A Bowl Full of Goodness

It's the cold, monochromatic days that get me. No brilliant blue summer skies, no greens of spring, no orange and yellows of fall. Just bare brown leafless trees and overcast cotton skies. The tips of things go numb and angry, noses, fingers, toes. They scream for heat, for color. It was for just these sorts of days that I made a huge batch of Black Bean and Pumpkin Stew and stashed it in the freezer. Knowing that there would be no fresh sugar pumpkins or sweet corn in mid-January, this spicy stew would be the ideal soul warmer and my secret weapon in fighting the winter blahs.

I saw this recipe in Tastebud, a monthly food magazine given away free here in Kansas City. They, in turn, got it from Nancy O'Connor's Rolling Prairie Recipe Cookbook. I don't own this cookbook but I might have to go in search for it based on this recipe alone. Packed full of all the vegetables the doctors and experts tell us to consume more of as part of a healthy diet. But it's so rich with flavor it feels like you're cheating.

I can easily see substituting a butternut squash for the pumpkin but I will say the pumpkin is delicious in this stew. It really is wonderfully soul warming especially when your soul longs to run barefoot in the grass, not scrape another round of ice off your windshield.

Don't forget this Sunday is Dim Sum Sunday with Vegetables as our theme. Show us your veggie love.

Chefs Just Wanna Have Fun

OUCH! Let's face it, nothing good ever starts out at 4:30 in the morning on Top Chef. Oh sure it's great fun to see chefs with a raging case of bed face but creating dishes before you've even had that first cup of coffee is usually a recipe for a big plate of ugly. So it's with a certain amount of trepidation that our chefs arrive at the kitchen. They are in for a surprise.


Padma's not there (she was whisked away to their eventual destination in a private helicopter) and it looks like they are going fishing.

(Just a side note to give a Good Job to the set designer who came up with the wine rack background used in this shot. Not so much the wine rack design but the way they have been using light to make it personal to whatever is in front of it, whether it's lit back light green to match a Butoni box, it's own special color for judges table or in this instance, lit to look like skin and scales of a fish. Nice job. Not sure if it was the lighting designer or the set designer but Bravo to both.)


Looks like the chefs are going to Montauk to fish for their proteins. 4:30's not looking too bad when you've got at least a two hour car ride you can sleep through out to the outermost tip of the Long Island and end up here.


No Quickfire for this episode because there's got to be enough time to actually catch fish. Fairly simple elim, five hours to catch and cook enough fish to feed 200 people for a beach party. Immediately the question pops up, what if you don't catch enough fish? These people are chefs, not fishermen. Fish, while plentiful in Montauk, may not be biting. Is there an Anthony Bourdain stunt fish component here they're not telling us? They will be split up into four teams of three, two teams to a boat. Plus the dreaded Double Elimination. Of course there's some snipping and grousing about teammates. No matter, off to the boats.


Now some chefs are reluctant to go fishing. Seems they've got Jawsaphobia, an irrational fear of a giant white shark bursting out of deep water and chomping you in half due to the heavy exposure to the movie Jaws.


Too bad, to deep water they go. First the chefs get a quick lesson at the beginning of their 5 hour tour in what to do and what not to do.

Since only two people can fish at a time, it's gives the other four chefs time to reflect....

...on just how many pole/rod jokes that can be made and how many will actually be aired. Quite a few, I gave up trying to count. It's not long before there's a fish on the line.



Dale wins the First Fish lottery. I'm really loving this episode because I think this is the first episode in the history of Top Chef where the chefs get to have fun. This kind of fishing is fun. It allows their competitive sides to battle against nature and each other in a good natured way. There's five hours of sitting on a boat, fishing, enjoying what looked like a beautiful summer's day. I don't know if they got to enjoy any adult beverages while they tootled around Montauk? I thought it was pretty much a requirement when you get on one of these boats. One boat seems to be having much more fun than the other boat. They fish....


...they squeal like 4th graders...

...and they shake their fish catching booties.

For the other boat, the first two hours drag on....

...and on resulting in...

...zero fish.

More pole jokes ensue at the expense of the fishless boat. With two hours left the other boat finally starts reeling them in.


They too begin to have fun. Fun in a different way than the other boat...


...that involves a lot more pole handling. A lot more. Who ends up putting their pole to their best use to catch the biggest fish?

That would be Dale with this sweet striper.

All in all a joyful experience of chefs just having a good time doing something I think a lot of us either enjoy doing or would love having the opportunity to do.

Especially when you end up with a lot of beautiful looking fish like this.

Casey Thompson, Still Going Strong

Blogging is an interesting endeavor. Blogging about food, photography and Top Chef has given me a fascinating opportunity to reach people half a world away. Now, I'm not naive enough believe that most folks come here for my sparkling wit, the mad photochoppy skills or my recipes for crab cakes. No, I know exactly what some of you are here for. Wait, scratch that. Make that what quite a few of you are here for.

You're here for the photo above. How do I know this? Well...for one this is still America, home of the Free, land of the Hotties and the men who love to oogle them. Also there's my Blogger stat page which tells me the post this picture was featured in is kicking all the other post's ass in terms of pageviews. But my favorite method of gauging what's hot and what's not is my stat counter. Let's just say Casey is an international sensation. But is she a Domestic Threat?



Perhaps only to domestic productivity. Or?? Could the Department of Homeland Security be looking for a new spokesperson for Cybersecurity? What ever the reason, I'm sure Casey would bring much needed attention to our domestic security needs. God Bless America!!

The famous Villa Romana del Casale mosiac dating back to the Diocletian Period (286 - 305 AD).

Douchebag Moment of the Night

How wonderful was it to see Carla win another Elimination Challenge. Wonderful for me because now that Tiffani was auffed last night I'm down to one of my personal favs as the chef who wins it all. Carla again and again takes the high road in this cut throat competitive setting. When she wins it's just pure joy on her face.

She can't hide that joy inside. Unfortunately some people can't hide their bitterness.

Her happiness in the Stew Room was quickly stomped on by Marcel and his bitterness that, yes, the teams that went in first were in fact the better teams. I understand he's locked in a douchebag death match with Dale but last night's comments were pretty bush league. I suspect there's not a condom big enough (check behind Marcel's left shoulder) to contain just how much of dick he was in that instance. Poor Carla, the good soul that she is, even felt bad that her joy triggered Marcel's acting out.

Carla, don't let anyone punk your joy. Higher ground darlin' all the way to winner's circle.

Team Lesbian Has Left the Building

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaanh. OK not so heart broken over Jamie finally losing her Teflon coating but I am sorry to see Tiff leave.

The moment she said Jamie was the weakest member of the team and that she would try and stay away from her I knew she was a goner. While they still reward good dishes but weak team play (see last week's elim with Dale and Angelo) they never really save weak team play and weak dishes. I think Tiffani is a great chef, she just didn't have a very strong game this time around. I hope she finds that perfect spot to land for her passion and talent.

Jamie, on the other hand, didn't do herself any favors with her run here on Top Chef All Stars. Constantly telling the camera you don't really care may be honest but will give your real world customers pause at eating at your restaurant. People like to see you have passion and dedication to your craft. Not aloofness. However that does mean we have a vacancy for the Villain Chef. Any suggestions on who is best suited for that role?

Big Double E

Twelve remain but two will go tonight for the second Double Elimination of the season. Will it be one of your favorites? Will Jamie hang on yet again? Will Angelo touch someone else food?

Looking at the Pretty

I'm taking a little break from Top Chef mainly because I've picked this most recent episode to death. Instead I decided to reveal one of my short comings. I've never seen Babette's Feast. Feel free to begin the barrage of baguettes. I've seen the other great foodie movies, Like Water for Chocolate, Tampopo, Chocolat, and The Big Night but for some reason I never got around to watching Babette's Feast. However I corrected that this weekend only to realize what an idiot I had been. The film is based on a story by the Danish writer Isak Dinesen of two pious sisters living in a tiny village on the shores of Jutland. Their father was a pastor and founder of a tiny Christian sect. Despite suitors for the daughters and the discovery of one daughter's artistry as a great operatic soprano, both sisters choose to serve their father and his ministry. Many years later, the sisters, now much older, tend to the dedicated few that remain of their tiny congregation. A woman appears on their doorstep one dark and stormy night and thus begins their life with Babette, a refuge from political strife in France, who has been recommended by a former suitor to be their new housekeeper and cook. Now the sisters....tend to spend more time serving God than serving good food. They appear to eat only boiled flounder and ale bread. Babette, working for free in exchange for roof over her head, says nothing about the fare but quietly begins to make small changes in the lives of the sisters. Fourteen uneventful years pass in the lives of the sisters and Babette.

One day, Babette receives notice that she has won 10,000 francs from the French lottery. The sisters, while happy for her, are crestfallen that she will undoubtedly go back to France with her new found fortune. This windfall occurs at the same time the sisters are planning the 100th anniversary of their father's birthday. Babette asks if she could honor their father with a "real French dinner". The sisters agree and Babette leaves for France for supplies because boiled flounder and wooden bowls just isn't going to cut it.

She returns a few days later, stocked to the gills with all manner of beast and fowl not seen before in the austere village. Cooking commences.

This movie is gorgeous for a lot of reasons not just for the food but also for all the copper pans Babette buys to make the food and the china and glassware. You see the sisters drink water and tea so there's no wine glasses in the house. Babette, being French and all, can't serve a seven course meal without some spectacular wine to go with each course.

Plus the glasses can do double duty as pastry cutters.

Blini Demidoff au Caviar

Babette spares no expense. Caviar, truffles, fresh fruit and champagne.

And the copper, oh that beautiful copper.

Caille en Sarcophage avec Sauce Perigourdine

The meal, of course, is a success and if you haven't seen this movie, I won't reveal too much more because you really should enjoy it for yourself. I just thought it was a nice to time to look at some pretty.

Hallelujah.