The Literate Chef

Archive for May, 2011|Monthly archive page

Steak au Poivre

In Beef, Meat, Recipes on May 23, 2011 at 7:26 AM

(Adapted from the New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne)

This dish cooks very quickly, in less than 15 minutes and requires constant attention; therefore it makes sense to have all of the ingredients measured out and readily at hand before beginning to cook. DON’T FORGET THE MATCHES – PREFERABLY LONG FIREPLACE MATCHES.Use a heavy, cast iron frying pan for up to three steaks; cooking four will most likely require two pans, making it necessary to divide the other ingredients accordingly. This preparation also produces a lot of smoke so be forewarned.

Have Everything Ready

Ingredients:

•    1 boneless shell steak per person, each about 1¼ inch thick, excess fat trimmed
•    Freshly ground black pepper
•    Kosher salt
•    1 pat of unsalted butter per steak + 1 extra pat for the sauce
•    Tabasco Sauce
•    Worcestershire Sauce
•    2 Tablespoons of ReaLemon juice per steak
•    ¼ cup of cognac (for 1 to 3 shell steaks; increase to 1/3 cup if preparing 4 steaks)
•    1/3 cup of heavy cream (for 1 to 3 shell steaks; increase to 1/2 cup if preparing 4 steaks)

Steps:

The following instructions are for medium rare steaks. If the steaks are of a different thickness than 1¼ inches, or are to be served other than medium rare, cooking time should be adjusted accordingly.

1.    At least 30 minutes prior to cooking, remove the steaks from the refrigerator and pat them dry with paper towels to remove any moisture. Pepper them liberally with freshly ground black pepper.  Softly press the pepper into the steaks with a wooden mallet or spoon and let them sit at room temperature until ready to cook.
2.    Heat the cast iron frying pan on high for 2 minutes.
3.    Lightly cover the bottom of the pan with kosher salt and heat for another full minute.
4.    Add the steaks to the pan and sear for 2 minutes on each side.

Searing

Searing the Steaks

5.    Lower heat to medium, continue cooking the steaks for an additional 6 minutes for medium rare (4 minutes for rare), turning them in approximate one-minute intervals.
6.    After the 10 minutes, (or 8 minutes for rare) place one pat of butter on each steak, spread the butter around with a fork in order to melt it into the steaks. After 30 seconds, turn the steaks and cook for another 30 seconds. By this point the steaks will have cooked for about 11 minutes (9 minutes for rare).
7.    Sprinkle each steak with 4 shakes each of Tabasco Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce turn the Steaks and repeat the process. Add 2 tablespoons of the ReaLemon juice per steak and continue cooking and turning the steaks for no more than 1 minute.
8.    Shut the heat, add the cognac and let sit for about 5 seconds; stand back and ignite the cognac with the fireplace match. (Note: This will produce a high blast of flame, so be sure that no curtains, towels, rags or other combustibles are nearby and if you have the vent fan on, shut it first). When the flame subsides, turn the heat to high again and turn the steaks once or twice to coat them well with the sauce, transfer the steaks to warmed plates and shut the heat. By this point the steaks will have been cooked for 13 minutes (for rare steaks, about 11 minutes).

Flambe with Cognac

9.    Add the cream to the pan, turn the heat to medium and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula. Add one pat of butter; continue stirring, scraping, and cooking the sauce until it bubbles and turns a medium to dark caramel color.

How the cream should look

10. When the sauce thickens to the point of coating the back of a spoon, remove it from the heat and pour equally over each steak.

The Finished Product

Serve at once. Great accompaniments include Broccoli Florets or Asparagus sautéed in garlic and oil, a loaf of crusty French bread to sop up the remaining sauce and a bottle of fine Bordeaux, such as a Saint-Emilion.

See Related Article

Steak! It’s What’s for Dinner!

In General Articles on May 23, 2011 at 7:01 AM

I don’t think I had ever tasted French cuisine until I was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi Mississippi. No, even though the Air Force is reputed to eat better than the Army, Navy and Marines, French cooking was not in the repertoire of the mess hall sergeant and his cooks at Keesler; that treat was to be experienced in the city of New Orleans, which lies 90 miles to the west of Biloxi and was our escape destination whenever we had the money and a 48 hour pass.

New Orleans in the 1960s was divine, especially after a couple of weeks cooped up on the base. Waiting to be discovered were such renowned restaurants as Antoine’s, Brennan’s and Galatoire’s, along with Dixieland Jazz, Hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s, Jambalaya at The Court of the Two Sisters, and Beignets at Café du Monde, which tasted particularly delicious accompanied by an espresso at four in the morning.

Steak au Poivre (with Pepper), Oysters Rockefeller and Banana’s Foster, comprised my introduction to French style cooking in New Orleans. I was used to having steak at home, cooked in the oven by Big Mike; although usually rare on the inside, it was grey on the outside, chewy and not all that interesting. Steak served with a delicious sauce was a revelation.

Several years later, I learned to prepare it myself after first following the recipe in The New York Times Cookbook, authored by Craig Claiborne. Subsequently, after many additions, deductions and consultations with other home cooks, I perfected what was then my recipe. It was a staple in our family until 1986, when I had a eureka moment.

During the summer of 1986, my wife and I took our two daughters to Quebec City for a week’s vacation. It was my fourth visit to that beautiful city and my wife’s second. Quebec City has a distinctively European atmosphere. For the girls, it was their first trip outside of the country and would serve as a foretaste of what they would later see and experience in Europe. We stayed at the Chateau Frontenac in a suite overlooking, and high above, the St. Lawrence River. After each day of sightseeing in the city, or taking side trips to Chute Montmorency, the Shrine of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré, the foothills of the Laurentian Mountains, or the Ile d’ Orleans, we strolled the streets of the city, perused the menus in the windows and chose a restaurant for dinner.

For each of the first six nights, we selected a different restaurant in which to eat. My wife, our older daughter and I ordered varied meals in each, but our younger daughter, who was 9 at the time, ordered the same thing every single night…Steak au Poivre! That was the only French dish that she knew and clearly loved, so to her way of thinking, why experiment and wind up with something yucky?

On our last night, having pretty much exhausted the restaurants that were most appealing to us, we asked the ‘Steak au Poivre girl’ which restaurant had the best. Unhesitatingly, she proudly selected one and that’s where we went. The sauce on the Steak au Poivre was different from what I had been making for the previous 18 or so years, it had cream in it! That was my epiphany. Cream was not in Craig Claiborne’s original recipe, with which I had started and from which I had adapted mine. To my palate it was what had been missing.

This recipe for Steak au Poivre has been served to family and friends for almost 25 years and I am happy to share it with you. From beef, we move on to ‘the original white meat’ chicken at: Chicken Scarpiello; Everybody Makes it Differently!

Pork Chops with Hot and Sweet Peppers

In Meat, Pork, Recipes on May 13, 2011 at 9:35 AM

 

Quick, easy and delicious!

Quick, easy and delicious!

Ingredients:

•    6 boneless center cut pork chops, about ¾ inch thick, approximately  2.75 – 3 lbs total
•    Kosher Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
•    3 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
•    7 cloves of garlic, sliced
•    2 cups of dry white wine
•    1/3 cup of sliced hot cherry peppers, stems removed
•    2 large (35 oz.) jars of fire-roasted sweet peppers, about 4 cups sliced
•    ¼ cup of balsamic vinegar

Steps:

1.    Sprinkle the pork chops with salt and freshly ground pepper on both sides.
2.    In a heavy stainless steel or cast iron skillet that has a cover, heat the olive oil on medium/high. (note 1)
3.    Add the garlic and stir for 2 -3 minutes, do not let it brown.
4.    Raise the heat to high and add the pork chops, brown for 5 minutes on each side.
5.    When pork chops are browned to your liking, remove them from pan and set aside.
6.    Remove the garlic and pour off all of the fat except for about 2 tablespoons.
7.    Turn the heat to high, add the wine deglazing the pan, and let it boil for about 3 minutes.
8.    Return the pork chops to the pan with any juice that has collected.
9.    Add the cherry and roasted peppers and mix them in.
10.    Cover the pan and continue to cook on high for 5 minutes, turning the chops once or twice. (note 2)
11.    Remove the cover, lower heat to medium and cook for 5 more minutes turning the chops once or twice.
12.    Stir in the balsamic vinegar and continue cooking for 3 minutes more.
13.    Remove the pork chops and peppers to a plate and cover with aluminum foil and reduce the gravy, or add a tbsp. or two of Wondra® to a thicken to your liking.

We usually serve this dish with sides of fresh broccoli rabe, sautéed in garlic and oil and Pearled Couscous, which soaks up the extra gravy very nicely.

Note 1: If you do not have a stainless steel or cast iron skillet, which gives the best browning, use a non-stick skillet, but halve the amount of olive oil.

Note: 2: At this point, you can transfer the pork and peppers to a pot or casserole, add the balsamic vinegar to the gravy and thicken to your liking, then add to the pot or casserole and cover for up to 2 or 3 hours. The chops will continue cooking from the residual heat. Ten minutes before serving re-heat the pot and serve as above. 

See Related Article


Basta Pasta!

In General Articles on May 13, 2011 at 9:20 AM

Enough with the pasta! Now it’s time for some meat dishes – more protein and fewer carbs. Pork is promoted by its producers as ‘the other white meat‘ and like chicken, the ‘original white meat’, it is sold in many different forms: roasts, tenderloin, pork shoulder, sausages and ribs, and of course chops, either on the bone or boneless. It is also adaptable to a variety of different cooking methods: frying, roasting, broiling, braising and barbecuing.

Also like chicken it goes well in combination dishes cooked with a variety of vegetables. Different sauces and spices enhance its flavor and keep it from becoming boring. A popular Southern Italian dish is Pork Chops with Vinegar Peppers. Vinegar peppers are sweet peppers that are packed and sold in jars like roasted sweet peppers; however, they are preserved primarily in vinegar and spices. The problem is that they are not always easy to find.

As a result, we developed our version after experimenting with different types of peppers. We tried fresh peppers, both red and green, as well as jarred ones. The fresh peppers required a lot of cooking time up front and frankly added little to the finished product. Ultimately we settled on a combination of hot and sweet jarred papers. We also experimented with red wine vinegar and white wine vinegar, but found them both to be too harsh, too acidic; eventually we decided upon balsamic vinegar.

Another issue with pork, particularly pork chops, is that it tends to dry out quickly in cooking. Therefore it benefits from braising, i.e., being cooked in liquid. We chose to cook these pork chops in white wine to keep them moist and add a bit of flavor. Pork Chops with Hot and Sweet Peppers is delicious, quick and easy to make and another family favorite.

Where’s the beef? Check it out at: Steak! It’s What’s for Dinner!

Rigatoni all’ Oltrarno

In Pasta, Recipes on May 12, 2011 at 1:27 PM

Rigatoni with Roasted Eggplant and Black Olives in a spicy tomato-based sauce.

NOTE: This recipe, which makes about 5 quarts of sauce can be frozen in batches and is enough for 3 lbs. of Rigatoni.

Ingredients:

  • 12 -18 small “Italian Eggplants” (about 3 lbs.), remove tips and cut into 1-inch cubes (you can also use the large eggplants if you cannot find the smaller ones, which I find are more tender and less bitter)
  • 1 cup + 6 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 tablespoon each of kosher salt & ground black pepper
  • 12 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
  • 1 tablespoon of Hot Red Pepper Flakes (if you do not like it spicy, use ½ tablespoon or 1 teaspoon).
  • 1 pint of pitted, imported black olives (Gaeta or Moroccan) chopped coarse
  • 3 cans (35 oz. size) San Marzano Tomatoes cut into large chunks
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 1 – 3 lbs. dried Rigatoni (see note above)
  • 30 leaves of fresh Basil
  • Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Ingredients for Rigatoni all' Oltrarno

Steps:
1.    Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2.    In a large bowl, toss the cubed eggplant with 1 cup of the olive oil. When fully coated, sprinkle with salt & black pepper and toss again.
3.    Spread the eggplant in one layer on 1 or 2 cookie sheets, roast in the oven between 30 and 40 minutes.
4.    Heat remaining olive oil on high in an 8 quart pot.
5.    When oil is hot but not smoking, reduce heat to medium, stir in the chopped garlic and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes. Quickly add the hot red pepper flakes followed by the olives, stirring constantly for about a minute.
6.    Add the tomatoes and their liquid; return heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, cook uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
7.    Add the roasted eggplant and wine, turn heat to low and simmer covered for about an hour to fully blend flavors, stir periodically.
8.    Fill a large pot with sufficient water to cook the Rigatoni according to directions on the box of pasta.
9.    When Rigatoni is cooked, drain it and toss it with the sauce.
10.    Tear basil leaves into small pieces and add to pasta, toss well again and serve with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Hot crusty Italian Bread makes a great accompaniment for this pasta dish, as does a bottle or two or three of full-bodied  Sangiovese.

See Related Article

Our Italian Thanksgiving

In General Articles on May 12, 2011 at 12:55 PM

In the fall of 1997, our younger daughter spent a semester abroad in Florence. Missing her greatly after ten weeks, my wife and I flew to Milan on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Upon landing we took a bus into the central city and caught a train down to Florence, where we had booked ‘a room with a view‘ at the Hotel Pensione Pendini for six nights.

Hotel Pensione Pendini - A Room with a View

Arriving in the city around 6:00pm, after traveling for about 18 hours, we took a taxi from the Santa Maria Novella Railway Station to the Pendini, which is centrally located on the Piazza della Repubblica.

We had been to Florence once before, in the summer of 1970, but for only two days while on a whirlwind tour of Italy. So not only were we thrilled to be seeing our daughter, but looking forward to the prospect of spending a leisurely week exploring the city, its museums: The Uffizi, The Accademia, The Pitti Palace and The Bargello; its churches: The Duomo, Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, San Miniato and The Brancacci Chapel; and the surrounding countryside, all without the usual crush of summer tourists.

Our daughter was living in a section of Florence known as Oltrarno, which translates to ‘across the Arno‘, the river that bisects the city. Her apartment on the Via Maggio near the Boboli Gardens was shared with a friend and is a short walk from the Pendini, which is located on the northern side of the Arno River.

During the days that she was in class, my wife and I toured the city. On her days off she joined us. Having her show us around to her favorite spots and translate for us was a treat. It was great for her too, not only because we picked up the tab, but with our rental car, she got see the Tuscan hill towns of San Gimignano and Volterra, which otherwise would have been difficult for her to visit.

Firenze from the Piazzale Michelangelo

In the evenings we had some great meals at restaurants such as: Il Latini, Mama Gina and Trattoria Cammillo. On Thanksgiving Day, which of course is not a holiday in Italy, my wife and I decided to treat our daughter and four other homesick American students doing their ‘semester abroad’, to ‘Thanksgiving Dinner’ at Borgo Antico, a local restaurant which the girls frequented regularly.

Since turkey with all of the Thanksgiving trimmings was not on the menu, I decided on a vegetarian pasta dish consisting of rigatoni, eggplant and black olives. It was excellent and tasted even better with my share of the six bottles of Chianti Riserva that were shared by all. As a matter of fact, the combination of wine, youthful high spirits exhibited by the young ladies and the heady idea of a group of Americans celebrating America’s most traditional holiday in a city that is more than 2,000 years old, dating back to Julius Caesar, was such that I have no recollection of the rest of the meal. I do remember thinking that we, and hopefully our daughter and her friends, would remember this Thanksgiving for the rest of their lives.

Firenze-Oltrano

In attempting to re-create this memorable pasta dish several iterations with the eggplant were necessary. First I added raw eggplant to the tomato-based sauce and discovered that it lacked flavor, so I tried roasting it first and that helped. But I also found that the ½ inch-cubed eggplant pieces were too small, as a result it broke down and almost disappeared as it cooked in the sauce; one inch cubes worked better. Some still broke down, but most retained their shape thus enhancing the combination of pasta, eggplant and olives. Initially, I had used regular sized eggplants but found them to be a little too bitter for my palate. I then experimented with the smaller ‘Italian’ variety and found them to be more to my liking. But if you cannot find them, by all means try the larger sized ones.

Here then is the recipe for my re-creation of that hearty pasta dish whose name on the menu of Borgo Antico also slips my mind. I named it Rigatoni all’ Oltrarno in honor of the section of Firenze in which Borgo Antico is located. I have read that Tuscans have an abiding love of beans, accordingly, they became known in other Italian regions as mangiafagioli, (bean eaters). Lest you think that this is a blog only for the ‘mangiapasta‘, please continue at: Basta Pasta!

Da’s Penne Arrabiata

In Pasta, Recipes on May 8, 2011 at 5:11 PM

Ingredients:                                                                                                               

Ingredients for Da's Penne Arrabiata


•    3/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
•    12 large cloves of garlic, sliced very thin
•    2 teaspoons hot red (chili) pepper flakes
•    Two  35 oz. cans of San Marzano Tomatoes, remove tomatoes from the can, cut into ¾ to inch pieces and drain well in a colander
•    1 lb. Penne
•    1 cup of  fresh basil leaves, sliced

Steps:

1.    For the pasta, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2.    In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan.
3.    When the oil is hot, add the garlic slices and stir frequently.
4.    When the garlic begins to turn medium-brown (3-4 minutes), shut the heat and remove the garlic with a slotted spoon and discard.

What the Garlic Should Look Like

5.    With the heat still off add the pepper flakes to the hot oil.
6.    Quickly add the cut-up drained tomatoes before the pepper flakes burn, turn the heat to high and cook for about 10 minutes.
7.    When the pasta water comes to a boil, add the penne and cook according to directions.
8.    Drain the pasta well, transfer to a large bowl and add the sauce. Stir well, add the basil and stir again.

Mangia!

Serve with grated Locatelli Romano Cheese, warmed Italian Bread, a bottle of Montepulciano d’ Abruzzo Riserva and a salad.

See related article at: I Found This Dish in San Francisco…

I Found This Dish in San Francisco, High on Russian Hill it Called to Me

In General Articles on May 8, 2011 at 4:42 PM

Penne Arrabiata, another family favorite, resulted from a business trip to San Francisco in the mid 80s. At that time, I was enmeshed in the corporate life and frequently traveled on business. Dinners with clients and local associates were usually an integral part of these trips and I looked upon them as recompense for the hardships of business travel.

One of my favorite cities is San Francisco, which my wife I had first visited in the summer of 1968. We fell in love with ‘That City by the Bay‘ and I wanted to permanently relocate there, but for numerous reasons that never occurred. As a result, I always looked forward to trips back to San Fran (never ‘Frisco’?), whether for business or pleasure.

On this particular trip a group of us were taken to Allegro on Russian Hill, the favorite restaurant of our West Coast Regional Vice President. He was such a regular at Allegro that his autographed picture hung on the wall alongside numerous and more recognizable luminaries than he. Perusing the menu for the pasta course, I noted that among the usual dishes of Baked Ziti, Linguini with Clam Sauce and Rigatoni Bolognese, was something called Penne Arrabiata, which was new to me.

The waiter explained that penne was a hollow-shaped pasta somewhat like ziti, but smaller and with pointed ends like a quill pen. Also that Arrabiata was a spicy tomato-based sauce that meant angry; an allusion to the hot pepper, which is integral to the sauce. Having grown up with Dorothea’s Homemade Hot Pepper Sauce, that sounded right up my alley, so I ordered it for a first course and became immediately addicted. So memorable was the Penne Arrabiata that I have long since forgotten what I ordered for the main course.

Since my first trip to the West Coast in 1968, I have noted that trends, fads and fashions tend to originate there and move eastwards. That seems to me to have been the case with our current obsessions with food, wine and most of all coffee…think Starbucks! In the mid 1980s,  penne was not as ubiquitous as it is today, and I dare say, was practically unknown in most sections of the country. Penne Arrabiata was even more obscure. Or maybe, I was just oblivious to them both. I think that today, penne appears to be fairly common on restaurant menus across the country; there is Penne alla Vodka, Penne Pasta (a redundancy?) with Vegetables and even Penne Arrabiata on the more adventurous menus.

When I returned to New York after that dinner in San Francisco, I described Penne Arrabiata to my wife and daughters and they suggested that I undertake its replication. I thought long and hard about the ingredients and the process, but it would take about ten tries to perfect it to my liking and to come as close to what I remembered it from that night at Allegro.

My first problem was in finding penne. Most of the local supermarkets had limited depth in the pasta area, certainly not like it is today. There were shells (conchiglie) fettuccine, linguini, spaghetti, thin spaghetti (spaghettini), angel hair (capellini), rigatoni, ziti, even ditali and ditalini in some stores, but no penne. So, initially, I made it with ziti, but the ziti were too large and too smooth and didn’t hold the sauce well. Eventually, I found penne in some specialty food stores. However, the penne available at that time was smooth like ziti, and thus, like its counterpart, the sauce did not adhere to it as well as I would have liked. Then I discovered Penne Rigate, which had little lengthwise ridges for retaining the sauce. Perfetto! It appears that pasta maker Barilla eventually discontinued the smooth penne and dropped the word rigate, so that now Barilla produces only one kind of penne, ridged.

Beside the other obvious ingredients of olive oil, tomatoes, hot pepper, and basil, there was garlic. However, garlic was not visible in the dish and the flavor was more one of deeply-browned, but not burned, garlic. After several attempts, I realized that the Chef at Allegro must have removed the garlic after he had browned it in the oil thus giving it that smooth garlic base. I experimented with just how far to brown the garlic without burning it and making the dish inedible.

I also noted that there was very little liquid to the sauce, it was redolent of tomatoes, but they were chunky, not soupy. I first tried draining the tomatoes straight from the can, it was still too soupy. Next I chopped the tomatoes and then drained them of their natural water, close, but still not yet exactly right. Then one day I read about San Marzano tomatoes and how they were riper, meatier and had less liquid in the can as compared to other types. That was it, perfection in a can and the solution to the tomato dilemma!

Then there came the problem of how much hot pepper…one teaspoon was too little and one tablespoon was too much. One time I made it for my daughter and her friends and it was apparently not well received, as the next time my daughter asked me to make it, she requested that I tone down the hot pepper.

In the 1980s, finding basil outside of the summer season used to be a problem as well; but thankfully, that is no longer the case.

I recently looked for Allegro online and found Allegro Romano on Russian Hill, which is a fairly new restaurant, having opened in 2004, but it appears to be in the same location as the Allegro where I was first introduced to Penne Arrabiata. I hope to return to San Francisco and see if they have Penne Arrabiata on the menu and if so, how it compares to my version, the recipe for which can be found at…Da’s Penne Arrabiata.

If you have read these articles this far, you no doubt have come to the realization that pasta (or macaroni as Big Mike referred to it) is a big hit in our family and that travel is also a passion. Next stop on these global peregrinations is Florence Italy, where in 1997, we celebrated Our Italian Thanksgiving.

Chronological Index of Articles by Chef Scar

In Article Index on May 1, 2011 at 9:28 AM

          1. How to Cook Like an Italian Grandmother
          2. Everybody Has a Story
          3. Pasta Memories
          4. Another of Big Mike’s Favorites
          5. Eat It! It’s Good for You!
          6. Pasta Fagioli, or Pasta Fazool?
          7. I Found This Dish in San Francisco, High on Russian Hill it Called to Me
          8. Our Italian Thanksgiving
          9. Basta Pasta!
          10. Steak! It’s What’s for Dinner!
          11. Chicken Scarpiello; Everybody Makes it Differently!
          12. Midnight (and Calvados) in Paris
          13. Fish is not Just for Fridays, Anymore
          14. Memories of Grandpa and Summers at The Shore
          15. Brother Devil
          16. For Moms on the Go
          17. Catching Wild Salmon in Alaska and Cooking Wild Salmon at Home
          18. ‘The Other White Meat’
          19. A Nutritionally Balanced and Delicious Mediterranean Meal
          20. Uncle Fred, The Godfather
          21. Time to Get Back to Cooking and Posting
          22. The Last of the Basil
          23. Grandma Loved Ceci Beans
          24. Eat Your Brussel Sprouts! Mother Commanded
          25. A Hearty Beef Stew for Those Chilly Autumn and Winter Nights
          26. Sunday Chicken Dinner- No Leftovers!
          27. Meatloaf for Dinner! Again?
          28. Requiem for a Pig
          29. SOUP’S ON!
          30. A Pre-Thanksgiving Meal
          31. The Turkey that Keeps Giving
          32. The Gift of Christmas Ham that Kept on Giving
          33. Where Have All the Butchers Gone?
          34. Breaking Out of the Food-Induced Coma
          35. The Best Italian Restaurant
          36. Cooking in Naples…Florida that is!
          37. East Side, East Side, All Around the Town
          38. The Secret’s Out!
          39. Anndemma
          40. A Serendipitous Halibut Dinner
          41. The Maturing Palate
          42. Tommy T and Me
          43. Pork & Prunes – Yum or Yuck?
          44. A Visit to Lithuania
          45. On Tour With The Literate Chef-Bermuda, Part I
          46. On Tour With The Literate Chef-Bermuda, Part II
          47. On Tour With The Literate Chef-Bermuda, Part III
          48. Clam Shucking
          49. A Multitude of Fishes
          50. Memories of NOLA
          51. You Can Take it With You
          52. An Experiment in Stuffing a Roast
          53. ‘You can go to heaven if you want. I’d rather stay in Bermuda.’
          54. Discoveries at The Shore
          55. My Cousin Vinny to the Rescue
          56. Where Have All the Germans Gone?
          57. What to Do With a Piece of Cod
          58. With Thanksgiving but a Week Away…
          59. At The Farmers Market
          60. This Little Piggy Came from the Market
          61. The Red, The White, The Green and The Yellow
          62. Vegging out & Vegging In
          63. Time to Draw a Line in the Breadcrumbs
          64. Attention, Garlic Lovers
          65. Luigi the Barber
          66. She proposed and I disposed
          67. Summer Serendipity
          68. Is it Autumn Yet?