Lobster and Pancetta Macaroni and Cheese

Remember when I teased a few weeks back about experimenting with a macaroni and cheese recipe?  Well, today I am going to share the results of the latest effort. I shared the results with a group of friends and it received overwhelming positive comments (i.e. everyone raved about it!). This recipe takes a little bit of effort, but then sometimes you have to make the effort to get the optimal results. I thinks this recipe could be augmented with additional lobster in larger chunks if desired where I opted for smaller pieces more likely to…

Rob Roy

Happy first Friday of December!  We have all woken up from our Thanksgiving food comas and are ready to celebrate the holidays with verve. I am sure most of you are busy with holiday parties and gatherings throughout this month, but let’s not forget sometimes we need to treat ourselves. This cocktail is one I consider a simple treat I particularly enjoy when I want to relax at home with some jazz and a cigar.  Once again, I have twisted the general recipe… and I hope you all enjoy it any way you…

Banana Walnut Muffins

Instead of slices of Banana Bread or deeply flavored Chocolate Banana Walnut Muffins, do you just want the convenience of a tasty Banana Walnut Muffin? Well, you are in luck as here is my go to Banana Walnut Muffin recipe based on Elise’ recipe at Simply Recipes. This recipe is simple and can be made without a mixer – hand or stand! It creates a moist, slightly sweet, banana forward muffin that in my opinion is a winner. So let’s get baking… we have muffins to enjoy! Save Print Banana Walnut Muffins…

Pumpkin Mini-Cheesecake Experiment

Here are the photographic results of a dessert experiment I made recently.  I have to say the experiment was close, but no cigar. The crust I used was a blend of graham cracker and ginger snap (that part works!), but the cheesecake batter was lacking what I wanted to achieve.  So I will try, try again until I get it right!   Save Save…

Creamy Acorn Squash Soup

As I mentioned in a previous post, Autumn is a perfect time to spend some time making soup for dinner. To me, there is something relaxing about cooking and preparing a soup is probably the most relaxing culinary endeavor for me (except maybe baking…). This soup is a sweet and savory meal highlighted by warm spices (ginger and cloves), brown sugar, and thyme packaged in a velvety cream. To give the soup some ‘tooth’, I add crispy linguiça sausage bits and the renderings to provide a salty aspect. Enjoy this soup on…

Simple Popovers

This morning I made popovers. To be honest, I had forgotten about these delectable, crispy, airy with a slight custard inside cousin to a Yorkshire pudding until I read a post about them while drinking my coffee. They are simple to make and versatile as you can ‘dress’ them with any jelly or jam (like the fig jam I made recently!), leftover cranberry sauce (like this orange cranberry sauce), butter, or honey for a tasty, simple, sweet breakfast. Heck, you can make these to go with a nice soup! I will admit the best…

Mashed Potato for One

Have you ever wanted mashed potatoes, but thought… how can you easily make it for just yourself?  With the traditional cooking method you peel, quarter, boil, drain, mash/whip, add ingredients (butter, cream, herbs, etc) and serve.  Doing that for one potato would give you half a serving by the time you deal with amounts of potato lost to the cooking and preparation process. Making 2 potatoes may be a solution, but then it can become a portion control issue.  Well, I want to let you in on my latest experiment – sous vide mashed…