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!…
Leftover Valentine’s Day Candy, Dried Morita Chile, Pecorino Romano Cheese, and Espresso Powder: Mystery Basket Revealed and Conquered
I won’t lie. When I told Ben what we were cooking with, he said, “Rough!” However, we think we turned it into a win. We are limiting trips to the grocery store these days, so we just used other ingredients we had on hand to create our menu of spaghetti and meatballs with milkshakes. We…
Polls Open on a New Chopped Challenge Plus Runner Up Basket Success
Although sausage, cucumbers and honey roasted peanuts seemed like unlikely ingredients, we modified a recipe we know and love from my cooking idol, Ruth Reichl, to make Easy Vietnamese Caramelized Pork: We substituted sausage for pork tenderloin, seedless cucumbers for Armenian cucumbers, and honey roasted peanuts for peanuts. The herbs and cucumbers are a great…
Chicken Wins By Narrow Margin! Sausage Demands Recount.
I’m sorry, sausage. You’ve been chopped. Despite voting irregularities (entries being sent to my junk mail) we can assure you that the one vote margin reflects the strong will of the people to elevate chicken to the top position. With this basket, Ben and I decided to do a chicken pot pie with a jicama,…
Day 6 – The People Have Spoken! Winning Basket: Catfish, Frozen Peaches, Asparagus
I’m sorry, chicken, you’ve been chopped. Thank you to all who voted! While we may be still experimenting with setting up the voting mechanism on our blog, we can assure you that there was no Russian interference. Our menu was grilled catfish with a peach mint salsa, pearl couscous “risotto” with asparagus, and peach cobbler. …
Barrel 135 – Carry Out!
Same awesome food, just consumed in the comfort of our own home! https://www.barrel135.com