I have often repeated my mother-in-law’s mantra, “Spend more time shopping and less time cooking.”I can also add to this and say spend more money on quality ingredients. When she talked about spending time shopping, try to invision the Italian way of shopping. Seatching out the BEST butcher and shops that carry the best products near…
Charcutepalooza- February- Salt Cure
do you charcutepalooza? When they announed that the February project was the salt cure, perhaps I went a little wild. I did pancetta, the stesa style, which is most typical in Florence for cooking with. Then the bacon, i did not use pink salt, but did the sugar cure which was in the…
Meat Museum- The Masters of Meat
As you all know, I adore my butchers. The men and women that turn meat into meals. I was inspired, as I often am, but my soul-sister Kate in Camont, France. Her article on the red and white butcher shops reminded me of the foto shoot I just did for Dario, my master butcher, in…
Happy New Year!
Although most of the world celebrates the new year in January, it has not always been like that.My mom grew up in Shanghai and the we have always also joined in on celebrating Chinese New Year as well. In Florence, March 25th was the day they celebrated, I wrote about it here on a past…
World Nutella Day- Nutella-filled Rice Fritters
It’s that time of year!Carnevale is when Italy goes all out with sweets and my friends Sara from Ms Adventures in Italy and Michele from Bleeding Expresso created a monster fest! WORLD NUTELLA DAYIf you are crazy about Nutella- stop by on Monday to both their sites as they are doing a round-up of all the crazy bloggers that love…
Makin’ Bacon- Part 1
The pancetta is hanging in it’s peppery jacket and last night I dedicated to the piece of bacon that was in the fridge curing next to the guanciale. Following the recipe from the Charcuterie book, Ruhlman suggests baking as an alternative to smoking the bacon. I did not know bacon was baked, but decided to…
Pancetta Progress- Charcutepalooza
You know you are living in the right place when a sign like this is at the exit of the grocery store, to make sure you know about it. At the Meat Counter you can reserve your pork for salting. The cool air in January is perfect for families to age their own cured pork…
Diva on Tour- SF Bay Area and Eugene
This year I will be coming back to the San Francisco Bay Area for three weeks.Here is a list of events and classes- Feb 11- Cooking Class- Lafayette- In Terry’s Kitchen menu will be online soonFeb 12th – KGO- on the radio with Gene Burns in Amthen cooking demo at Bloomingdales in afternoon.Feb 13- Private…