tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59324752010-03-18T03:00:07.680-04:00<strong>Do not be afraid of cooking, as your ingredients will know and misbehave.</strong><br /> Fergus Henderson, <em>The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating</em>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comBlogger884125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-21819982516590579152010-03-18T03:00:00.001-04:002010-03-18T03:00:07.688-04:00

A Soufflé TutorialThis coming Sunday I'm teaching a private class on making souffles. I'm looking forward to it. I love souffles as much for their transformation from a wet pudding to a lofty "cake" as for their wonderfully ethereal flavor. A couple of years ago, when I first started writing for Cooking for Two, I created this photo tutorial as well as a set of tips for making soufflés.Tutorial

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-61669042217232639802010-03-17T03:00:00.000-04:002010-03-17T03:00:03.083-04:00

Recipe here...

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-89470549113689356622010-03-16T03:00:00.001-04:002010-03-16T03:00:06.006-04:00

A Treat for Saint PatrickChocolate? Eh, it's ok but if I had to go the rest of my life without tasting chocolate I wouldn't even miss it. This is not to say I don't like chocolate on occasion and my favorite non-fruit-based dessert is brownies. I've even discovered the pleasures of a small piece of excellent bitter -sweet chocolate with a glass of red wine or beer as a light dessert. Even so, the

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-63039320220927989462010-03-15T03:00:00.001-04:002010-03-15T03:00:04.598-04:00

A Day without SunshineThe sun didn't come up yesterday. Or, if it did, I didn't see it. The weather was darkly overcast — the sky a rag of gray flannel stretching from barren treetop to dreary hillside. The wind was cold and gusting, hurling flourishes of rain and ice. It was the epitome of an East Tennessee January day with no color to provide visual warmth or snow to add romance. It was just

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-17608686301278190402010-03-12T03:00:00.000-05:002010-03-12T03:00:06.098-05:00

Feeling CheesyCheese is one of my favorite foods. I can't get out of the local cheese store without spending $25 - $30, and that's snacking cheese. Just for the hell of it I did a count on SG and lost track at 45 recipes that include cheese. Sometimes the cheese is a main ingredient as in Welsh Rabbit, at other times it's a secondary ingredients as in Potato/Carrot Gratin. But whatever its role,

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-42022187660669319832010-03-11T03:00:00.001-05:002010-03-13T10:47:25.655-05:00

When the Food Network first started I was addicted to it. Way back then it was a serious cooking channel with real chefs demonstrating real techniques. I even learned a few things — one of them being the importance of mise en place.Mise en place (pronounced "meez on ploss" often simply called "meez" in American restaurants) is a French term meaning, "putting in place," and it refers to having all

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-43656872576527355062010-03-10T03:00:00.000-05:002010-03-10T03:00:06.169-05:00

Recipe here...

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-7272422010828028282010-03-09T03:00:00.002-05:002010-03-09T17:07:08.820-05:00

Be Gorrah!Corning beef has a long, if not particularly savory, history as a means of preserving meat. You can certainly just salt and dry beef much as hams are cured, but soaking the meat (brining it) in a salt solution became popular during the hay-day of the British Navy when it became a staple on ships. According to Salt: A World History (by Mark Kurlansky) the Irish became particularly known

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-75498618635002773772010-03-08T03:00:00.001-05:002010-03-08T03:00:10.142-05:00

What's in a Name?Seriously Good is kind of an odd name for a blog. It occurs to me it may sound boastful, as though I'm claiming everything posted here is worthy of culinary note in some way. But the truth is that the name refers more to a search for food that is seriously good than an assertion that every recipe included here is due that accolade. I started using the phrase "seriously good" to

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-10549501215820320962010-03-06T13:14:00.003-05:002010-03-06T14:00:38.688-05:00

I've been using Blogger to manage Seriously Good for almost seven years now. Blogger has enabled me to host the blog on my own domain providing the control I want over SG's format with minimal day-to-day effort from me. On the down-side, it hasn't always been easy to persuade Blogger to do what I wanted. Blogger is stopping support for the route I've taken (my own domain and FTP access if you

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-32674565095974241762010-03-05T03:00:00.002-05:002010-03-06T14:22:39.741-05:00

Oral-gamiSometimes a dish unfolds. It unfolds on your tongue, it unfolds on your plate, it unfolds in your nose. And sometimes the unfolding surprises.When my sister was between 12 and 14 she became fascinated with origami after receiving an origami craft kit for a present. I've no idea all these years later if she was any good, but she was a talented pianist with dexterous fingers well-suited to

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-27259156723948011352010-03-04T03:00:00.001-05:002010-03-04T03:00:01.142-05:00

All the Major Breakfast GroupsThis breakfast casserole features the major breakfast food groups - eggs, sausage, and potatoes. With some coffee and juice to wash it down, you're ready to take on King Kong. Nevertheless my standard breakfast is a few cups of coffee, some yogurt or a banana, and a couple of cigarettes (although if I have to go somewhere in the morning I like getting a sausage

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-74626863958992842372010-03-03T03:00:00.001-05:002010-03-03T03:00:08.630-05:00

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-20412371935855427192010-03-02T03:00:00.001-05:002010-03-02T03:00:04.600-05:00

Red-neck ItalianOne of my favorite bloggers is Amy Glaze whose blog is named Ms. Glaze's Pommes d'Amour. She's a classically trained chef who's worked in some of the best restaurants in Paris and New York. And I love reading her eyes-inside posts about the cheffing game. They're as much fun as Kitchen Confidential to read and much more immediate as befits a blog. Over the last three or four

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-33976752907915933532010-03-01T03:00:00.000-05:002010-03-01T03:00:05.053-05:00

Gallons of Gustatory GoodnessWhen a man asked God about heaven and hell, God first shows him a land where all the people have a delicious meat soup. But they have spoons longer than their arms, so they go hungry and suffer in hell. Then God shows the man another place where everyone has the same wonderful soup and same long spoons. But here they use the spoons to feed each other. This is heaven.

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-3830781993296037342010-02-26T11:35:00.004-05:002010-02-26T12:48:15.926-05:00

That's Just DuckyAlthough I love duck I find it easiest to buy a duck breast at Fresh Market and then pan roast it. Nevertheless, I roasted a whole duck a few weeks ago. Something I hadn't done in several years. It was wonderful. The technique I used is essentially the way duck is prepared for Peking duck (which is a dish and not the same thing as the Pekin duck breed).Duck is notoriously fatty

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-21319117664201424422010-02-25T03:00:00.001-05:002010-02-25T03:00:03.480-05:00

Let me get the disclaimer out of the way up front. I'm a cook and food writer — not a microbiologist. The information presented here is a result of my research into the subject. And I am not making any recommendations. But I've found this information helpful in determining what's safe when it comes to cooking meat. We're taught that food should never be held at temperatures between 40 and 140

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-53254847185380628302010-02-24T03:00:00.000-05:002010-02-24T03:00:00.852-05:00

Recipe here...

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-52051397026598387872010-02-23T03:00:00.004-05:002010-02-23T03:00:02.590-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I signed up for OpenSky, a merchandising venture that I first heard about when Michael Ruhlman signed on. Ruhlman was pretty enthusiastic but beyond reading his blog post I ignored it — just another marketing/advertising scheme. Then a couple of weeks ago my friend and colleague, Chef Jim Gray (The Kitchen Guy), announced he'd signed up for Open Sky and I decided to check it

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-17966744413640369712010-02-22T04:00:00.003-05:002010-02-22T04:00:06.023-05:00

For those of you in the Knoxville area, Terri tells me my March class at Glass Bazaar is almost full. This class is on March 3 and is called Spring Fling. We'll be making lamb chops with gremolata, asparagus parmigiano, a rather special pear vinaigrette on a green salad with herbs, and rhubarb mousse if I can find rhubarb in March — otherwise another spring-ish dessert to be determined the day

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-7615929742995149302010-02-22T03:00:00.000-05:002010-02-22T03:00:08.421-05:00

Call Me SentimentalIt's lambing season. At least it is in Missouri where, last Sunday, Clare, one of Susan's ewes, gave birth. Call me sentimental, but when I see a cute little lamb like that it immediately brings to mind images of fields turning green, new buds on trees, daffodils, birds calling for mates, and dinner. Somehow piglets don't affect me the same way — I go straight to thoughts of

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-2900644534818952962010-02-19T03:02:00.001-05:002010-02-19T03:02:00.075-05:00

South Seas SavorI plan almost all my meals a week or so in advance. I first began the practice when I was working 60 - 70 hours a week and only had the time and opportunity to cook on the weekends. These days I continue to plan ahead because I have to continually come up with new recipes to publish on Gather, Seriously Good, and About.com as well as less frequent venues. That's a lot of cooking

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-28032520572622085192010-02-18T03:00:00.002-05:002010-02-18T10:25:25.621-05:00

This Southwestern Ham Casserole is perfect for using up that last bit of baked ham — you know, when you've got too little to feed two people and too much to throw away. If you happen to have some leftover rice all the better, but if not rice is easy enough to make. You can use a commercial chile powder if you wish, but my recipe for chile powder has a nice smoky flavor from the chipotles. Recipe

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-78393919996064497512010-02-17T03:00:00.001-05:002010-02-17T03:00:04.307-05:00

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-6433421012620522892010-02-16T03:00:00.001-05:002010-02-16T03:00:06.490-05:00

That Wonderful MachineThere was a strange old butcher, His name was DunderbeckHe was very fond of sausage-meat, and sauerkraut and speckHe had the finest butcher shop, the finest ever seenUntil one day he invented his wonderful sausage machineOh Mr. Dunderbeck! How could you be so mean?I told you you'd be sorry for inventing that machineFor all the neighbor's dogs and cats will never more be

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.com9