Ok, I have to tell you about my latest bug. Growing up in Eastern Europe where EVERYTHING is cured, smoked, with prosciutto and sausages hanging in the pantry, I couldn’t help but try to reproduce the same delicacies here on US soil. But I was faced with a couple obstacles like I had to keep my basement smell free, and keep my neighbors happy if I was to build a smoke house to cold smoke the meat outside for 10+ hours. Here’s the first task for my charcuterie adventures in curing meat - the fermentation and curing chamber.

Jamie Oliver goes beyond the basic facts of how to put a (mind you, delicious) meal together. Watch his TED presentation about child obesity in America. After all he has all the credentials of a proper chef, not that of an Iron Chef sensationalism, but who needs that anyway? After all, cooking is about you being in the kitchen and getting your hands dirty.

You are probably left with the daunting question of “Why it happened to them and not us?” and feel the urge of somehow helping out in some way or another. Without going into deep thinking, can it be that those of us with resources are spared so that in situations like these we can share and help those in need? Just a thought…

Merry Christmas to all Mamaliga fans! Here’s another try at baking Panettone from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice book for the BBA Challenge. I didn’t blog about it initially since there were some things I wanted to tweak and adapt from his original formula. Quite a few changes.

Don’t be fooled. This humble chocolate tart is packed with enough potential to turn even the most chocolate-disciplined person into a dessert-ivore. So much more that is so easy and fast - if you read my previous post on baking short crust sweet pastry tart shells and you have two or three of them in the freezer.

In days when you crave something sweet and classy (and that’s daily, confess it!) this flexible short crust saves you of going through intense labor to create a delicious tart.

Suzanne Urpecz (aka The Hungarian Girl) one of the reference voices and food bloggers in Hungarian, Central and Eastern European cuisine, took an interview with me that is featured on her blog.

Only so you know on what am I spending usually the hot summer weekends, this post is about a picnic cedar table I built (commissioned by my wife) out of these six sided hexagonal picnic patio table plans!

Had to do it. I knew it was going to come. The notorious creation of the BBQ Addicts, The Bacon Explosion a scandalous arteries clogging log of sausage, with crispy bacon bits, wrapped in … you guessed a layer of thick bacon! No trace of a vegetable in sight! None.

I didn’t eve dream at the time of creating it that my humble Turkey Burger would make it to Top 9 on FoodBuzz! How cool is that! I might need to pay more attention to it later in a dedicated post with a recipe. Any takers? Anyway - check it out! It is mouth drooling and it can easily compete with the cover picture of the Saveur magazine (September 2009 issue)!