Month: July 2013

How to Make Homemade Pastrami (a.k.a Smoked Meat)

Pastrami Montreal-Style Smoked Meat Viande FumeOk, enough with all those travel and event posts.  Time for an actual food-from-scratch post!  Pastrami!  This is one definitely one of our favorite dishes!  In New York where I’m from (Mid-Hudson Valley) there’s nothing like a good pastrami sandwich from a proper deli.  Head to Montreal and Quebec City and you’ll find it’s called smoked meat or viande fume.  Other than foolishly deciding to smoke meat during the hottest week of the summer so far, this backyard experiment turned out deliciously well.  (more…)

Advertisements

Making Paella Valencia Style and Grocery Shopping in Spain

Paella Valencia StyleAfter seeing the Tour de France in the Pyrenees we traveled to Begur on the Costa Brava for a quiet and relaxing week of sunshine and some sand.  Since paella can be considered beach food it seemed appropriate to make some while we were within sight of the Mediterranean.  But first, we had to do some grocery shopping. (more…)

Travel Post: We Went to See The Tour de France in the Pyrenees
Ax les Thermes, the French Pyrenees town where Stage 8 of the 2013 Tour de France would finish

Ax les Thermes, the French Pyrenees town where Stage 8 of the 2013 Tour de France would finish

From my last post you may have guessed correctly we’re on vacation.  Right now we’re relaxing on the Costa Brava in Begur, Spain but before coming here we journeyed up into the Pyrenees for the main reason of the trip, seeing a mountain stage of the 100th Tour de France (maybe that should be raison d’etre then).  The stage we saw? Stage 8 from Castres to Ax 3 Domaines, about 200 km.  The first mountain stage of the Tour and a mountaintop finish at a ski resort. (more…)

Butterball Farms Luncheon Event
Loved the porcini-sage butter!

Loved the porcini-sage butter!

So I must say, one of the really cool things about writing this blog is occasionally I get some event invitations.  Last week I was invited to attend an event where my friend Chef Julius was showcasing Butterball Farms butter.  “Lunch?  And you’re cooking, Chef?  Um, yeah, I can make it!”  It was actually a pretty interesting event, kind of like a focus group, where Butterball Farms was looking for feedback on some of their products. (more…)