The first thing I should say about this pan is that I have cooked many things in it, but never an omelet. We have cooked eggs in it, and that is one of the few ingredients I would not recommend for this pan. Eggs stick harshly to this model. This is more of a meat and vegetable pan.

The best feature of this item is how even the heating is. Unlike many other pans, the pan heats up quickly and the heat is dispersed the same all over the pan.

The handle always stays cool unless of course you put the pan in the oven. I cook up my Southern Comfort chicken thighs in this all the time. At 10 inches, it is perfect for a family of four or below. 12 inches probably would be better for more than that.

The pan is also dishwasher safe, but I always hit it with the brush before I put it into the washer. This is NOT a non-stick pan, but with all of the horror health stories revolving around Teflon cookware, I will take the stainless steel over it any time!

One of the drawbacks on this model though is that there are three little rivets on the inside of the pan where the handle attaches. – (More…)

For those who really enjoy cooking, there is a trap we can all fall into. It is natural to have pride in your creations but sometimes too much of a good thing is not good. The home cook who tries to make a culinary wonder every day is going to find it becoming tiring work. Many of the greatest dishes require a lot of preparation and contain quite a few steps. Finding an extra hour or two in a single day can be challenging enough, but 7 days a week is extremely demanding.

There is also the question of cost. Many of the great recipes out there call for ingredients that are more expensive than your average meal. It may be enjoyable to prepare prime rib, but is it economically justifiable? There are many times when the cost of one great meal could have paid for three or four standard dishes.

Some get the feeling that if they just slap up a meatloaf, people will question their culinary prowess. Now I am not saying you should serve meatloaf at your friends twenty five year anniversary party, but when your home with the family after a long dreary Wednesday, don’t worry if you only have enough energy to bread up some pork chops, prepare instant potatoes, open a can of corn, and make a dinner in about fifteen minutes.

Remember, although cooking is an art form, – (More…)

This myth angers me more than any other. I talk to some people who have a feeling of hopelessness in the kitchen because they feel they need to spend thousands of dollars at a culinary institute in order to be considered a great cook. Unless you plan on working in a world class kitchen in Paris or New York City, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Much of what they teach you in these schools has nothing to do with cooking, but more about working in a restaurant which is a completely different thing. For those who just want to be a great cook do not need to know all the details about the proper way to maintain stable temperature in commercial refrigerators, or how to organize line cooks.

Now there is nothing wrong with taking courses in cooking and it can be very fulfilling. A four year degree however is not necessary if you want to make great unique dishes for your family, friends, or even your own establishment. There are many famous restaurants in this world that were started by those who only had the love of cooking as their guide.

Instead of worrying about credentials, think about all of your actual cooking experience. Learning new recipes teaches you more than you realize. How many times have you prepared a dish you have never tried before and found similarities with other recipes you – (More…)

From time to time I will splurge a little and pick up a few racks of raw baby back ribs. Probably my favorite cut of pork rib available, there are many ways they can be prepared.

We generally use a simple quick barbecue sauce on the baby back ribs, and they come out tasting great. If you have time to slow cook them all day, then great, but many times you are on a tight schedule.

Using this basic recipe, I have gotten used to the flavor, but when I started cooking them in a cast iron skillet in the oven, they tasted entirely different. The flavors were dark and rich.

2 racks of baby back ribs (about 3 pounds).
1 bottle of beer.
Water.
1 yellow onion, diced.
4 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped fine.
1/4 cup vinegar, preferably cider vinegar.
1 cup of ketchup.
1 tablespoon of molasses.
1 tablespoon lemon or grapefruit juice.
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce.
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce.
Pepper.
Olive oil.

Preheat oven to 325.

Cut the racks into individual ribs and place in a large saucepan. Pour the beer over the top of the ribs and then add water until the ribs are covered. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Strain.

In a 12” cast iron skillet, add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the skillet. Cook garlic and onions on medium/medium low until onions are clear. Add the remaining ingredients. – (More…)

On March 18th, the Food Network premiered their latest series called Chefography. Each episode looks in depth at one of their many celebrity chefs.

On the debut of Chefography, the Food Network showed three episodes. The first was Emeril Lagasse, then Rachael Ray, followed by Bobby Flay. Each was an hour long biography of the celebrities, from their humble beginnings to their current stardom.

I Tivo’d the episodes and found them intruiging. Emeril and Rachaels bio’s were right out of a story book. They were very inspirational and showed how one can go from working in a deli to making millions with their own shows, restaurants, and product lines.

I could personally relate with much of what Rachael had to say in her interviews. She doesn’t feel like she is on the same planet as the other chefs on the show and will not call herself a chef. She is a cook, and is great at what she does and enjoys having fun with it.

I found Emerils story very interesting. You really get a sense of the scope of his popularity when you watch his chefography. I never realized how diverse his empire is. He seems to be just about everywhere and yet you really get the impression he hasn’t changed all that much.

Bobby Flay’s chefography came off a bit strange to me. At times I felt it a bit disjointed – (More…)

OK, it is finally Monday, two days after our St. Patty’s Day party 2007 at Roses Tavern in Modena N.Y.! I would have wrote this up yesterday, but let us just say that the party went so well, I was a bit immobilized the next day. 🙂

I began the preparation on Thurday by cooking up two cheesecakes, my Irish Baileys Strawberry Cheesecake to be precise. It is good to let this cake sit for 24-48 hours so it was the first thing I made. Here is a pic of one of them, and as you can tell, I rushed the icing, but I had a million things going on at that moment so you will have to forgive me. I also added dark chocolate shavings across the top. Mind you, I am no photographer, and this is the real pic, not one I pulled from a professional site:

On the day of the party, at about 1 a.m. I put together my traditional corned beef and cabbage in two crockpots. Each pot had 1 1/2 flat cut briskets. These went together easy enough which is a big reason why I like that recipe. 🙂

At 8 a.m. I started my Beer and Irish Whiskey braised corned beef. This is a little more involved but I managed to cook 2 1/2 briskets in the roasting pan. – (More…)

When I was a child we used to have a Spaghetti dinner about once a week. My mother used to make up a basic sauce and add some ground beef or sausage, boil up some spaghetti and we were all set.

Of course, it was almost impossible to make too little of this dish. There were always leftovers but who wanted to eat Spaghetti two nights in a row, especially when the second batch was from the night before? Granted, the sauce usually tastes better the next day but 24/48 hours was just not a long enough turn around time.

My mother had a way around this that we could eat this dish in a completely different way so that is seemed like a whole other meal.

Now this “recipe” requires a large skillet and you could use non-stick skillet but ideally you would want to use either a stainless steel or cast iron skillet. The reason for this is that you will be scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula frequently while cooking. The spatula head needs to be thin and most of your plastic versions are not. A metal spatula is recommended.

The idea of fried spaghetti is not to deep fry or even use much oil. The word fry simply refers to cooking it in a frying pan. 🙂

You will need some leftover spaghetti and sauce mixed together from a previous – (More…)

Now that we have our main courses all set to go for St. Patty’s day, we needed a dessert. After searching through many recipes I didn’t find anything as far as authentic Irish desserts that I wanted for our party. I needed something familiar to the crowd but with an Irish twist. So I started looking up cheesecakes.

Now I have never been a big cheesecake eater or cooker so I had to make up some test batches with quite a few recipes and really I wasn’t satisfied with any of them. Finally I took a bit from this recipe and that recipe and just added my own ideas into it and came out with some of the best cheesecake I ever had.

I always noticed that cheesecake many times can be dry, or heavy or both. This recipe makes a light, smooth textured cake that any cheese lover will devour.

Crust:

1 cup of graham cracker crumbs (just crush some graham crackers finely).
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted.
3 tablespoons of sugar.

Cake:

32 ounces of warm (softened) cream cheese (4 8 ounce packages).
1 cup of sugar.
3 tablespoons flour.
2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
1/4 cup Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur.
4 eggs.
3/4 cup sour cream.
4 tablespoons strawberry preserves.

Topping:

1/4 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips.
1/8 cup Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur.
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 325.

Stir together the crust ingredients and press down on a greased spring-form pan. Make sure the crust is even – (More…)

I finally received the Lodge Logic 12-Inch Pre-Seasoned Skillet I ordered from Amazon. I took the free shipping option since cast iron cookware weighs so much it only makes sense. As I previously discussed, I am switching over much of my cookware to either stainless steel, cast iron or ceramic coated.

This skillet brings back memories of my childhood when my mother only had one frying pan and it was that huge heavy cast iron skillet. This looks almost identical and if anything, weighs more than what I remember.

The first thing you notice about this and any other Lodge cookware is that it comes pre-seasoned. Seasoning or curing is about binding oil to the cast iron so it seals up all the pores in the metal. This makes the cookware basically non-stick and also keeps the iron from rusting. Iron will rust quicker than any other metal. Fortunately with a wire brush or steel wool, you can knock off any rust that may ever infect your cast iron cookware.

Normally, you would have to wash the cookware in hot water, place on a hot stove to cook off the water, and then oil the entire piece – (More…)

Sometimes life can be a very busy ordeal. There are often times where you just don’t have the energy or the time to create a super dish for the family. You need something that is relatively quick (under an hour) but still delicious. This is where my chicken and gravy recipe comes into play.

I usually always have some chicken thighs or drumsticks in the fridge. This can always be used for an easy main dish. I would call it a comfort food as it familiar and savory.

4-5 Chicken thighs, or 6-7 drumsticks, or combination.
Olive oil.
Salt and pepper.
two tablespoons of flour.
1 cup chicken stock.

Preheat oven to 350.

Using a skillet that you can put in your oven, add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. On the stove top, heat to medium/medium high until the oil just starts smoking.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over the skin side of the chicken. Place skin side down in the hot oil. Salt and pepper the exposed side of the chicken. Cook for about 4-5 minutes until the skin is a dark golden brown and the fat has rendered out. Turn and cook the other side for another 4-5 minutes.

Remove chicken from the skillet and drain the grease. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and return the chicken to the pan. Place the pan in the oven (skin side up) and – (More…)