Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Smoked Sea Salt Fudge Brownies


Recently a friend came back from a trip to Hawaii, and happened to bring me a little gift....A trio of Hawaiian Sea Salts.  Today I decided to try one out.  Kiawe Smoke Infused Sea Salt.  The brownies turn out great, the Kiawe wood used to add smoky flavor has a very mesquite quality to it and brings out the accents the bitterness of the dark chocolate.  I recommend using the highest concentration for the baking chocolate, and tweak the sugar content and sweetness as you mix the ingredients together.  

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

 I found myself in a different kitchen with different, yet not unfamiliar, ingredients.  I took a small field trip over to Liv's Kitchen, to visit with a good friend and to truly bond...by drinking wine spritzers and making cupcakes.  Now it will become quickly apparent to you that I am at heart a great cook, but a less than fabulous baker.  Which is why I met with Olivia.  Of all the people to adventure with into the world of baking, I couldn't have picked a better partner.  I mean, she's got a degree in CAKE.  No joke.   Not only is she a supremely talented baker, but she knows how to gently handle my baking ineptitude, even if it means pouring me a little more wine and patting me on the back for my effort. :)

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Tomato Roasted Pepper Tart




How many of us remember a great family recipe?  How many of them have tomatoes in it?  Between a Sicilian grandmother's homemade marinara to your father's Super Bowl chili, the tomato is the steadfast sidekick to so many great dishes out there.  Tomatoes have more sentiment to my life and to my kitchen.  My grandfather used to grow tomatoes at his house in the old french quarter of Manchester.  What used to be a 6'x8' plot of poorly seeded grass was transformed by his hands into a tomato garden.  Chain-link fence to pavement he planted everywhere he could and every summer the tomatoes would grow wildly, a mass of green stalks and fiery red.  

Monday, July 16, 2012

Simple Comforts


(originally posted - 01/06/2012)
Comfort Food:  noun - : food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal  (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

Food has an amazing capacity to stimulate all our senses.  It can bring about memories and feelings, not only giving sustenance to the body but also to the individual.  It's the grilled cheese and tomato soup on a cold autumn afternoon, or chocolate chip pancakes for dinner, or even the spaghetti sauce your mother used to make.  It's one of the few things in the world that has relativity to all of us.

Lighting the Hearth



(originally posted 01/04/2012)


This year begins for me, full of promise and hope and this blog is part of that beginning.  And in talking about beginnings I want to discuss the Kitchen Hearth.  In the past, it was the epicenter of the home, used to prepare nourishing meals, give warmth to those surrounding it, and provide clarity and light in the darkness.  Our personal hearth-fires are just as important.  Much in the same way, we tend the flames of our personal ambitions, those qualities or accomplishments we reach for, the same way we press our cold hands into the warm air surrounding a wood stove.  It's time to rekindle the hearth fire, the soul of our homes and of our lives.  It's the time for starting anew, sweeping the ashes out from the past days we've weathered, and piling our wishes and aspirations onto one another like the wood in a fireplace, creating a towering promise to ourselves. These things mean something to us, and sometimes, they mean the most to us. We ignite these with expectations and sometimes with naivety, but the greatest successes and worst failures both burn brightly and leave impressions on our futures. 
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