Michelle

Crunchy, funky pasta with charred Brussels sprouts and cauliflower

January 25, 2017 by Michelle

We found this recipe through Food & Wine Magazine, where they credit Philadelphia chef Marc Vetri with the idea of charring cauliflower and Brussels sprouts along with anchovies, garlic, onion and rosemary. We first tried this combination the Chef Vetri way, tossed with thick strands of bucatini pasta. We liked the hearty zing of anchovy and crushed pepper, but didn’t think the bucatini (even made by Steve on his new pasta press!) was a benefit, and actually buried the nicely charred cauliflower and sprouts. We […]

Categories: Brussels sprouts, Cauliflower, Food, Pasta, Recipes

Baked rice with egg crust beats paella, at least in Gourmandistan

January 17, 2017 by Michelle

We don’t know if arroz con costra is viewed as superior to paella in Spain, as Gourmandistan’s travels to that country have been mostly limited to sojourns in Basque country where we stuffed ourselves silly on pintxos and one brief foray into Catalonia. This dish, which is basically rice, meat and broth baked and served under an egg crust, may be from Valencia, which Claudia Roden (who we got the idea from) credits for its creation. Or it may be from Murcia, a neighboring region […]

Categories: Chicken, Cooking, Eggs, Food, Pork, Recipes, Rice, Spain

Pepita cake with chocolate-espresso glaze puts the Southwest in perspective

October 8, 2016 by Michelle

Gourmandistan has returned from a trip to the American West with photographs, a somewhat-reduced fear of heights and a strong urge to enjoy food made with our own hands. Thanks to the generosity of one of Michelle’s law partners, we gained the opportunity for a free stay in Sedona, Arizona, which we turned into a trip around the Four Corners region of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. While both had been to various states west of the Rocky Mountains, neither Steve […]

Categories: Baking, Cake, Chocolate, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes, Restaurants, Vacation

Saying goodbye to Fil with sukiyaki

June 26, 2016 by Michelle

After 94 years of curiosity, crossword puzzles, conversations, travel and more, Steve’s “mom,” Filomena DeMarzo Farley, died last week. Fil was the older sister of Steve’s real mother, who died when he was a toddler. Fil was born in Orange, New Jersey and grew up as part of a large, interrelated Italian family. Gourmandistan has brought you bits of Fil’s childhood before, told through stories of struffoli and eggplant parmesan, and we may very well visit Mechanic Street again. But on the […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Family, Food, Japan, Onions, Recipes, Tofu

Bourbon Ball Trifle tastefully twists a Kentucky Derby tradition

April 23, 2016 by Michelle

The first Saturday in May is fast approaching and our thoughts are, once again, turning to the Kentucky Derby. Over our years of Derby partying, Gourmandistan has sampled plenty of bad bourbon balls. For those of you unfamiliar with this Kentucky candy, the bourbon ball was the invention of Ruth Hanly Booe, who began making candy in our state capital, Frankfort, after leasing a bar idled by Prohibition. While it’s possible that making candy in an old bar put the idea of liquor-infused candy into her […]

Categories: Cake, Chocolate, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Kentucky Derby, Recipes

Cocoa brownies with coconut icing sweetly kick chocolate to the curb

April 1, 2016 by Michelle

Gourmandistan has a long history of bringing our virtual world recipes from Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies. (We are not sorry, dear readers, because the recipes are so damn good.) Today’s homage is to a batch of brownies that bypass chocolate for cocoa powder. As Medrich says, “the best brownies are not always made with a bar of chocolate,” asserting that cocoa gives brownies “divinely soft centers and slightly chewy, almost candylike tops.” We must admit the idea of coconut icing came […]

Categories: Baking, Brownies, Chocolate, Coconut, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes

Bacon salad dressing brings back memories, blesses pea shoots and more

March 27, 2016 by Michelle

Michelle had never heard of Hillstone Restaurant Group before reading this month’s feature article in Bon Appétit Magazine. This “non-chain chain” is reportedly adored by such culinary luminaries as Danny Meyer and David Chang. As she read, Michelle felt a jolt of familiarity when she saw that HRG “started in 1977 with the opening of Houston’s in Nashville.” 1977, it seems, was the year Michelle and her college girlfriends also landed on Nashville’s West End Avenue, becoming a part of the beginning of what Andrew Knowlton, the article’s author, calls the “best-run, […]

Categories: Apples, Chicken, Cured meats, Food, Friends, Nuts, Pork, Recipes, Restaurants, Salad, Watercress

Does aging make banana cake with coffee buttercream, chocolate and walnut praline better?

February 28, 2016 by Michelle

Perhaps it was the praline that prevented Michelle from immediately warming to this cake. After announcing to Steve that she was going to make something sweet out of a small bunch of overly ripe bananas, Michelle quickly thought of pairing it with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache, but struggled for a bit to find a way to insert a nut-laden layer as well. Steve did manage to raise a bit of interest with the idea of a baklava-esque layer of […]

Categories: Baking, Cake, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Recipes

Boozy cherry almond biscotti demonstrate thinking inside and outside the box

February 14, 2016 by Michelle

Many years ago, Steve had his first day at a new advertising agency, receiving a t-shirt with the company logo and the slogan, “think outside the box.” Steve received it politely but did not wear the shirt in public, as the clichéd slogan struck him as kind of silly. (They weren’t alone in their platitudes, as Steve’s previous agency liked to boast it “put the client at the center of everything we do.”) However, a recent batch of biscotti Michelle whipped up […]

Categories: Baking, Cherries, Cookies, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Nuts, Recipes

Gourmandistan

A fabled land of farmers, farm shares, fancy (and not so fancy) restaurants, family meals, food projects and more.

Author Archives: Michelle