Gourmandistan

Picking up a little blueberry almond tart

December 13, 2012 by Steve

This universe is vast and full of mysteries, replete with bosons, gluons, quarks and other micro-matter. So Steve understands that, possibly on some subatomic level, there could exist a condition known as “too much pie.” This theoretical event horizon, however, exists beyond any pie plate Steve might find himself within reach of. Not that Steve will eat an entire pie in one sitting—that would be gluttonous (besides Steve has usually stuffed himself on savories by the time dessert rolls around). […]

Categories: Blueberries, Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Pies & Tarts, Recipes, Vegetarian

Chocolate & peanut butter ripples across Atlantic, threatening Nutella domination.

December 9, 2012 by Steve

Gourmandistan wants only to spread the love, so we must first say that we adore Nutella. Steve, particularly, has been a fan of filberts for as long as he can remember, and we’ve both appreciated schmears of the nutty stuff on crêpes purchased from Paris metro station vendors. But seriously, Europeans need to get better acquainted with peanut butter, one of those magic foodstuffs (like tomatoes, potatoes, pineapples and processed cheese product) brought to life in the New World. We […]

Categories: Chocolate, Cookies, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Soft-boiled eggs, soldiers and slightly overdoing Michel Bras

December 2, 2012 by Steve

We first found the Relais & Chateaux resort hanging above the Aubrac plateau in 2004, as we fled the food desert known as the Minervois that had been our lovely home for almost a month on our first annual “let’s spend our mythical child’s school tuition” flex-time sojourn to France. While we were utterly charmed by our house, we were almost equally devastated at the discovery all French folk did not necessarily look at food the way Patricia Wells had […]

Categories: Cheese, Cooking, Eggs, Food, France, Recipes, Restaurants, Vegetarian

Martha Stewart, Mitt Romney and making bank off Salty Peanut & Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

November 25, 2012 by Steve

One of the benefits of being around since the middle of the last century is that we Gourmandistanis may confidently say we were hip to Martha Stewart before Martha Stewart became hip. “It’s a good thing” was a catchphrase in our various domiciles as we cooked, stenciled and collected assorted tchotchkes such as the fake topiary Steve dubbed “the puffball on a stick.” While even Michelle is not as craft-tastic and decorative-ish as she used to be (the puffball, too, […]

Categories: Chocolate, Cookies, Cooking, Food, Nuts, Recipes, Vegetarian

Winner, Winner, Chez Panisse Chicken Dinner

November 18, 2012 by Steve

We appreciate each and every vote cast for us as nominees for the second annual Country Living Magazine Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards. Sadly, they were not enough to clinch the “Reader’s Choice” honor. (According to Mitt Romney, we should have offered contraceptives, amnesty, aid for dependent children and other “free stuff.”) But even better, the judges picked us as the year’s best new cooking blog! We heard the news when we were in Normandy, but had to keep mum until […]

Categories: Chicken, Cooking, Food, Recipes

A decent excuse for roasting: Duck Fat Focaccia

November 9, 2012 by Steve

It’s not as if Gourmandistan is unfamiliar with ovens. After all, we’re about to buy a new one because half of our decades-old double unit burned out from fun tricks like 24-hour pork roasts and 550° “turn the place into a pizza parlor” sessions. But we have been somewhat unsuccessful with home-roasting whole ducks. Saint Alice of the Incredibly Simple Roast Chicken Recipe (that’s salt, pepper, 400°, 1 hour) once disappointed us with a boring, too-greasy duck, though fervent acolyte […]

Categories: Cooking, Duck, Food, Recipes, Yeast breads

Calvados overdose: Calvados Ice Cream with Apple Calvados Compote (now with bonus Calvados!)

November 3, 2012 by Steve

Those Norman French sure love their apple brandy. A sidebar next to this recipe in Susan Herrmann Loomis’ French Farmhouse Cookbook lists seven rounds of Calvados served at the end of old-school Norman meals, including the coup de pied au cul or “kick in the ass.” Gourmandistan’s recent relocation to Normandy saw us imbibe several shots throughout many meals, some as apéritifs and some in desserts, but never seven in one sitting. (Steve would not have fared well, as Steve […]

Categories: Apples, Cooking, Food, France, Fruit, Ice cream, Recipes, Vegetarian

Thigh-Mastering Taiwanese General Tso’s Chicken

October 26, 2012 by Steve

When it comes to chicken, Michelle takes a dim view of dark meat. She admits the flavor is better than breast meat, especially from our local birds. But the lurking presence of fascia, tendons, cartilage and other “icky” pieces of non-contiguous chicken flesh always give her pause. Chicken thigh meat is one of the metrics Michelle uses to rate Asian restaurants (“This will tell the tale,” she reportedly once said while cutting into a piece of deep-fried Chinese restaurant chicken […]

Categories: Chicken, China, Cooking, Food, Recipes

Progressive Farmer Pecan Praline Bars

October 23, 2012 by Steve

Michelle’s 98-year-old grandmother passed away peacefully a few months ago, inside the farmhouse she and her husband built on their Western Kentucky acreage. Postwar poster children for America’s re-energized agricultural community, they were named 1950’s “Master Farm Family” by Progressive Farmer magazine and the University of Kentucky Extension Service. While “crops, pastures, livestock, farm equipment and farm management procedures” gained Papo recognition, Mamo was declared “the Master Farmer’s Wife” for her “home furnishings, comfort devices, labor-saving equipment and home management […]

Categories: Brownies, Chocolate, Cooking, Family, Food, Nuts, Recipes, Vegetarian

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