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Now this one’s a keeper ! I decided to make this cake as a special “pre-christmas dinner” ( paired with a new-york strip roast, and gorgonzola and pear salad). It was absolutely lovely – the cake was deliciously moist, very chocolately and the blood-orange compote made it both a little different and beautiful to look at.
And [...]

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October’s cover of Bon Appetit was a “slow cooked” short ribs with sun-dried tomato gravy ( note to Bon Appetit – why don’t you have all your cover recipes always on-line?). It looked absolutely fun to make – and it was.
I’ve wanted to do short-ribs ever since I had a version at a restaurant in [...]

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The October gourmet had a recipe for sweet potato gnoochi that was impossible to not try. Admittedly it looked a little intimidating and a lot of work – but worth a try.
It was indeed a lot of work, roasting the potatoes, then making the dough, kneading it, shaping the gnoochi etc. I eventually got good at [...]

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Unknown to most there are five ( not four) basic tastes… bitter, salty, sour, and sweet and the fifth taste – umami. Umami is commonly described as a protein taste – “the essence of chicken stock”. One of the reasons roast chicken is everyone’s favorite is how much it matches the essence of Umami taste.
When [...]

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July’s Chocolate Raspberry cream pie just had to be made – a no-bake, no-fuss good-looking summer desert. It was as easy as was advertised – the only hard part was that I found myself making creme-fraiche again. Other than that this was really a snap.
It looks great – and it was great ! Creamy texture [...]

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Both of the January issues of Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazine featured a pasta dish on the cover. I thought this would be a great excuse to have a “pasta slugfest” or “battle of the pastas” – where I’d cook both and declare a winner.
I first did the “challenger” – Fettucine Carbonara with Fried Eggs. [...]

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Just wanted to put in a plug for one of the great christmas presents we got this year ( thanks Nikii and Marika). We’ve wanted a sandwich grill for a while – so we were given the Breville sandwich press. It’s fantastic ! I’m onto my 3rd or 4th evening of panini’s. It’s also incredible [...]

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