kitchenkungfu

KKF Fast Food: Shrimp and Crab Bisque

I love soup. Any kind of soup. If I can eat it with a spoon, it must be good. One of my all-time favorites is lobster bisque, which I have not yet attempted at home. I’m a bit scared of spoiling all my wonderful lobster bisque memories by butchering it. Shrimp, on the other hand,Continue reading “KKF Fast Food: Shrimp and Crab Bisque”

Pilaf on a Tangent

In all my culinary adventures, I’ve never made rice pilaf. Sounds dumb, right? I’ve made steamed rice, fried rice, Spanish rice, risotto…but never plain old rice pilaf. Inspired by a Food Network show I watched this morning, I decided I needed it to survive the day. And once I get it in my head…well…. IContinue reading “Pilaf on a Tangent”

KKF Gets Schooled: Braises & Stews

I attended another cooking class today, this time on Braises & Stews at Whole Food’s Salud Cooking School. It was an aggressive menu for a three hour class: Braised Short Ribs, Beef Stew, Pot Roast with Vegetables, Lamb Ragu and Creamy Polenta. There were nine students in class and we were split up into threeContinue reading “KKF Gets Schooled: Braises & Stews”

Georgia Luau

When I was 18 I visited Hawaii with my mom. It was my first plane flight and, other than a weeklong trip to Ohio when I was a pre-teen, my first actual vacation. Our friend Emmette graciously gave us a grand tour of Kauai, the island he lives on. Part of this tour was theContinue reading “Georgia Luau”

How to Make Spouses Eat Collards

Collard greens are a Southern specialty and a seasonal winter vegetable. Being from Iowa, where winter vegetables exit only in the supermarket or in your deep freeze, I had limited experience (ok NONE) with collards before moving south. So after some experimentation, I discovered the perfect way to prepare this sometimes shunned green for the northernContinue reading “How to Make Spouses Eat Collards”

KKF Gets Schooled: Moroccan

Now that I’m done with school, the first thing I do is…sign up for more classes. Except this time I’m leaving finance far behind and indulging in some cooking classes offered by Whole Foods and Viking Cooking School. This past Sunday I got schooled in Moroccan cuisine! Here’s the menu we prepared: Orange Salad withContinue reading “KKF Gets Schooled: Moroccan”

Four-Alarm Tortillas

It was a bacon smokin’ Saturday yesterday so I decided I wanted something simple for dinner – tacos. As usual, my simple dinner grew and expanded into a monster. Before the pork sides were even snugly in the smoker, the menu had become grande. I started off with bean dip. Test Subject Bill loves Frito’sContinue reading “Four-Alarm Tortillas”

Meat Roll Up Hack Job (AKA British Burritos)

I attempted to make Jamie Oliver’s Ground Beef Wellington the other night, a recipe in his Food Revolution cookbook. It’s basically ground beef mixed up with sautéed vegetables, wrapped in puff pastry and baked. As most of my kitchen hack jobs start out, I was missing something and improvised… I didn’t have frozen puff pastry.Continue reading “Meat Roll Up Hack Job (AKA British Burritos)”

Chicken Soup: In Hot Pursuit

One of my favorite dishes from my childhood was Mom’s chicken soup. The chicken was plump and flavorful. The noodles were thick. The veggies were always just right. Years ago, before I got religion about food, I emailed Mom for her recipe so I could reproduce the chickeny goodness in my own kitchen. I’ll paraphraseContinue reading “Chicken Soup: In Hot Pursuit”

A Mostly Sustainable Graduation Party

On January 8, 2011 I graduated summa cum laude from Georgia Gwinnett College with a degree in Business Administration, Finance concentration. To celebrate the event, I catered my own graduation party last Saturday night. As much as possible, I used local and/or organic food. It was a lot of work, but at the end ofContinue reading “A Mostly Sustainable Graduation Party”