Food Thoughts

I like to use the best ingredients and prepare them well.  Simple as that.  I look for local produce as much as possible.  I like simple straightforward presentations.  Food should look like what it is.  It should not be handled to death .

I’m not one to take short cuts or substitute less expensive ingredients if the quality of the final product is jeopardized.  I like real food, not “plastic,” no fat free cheese, no Cool Whip, no “redi-made”  anything with a lengthy list of ingredients, i.e., corn syrups, preservatives, chemicals.. None of those tasteless black California olives or bottled dressings or jarred salsa.    Again, I believe in taking real food and preparing it to its best advantage.  The person who said, “Avoid products that your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food” makes a good point.

I love editing this blog.  I’m enjoying presenting and photographing dishes that I think are really really good.  Every recipe is well tested.  Most of them I have prepared again and again for my family and friends.  I love to take a recipe and figure out how to make it better.

I will also be posting ethnic recipes.  I love Indian cuisine having learned a lot about selecting, roasting and grinding my own spices from Madhur Jaffrey.  I do a lot of Chinese cooking having been inspired by Grace Chu and Virginia Lee.  Diana Kennedy taught me what authentic Mexican cooking is.  American and continental dishes I learned from James Beard, Peter Kump and Bert Greene.  And my favorite endeavor—baking—pies, tarts, cakes and cookies  nurtured by John Clancy.

I like the way Julia Child sums it up: You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.