Home cooked meal

A Salad for Salad Haters: Radicchio with Anchovy Dressing

November 28, 2012
Treviso Salad

Thanksgiving’s over and holiday parties are getting started. With all that heavy food (not to mention the cocktails), even those who are not the biggest salad fans need to try to sneak in a vegetable or two. Not saying I hate salad personally, just that I’d rather eat stuffing than salad. I might rather eat stuffing than about anything, though. For those who share my preferences, this is the go-to salad. Strong flavors from the anchovy, the garlic, and the bitter radicchio punch you in the palate like a prizefighter. The wallop makes up for the fact that you’re...

Read more »

Halloween Food: Piggy Coffins!

October 14, 2012
Coffin Empanadas

I’m a little competitive. Or, you know, a lot. Like to the point that when I meet another competitive person, I sometimes get really defensive that I’m the more competitive person. And that’s probably happened more times than I’d like to count. So where am I going with this? Our office Halloween party is also a potluck with awards for best tasting and most creative food. Clearly, I need to win. Preferably both categories with a single dish. So I came up with what I’m calling Piggy Coffins. What they actually are is my Holy Shit Pork Cheeks, wrapped...

Read more »

Simple Summer Suppers: Broccoli and Bagna Cauda

September 17, 2012
Simple Summer Suppers: Broccoli and Bagna Cauda

Nobody ever believes me when I tell them the rain doesn’t start until my birthday (October 7th). Summer ends at Labor Day, they insist. Nope, it’s not true. As the center of the universe–or, my universe, anyway–summer doesn’t end until I turn another year older. So until that happens, I will continue to make the kind of simple summer suppers that are easily eaten outdoors, even if it’s getting dark at before dinner time. I’ll let the green in my vegetables, the yellow in my egg yolks, the bright flavors in my olive oil, light up the night....

Read more »

10 Tricks to Make the Lazy Cook’s Food Taste Better

September 4, 2012
Red Peppers

I never clean up as I go. Rumor has it, that’s what the cool kids do. That’s what the organized, methodical, by the book cooks do. The people who clean as they go probably also set up their mise en place and follow recipes too. All things which I’d love to be the type of person who does. But I’m not. I’m me. Being me means that I’m a bit of a hurricane, whooshing into the kitchen, chopping, stirring, mixing, cooking, racing against the imaginary clock of getting one thing done before the heat on the stove demands the...

Read more »

Xinjiang-Style Lamb Skewers

August 20, 2012
Lamb Skewers Cooked Xinjiang Style

This post is for a contest being put on by the folks at the American Lamb Board. The prize is cool (cooking with a chef at an event) and I’d like to win, so please vote for me! Also, that means the lamb used here was given to me by the lamb folks. Thanks, lamb folks! Xinjiang lamb skewers are the best bar snack you’ve never had. Unless you’ve been to Beijing, in which case, they might just be the best bar snack you have had. It’s been almost three years since I came back from Beijing, but the...

Read more »

Mac and Miso: Inspiration and Failure

April 4, 2012
MacMiso1WM

I broke my blog. I wasn’t paying attention, and I hit update on something, and it overrode changes I’d made that do minor things. Things I’m sure other people don’t even pay attention to, like whether the ads fit in their boxes or not. Whether there is a ‘next post’ button at the bottom of the page. My blog is broken, and while I designed it my self, I’ll be honest, it was a while ago and I can’t for the life of me remember how I made it work before. This was supposed to be a post...

Read more »

How to Make Noodles in a Meat Grinder

March 6, 2012
NoodlesComingOut

 Chinese noodles with perfect bite, chew, texture, with half the work? Sign me up. After creating the hand-cut noodle recipe, I realized that: wait, I’m way too lazy to use the peeler to make the noodles for more than just Brett and I. But until recently, I didn’t know what to do about it, so when I made dan dan noodles for a group, they had to be satisfied with my favorite store noodles. It isn’t right. No, my friends deserve the bounce of a fabulous fresh noodle. Fast forward to last week, as I flipped around the internets,...

Read more »

Pambazo Lessons from an Abuela

December 17, 2011
Pambazo and Grandma

Among the oddities of my childhood were an avocado green washer and dryer in the kitchen of our house, a mild prodigy brother, and a constant parade of exchange students from as far away as New Caledonia. 25 years later and I still have no idea where New Caledonia is. I do know where San Juan del Rio, Mexico, a small town two hours north of Mexico City, from where hailed many of our exchange students. One of them has become a life long family friend, and on our recent trip to Mexico, his mother taught us how to...

Read more »

Little Nibbles: Chicken and Waffles, Squash Snacks and Me!

November 22, 2011
ChaffleSide

A quick round up of all things delicious, in my kitchen, in my city and around the world… The Chaffle Remember when I told you all about Chicken and Waffles in Seattle? Well, a restaurateur responded to my challenge. Blue Moon Burgers invited me in to try their ‘Chaffle,’ a chicken and waffle sandwiched. And I’ll be damned if it wasn’t pretty darn good. Act quickly though–it’s only their burger of the month, so you only have until the end of November (that’s next week, for those of you in December denial) to give it a taste test. Squash on Tortillas...

Read more »

Bacon and Sour Cream Stuffed Potato Puffs

October 26, 2011
Split shot

  The wheels in my head go round and round…round and round. The Taro Puffs on the dim sum cart go round and round…round and round. Using the recipe from Asian Dumplings, I became drunk on success  after my first attempt at Taro Puffs, those lacy, crisp bundles of soft starch that envelop pockets of pork, roaming about the dim sum world. What if…I thought. What if, I replaced taro with a more versatile starch, one that could be blank canvas for all my evil amazing plans. I tried to research if the lacy crunch that defines the taro...

Read more »

Never miss a post!

Subscribe to The GastroGnome RSS

Download my App!

Unique Eats of the Northwest

Advertisement

Advertisement

Recommended by The GastroGnome

Advertisement

Posts by Category

Advertisement

508156_Bon Appetit Primary Banner - 250x250

Advertisement