Holidays & Events | Gourmandistan

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

Bringing out the old to ring in the new with rabbit and some colored-eye soup

December 31, 2015 by Steve

Our version did not use black-eyed peas (instead it used yellow eyes), which we feel is OK because this post is not really about New Year’s. But, if you happen to have some dried beans, rabbit and bacon around when the calendar turns to 2016, we certainly think you’ll enjoy this dish. This “hearty and hospitable” soup was featured in a mid- to late-1980s food magazine, unnamed in the photocopied page contained in Michelle’s old three-ring binder that Steve found while recently cleaning […]

Categories: Beans, Christmas, Cooking, Food, New Year, Old cookbooks, Rabbit, Recipes, Restaurants, Soups & Stews

Kahlúa & coffee give West Coast brownies a kick

December 19, 2015 by Steve

Legendary dessert cookbook author Maida Heatter opined that her “West Coast Brownies” might be “more appreciated by adults than by children.” Whether or not these need to be segregated like the spiked eggnog, we definitely believe they deserve a place on the holiday buffet. Heatter wrote that her recipe was a variation on “Brownie Points,” something made in the late Seventies by a Southern California baker/businessman, Richard Melcombe, who called himself “Richmel” and sold his goods “in leading stores across the country.” “Brownie Points” apparently never made […]

Categories: Baking, Brownies, Christmas, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Old cookbooks, Recipes

Shrimp and grits pâté part of new Thanksgiving tradition

November 29, 2015 by Steve

Last year’s Gourmandistan Thanksgiving was a lovely gathering where everyone enjoyed themselves, including both Michelle and Steve. One reason, aside from some delightful company, was the decision to limit ourselves to simple, Southern-influenced items, many of which we could make ahead of the actual meal. Centered around country ham and roast chicken and featuring cornbread/biscuit stuffing, broccoli casserole, cranberry sauce and multiple pies, our dinner was such a lovely time we decided to do it again this year—and to share this simple […]

Categories: Appetizers, Family, Food, Holidays & Events, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Shrimp, Thanksgiving

A bourbon-peach brisket blog for the 4th of July

July 4, 2015 by Steve

This particular Independence Day finds Gourmandistan a bit book-busy, a bit American-lazy and, in most ways, not particularly suited to a long, involved blog post. We’re having an almost blog-standard July 4th dinner of ribs, slaw and potato salad, but yesterday’s lunch (3-day weekend!) was the last bit of this lovely brisket. We changed virtually nothing in Louisville chef Edward Lee’s recipe from Bon Appétit. The combination of stout, bourbon, soy sauce and peach jam absolutely blew Michelle away, and she’s declared this the best brisket she’s ever […]

Categories: Beef, Cooking, Food, Independence Day, Recipes

Grits, shrimp and baby artichoke casserole can’t replace Best Derby Ever

April 23, 2015 by Michelle

We very much like this casserole, which is a fancied-up, fresher-tasting version of the boring grits and cheese concoctions usually found on Derby buffets. But we don’t like it nearly as much as last year’s Derby. Faithful, years-long readers of Gourmandistan (and oh, how we love you so very, very much) may recall our previous posts, where we tended to take “The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports” with our tongues planted firmly in our cheeks. Last year, however, as Steve’s editorship of […]

Categories: Artichokes, Cheese, Cooking, Food, Kentucky Derby, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Shrimp

Garbure Gets Gourmandistan Ready For 2015

January 1, 2015 by Steve

Once again Gourmandistan enters a new year, and once again we enjoy black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day, without resorting to Hoppin’ John. Steve managed to come down with a nasty cold between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, meaning Michelle had to manage the kitchen by herself while Steve wheezed, coughed and slept in isolation. (While Michelle missed her sous chef, we both hope the bug has missed her.) While sniffly Steve was in no shape to help search for a recipe, […]

Categories: Beans, Cabbage, Cooking, Duck, Food, France, New Year, Recipes, Soups & Stews

Dim sum all ye faithful (with tofu skin rolls)

December 25, 2014 by Michelle

Gourmandistanis are certainly not the first tribe to discover the joys of eating Chinese food for Christmas. Nor was this year our first indulgence of our Asian inclinations over the holiday (though we’re pretty sure we’ll avoid a blizzard this year). As per a request from Michelle’s lovely sister, we decided to turn our house into a dim sum parlor for Christmas Day lunch this year. We scoured local markets, ground pork and shrimp and assembled various doughs and spices over numerous days, freezing or […]

Categories: China, Christmas, Cooking, Dim sum, Food, Pork, Recipes, Tofu

Matzo ball soup made better with brownness

September 25, 2014 by Steve

In her charming 1989 book, Cooking with Memories, Lora Brody had a chapter called “Gourmet Chicken Soup,” which related her dismay at a Passover Seder where she was forced to endure a “highfalutin’ chicken soup” that lacked matzo balls. She wrote that her mother made the comment, “Escoffier would be proud”—a sly insult because the promulgator of haute cuisine “wasn’t Jewish and neither … [was] this soup.” Brody continued the chapter by offering her own chicken soup recipe, which includes cubes of chicken bouillon […]

Categories: Cooking, Family, Food, Holidays & Events, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Soups & Stews