Ham and Green Pea Soup – a quick food story

December 11, 2009

When I was six or seven, I accidentally fell head first through the lower glass panel of an aluminum storm door at my friend Philip’s summer house.  This was at the Jersey shore, on Long Beach Island, way back at the end of the fifties.  My mom, who had been sitting right by the door, […]

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The Eggplant Factor and my “Parmigiana” Recipe

December 9, 2009

A few years ago, my good friend Claire discovered that she was allergic to eggplant. That’s almost as tragic as my dear Giuliana’s post-pregnancy onset of intolerance to wine; or Mario’s allergy to mollusks; or Stephanie’s hypersensitivity to eggs. To their credit, my brave friends have learned to deal with their limitations, ghastly as they […]

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Chicken Breast & Curried Cauliflower

December 8, 2009

What we have here is fresh chicken breast over curried cauliflower and blanched green beans with a dollop of homemade mango chutney on top. I was in the market the other day and the fresh beans were almost electric green in color. I couldn’t resist them. The same day, Rosaria came home with a beautiful […]

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Thanksgiving Isn’t Over Until the Turkey Stock is Done

December 4, 2009

The day or so after Thanksgiving is a time when my cooking friends give me their well picked over turkey carcasses, delivered in various states of scavengery. It’s all the same to me. I just want the carcasses. Once I get them, I gather my ‘mise en place’ ingredients (see below) and fetch my large stock […]

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Versatility is a Key Ingredient: Tarragon Sauce

December 4, 2009
Thumbnail image for Versatility is a Key Ingredient: Tarragon Sauce

The infinite variety of Italian sauces possess just as much versatility.  Many of them, especially from the Tuscan region, have white bread as an ingredient, which has been soaked, squeezed, then mashed in (another creative way to use up that day old bread!) and makes a wonderful, non-fat thickener for sauces and soups alike.  One […]

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Caperberries & Eggs

December 2, 2009

According to Wikipedia, The caper (Capparis spinosa L.) is a perennial spiny bush that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and big white to pinkish-white flowers. A caper is also the pickled bud of this plant. The bush is native to the Mediterranean region, growing wild on walls or in rocky coastal areas throughout. The plant is […]

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Lobster Bisque

December 1, 2009

In a different life, Robert lived and learned to cook in New England. Lobsters were plentiful and relatively inexpensive. One of the first things that he learned from Julia Child was that you are never going to have a great tasting dish without a great stock. He started making his own stocks; chicken, veal, turkey, […]

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You Can Never Have Too Many Dinner Parties

November 29, 2009

I almost titled this post “too many dinner parties” but then I stopped and thought, is that even possible?  We have had three in five days, not counting Thanksgiving, which we thankfully didn’t cook this year. Last night’s dinner was a small sit down for six which included our good friends David and Claire, and Mario […]

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Girls…Girls…Girls and a post-thanksgiving meal

November 27, 2009

T’was the night after Thanksgiving, and it was girls’ night at 2gourmaniacs. Except, of course, Robert hung out and provided some culinary enjoyment (not to mention wit and an obviously too long and convoluted story about photographing tequila production in Los Altos Jalisco at the end of August). Actually, everyone was pretty stuffed from the […]

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Thankful … and a “Meal About Veal”

November 25, 2009

One thing for which we’re truly thankful is finally getting a slideshow running in the sidebar as a widget on our blog. It took some real trial and error and shopping around to find a widget that fit our needs, at least for the time being. Also we had a dinner party last night. The […]

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