By Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali, Author of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes>

I would like to extend my thanks to Caitlin Price of FSB Associates for making this piece available to the readers of CBSOP.  It’s a valuable article and one that I hope you enjoy!

There is no more appropriate time than now to think about how and why we cook. Food is a way of connecting with the people who surround us. Through it, we communicate emotions like love, compassion and understanding, and there is no better opportunity to communicate with our children than at the table. It’s where we can discuss our values of life that are important to us as individuals, as a family and as a part of the world we live in.

As overconsumption and greed have come to haunt us, now is a time for reflection. We should be looking back at the generations before us to understand their approach to the table. Growing food, shepherding animals, foraging for the gifts of nature is all part of respecting food. Nothing needs to be wasted. Bread can be recycled and used in soups, casseroles, lasagnas and desserts. Water is carefully conserved as in the pasta recipe I share below where the same water in which vegetables are cooked is used to cook the pasta that follows, and then that is saved for soups or for making risotto.

When one respects the food we prepare, it also leads to a more sensible and balanced intake of proteins, legumes and vegetables.

So “waste not, want not” and make it delicious!

Excerpt from Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009)

FRESH CAVATELLI WITH CAULIFLOWER
Maccarun ch’I Hiucc

Serves 6

Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables, and I regret that many people don’t sufficiently appreciate its unique flavor and nutritional value. This is not the case in Molise, where it is cooked often and creatively, as exemplified by the following two simple vegetarian pasta dishes. The first recipe, maccarun ch’i hiucc, is zesty with garlic and peperoncino.

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for the pasta pot

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

7 plump garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

1/2 teaspoon peperoncino flakes, or to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

1 large head cauliflower, cut in small florets

1 batch (11/2 pounds) Fresh Cavatelli (preceding recipe), or 1 pound dried pasta

1 cup freshly grated pecorino (or half pecorino and half Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, for a milder flavor)

Recommended equipment: A large pasta pot; a heavy-bottomed skillet or sauté pan, 12 inch diameter or larger

Fill the large pot with salted water (at least 6 quarts water with 1 tablespoon salt), and heat to a boil.

Pour the olive oil into the skillet, set over medium-high heat, and scatter in the sliced garlic. Let the garlic start to sizzle, then toss in the peperoncino and parsley; stir and cook for a minute. Ladle in a cup of the pasta cooking water, stir well, and adjust the heat to keep the liquid in the skillet simmering and reducing gradually while you cook the cauliflower and pasta.

With the pasta water at a rolling boil, drop in the cauliflower florets, and cook them for about 3 minutes, until barely tender. Drop in the cavatelli, stir, and return the water quickly to a boil. Cook another 4 to 5 minutes, until the cauliflower is fully tender and the pasta is al dente (if you are using dried pasta, it will, of course, take longer).

Lift out the florets and cavatelli with a spider or strainer, drain briefly, and spill them into the skillet. Toss well, to coat all the pasta and vegetable pieces with the garlicky dressing, then turn off the heat,

sprinkle over the skillet the grated cheese, and toss again. Heap the cauliflower and cavatelli in warm bowls, and serve immediately.

CHOCOLATE BREAD PARFAIT
Pane di Cioccolato al Cucchiaio

Serves 6

This recalls for me the chocolate-and-bread sandwiches that sometimes were my lunch, and always a special treat. And it is another inventive way surplus is used in Umbrian cuisine, with leftover country bread serving as the foundation of an elegant layered dessert. Though it is soaked with chocolate and espresso sauce and buried in whipped cream, the bread doesn’t disintegrate, and provides a pleasing textural contrast in every heavenly spoonful.

8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

8 ounces country-style white bread, crusts removed

1/2 cup freshly brewed espresso

2 tablespoons dark rum

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream

1 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Recommended equipment: A large rimmed tray or baking sheet, such as a half-sheet pan (12 by 18 inches); a spouted measuring cup, 1 pint or larger; 6 parfait glasses or wineglasses, preferably balloon-shaped

Put the chopped chocolate in a bowl set in a pan of hot (not boiling) water. When the chocolate begins to melt, stir until completely smooth. Keep it warm, over the water, off the heat.

Slice the bread into 1/2-inch-thick slices, and lay them flat in one layer, close together, on the tray or baking sheet.

Pour the warm espresso into a spouted measuring cup, stir in the rum and sugar until sugar dissolves, then stir in half the melted chocolate. Pour the sauce all over the bread slices, then flip them over and turn them on the tray, to make sure all the surfaces are coated. Let the bread absorb the sauce for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, whip the cream until soft peaks form, by hand or with an electric mixer.

To assemble the parfaits: Break the bread into 1-inch pieces. Use half the pieces to make the bottom parfait layer in the six serving glasses, dropping an equal amount of chocolatey bread into each. Scrape up some of the unabsorbed chocolate sauce that remains on the baking sheet, and drizzle a bit over the bread layers. Next, drop a layer of whipped cream in the glasses, using up half the cream. Top the cream layer with toasted almonds, using half the nuts.

Repeat the layering sequence: drop more soaked bread into each glass, drizzle over it the chocolate sauce from the tray and the remaining melted chocolate. Dollop another layer of whipped cream in the glasses, using it all up, and sprinkle the remaining almonds on top of each parfait. This dessert is best when served immediately while the melted chocolate is still warm and runny.

©2010 Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali, authors of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes

Author Bio
Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, coauthor of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipe, is the author of five previous books, four of them accompanied by nationally syndicated public television series. She is the owner of the New York City restaurant Felidia (among others), and she lectures on and demonstrates Italian cooking throughout the country. She lives on Long Island, and can be reached at her Web site, www.LidiasItaly.com <http://www.lidiasitaly.com/>

Tanya Bastianich Manuali, Lidia’s daughter and coauthor of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipe, received her Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance art history from Oxford University. Since 1996 she has led food/wine/art tours of Italy. She lives with her husband and children on Long Island.

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This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Cooking.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you’ve looked for recipes or ideas for your kitchen online at any time since 1998, I’m sure you’re familiar with cooking.com. They have been one of the web’s leading sources for cookware and other cooking related products for a very long time, and now they’ve got another addition to their site that I think you guys are going to find entertaining and useful at the same time.

They’ve just introduced a new zone on cooking.com called the Celebrity Kitchen, which features products and recipes from some of the world’s op celebrity chefs, such as Nigella Lawson, Mario Batali, Emeril Lagasse and my personal favorites in this stunning lineup of culinary talent: Alton Brown and Sam, the Cooking Guy.

Not only do they have the tips you want from these top celebrity chefs, but the recipes themselves work well with the product lines they’re offering as well. This way you’ll know that if the recipe itself calls for a certain item you don’t happen to have in your kitchen, you can find it right there in the shop. I think that’s a great idea, especially for novice cooks that might get better results if using a recipe that’s already been tested in a specific type of pot, pan or dish.  At the very least the results should be consistent with the original from a technical standpoint.

Lastly, there’s a newsletter that’s focused on new recipes and product releases.  If you’re an avid collector of Paula Deen enameled cast iron or Emerilware, (That’s me!) you’ll find it useful… Though you may be tempted to spend your money a little faster once you’ve signed up. (I’m sure that’s the point, but really… I WANT that 1 qt. pro-clad saucepan.  I want it with a vengeance!)

All-in-all, it’s a useful addition.  The recipes are solid, pulled directly from the chef’s cookbooks. The product quality is high (I own Emerilware… Can’t live without them.), the store is easy to navigate and most of all, it was fun just poking around…  If you can get over the need to drool all over your keyboard.  You’re going to want to buy at least one of the items in the store… I resisted, but just barely.

At least for now…  That saucepan has been on my wishlist for two years now.

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I’m contacted fairly regularly by websites that want to exchange links or otherwise get a mention from CBSOP.  For the most part, these sites have nothing to do with cooking, food or recipes and are ignored summarily.  Every once-in-a-while though, someone contacts me with a site that I feel is worth passing along to the folks that make this place what it is.  You, the readers of this blog.  You guys rock and I only want to let you know about things that you’ll actually be able to use.  This is one of them.

Onlinerecipefinders.com is all of these things.  Though it feels a bit spartan and is a tad clunky to use, the recipe finder functions as you would expect it to, in an “old school Google” kind of way.  The results are relevant, the system is responsive and the amount of results is satisfying.  In short if you hit the search recipe button, you’re gonna get a good lot of choices to browse through.

The results are all in PDF format, which is a bit of a drag, but it’s something I can live with.  It only takes a second to pull up the file and read through it.  Less time than many food blogs take to load.  The plus side is that you can download recipes directly to your hard drive for later use; A very useful feature if you are just starting out on a digital recipe library since PDF’s index extremely well on both Mac and Windows and are searchable.

My end opinion is that this is a site with great potential.  While I do think the site needs a bit more polish and user interface adjustments, the simple interface is refreshing, the results show what you’re looking for and the recipes are not just skimmed off of other food blogs. With some smoothing over it could very easily become one of my go-to reference libraries for inspiration and I give a thumbs-up to the developers of the site.  They’ll have a winner if they keep it up.

I’ll be sure to let you know of any new happenings with this site.  Why not go check it out for yourself?

This review was sponsored by onlinerecipesfinder.com.  All opinions given are my own and in no way constitute a conflict of interest.

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You may remember that just before I left Texas, I was asked for the second time to participate in a recipe spotlight in partnership with the Texas Beef Council. the council had approached me in the past and I’ve always been happy to help them out with these events.

Since we already knew my wife was destined for Turkey, I thought that the Moroccan Style Beef Kabob recipe I put together would be fitting, and even though it turned out far less spectacularly than it could have, I blame the beef and my inexperience with bulgur, not the recipe, which I look forward to making again. Participating was fun and, I thought, a fitting end to my time in Texas. I’d completely forgotten about a mention of a drawing for prizes for the participants.

Until I got this in my email:

Pictured in the photo above is Mr. Richard Wortham, Executive Vice President of the Texas Beef Council drawing my name out of a hat that looks suspiciously like one that I own.  The initial shock was compounded when the email reminded me of what I’d won.  The text of the mail (edited) went like this:

Hi Jerry,

Congratulations – you’ve won our Texas Grilling Recipe Challenge! Attached you’ll find a picture of your name being drawn out of a hat by Richard Wortham, Executive Vice President of the Texas Beef Council. Here’s what you’ve won:

• Char-Broil gas grill
  
• $100 beef gift card from Nolan Ryan Beef and
• Grilling essentials such as an apron, grill mitt and grilling utensils

The Texas beef gift pack valued around $500 to either keep or to give away to your readers. The grill will be coming your way courtesy of Home Depot and The Texas Beef Council will be sending you the rest of the gift pack next week.

Um. WOW!

And of course, we were moving less than a week later, so everything had to be arranged to arrive in California at my sister’s house.  A month later my wife left for Turkey, the grill is still in the garage, the gift pack is “somewhere”, this post was never written and I never got to do what I’m doing now…

I’m giving one of you guys a $100.00 beef gift card from Nolan Ryan Beef!

So if you’d like a chance to get a $100.00 head start on any order of beef from Nolan Ryan Beef, just leave a comment below before midnight on Monday, September 14th and I’ll pick someone at random to send the code to.

I’m looking forward to handing this prize out, folks.  It’s a carnivore’s delight and I’m hoping that another food logger gets it so that we can see what comes of the order for ourselves.  Of course I won’t limit the giveaway to food bloggers, but I’d love to see it happen that way.

More giveaways will be coming.  We’re working onthe holidays, after all, so i thought I’d get a head start on the giving!

Good Luck!

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A foodie has to have a kitchen.  To have a kitchen you generally want to wrap a house around it. If you’re considering building a new home, deciding on the floor plan can be a daunting task.  There are thousands of options available, from cookie cutter to full custom. If you’re not feeling the need to fork out the dollars for the full custom option, perhaps you should consider building off of a pre-designed floor plan that you like.

HDA Inc. is finalizing a complete redesign of their website www.HousePlansandMore.com and has all the tools you need to find the plans for the home of your dreams, whether that home be 250 square feet or 5,000+.  You’ll find home plans with 3 bedrooms and two baths and house plans with 6 bedrooms and 5.5 baths. www.HousePlansandMore.com of HDA.Inc. allows you to choose from basic subsistence dwelling or guest house plans all the way up to luxury dream home plans, all from the comfort of your computer screen.

The site as-is is pretty functional, but from the buzz surrounding this relaunch you’ll have in excess of 100 ways to search for the home plan of your dreams and a bookstore to boot, if you’re more the catalog flipping type. (and I admit that I am as well.  I love to dog ear home plan books.)

So: coming this summer…  Be sure to check it out.

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Harlequin Romance celebrated it’s 60th anniversary recently.  That alone wouldn’t get me to comment here, but when they decided to have a group of celebrities reading blurbs from past best sellers… AND … One of those celebrities happens to be the world renown chef Wolfgang Puck, then it gets my attention.

In his brief appearance in the ABC video celebrating not only the Canadian based Harlequin, but the fact that the romance industry is actually flourishing in the currently depressed economy, Puck reads from Ann Mather’s “Rooted In Dishonour”, published in 1978.  I’ll be honest in saying I’ve never read the work of Miss Mather, but I have to think that Chef Puck’s delivery somehow lessens whatever impact she was trying to create in this particular scene.

In any event, Congrats to Harlequin on 60 years in the industry and for actually increasing sales in an economy that’s scaring fortune %00 companies to death.  Thanks also for giving this little food lover a bit of a chuckle watching one of his culinary heroes sit firmly out of his element, but do it so darned well.

Remember kiddies. Live. Love. Eat!

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Chef Robert Irvine Taping an Episode of Dinner: Impossible in September 2007 at Sheppard Air force Base, TX

For those who may not have heard The original host of Food Network’s Dinner: Impossible? is back. Chef Robert Irvine has made his way back to the show he made famous, of course bringing his sous chefs David and George with him.

The new season airs on Wednesday April 8th and I for one will be happy to see chef Irvine back at the helm in this season. It’s not that I have anything against Chef michael Symon, but he just didn’t bring the frenetic pace and appeal tot he series that chef irvine brings. (…Or the cool factor that comes along with chef Irvine’s bulging muscles and cultured accent. Let’s be honest, both men and women can appreciate Robert Irvine. Chef Symon isn’t really gonna bring in the ladies to watch the show in his garage-inspired chef’s coat.)

The episode lineup fits the bill of seasons past and includes the following titles:

ROBERT IRVINE RETURNS WITH NEW SEASON OF
DINNER: IMPOSSIBLE
New Season Premieres on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 10:00pmET/PT

NEW YORK – March 11, 2009 – A marvel in the kitchen, Robert Irvine overcomes culinary obstacles in Food Network’s popular series, Dinner: Impossible. Robert returns with six new hour-long episodes premiering Wednesday, April 8th at 10pm ET/PT, accepting missions like an extreme dinner for 200 Winter X Games athletes, preparing odd but tasty combinations of food for 450 Yahoo! employees and taking a gamble on a mission at the renowned casino at Mohegan Sun.

Upcoming episodes include:

Premieres: Wednesday, April 8th at 10:00pm ET/PT – SEASON PREMIERE!
“X Eats at the X Games”
In the season premiere of Dinner: Impossible, Robert heads to Aspen, Colo. to cook for 200 action sports athletes at the Winter X Games. Robert works in severe outdoor conditions, and has just seven hours to make his most extreme menu ever. Can he overcome spills, hills and chills, or will this be Dinner: Impossible?

Premieres: Wednesday, April 15th at 10:00pm ET/PT
“The Yahoo! Search Scramble”
Robert visits Yahoo! headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley to celebrate the anniversary of Yahoo! Search. His mission: make the top 15 most-searched dishes, with a catch – each dish must be made with a randomly assigned top-searched ingredient! Can Robert overcome the strange pairings and successfully feed 450 Yahoo! employees in just eight hours, or will this be Dinner: Impossible?

Premieres: Wednesday, April 22nd at 10:00pm ET/PT
“Casino Craziness”
Robert takes on a real gamble at Mohegan Sun. In a special casino, Robert spins the roulette wheel to see how many people he will serve, rolls the dice at the craps table to see how many hours he will have to prepare and plays three games of blackjack in hopes of winning three crucial ingredients: oil, sugar and salt. Will Robert make a jackpot meal, or will this be Dinner: Impossible?

Premieres: Wednesday, April 29th at 10:00 pm ET/PT
“NBA All Star Stress”
Robert attends the NBA All-Star Weekend Cares and Cooks fundraising event, where he has just 10 hours to create nearly 30 different NBA-inspired dishes for 2,000 fans! Robert creates a menu inspired by five teams from the Western Conference and five from the Eastern Conference. Can he beat the buzzer on his All-Star mission, or will this be Dinner: Impossible?

ABOUT ROBERT IRVINE:
Born in England, Robert Irvine began cooking at the age of 15, when he joined the Royal Navy. As part of his service, he worked on board the Royal Yacht Britannia where the Royal Family and their entourages regularly dined. In addition, Robert participated in a guest chef program, allowing him to cook at the White House. In his 25 year-long career, he had the opportunity to serve 6,000 servicemen and women on a US aircraft carrier and plan the menu at a spectacular celebrity-studded after-party at the Academy Awards. Robert also wrote a cookbook entitled “Mission: Cook!” (Harper Collins, 2007). He currently owns his own multi-faceted company.

[From The Official Chef Robert Irvine Blog]

Welcome back, chef robert. you have been missed and your fans have been heard by the execs at Food Network.

For those of you who would be interested in the real story behind Robert’s resume mix-ups and the allegations that were tossed around upon his departure from Dinner: Impossible, check out his official blog using the link above. It’s a good and inspiring read.

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Egon Ronay suggests that Gordon Ramsay should behave more like Escoffier, the celebrated chef who penned Le Guide Culinaire. Unfortunately, there seems to be some areas he forgot o address:

In a letter today to the Guardian Egon Ronay compares Gordon Ramsay unfavourably to César Ritz (1850-1918), the best-known inn-keeper in history and Auguste Escoffier (1849-1935), the most celebrated chef who ever lived.

Escoffier codified the food served in establishments such as his own Savoy Hotel restaurant. From his “Le Guide Culinaire” any chef could learn the correct basic preparation and garnish of the hundreds of dishes that constituted classic haute cuisine. He is a hero to today’s chefs, because he preached the maxim that became today’s kitchen mantra, “faites simple”, and actually put it into practice, rediscovering the fumets and reductions of ancient French cookery that are the basis for today’s lighter sauces.

So Escoffier appears to be a good candidate for the chef as champion. The only difficulty is that he and Ritz were crooks. Escoffier himself was chiefly guilty of taking bribes and kickbacks from suppliers (then a common practice, as it may still be in some big institutions). But there were huge sums involved – not much short of £1m in today’s money. Mr Ronay neglects to mention that Escoffier and Ritz were sacked by their employers at the Savoy on 28 February, 1898.

[From Should Gordon Ramsay really behave more like Escoffier? | Life and style | guardian.co.uk]

Before you go bashing me for bashing Escoffier, I’m not arguing his talents as a chef in the slightest. without Le Guide Culinaire the world would be a much sadder place in terms of our culinary habits and experiences. I do however, agree with the author of he article in that Ramsay’s business practices are, in comparison, exemplary.

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Think you have to avoid fast food restaurants if you’re trying to lose weight? Adam Clatsoff would disagree with you, he lost 100 pounds eating at fast food chains.

“I dieted myself to about 400 pounds. You know, you lose, you gain, and I suddenly realized I had to have a life change,” explained Adam Clatsoff.

The life change for Clatsoff was turning to fast food for most of his meals.

“I realized you can walk into a fast food restaurant and you do not have to order a 1600 calorie meal,” he said.

Clatsoff says over a two year period, he lost more than 100 pounds.

[From Author loses 100 lbs on fast food diet : News : WEYI NBC25]

And you thought they were off limits!

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Mario Batali has just placed himself in good company with Gordon Ramsay. In fact, he’s just done something I’m pretty sure that Ramsay himself would never do. He subjected the King and Queen of Spain to a series of profane outbursts at a dinner held in their honor in Florida during the south Beach Food and Wine Festival.

Batali is said to have appeared intoxicated and lost his temper when the crowd at the $1,000 per plate dinner didn’t wuiet down quickly enough. After a moment he addressed them in his own manner:

“All you weasel f***wads in the back corners, can I have ten seconds of your time?” said the chef, who appeared intoxicated.

He then swore again in front of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia when introducing chef José Andrés, who runs the Los Angeles restaurant, The Bazaar.

Mr Batali said his friend had received: “The most mother-f***ing stars of any Spanish restaurant in the US.” He finished by grabbing Andres’ bottom.

[From Celebrity chef rants in front of Spanish royalty - Telegraph]

The Queen is said to have balked at his choice of language, but the King took it in stride. His comment was priceless, but you’ll have to go see the original article to see what it said.

Cheers!

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