Cooking at home isn’t rocket science and like most things in life it just takes a little bit of practice to get right (and of course a few good tips).   Here are eight essential food and kitchen tips so that you can become a good home cook (be careful what you call yourself or some foodies will get upset, […]

The following is a re-post form February 2009 and I thought it was appropriate given the gloomy and cold weather here in the northen New Jersey area.  The post includes two great dip recipes, my favorite potato and tortilla chip brands, and 23 movie recommendation by genere and actor.   The upcoming Oscars Award show always gets everyone in the […]

The US Open is in full swing and I’ve been boring my wife and small, pre-linguistic, son with endless tennis viewing on ESPN and CBS (I’ve also been watching online at USOpen.org where pretty much every match is streamed live for free – this is why the web is awesome and nobody makes money!).  As most folks know, Nadal and […]

Butterflied Whole Chicken on the Grill One of the earliest food memories I have is of Nonna Vincenzina slaughtering a young chicken on Via Nazionale in Calabria.  Nonna simply walked into the chicken coup, grabbed one of my feathery friends, and snapped it’s fragile head (the bird ran around for a few minutes and thereafter dropped to the dirt floor). […]

I have to admit that I purchased my first bottle of Turmeric because of the bright orange color.  I use Turmeric in my turkey chili recipe as well as on roasted, bone-in, chicken breast.  Recently, I’ve been experimenting with Turmeric and pork.  One of my favorite pork cuts is the center cut pork chop (sliced into cutlets).  This is essentially […]

Photo: via Veri on Flikr. If you haven’t experimented with Couscous then you’re missing out on a wonderful product.  Most couscous is made from semolina wheat, but Israelis make their couscous with hard wheat and it’s usually larger in size.  Traditional couscous takes a good amount of time to prepare, but most folks in the US use the quick cooking, and thus […]

Fresh Basil Pesto Sauce Recipe Growing up in New Jersey I was surrounded by people from all over the world; on my block alone I remember families from Italy, Egypt, Lebanon, England, Spain, etc.; needless to say, the aroma of food hovered on our small block like haze hovers over Los Angles. One of my favorite food smells came from my […]

I like beef just like the average Joe, but I wouldn’t say I crave beef or any other red meat for that matter.  For me, I get just as much sensory pleasure with a heaping dish of home made fried potatoes with a healthy amount of salt or a perfectly ripe avocado with finely minced cilantro, red onion, and olive […]

Recipe: Homemade Sun Dried Tomatoes in Olive Oil One of my favorite, all purpose, condiments on this little planet is sun dried tomatoes preserved in olive oil.  Authentic sun dried tomatoes capture the essence of the tomato and can be enjoyed year round.  There is a difference between tomatoes that have been truly dried in the sun and dehydrated tomatoes (click here to […]

Homemade pizza dough recipe I’ll go out on a limb and posit that pizza may be the best food type on the planet. Pizza has everything: incredible texture, rich flavor, it’s cheap to prepare, it’s filling, and, in general, is one of the rare food types that contains both complexity and simplicity. My beloved Aunt Giovanna (pictured on the left) owns a small […]