Our world food tour wrapped up in India. Chef Ben will tell you he’s “not a big fan” of Indian food, but from a pandemic point of view, curried lentil tomato and coconut soup is the perfect dish, because nearly everything can be found in the pantry. Luckily, Chef Ben is always willing to pitch…
Category: Life With Ben
“Let Them Eat Cake!”
Next stop on the world food tour: France. In these weird limbo days where we walk a balance beam between boredom and stress, normalcy and the extraordinary, family and sanity, togetherness and loneliness, zoom conferencing and corona hair, when we are all having a shared experience alone, I acknowledge that sometimes you just have to…
“Get Used To Stuff”
Italian food is probably the most popular cuisine in our household, so we were all happy that Ben’s world food tour took us to Italy. Though I make lasagna pretty often, I don’t have much more of a recipe than you can find on the back of a pack of lasagna noodles, so I won’t…
Next Stop on World Food Tour – Ethiopia
When we lived in Bloomington, Indiana in the early 90s, there was an Ethiopian restaurant called Ashenda, that offered me my first taste of Ethiopian food. I was hooked from my very first bite, and I’ve been trying to recreate the experience any way I can since then. From the smell of simmering wat (meat…
World Food Tour with Chef Ben – First Stop, Vietnam!
Need a cure for the cooped up blues? Follow Chef Ben this week as he cooks and eats his way through five countries. Phil and I love ethnic food, and we exposed the kids to it from an early age. One of my gimmicks when the kids were little was to make them little passports,…
Celebrity Chef Revealed…
Chef Jay Ducote! Ben: “I think it’s clearing up!” The eternal optimist, he begins every day this way, declaring the virus to be over. We tell him it’s not, and he replies with, “Almost over. Soon.” In keeping with Ben’s anticipation of this whole mess clearing up, we have decided to set our sights on…
Weekend Treat from Bullfrog Brewery
Friday is always “weekend treat” day, and we are trying to keep that tradition alive during this strange time. We got carry out from the Bullfrog Brewery, and we’re happy to say that wings, burgers and fries, combined with patio dining on a lovely spring day, made for a great evening. After supper, we went…
The Peanut Butter Falcon Edition
In honor of the movie, The Peanut Butter Falcon, we had a peanut butter themed dinner. We had been wanting to see the movie since it came out, but never seemed to have the time. Thanks to a tip from Melissa, and the universe clearing our calendars, we finally watched it. What a great movie!…
Day 4 – Ben: “Are you going to take a shower, or are you just going to talk about it?”
Today, our focus was tying up loose food ends. I know how lucky we are to have plenty of food, and I want to make sure we are managing our inventory properly before we go out for fresh supplies. Right out of college, I went to teach as a volunteer on the Hopi Reservation in…
Day 3 – Keeping the Glass Half Full
This morning, as I was having my coffee, Ben poured himself some orange juice and said, “I have an idea! Let’s do normal!” Well, while I can’t promise that, I can engineer chicken parm night, and that was all Ben needed to declare, “Chicken parm? I’m a lucky guy!!!!!” My school has not yet gone…