Month: October 2010

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corned beef or pastrami is so french

the iPad as a recipe book is perfect! CLICK to see what I am making for my daughters this winter!

All the ladies in my family love those great deli style sandwiches and Pastrami is one of Laura’s favorite and I try to make it for her often. This Pastrami ( which starts by making ‘corned beef’ and smoking the final product transforms it to pastrami.. voila!!!) Karen loved them so much in high school she called the sandwich  ‘cheese juice’. Often I would make plenty for her track meets to share and they were always a hit… but then it wasn’t hard to please hungry 16 year olds!

The real important lesson in all of this was the joy they all felt enjoying something homemade and everything made from scratch. Today, it is more important than ever to understand our nutritional needs and develop the basic culinary skills. I am always saddened when I hear young men and women who don’t have a foggiest about the very basics of cooking. Young ones, the microwave is for warming up coffee, cooking vegetables but it is not a replacement for the stove and a good recipe book. One story that touched me recently was of a French chef who took t his skills and expertise to the people and began teaching the fine art of French cooking… a truly heart warming story!

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Click on the picture to read how Chef Ducasse is bringing the beautiful art of French cooking to others

 Bon Appetite!

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new looks and new plans for twitter

the template and the reality
don't spend a lot of time on your design for the new twitter look.... it's gone the way of facebook

From a marketing standpoint, I think twitter has done a good job in moving away from the basic position of being a news feed with their more expanded platform. In addition, the standard in ‘customized pages’ that myspace introduced years ago and folks like twitter followed have given way to the cold monolithic hospital colors of facebook. Actually, in truth, twitter is at a half way point of being more like the FireFox browser offering customized colors and backgrounds… but it is still a big reduction. You can see by the template I have for my site and the ‘reality’ behind it… not a lot comes across.

Not that I am complaining too much because I may actually be coming to the site more than the indirect ‘tweets from the phone’ approach. There are a few ‘tweeks’ I’d do… like a ‘transparent’ right sidebar ( at least 50%)… but that’s just me. I hope Karen has figured this out… but with her dissertation, teaching classes, conferences… I might have to wait a couple of days!  😉

However, it is a big improvement.

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gingerbread cookies are welcome on a cold and crisp day

gingerbread cookies
gingerbread cookies are great with coffee CLICK on picture for recipe

Do you see the ‘rose’ stamped into my cookies?? Well, it is there for fun and gingerbread cookies  are wonderful on a slightly chilled day with coffee or tea. I think fondly of what William Shakespere once said about this humble  fare:

“And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread.” – William Shakespeare

So, if you have time, bake up some gingerbread cookies… and if you don’t eat them right away, they last seemingly forever in my cookie jar!

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spanish tortilla fusion

spanish toritilla fusion
Spanish Tortilla FUSION!

When Laura and I were ‘chubby’, one of her favorite items was a natcho platter I would make that included my own home made tortilla strips, guacamole, refired beans, sour cream and various garnish. Well, obviously, we don’t do that anymore!

However, I was able to incorparate some of what I would add in her favorite dish with a fairly basic standard Spanish Tortilla recipe. I call this new recipe a ‘fusion’ as it incorpaorates some of the Tex-Mex style of my mother-in-law with that of the Spanish. For example, I use 6-8 ounces of 3 Mexican cheeses in the tortilla itself (which acts as an excellent binding agent), some smoked green peppers, a little of my own 15 spice curry blend to accent the Spanish Paprika… and the customary sour cream and olives that you find on most South-Western dishes.

serving on an authentic spanish plate does make a difference! 😉

 Obviously, served with my Margarita  the experience is complete!… if followed by a little nap!   😉

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a message to all voters

a secret message for all voters

 I learn so much from my children. Last night as we were wishing Karen a Happy Birthday, we were discussing the many uses of what are referred to as ‘QR Codes.’ Karen had been teasing me for some time about not having a ‘QR Reader for my phone which I have just now added (it would be helpful in San Luis Obispo would get their act together and give me more than one bar on my highly taxed phone!)

CLICK HERE to make a QR Code

CLICK HERE to get a QR Reader for your phone*

* I had to contact my service to find out which company had compatable software

Karen placed QR codes on my site which seem a little less mysterious now and I can see the fun in it. So if you have a QR Reader and can read this super secret message embeded into the design above… it might amuse you. At the very least, it may make you feel more hip and even impress your friends!

Thanks, Karen, I feel more ‘hip’ now.

Dad