Wednesday, November 09, 2005

The lecture

Last night, pastry chef Tanya and I took off to the Memphis Library for a lecture from noted pastry chef and lousy raconteur Nick Malgieri. I'm not sure if he was in town for the Food Network thing at The Peabody (it would make sense), but he did present a lovely slide show of things Sicilians make with almond paste. Which is to say, everything. He did sign a cookbook for Mom for Christmas (Mom doesn't yet know about the blog, so we're okay), and I felt really comfortable being the only guy there among the housewives.

The bulk of Malgieri's lecture consisted of discourse on the pastries you could buy, which seems a shame. While there's nothing wrong with purchased pastries, they tend towards things that are too complicated to make in small quantities, and are aimed squarely at convenience in volume for the chef. For those of us with wooden spoons for a toolkit, these things are far too time-consuming to work properly, so we stick to pie.

Anyway, much cooler people show up to Alton Brown booksignings. I'm sure I'll get around to that story eventually.

Monday, November 07, 2005

A simple start

Okay, first things first--a mission statement as it were. I like to cook; I think other folks might be interested in a recipe or two I've acquired and/or created over the years, and I figure this would be a good way to disseminate recipe information, hints, opinions, and vitriol. Over the duration of this experiment, I should have enough recipes gathered together to form, perhaps, a cookbook. With comments already in the margins, if readers are so inclined.

So, without further ado, let us begin.

Black Bean Dip

This dip is ridiculously easy, and yet enormously popular. The only variation that my wife consistently suggests is doubling the amount of cheese, if only to actually make the dip as unhealthy as it tastes.

1 16 oz can Black Beans
1 16 oz jar salsa
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3-4 green onions, chopped (white and green parts)
black pepper to taste

Dump everything in a bowl, mix, and serve with tortilla chips.

Notes:
1. Take heed--this is the last time I will specify that you use the white and green parts of green onions.
2. It gets harder from here.