Pasta Carbonara is one of my favorites (Recipe and video)

Crisp crust, melted cheese, and smoky spice all combine in this delicious, fun variation on the Alsatian “Tarte Flambée”, cooked right in your own fireplace!  For similar flavor but less risk, you can grill it.  Or even use the oven (zzzz).

The wine?  Try a Trimbach Reisling.

I'm pretty good with detecting balance in a wine.  I can parse between tropical fruit and orchard.  Oak, butter, charcoal, cinnamon - check.  But I've always been a little jealous of friends who spot a Grand Cru a mile away.  Now I can blame my biology.  NPR story below, here's the source Penn State study.

Most of us just can't taste the nuances in high-priced wines. (NPR)

Join me for a TweetChat hosted by @CIG_Food,

3/1 at 12pm (Central Time)

for Q&A, tips and food fun related to my new book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Meals in 30 Minutes or Less
#AskCIG                   Click for full info.

A: Watercress Pesto

This pungent, spicy, chunky green elixir is tasty whether spread on crackers or endives, or tossed with pasta.

Prep time: 5 minutes

2 cloves garlic
2 cups coarsely chopped watercress
3 TB pine nuts
3 TB shredded Parmesan
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
Olive oil to facilitate processing (2-4 TB)

Crush or coarsely chop the garlic. Add the garlic, watercress, pine nuts, Parmesan, salt, ad pepper to the bowl of a food processor equipped with the cutting blade. Add 2 TB oil, and pulse to process to a chunky consistency, adding more oil, a little at a time, if necessary to facilitate processing.

Serve as a spread with almost anything, from endive and carrot sticks to toast points.

Mulled Cider (spiked, of course) helps us feel like it's really winter, even if it's more like spring outside.  Recipe & video.

My favorite CSFs, Cape Anne Fresh Catch and Port Clyde Fresh Catch, are featured in a new Bon Appetit report.  Click on the image below for a few of my favorite seafood recipes.

Mention cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves this time of year, and mulled cider comes to mind.  So as we enjoyed the wines in this report, we wondered more than once about how a completely grape-based beverage could bring to mind baking spices.  It's a question requiring careful study (grin), so let's investigate further... (pdf file)

I first noticed this piece earlier this year - it's just as thought provoking now.

Buying from the local farmers’ market offers great opportunities to cut down on food system energy use, but it's not because the food there has traveled less than the food at the grocery store. It's because the aisles of a typical grocery store are mostly filled with highly-processed and packaged food, while farmers markets offer mostly whole or minimally-processed foods.  Read more...

(And even the kids eat them)  Recipe.

They go with just about anything, not just turkey.  But I'll start there.  Recipe.

The crew was here all day to shoot seven new recipes.  It feels fantastic to sit down!

This batch will appear on the Phantom Gourmet in January.  For the archives, check out the show restaurant recipe file. I'm definitely going to revisit Stuffing Muffins for Thanksgiving.


Does cooking make you happy?  Just look into your mixing bowl and the answer is there: