Snowy Hotpot

November 28, 2012

Snow Hot Pot

A couple of years ago, around the time I first started this blog, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Japan. While I have always loved Japanese food, I had mostly experienced the more popular items we have here in America: teppanyaki, sushi, and noodle bowls. Of course, during the week we were in Japan, I had to seek out sushi at the famed Tsukiji Fish Market, and its freshness was astounding. However, for the most part, I opened myself up to whatever was being served, trying multi-course meals at Chef Chen Kenichi’s restaurant, Szechwan Restaurant Chen, and at the ryokan we stayed at in Kyoto, Yachiyo. During my time there I had custards, dried baby anchovies, many random soups and fruits that I never did identify, tofu prepared in so many ways, and hotpot. When I made it back home, I wanted to take advantage of the Japanese groceries we have here, so I bought a couple of Japanese cookbooks, an electric hotpot, and I started studying the ingredients and techniques of the cuisine. (more…)

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Fall Cocktails: An Appletini 1 year in the making

October 24, 2012

Appletini

Actually, a couple of years in the making. Two years ago, while peeling a bunch of apples for this meal, I decided I certainly couldn’t waste all of the peel. I happened to have a full bottle of Stoli vodka, so I decided to drop the peels into an empty bottle, cover them with vodka, and let it sit for a couple of months.

A couple of months came and went (more…)

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Any time is a good time for Guinness!

October 21, 2012

Guinness

Just a picture to share with you this NFL Sunday. Here’s to your team!

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Green Juice – the “recipe”

June 6, 2012

Green Juice

A couple of weekends ago, I had a friend mention offhand to me that she tried making my green juice, and it didn’t turn out as she expected (that was her nice way of saying it wasn’t so good). She had seen a Daily Nosh lunch posting and decided to put those exact same items through her juicer, but with less than stellar results. (more…)

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Iced Mint Tea

May 31, 2012

Iced Mint Tea

Even though I believe it might be sacrilege in the South, I never was a fan of sweet tea. My mom and dad loved it, and as a child, I would drink it, but I preferred to put so much lemon juice in it that it tasted like tea-flavored lemonade (or, I guess I just loved Arnold Palmers from a young age!). It wasn’t until adulthood set in that I even started drinking tea again. And when I did, it was the discovery of hot tea, unadulterated, that lured me back. When it got the least bit lukewarm, I would throw it away.

That is, until I traveled to Sharjah. While there, I had one of the most refreshing drinks I’d ever tasted on a 100 degree day – iced mint tea, served in a tiny, Moroccan glass no less. (more…)

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