http://www.foodiegazette.com Adventures in good eating -- recipes and food writing by Margaret "Meps" Schulte Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:30:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Barry came back to the boat recently and found me laughing my head off like a lunatic. Because we've been doing fiberglass work in the main cabin, we've moved out of the galley and are cooking on a 2-burner Coleman stove on a picnic table under the boat. But I can't ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/whats-a-cross-between-fudge-and-cookie Sometimes, when I'm reading, there's a description of how to make something that sounds delicious, even though it's not precisely a recipe. Like the Fondue recipe from occupied France, this one comes from a World War II memoir. In this case, it's the second book of Roald Dahl's autobiography, Going ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/finding-recipes-in-good-books Have you ever looked carefully at the condiment shelf in your fridge? I bet you can identify items that are years, maybe decades old. And then there are things we wouldn't know how to keep if we didn't have a refrigerator and freezer. For example, mayonnaise, or butter, or fresh ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/no-more-fridge-free-living Have you ever wondered how to cook a turkey on a charcoal grill? When it's time to cook a turkey, it's usually a holiday, and the kitchen is a madhouse. There are pies and casseroles and rolls to be baked, and the oven is never big enough for everything. Cooking ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/an-illustrated-guide-to-charcoal-grilled-turkey I took a very special photograph today, a plate of tiny poached pears stuffed with cream cheese. Why is the photo special? It represents the last four pears. What a relief! Barry's parents have several pear trees that produce delicious pears every fall. Unfortunately, they produce too many of them, and ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/bye-bye-friendly-pears I recently wrote about my favorite kitchen gadgets, the small ones (see A few of my favorite things, part one). The following short list has my favorite big things, the ones that don't fit into a drawer. One reason they're favorites is because they all come with great stories. Some ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/a-few-of-my-favorite-things-part-two Anyone who cooks will have a few favorite gadgets in their kitchen. When you open that jumbled, messy kitchen drawer, your favorites are the ones on top. If not, they're the ones sitting on the counter, or more likely, in the sink or dishwasher. I've downsized from a full-sized house and ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/a-few-of-my-favorite-things-part-one It's asparagus season again, time to dust off one asparagus anecdote, one story, and one great tip. Most of the people I know love fresh asparagus. It's considered one of the gourmet vegetables, right up there with hearts of palm and artichoke hearts. Even now that it's become fairly commonplace, the ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/my-friend-mr-asparagus-spear As one of the earliest adopters of a bread machine, back in 1990, I never experienced the kind of phobia Tara writes about. My only bread machine-based fear was based on a real experience: While making a loaf of pumpernickel, my DAK bread machine, the kind that looked like R2D2, ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/loaf-at-first-sight I just read an article in Global Rhythm (May '07) about German lebkuchen, a kind of spice cake dating back to the 18th century. According to the article, one company keeps their recipes in a safe and changes the combination daily. Those are pretty precious recipes. As any of my readers ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/noras-secret-horror-dhoover-recipe Google Earth tells me that it's 2,756 miles from my home in Seattle to the Versailles restaurant in Miami. It's worth the trip. In 1977, I was young enough that any restaurant was a special treat, even Pizza Hut or Burger King. That year, my parents and I drove to Miami ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/the-incomparable-versailles-restaurant We boarded the train from Coimbra, Portugal, to Lisbon, and we found people already sitting in our ticketed seats. As they reluctantly moved to their own places, one of them asked me, hopefully, "Are you sure you want these seats?" Then I realized we had ended up in one of ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/eating-my-way-across-portugal I laughed so hard last night, I got a cramp in my jaw. Just thinking about it makes me chortle. It was brought about by green Jello. I grew up with a lot of Jello. My Mom made it often, dissolving the packet of raspberry or strawberry Jello in boiling water, then ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/whats-so-funny-about-green-jello This piece was written in honor of the launch of the brand new Foodie Gazette. For the first time, my recipes are flying solo, rather than being an adjunct of mepsnbarry.com. That brought to mind the first time I ever flew solo in the kitchen. It was traumatic, to say ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/flying-solo Every time I look out my window today, I see a solid gray sky, drippy trees, and sheets of cold, wet rain. It's time for a tropical vacation. Or a hot toddy. Luckily, I know of a beverage that satisfies both needs at once. It's called quentão, and it's the ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/mixing-up-a-tropical-vacation Shopping for international grocery items is sometimes like a scavenger hunt. Last week, I triumphed with two 14-oz bottles of rosewater for $2.59 each at a Persian market in Bellevue, Washington. It had been a 2-1/2 year search, and until now, I'd been unable to find anything bigger than 6 ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/an-international-scavenger-hunt I didn't pay a lot of attention to the South Beach diet when I first heard of it. I'm not much for diet fads. And the name sounds like something written for a bunch of wealthy society ladies. This spring, as we've been getting to know Bob Knosp, I discovered that ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/the-south-beach-diet-not-just-a-fad Summer is almost here, and soon we'll be inundated by ripe peaches, boysenberries, blueberries, and blackberries. I love going to the farmer's market and falling in love with a huge watermelon, a flat of apricots, or a cantaloupe. I can't pass up a kiwi, and I love it when friends ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/spring-into-smoothie-season We recently had a small gathering to watch the Wallace and Gromit short films and eat cheese. Wallace is the animated character known for his love of Wensleydale and gorgonzola. "Cheese, Gromit!" he says to his dog, "We'll go somewhere, where there's cheese!" They build a spaceship and fly to ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/dont-forget-the-crackers In all the years I knew my good friend, Barbara deLackner, we never celebrated Easter together. We were always thousands of miles apart at Easter-time. But I knew what she was eating for breakfast. Barbie had developed an Easter morning tradition, a special dish that her family loved and anticipated. It ... http://www.foodiegazette.com/make-someone-happy-for-breakfast