tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59324752008-05-13T13:39:44.220-04:00Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comBlogger548125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-37856485003622814242008-05-12T10:05:00.005-04:002008-05-12T10:18:53.858-04:00

Sustainability: of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged. - Meriam-Webster Online. The definition above isn't wrong, but, it seems to me, it is incomplete, at least when it comes to food (and probably everything else) since it's too focused on micro-effects as opposed to macro-effects. Read the complete

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-37558977520329906152008-05-09T12:39:00.002-04:002008-05-09T12:53:23.568-04:00

Bottom of the Barrel Several months back I ordered some duck legs to make confit from Hudson Valley Foie Gras and they tossed in a whole breast, gratis. Woo hoo! But I was focused on the confit so I tossed them in the freezer and promptly forgot about them. Then the economic downturn hit some of my clients (and me), food prices continued to rise, and tax time hit. I've been scraping the bottom

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-84076738457358975642008-05-07T13:13:00.002-04:002008-05-07T13:19:37.968-04:00

A Strange Pudding Purple potatoes. Julienned. Duck fat. Hot. Garam masala. Sprinkled. Salt and pepper. Pinched. Purple potatoes, duck fat, garam masala, salt and pepper. Served. Delicious. Oddly sweet. Tastes like a strange pudding.Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | potatoes | vegetables | side dishes

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-6212164781438610462008-05-03T15:00:00.004-04:002008-05-03T16:13:08.530-04:00

How Did I Miss It? Wednesday night I taught a class on cooking fish. The class was packed — 22 students — and as usual, great fun. I began with sautéed jerked shrimp, moved on to broiled tilapia with arugula pesto, did salmon in parchment, grilled tuna and topped it with Romesco sauce, and ended with poached tilapia with a lemon/cream sauce. The only significant technique I didn't cover was

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-43730941232573540442008-04-30T14:50:00.005-04:002008-05-02T11:05:07.400-04:00

Usefulness In a recent blog entry, one of my favorite writers, Michael Ruhlman, raised the issue of favorite kitchen gadgets. It's a great question, particularly for those of us in love with gadgets. Ruhlman writes, "I’m not the first to suggest that a tool that has only a single use is just as useful in the garbage as it is in your drawer. A mango slicer, please. An egg separater — Jesus,

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-45591094295742174692008-04-28T10:45:00.002-04:002008-04-28T10:51:01.467-04:00

You may not have noticed, but food prices actually started going up over two years ago. I was acutely aware of the trend because I was watching the average food costs for my clients climb from 30 percent to 40 percent by the end of last summer. Because I charge a flat rate for food and service I was also watching my income decline. So last August I bumped my prices up. I'm already almost back to

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-80136400518571269352008-04-24T13:43:00.005-04:002008-04-24T20:06:31.903-04:00

Bi-Polar Weather Spring arrived here in Knoxville this past weekend. I was out running errands two days ago (Before Spring) and it was rainy and chilly. The lawns were still rather brown and although the daffodils, hydrangeas, and Bradford pear trees were blooming and a few trees had a green haze, it was clear spring hadn't quite sprung. Today when I went out the temperature was 73 and it was

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-57758819165322036132008-04-21T11:31:00.005-04:002008-04-21T12:55:12.434-04:00

Best I can figure is that I have a food face. I was in the market the other day, looking for a good bunch of asparagus when the woman next to me asked, "How do you cook asparagus?" She went on to say, "My husband doesn't like it so I've never cooked it, but I really like it and I decided to just buy some and make it for me." Read the complete article at Spot-On. Technorati: Food | essay | kevin

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-86260681071858077672008-04-18T16:08:00.004-04:002008-04-19T12:22:06.705-04:00

You may have noticed that I'm now a Guide (Cooking for Two) at About.com. This brings the number of regular jobs I hold to somewhere between six and eight depending on how I count them (and how overwhelmed I'm feeling on a given day). At any rate, one of the nice things about About.com (aside from my getting to say I work for the New York Times) is that they provide a format for doing tutorials

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-37936808341719626462008-04-14T10:05:00.006-04:002008-04-14T10:26:58.031-04:00

Most bureaucracies are famed for their lack of imagination, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture manages to consistently confound that dismal notion by finding new ways to control what we eat and who we buy it from. How the U.S.D.A. plans to regulate the farmers from whom I buy locally-raised meats is a good example of this ineptitude Read the complete article at Spot-On. Technorati: Food |

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-82458718533665450562008-04-11T16:57:00.004-04:002008-04-11T17:11:26.953-04:00

Evolution I stopped by the fish market the other day and they had some gorgeous salmon, so I bought a couple of filets. I didn't have a particular dish in mind, but I was planning to get some asparagus and thought the salmon would be great with it. Unfortunately I couldn't find any decent asparagus (at this time of year I can sometimes get asparagus from Georgia and had bought some last week).

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-43429125676875106402008-04-09T14:45:00.002-04:002008-04-10T21:15:20.727-04:00

Mistaken Identity Once upon a time I was the lead singer in an Indonesian rock band in Cairo, Egypt. Bear with me, it's a bit complicated. At the time my parents were teaching at the American University in Cairo and so my family lived there for nine months. While there, I attended the university as a freshman and, because at that time it was the best college in Egypt, it so also was attended

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-69207092588627988442008-04-07T09:52:00.002-04:002008-04-07T11:32:55.957-04:00

What makes someone tear up his front yard and plant vegetables? Why do people want to grow vegetables a mile from the White House or raise chickens in Brooklyn? I mean, it's gotta be ugly during the winter and early spring, and I can tell you from experience that a vegetable garden is an order of magnitude more work than a lawn. You can read the complate article at Spot-On. Technorati: Food |

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-26002612905736530222008-04-03T20:02:00.002-04:002008-04-03T20:45:45.888-04:00

Feed Yourself A few years back I made an appointment to meet a pair of friends at Copia. At the time I lived in Sacramento and Copia is in Napa so it was somewhere between a two and four hour drive depending on when I started — seriously a two to four hour difference in driving time. My friends were driving up from San Francisco, same deal for them. But they’re were long-time Californians and

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-50250187385753847612008-03-31T10:14:00.003-04:002008-03-31T10:19:22.634-04:00

Like most (all?) humans, I love fat. And there's good reason at the root of that love. Fats are essential to our metabolic process. They're the way plants and animals store energy for future use. Because we can readily and quickly convert fat to serve immediate energy needs, it appeals very strongly to us. You can read the complete article at Spot-On.Technorati: Food | essay | kevin d weeks |

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-2792862075889405972008-03-28T14:39:00.009-04:002008-03-29T16:45:02.594-04:00

A New Eye Back in 2001 I bought my second camera, a Canon Powershot A20. I'm by no means a photographer and it was a great little camera, easy to use — although I didn't use it very often, as I said, I'm not a photographer. (Note: Only the first and last photos were taken with the Nikon. The rest simply illustrate how bad I was.) Then in 2005 I decided that food blogs with photos were far

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-72257731552030155712008-03-26T11:48:00.005-04:002008-04-13T11:45:39.884-04:00

Forgotten Tastes About a month ago I purchased American Classics by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine. The book is a good modern reference to such traditional favorites as Chicken Pot Pie, Parker House Rolls, and Yellow Layer Cake done in the magazine's inimitable style of setting a goal and the experimenting until they achieve it. I don't always like their recipes, but I trust them

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-27428663263416304532008-03-24T11:05:00.003-04:002008-03-24T11:17:49.703-04:00

Many years ago, as a teenager, I ate lunch in an Indonesian household on most Fridays. The meal always featured a huge platter of what I thought at the time were fried potatoes. They were highly spiced and slightly sweet and I adored them. But as a callow youth I didn't think to ask anything more about them. Some 20 years later I was reading an article on plantains and realized that's what I had

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-69504884183501193162008-03-21T17:43:00.008-04:002008-03-21T18:38:04.685-04:00

Unadulterated Delight A week or so ago I got an email from someone commenting on SG and wondering if I was interested in receiving some free fish: "I’d be happy to send you Kona Kampachi and invite you to prepare it any way you like. If you’d like to share about the fish with your readers, great, but if not, don’t worry about it – it’s completely up to you." I happen to be a great believer in

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-58879269249010501152008-03-20T10:50:00.003-04:002008-03-20T11:05:18.087-04:00

The Deadly Reuben Ed Levine isn't the only foodie trying to lose weight. As he notes in this post referring to an NY Times article, even Mario Batali is trying to lose weight. Me? Been there, done that, eventually and inevitably outgrew the new slimmer t-shirt. Around 1988 I decided I simply was a short, balding, fat guy and quit worrying about it. I was never going to be slim for long. I had

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-35387187204329361892008-03-18T15:00:00.003-04:002008-03-18T15:10:10.657-04:00

I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned March is the dead of winter culinarily. I hate it. It's that time of year when there's "nothing to cook" and my kitchen seems as barren as the trees outside. How can I say that? The cooking magazines are filled with spring dishes while the grocery is still filled with winter ingredients. And all too often, old and tired winter ingredients. Read

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-75570873271702136262008-03-12T16:17:00.003-04:002008-03-12T16:44:24.153-04:00

Paisano: Cassoulet I got a call from the Paisano about a week ago. He was in Sonoma (California) visiting a friend who raises sheep and had been bragging about my lamb sausage: my lamb sausage. I was flabbergasted because as a rule, while the old bastard admits I can cook, he refuses to admit I can do anything better than he can. In this case his friend was trying to empty his reefer (walk in

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-14621713036129047962008-03-10T10:38:00.003-04:002008-03-10T10:47:08.127-04:00

The other night I participated in a call-in radio program, Dinner with Chefsline, with a fellow who owns a butcher/wine/cheese shop in Charleston, S.C. I was introduced as a chef, but I prefer to be called a professional cook. Chef means "chief" and it refers to the individual's position in managing the kitchen crew in a professional kitchen. Chef is a management job and I'm seldom a chef.

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-87039426124885119022008-03-05T11:12:00.005-05:002008-03-05T11:47:15.082-05:00

I was in the third grade when my recipe collection began to grow — from one to two. I had mastered peanut butter candy the year before and now I was moving on to Indian pudding. It was just before Thanksgiving, and my class was studying American Indians. We were given a recipe for traditional Indian pudding, which I brought home and got my mother to help me make. My early interest in cooking was

Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385923797403540154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5932475.post-28124318055264035362008-03-04T10:15:00.004-05:002008-03-05T11:55:11.979-05:00

Although I seldom buy cookbooks anymore, I do subscribe to food magazines. The magazines offer loads of ideas even if I don't follow a specific recipe. That's also why I publish recipes on this blog. It isn't that I expect a reader to follow the recipe explicitly — in fact I post a disclaimer warning against doing so (look in the right-hand sidebar) — but I hope someone may find my use of

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