Here is my first suggestion if you are thinking of buying Pâtisserie by William and Suzy Curley -- allow yourself at least an extra day to just look at the marvelous pastries pictured in this book. It seems nowadays that with competition from other media, book publishers have moved to lower grade paper and have overall reduced the... Read more →
On a recent vacation to Paris, I thought it might be fun to take a cooking class. My wife, Pat, loves to paint so it would also be a chance to get out of her hair while we each did something that interests us. The problem, though, is that I don't need someone to teach me how to make Beef Bourguignon, or Tarte Tatin. Those I make at home... Read more →
Picture this - a warm sunny Provençal day in the south of France. It's early May. The setting is a table, inlaid with tiles, in the shade of a tree in a vineyard. You and your sweetheart are enjoying a picnic lunch of cheeses, spreads, jams, and meats. To go with the picnic, you have a bottle of wine, a fresh épi and a loaf... Read more →
Being an incurable foodie and techie, I of course have been grabbing cooking apps for my iPad. Some apps are little more than shameless money grabs or self promotions. Others are poorly constructed technically or have little quality content. The exception, far and away, is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything application. This is... Read more →
If you know my wife, Pat, or even if you don't, click on over to her artist's e-store here: http://pat-katz.artistwebsites.com/ to see some of her beautiful watercolor paintings. "Tucked in my backpack, on a post college trip to Europe over 35 years ago, were a pencil, six small tubes of watercolor, a paintbrush, and a sketchbook.... Read more →
Regular readers of KitchenSavvy will know that one of my quests is to make the perfect loaf of bread. You may have read some of the articles and maybe even tried my Breadmaker Jewish Rye Bread recipe (Hint - you don't need a breadmaker. It is just as easy to make by hand or with a mixer). Well, I just spent four great days at the King... Read more →
One of my major good fortunes, food-wise, was that my father was a nuclear physicist working at a university which had a fairly good international reputation. What does nuclear physics have to do with food? It turns out lots, but my particular good fortune was that Dad had a habit of offering his post-grad students the deal that he (Dad)... Read more →
MasterCook Deluxe 8.0 If you are looking for software to organize and maintain recipes on your computer, take a serious look at MasterCook. Entering recipes is a snap. You simply enter the amount, units of measure and ingredients, and any preparation instructions if you wish. The "FastFill" feature will scan ahead on ingredients and... Read more →
The New Food Lover's Companion: Comprehensive Definitions of Nearly 6000 Food, Drink, and Culinary Terms by Sharon Tyler Herbst Ever wonder what a Salmagundi is? Or a Salamander? Need to know what cheese is used in Saganaki? You can learn about these and literally thousands of other food terms in The New Food Lover's Companion. And... Read more →
Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating by Walter C. Willett Eat, Drink and Be Healthy is not a diet book. Rather, it is a book that cuts across diets and food trends. Using detailed dietary information collected from numerous sources over decades of research, Dr. Walter Willett is able to tell you... Read more →