A few weeks back, I decided to order some specialty meats from D’Artagnan to make a special meal for my husband. I have ordered specialty items in the past as Christmas presents for my hard-to-buy-for family members who love to cook, but it’s rare that I purchase these things for myself. So I went out on a limb and decided to try D’Artagnan, and I was really happy with their variety, shipping rates, and the overall service.

That’s how I came to have these two wild boar shanks sitting in my freezer. When ordering meats online, it seems that whatever fits into the cooler ships for (roughly) the same price. Since D’Artagnan was having a sale on their game meats, I decided to add a couple of wild boar shanks and some venison to my order, which shipped for the $20 my duck alone would have shipped for (well, okay, this is Madd Hatter math… $22 for the duck, $29 for adding wild boar and venison… all in all, we’re in the $20 range). While I’ve had wild boar often at Italian restaurants, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when cooking it. So I decided to go with a preparation similar to what I’d had in restaurants – a wild boar ragu, perfect for coating strands of pasta. (more…)

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Dairy free, Dinner, Italian, Sunday Suppers, Wine pairings by Courtney

Many moons ago, I made a wild rice stuffing for my turkey that was delicious. However, this post is not about that. It’s about the leftover box of wild rice I’ve had sitting in my cupboard for those many moons (7 years!). While rice going bad isn’t something that I had ever really thought of, I was kind of surprised when I opened it and no weird odors or growths appeared. Then I moved onward with my plans to make a delectable rice laced with crisp green veggie slivers.

California wild rice is black, with a somewhat nutty, somewhat earthy flavor, and a texture that is the epitome of “toothsome”. And it’s fuss-free. “Add water to pot with rice. Boil. Drain.” are pretty much the instructions on the box. As a girl who often burned pots of rice dry, I can get on board with these directions. (more…)

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Dairy free, Dinner, Gluten free, Side Dish, Thanksgiving, Vegan, Vegetarian by Courtney

At the age of 18, I moved away from Tennessee to the midwest, and I had more than my fair share of culture shocks. Most of these had to do with food. A ham biscuit at Hardee’s was made with deli ham, because no one north of Kentucky had ever heard of country ham. White Lily flour was only sold in Williams-Sonoma, and a small bag would cost you eight dollars. Barbecue was most often beef, most often ribs. And in the self-proclaimed barbecue capital of the world, being invited to a barbecue didn’t mean you were going to get smoked meat, but that you were simply grilling out some burgers and hotdogs. And soup beans… no one knew what these were. How was I to explain it? I had no other words for soup beans – they were soup beans, cooked and served with cornbread most usually. (more…)

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Comfort food, Dairy free, Dinner, French, Gluten free, Southern by Courtney

If you’ve ever travelled to the Caribbean, hopefully you’ve taken the chance and tried one of their more unique meats – conch. I’ve had it in fritters in Key West, I’ve had it as a marinated piece of meat in St. Thomas, but until now, I had never tried conch chowder.

Now, I have no idea if canned conch is regularly stocked in stores, but quite a while back I noticed a local market had it stocked, so I picked up a can (I now know that Amazon carries it). And then it sat in my basement stores. For a while. So long, that just this past week I realized I had a few months left to eat it, otherwise, it would be headed for the trash. So peruse my cookbooks I did, and conch chowder I decided upon. (more…)

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Caribbean, Dinner, Soups, Wine pairings by Courtney

I’ve long wanted to make this recipe, which is in on of my favorite cookbooks, the Food of France. After my first dinner paired with La Fiorita’s Brunello di Montalcino, I decided this might be the perfect wine to accompany the dinner. After all, if I’m going to the trouble of locating venison here in the Bay area, I’m going to make this a special meal! Plus, the brunello has a somewhat fruity flavor, with more than a hint of berries that I wanted to see if I could coax out more by pairing with blackberries. (more…)

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Dinner, Gourmet, Sunday Suppers, Wine pairings by Courtney