From the category archives:

BBQ , Grilling

Sriracha Chicken Wings – Perfect party food for New Year’s or any Eve

December 28, 2009
sriracha asian chicken wings recipe

All right folks, hold on tight because you’re going to be blown away at how amazing these sriracha chicken wings are. If you’re a lover of Sriracha hot sauce, or any sriracha brand of hot sauce for that matter, these chicken wings will fly off your platter. The first test batch of these sriracha chicken wings almost disappeared within seconds of coming out of the oven. We literally inhaled eight of these chicken wings in 3 minutes  because the sriracha sauce was so good. So good. So finger-licking-good.

Sriracha

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The Ultimate Umami Burger

August 6, 2009
Umami Burger

For the longest time, we’ve been making the best darn hamburger on the face of this earth (insert personal bias.) We’ve never had a specific name for the recipe until someone tagged it as the “magic meat”, but not as in “mystery meat” or “I can’t tell if this is chicken or beef.” Rather, it was to describe the magical flavor sensations that everyone experienced when they bit into one of our patties. That “magic meat” term  described the juicy, flavorful and savory burger patty that everyone fought over. Sometimes the buns were tossed…

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Iron Chef Bloggers in Asheville, NC and Cherry Sauce Recipe

July 6, 2009
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“Let the battle begin!”

It definitely felt like a war during our first full day on the East Coast en route to the Asheville, NC blogger bash.  I won’t divulge into the details about our horrendous experience with !&*%#! Delta Airlines, but what I will say is THANK GOODNESS for the amazing Asheville hospitality and passionate food folks that saved me from sending a three page letter to Delta. I became this (pinching my fingers together) close to going postal on Delta’s terrible infrastructure. Luckily, it was the warmth of Sheridan and Dodie…

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Homemade Tomato Ketchup w/Fresh Tomatoes – Hello Summer!

July 3, 2009
Fresh Tomato Ketchup

“Three tomatoes were walking down the street. Papa tomato, Mama tomato and Baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. And Papa tomato gets really angry, goes back and squishes him and says, ‘Ketchup.’”- Uma Thurman, from the movie Pulp Fiction.

This is a hilarious joke from one of my favorite movies of all time. If you’re not laughing, then you’re a deadbeat. I’ll squish you too!

How can we NOT try our hands at homemade tomato ketchup? I don’t know about you guys, but I have a garden of tomatoes that…

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Roasted Eggplant with Mint – Perfect Summer Picnics

June 29, 2009
Roasted Eggplant with Mint

Diane has been all atwitter about how much she loves that summer is here.  The air is getting warm and sweet and the garden is filling out it’s summer foliage.  We’ve even had the annual June bugs absent mindlessly flying into the house to die a day later.  Summer is definitely here and it’s the perfect picnic season. It’s time to lounge on the beach, in a park or anywhere outdoors to enjoy a simple meal that highlights perfect, summer produce.

One of our first summer veggies (ok, technically it is a fruit)…

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Good Bite- Internet Food Show featuring Food bloggers

June 22, 2009
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The “secret” is finally out! There’s been a mean tease of secrets and a string of underground comments over Twitter about a super secret project involving some food bloggers. For those of you who are on the edge of your seat, wait no longer. Believe us, it’s been hard for everyone involved in the show to try to keep our MOUTHS SHUT! But since we all signed a small, legal, binding contract called a Non-Disclosure Agreement, that was enough to seal the deal and put a big piece of duct tape over our mouths.…

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Beautiful Cowboy Cooking – Cast Iron Pans and BBQ Salt Crusted Fish

June 16, 2009
Cast Iron Pans

Until a year ago, I was a fool.

Every time we would peruse our favorite kitchen stores I would gaze longingly at all of the beautiful stainless steel pans shimmering by their storefront windows. “Oh, to own a full set of copper cores…. sigh.”    But for the copper cores one must come with cash, lots of it, and we knew it was a luxury that wasn’t necessary.  (Yes, we could have charged it up, but we don’t endorse that sort of needless spending!)

We did have our one…

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Grilled fennel bulbs, parmesan, olive oil, sea salt, lemon juice

June 6, 2009
Grilled Fennel

Now that the rains have subsided and sun’s warm rays have nurtured all the seeds in the garden to peek outside the soil, we’re seeing some exciting things. Granted, there’s our lion’s share of weeds popping up randomly in every nook and cranny that they can invade, but there’s some wonderful little surprises as well. Spontaneous vegetables and herbs are now making home to various parts of the garden.

All the seeds from the herbs and vegetables that we left to go to seed last season are now full grown specimens, all ready…

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Pork Tenderloin – Stuffed & Grilled

April 15, 2009
Pork Tenderloin Recipe

Disappointment solved. Ever have a dish that stumps you?  You make it sometimes and it comes out incredible, then other times it’s just , ehh.  You start going through your head trying to figure out where you went wrong.  What are the variables that changed? Ingredients, timing, heat…  What the hell did I do wrong?  Frustrating, isn’t it?  However there is also a by-product of the hair-pulling frustration.  “Hell yeah!” joy when you finally figure it out.  Today I’m saying, “Hell yeah!”

The dish is Pork Tenderloin stuffed with swiss chard and pineapple,…

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Vietnam’s Ocean Bounty-Grilled Red Snapper, lemongrass, chili’s

February 8, 2009
Grilled Snapper

local fisherman in My Khe beach, Da-Nang, Viet-Nam

Every time I return to my birthplace, Vietnam, I’m continually drawn and connected to the ocean. I was born in Da-Nang, which is only a few minutes scooter ride to My-Khe beach, where I grew up as a small child. When we escaped Viet-Nam and made home in America, my mother would always reminisce and tell me stories of how close the ocean was and how we fed off the amazing bounty of Viet-Nam’s wealth of seafood. I now have my own memories of the…

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Korean Cut Short Ribs w/ Ginger-Soy Marinade

December 21, 2008
Beef Short Ribs

Still hazy in my pre-coffee morning stupor, Diane hit me with a question that immediately kicked an, “Aww, sh%&!” out of my mouth.

A few days earlier we had purchased one of my favorite cuts of beef, the Korean-style-cut short ribs and I totally forgot about them in the fridge.  (For those uninitiated, Korean Cut short ribs refers to a butcher style of cross-cutting the ribs so that they are about 1/3″ thick.  This is, of course, for the Korean dish Kalbi, which is unbelievably addicting.  The ribs cut this way allow you

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