Fight 4 Taste!

Last night we did took a culinary journey to Africa.  This was done because despite the Internet and Kindle and iPhones etc, we still go to the library.  (We do not have iPhones or a Kindle, but I do have a disconnected cell pone that I carry as a stopwatch, flashlight and iPod, but that's not important right now). There is nothing like finding a book at the library and embarking on the tactile journey into enlightenment.  This is even better when it involves cooking.  My Wife Donna found the book Passport on a Plate by Diane Simone Vezza.  A Round-the-World cookbook for children.  My son's love to cook, create and generally make huge messes in the kitchen, just like me. Donna and Liam decided to chose African food last night.  Three recipes in all.  The first was luku (Chicken Stew)  It is an Ethiopian Dish.  I am not going to go into detail since Liam is going to be blogging about this himself.  This is a very inexpensive dish to...

I cannot eat a store bought popper again after these.  These were inspired by cooking with Caitlin and seasoned my own way.

January was Mexican Month for me.  Here is my interpretation of Marcela Valladolid's Chile Rellanos.  Pablanos stuffed with Monterey Jack and Oregano and roasted and batter dipped and fried with a nice chunky tomato spice spooned over.  Absolutely awesome.

This is a recipe of my own design.  I loved the Mussels in White Zinfandel recipe that my wife makes.  But she fell in love with these.  2 pounds of mussels cooked in sauted onions, garlic, butter, cilantro, portobella Mushrooms, sun dried tomatos and Vermouth with a nice cream stirred in at the last minute.   This is really a favorite in our house.

These pizza's showed me that the sky is the limit.  Just like a song does not need to have the chorus sang until the last 30 seconds of the song, a pizza does not need to be constructed traditionally.  These were good but from here on out, I'd settle for the REAL dough instead of soy.

I was asked at work the other day, what I like to cook.  It was strange, because other than my signature Spinach Artichoke Dip, I couldn't really think of anything.  This is funny because there is so much.  It makes me think about how all of this happened.  While the pop culture of cooking that last 15 years has made ideas accessible to me, I am not a Food Network Foodie.  I am inspired in the wake of the memory of my father who died in 1996 at age 50.  He cooked like I do, like a mad scientist (as my wife calls me).  My sister Brooke who embraced cooking before I did inherited my Dad's cookbooks.  Rightly so.  I had two recipes that I had perfected in 1986 when I was 20, almost 21.  These were the Mc Cormick black cooking bag for pork chops and the strange but tasty, upside down spice-dome cake that I made in Port Aransas, Texas.  I mention Port A because it is or rather WAS a different kind of place.  Smoking in grocery store...