Contest ends 8/1/15 I spoke with Kim about cookbook publishing and here�s what she had to say:   Is it just my imagination, or is cookbook publishing experiencing a boom right now?  It�s not your imagination at all.  Cookbooks are selling really well right now and more and more publishers want to get into the business of making them. ...

I am just back from the 34th annual  Kapalua Wine & Food Festival  which is the longest running food and wine festival of its kind not just in Maui, but in the country.   It started out as a wine only event but morphed over the years. Today food is a big part of it with celebrity chefs, classes and tasting events. I got a chance to attend a lunch cooking demo class with Chef and restaurateur Michael Mina and was pleased to see RN74 Executive Chef Adam Sobel acting as right hand man.  Michael Mina and Adam Sobel  Here are some learnings from the event-- - Mina said the biggest mistake home cooks make is not tasting or not knowing what you�re tasting for. Following a recipe is not enough, you must taste. Ingredients are not consistent, they are different all the time and you need to adjust your recipes.  - The four elements he considers most important? Acidity, spice, sweetness and richness, but not all dishes have all four.  - When platin...

I love how sometimes seemingly random ingredients come together. This dish of roasted cauliflower and chorizo with fresh tomatoes and greens and tahini sauce was created based on what I had on hand. But it was really tasty and something I would make again. A lot of times when I interview chefs and cookbook authors, I ask how they come up with recipes. I have to admit, I don't usually get very satisfying answers. But recently I met cookbook author Anna Jones . Her book, A Modern Way to Eat has a really cool graphic to explain how she puts together dishes. It goes something like this: Hero Ingredient + How Shall I Cook it? + Supporting Role? + Add an Accent + Add a Flavor + Add an Herb + Add some Crunch + Season and Finish Her formula has a lot of components and is designed to add layers of flavor and texture to a dish. Do you have a formula that you use or can you deconstruct a dish according to elements? It's a fun exercise and can lead to some interesting new combinations. My ...

I'm a big fan of Paula Wolfert . She has an amazing talent for a kind of culinary cultural anthropology, exploring various cuisines, digging in deep, learning and documenting recipes like nobody's business. I have relished my time with her, especially at her home in Sonoma and subsequently in a class. I love hearing her stories, getting her career advice, not to mention having her cook for me. So I couldn't be more excited to learn of the plan to document her extraordinary life, along with some of her most important recipes. Leading the charge is former Food & Wine editor and cookbook author, Emily Thelin . The top team also includes photographer Eric Wolfinger and my friend, Andrea Nguyen who is acting as project manager. I was planning to run this interview with Andrea in hopes of encouraging you to support the project and help it to meet its goal. Fortunately the initial goal has been reached. Now it's time to s-t-r-e-t-c-h and make this project even more specia...