Archive for February, 2008
« Previous EntriesRome with a view
Friday, February 29th, 2008
I’m back! And oh, Rome was so beautiful… the gentle sunshine, narrow streets, crumbling buildings… the gelato, pizza and artichokes… the coffee, freshly squeezed blood orange juice, and wine…
But I’ll write more about the food later. For now, here are a few pictures.
Cooking the Books hits the road
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008Please pardon our molto brief hiatus, while we journey to Rome (photo above taken during our last visit to the Eternal City in 2005). We are looking forward to eating lots of food (pasta! gelato!), drinking lots of special beverages (espresso! cappucino! wine!), wandering around and taking lots of photos… And rest assured that we […]
Which wine with Sichuanese food?
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
Eric Asimov has an interesting post on his NYT wine and spirits blog, The Pour, in which he discusses which wine pairs best with Sichuanese cuisine. If you’re a regular reader of Cooking the Books, you’ve probably guessed that I am an ardent fan of Sichuan food. I also like wine. But together? Not so much.
The hallmark […]
Mamma mia
Friday, February 15th, 2008We usually stay home on Valentine’s day, rather than risk overcrowded restaurants and food cooked by the B team. Apparently, we’re not alone — as evidenced by this thread on Chowhound! We enjoyed some champagne and I made chicken parmagiana, inspired in part by Lidia, but more by the tomato sauce left over from this […]
Je t’aime
Thursday, February 14th, 2008I’ll post about my dinner plans later, but for now here is my little Valentine to you, Paris on a sunny day. Could anything be lovelier?
Milk vs. Dark: Battle of the chocolates
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
Today’s NYT Dining section has an interesting article about a new breed of milk chocolates. Apparently some chocolatiers have created a “dark milk” chocolate, by increasing the amount of cacao normally found in milk chocolate and decreasing sugar.
“Dark milk” chocolate sounds like a clever marketing ploy to me, but in honor of Valentine’s Day I […]
Pizza puzzle
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008I wish I had a wood-burning pizza oven like the one above, which is in Bologna. During my 2005 Italian cooking class we were lucky enough to bake pizzas in this special oven, which heats to over 700 degrees Fahrenheit. As you might imagine, pizza cooks in about .08 seconds at that temperature.
Sadly, I just have a regular […]
Sunday supper
Monday, February 11th, 2008And so begins our adventures with The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics. My first foray was this dish — braised chicken with olives, carrots and chickpeas — which seemed perfect for last night’s blustery weather. I substituted skinless, bone-in breasts for the thighs and dried cranberries for the raisins.
Melange du jour
Friday, February 8th, 2008
A bit of a mix today. First, I am happy to announce that Cooking the Books will begin a new cookbook review — The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics (pictured above). Several of my friends and family members swear by Martha. I’m looking forward to sampling some of the 1,200 recipes.
Second, a new cookbook means we […]
Happy Chinese New Year!
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
This is my first Chinese new year since moving back from China, and I’m feeling a little nostalgic. If we were still living in Beijing, we’d be eating noodles (for longevity) and listening to firecrackers (to ward off evil spirits)…Er, correction — actually, to be honest, we’d probably be on vacation somewhere warm, far, far away from […]