New Orleans

 I am in New Orleans for a Public Health Service conference. I've been here since Monday and spent the last 4 days in meetings so not much of a chance to see New Orleans. The Sheraton food has been barely edible mostly. Feeding 700 people usually means typical convention food and they decided to have cold everything. I did enjoy a cup of potato leek soup on Monday, and the redfish at the formal dinner Monday night tasted pretty good, but I really wanted to try some of the famous New Orleans cuisine. On Tuesday night a group of us headed out to the Bourbon House. I had some really good heirloom tomatoes for an appetizer and the...

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"A Night in Tuscany" Cooking Party

I was asked to do a cooking class at the home of Julie Treat with the theme, "A Night in Tuscany". She is family, my husband's niece, and knew about our trip to Reggio Emilia in March of this year. She has also been to Italy and is very interested in the cuisine and thought a group of her friends would enjoy sampling authentic Italian food. Although technically we were not really staying in the Tuscany region, we did visit it and had a gastronomic tour there. Our trip was centered on the Emilio-Romanga region in the town of Reggio Emilia where we visited Parma, Modena, and Bologna. There are three blog posts about the culinary immersion program...

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Cooking class with Linda Johnson: Thai Basil Chicken

 Cornmeal cakes with oven dried tomatoes Linda Johnson has been having me over to her house since last September for private cooking lessons. We have one or two classes a month and it's been a lot of fun. What I love about Linda is her adventurous spirit. Although she readily admits she is from west Texas and doesn't know much about international cuisine, she never hesitates to try dishes from Japan, India, Thailand, Mexico, and various regions of the United States, such as southwestern. One of her favorite classes was on how to stir fry various meats and vegetables and create a variety of sauces. She has embraced the concept and made it...

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Azle Farmers Market: Grilled Lemongrass Beef with Rice Noodles

Grilled Lemongrass Beef with Rice Noodles  Today was the first day I was back at the Azle Farmers Market since last year.  My life has been so hectic with the garden tour, deployment training, Japanese Cooking Series, and trip to Houston that this was the first Saturday I could go. I wanted to showcase my first attempt to grow lemongrass and also use some nice hot Serrano peppers I'm growing so I decided on Lemongrass Beef with Rice Noodles. I have also made this with chicken and shrimp and the marinade is really flavorful and exciting. Tofu is a good vegetarian choice as well. This is a perfect summertime dish because it is...

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Japanese Cooking Series: Gyoza, Chicken Curry, and Omurice

The BEST EVER Japanese Chicken Curry I have been teaching a series of Japanese cooking classes for the Fort Worth Japanese Society since April of this year.  This three part series started with a class on hot pot (nabemono) dishes, followed by a class on donburi dishes such as katsudon, magurodon, and gyudon.  The last class was on yoshoku, or Western inspired dishes.  I wanted to teach a class on some of my favorite Japanese comfort foods that I associate with living in Japan and also with foods I watched my mother cook at home. Yoshoku and Chuka foods are technically not Japanese foods but the Japanese have made them...

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