13 May 2011 8 Comments
in American Series, Recipes, Video Tags: borlotti beans, chili, chili cook off, chipotle, chuck steak, con carne, garlic, Malibu, Texas
Many a cook has been judged on the quality of his or her chili. Whole lives on the cook-off circuit have been made or ruined based on their deftness of hand with garlic and chili powder.
Last year, I almost entered the local Malibu Labor Day chili cook off. I may do so this year. There’s something decidedly appealing and American about these events. Every municipality, from the upscale resort to the redneck town, has one. More
10 May 2011 10 Comments
in Cooking Tips, Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: carrots, green tea, healthy foods, kale, kim chee, olive oil, sardines, skinless chicken breast
I eat my fair share of salt-cured pork products. I like sprinkling my food liberally with flaky sea salt. I enjoy rib eye steaks, and I’m a fan of potato chips and ice cream. But I also eat a good amount of some of the world’s healthiest things. And not because I should, but because I like them.
sardines
06 May 2011 14 Comments
in Pork, Recipes, Video Tags: carnitas, fennel, fennel powder, finocchiona, Italy, orange, pork shoulder, recipe, video
Certain flavors were just meant to be together. Such it is with pork and fennel. Add orange, and you’ve got a divine trinity of deliciousness. And here, I share one of my best grilling preparations with you. Make this for your next barbecue, tell your friends you made it up yourself (I don’t mind), and you’ll be revered in the backyards of your neighborhood.
I love pork shoulder. It’s one of the least expensive cuts, it’s usually huge, and it’s got an amazing flavor and meat/fat ratio. Confirming its pedigree, it’s the pork most often used for Mexican carnitas. Now that’s some street cred! More
03 May 2011 9 Comments
in Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories), Video Tags: beekeeping, bees, Greek yogurt, hive, owls
Shortly after we moved into our house in Topanga a few years back, I bought an owl house. I had read that attracting owls to your property was one of the best ways to keep the rodent population in check. Barn owls will eat two to three rodents a night; a nesting pair with chicks up to 10 a night — that’s over 3,000 a year! So I climbed high in the oak tree outside our bedroom window and secured the owl house onto a branch.
Our honey
It took about a year before an owl moved in. It was the tiniest owl you’d ever seen — no match for an angry vermin. It stayed about 10 days. Every night, it would hoot away merrily in its owl box, sounding confident it had found the best house in the neighborhood. But disappointed, I suspect, with its inability to attract a mate to its new digs, it departed. That’s when the bees moved in. More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 