Category: BiteClub

My Favorite Black Bean Soup, in 30 Minutes or Less

Inasmuch as complex events can be said to have their roots in a single moment, I credit my first attempt at this delicious soup - an assignment for my Fundamentals of Stocks, Soups, and Sauces course at the ICE Culinary Institute some 10 years ago - with much of what I've produced in the kitchen ever since. I might as well call it my Butterfly Effect Soup.

Blue Label Cafe

Santa Rosa crew planning new breakfast service

Would You Pay $625 For A Cookbook?

Whether or not, quite a few of us would would, because the cookbook in question - Modernist Cuisine, by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet - already sold out its initial printing, and it hasn't even hit the shelves yet! Moreover, despite the fact that virtually nobody on Planet Earth has actually touched the 6-volume, 2400-page opus, it's already been called "the most important cookbook ever", inducted into the Cookbook Hall of Fame, and generated uncountable words in the foodie blogosphere, including tweets by Thomas Keller and just about every other important chef you can think of.

The Costco Report: Organic Beef

I cooked this steak - with a simple red wine-honey reduction and a creamy parmigiano-peppercorn salad - in honor of one of my especially snarky fans, someone who objects strenuously every time I buy something from a supermarket for what I've billed as a "cooking locally" weblog. I'll stipulate the point, but my money says I'm not the only parent in the County who'd like to serve their kids a decent, healthy steak for a few less bucks. But is it a decent, healthy steak?