…if what they want is GOOD food.

Anybody who knows me will tell you that I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate desserts.  With the exception of a few, very special sweets in our family recipe book, I vastly prefer those confections featuring toffee, nuts, or citrus.  So, when it came time to decide what dessert to have with our Christmas dinner this year, my family came to a bit of brick wall.  Having already eaten pumpkin and pecan pie during Thanksgiving, we were all in the mood for something a little different this time around.  With ideas like an apple galette and bread pudding being thrown around, each option seemed to fall flat the second it was introduced  — keeping with tradition, we were a bit indecisive.  It wasn’t until my sister insisted upon a dessert that included caramel in some form or another that my Mom suddenly remembered a recipe from an old Bon Appétite that she used to make years ago for special occasions — Toffee Cheesecake.

I don’t think I need to tell you how good this cheesecake really is.  I mean, caramel sauce? Whipped cream? Skor bar!?  What’s not to like?  The one thing I can say is that this is an extremely rich dessert of which a little goes a long way.  Next time you have a special occasion on the horizon, consider making this decadent dessert which will easily feed 10-12 guests.

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You know how bacon is all the rage these days? Bacon dipped in chocolate, bacon topped donuts, bacon beurre blanc – for me, it’s all about chorizo.  I’m constantly looking for ways to incorporate it into my cooking and seldom pass up an opportunity to eat a dish in which it is a key component (see Arroz Con Pollo).  Such was the case when I came across this recipe for Goat Cheese and Chorizo Rolls in this month’s Food and Wine Magazine.  Now chorizo is good by itself, but chorizo and tangy goat cheese together?  That sounded like a combo that was too good to pass up.

With a few holiday parties just around the corner, I figured I’d give these guys a test drive before serving them to any guests.  In this sense I consider myself a self-employed guinea pig — not a bad job at all.  After eating a half batch for lunch, I can say with certainty that I have a new hors d’oeurve recipe in the arsenal.  Tangy from the goat cheese and rich and smoky from the chorizo, these crispy little bundles are the type of finger food that demand a good cocktail to wash them down.  While they take a bit of time and patience to roll, preparing the goat cheese filling takes minutes.  Knock these out early in the morning and keep them in the fridge until your friends arrive.

After reading that the recipe was inspired by the street food of Argentina, I decided to serve them alongside another Argentine classic of chimichurri rojo.  Like it’s verde cousin, this sauce has plenty of garlic and a nice vinegar bite to cut through the rich, creaminess of the goat cheese.

Continue reading goat cheese and chorizo rolls recipe . . .

When I told my friends I was planning on making homemade mozzarella sticks for a guy’s weekend out of town the idea was met with a profound lack of enthusiasm.  Everybody knows that I like to experiment in the kitchen, but somehow the idea of making a bar food staple like mozzarella sticks from scratch seemed like a complete waste of time to the group.  After being lectured about the innumerable brands available in the freezer section at the grocery store and a heated debate about whether marinara or ranch is the better dipping accompaniment, I decided to risk further heckling and see if I couldn’t one-up T.G.I. Friday’s in my own kitchen.

It might have been the alcohol, but the first batch was gone within a matter of seconds.  Simultaneously crispy and gooey, these mozzarella sticks seem to defy the laws of physics and flavor.  After the second batch had been demolished, a few halfhearted concessions came my way; they had to admit,  homemade outranked frozen by a long shot.

With the right breadcrumbs, fragrant Italian spices and an organized assembly line for the essential double-dredging technique, perfect, scratch-made mozzarella sticks can be made at home in no time and with little effort.

With the question about whether or not it’s a waste of time to make mozzarella sticks at home answered, the question of the perfect dip remained.  We decided to go with a buttermilk dip that was tangy, cooling and delicious.  But I wouldn’t mind trying these with a marinara sauce, too.

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