To most people, a cookbook is more like a museum than a gallery. Take Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Beneath the red jacket is enough information to stew over for hours and hours, just as you could spend days studying the American Painting wing at the Met.

But apparently a cookbook can be art, too. Until Sept. 27, the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland, is exhibiting “The How Not to Cookbook: Lessons Learned the Hard Way.” The gallery’s white-walled rooms now house row after row of identical black-bound books — a comforting sight in the post-encyclopedia age.

The rooms are only a fraction of the Polish-born artist Aleksandra Mir’s intended work. The book is the artwork, a social project open to anyone who wanted to give it meaning. In “The How Not to Cookbook,” Mir, whose fake postcards of Venice were a big hit at the recent Biennale (scroll down to the bottom of the page here to see them on The Moment), compiled words of wisdom from 1,000 people — lessons they’ve learned through their own mishaps in the kitchen — and arranged them in chapters like Bread, Eggs, Erotica and Mexico. Some of the advice is serious; some is odd. Several are obvious; others yield surprising discoveries. (“Do not boil avocado. Tastes like soap.”) This nontraditional exhibit expresses Mir’s style, which combines her interests in anthropology and interactive art.

Source: NY Times: The Moment

Baseball and apple pie aside, nothing says America! more than the legendary hot dog. Though many of us wouldn’t touch one with a ten-foot pole if we knew what was actually in most of of them, hot dogs continue to be a mainstay on our dinner tables, backyard picnics, BBQs, and American culture.

Recently Brynn Mannino over at WomansDay.com compiled a list of ten of the best and admittedly weirdest hot dog recipes around. We have chosen 5 of those to share with you.

Spaghetti Dogs

Chinese Hot Dog

The Hamdog

Mulligan’s Bar in Decatur, Georgia, is home of the Hamdog. Herein lies the contents of this creation: One hoagie roll, one hot dog wrapped in a half-pound of beef patty then deep-fried and topped with chili, bacon and a fried egg. Photo courtesy of TexasBurgerGuy.com

The Chihuahua

Crif Dogs, the popular New York City eatery located in the East Village, is beloved for its variety of wrapped and overloaded franks. This particular culinary explosion contains a hot dog blanketed in bacon then capped with sour cream and avocado. Photo courtesy of Chelsea Peretty/chelseaperetti.blogspot.com

The Cornhole

We’re not entirely sure how you go about eating this, but we can guarantee that the calories consumed are devastating. From the center moving outwards, there is corn on the cob wrapped with hickory bacon, which is then surrounded by alternating hotdog slices and Colby-Jack cheese sticks before being encased in ground beef. Photo courtesy of Joe T. and EOB via ThisIsWhyYou’reFat.com

 
Domenica Marchetti at the WSJ put together a very good article about summer cheeses and ways that you can use them. She's even included her list of the thirteen best summer cheeses for eating, cooking and dessert making.

Most of us aren't used to thinking of cheese as a seasonal food, but summer is the time when certain cheeses are produced or are at their best. Dairy animals are feasting on lush, nutrient-rich grasses, and their diet is reflected in the flavor, freshness and richness of many kinds of cheese.

For reasons not understood by this dairy queen, cheese seems to be an afterthought or subsidiary ingredient in summer cooking. It is my opinion, however, that now's the time a well-chosen cheese deserves its place of honor at the table.

Read the rest...

Photo Credit: Richard Chapman Design

I've been hearing and reading about "Catching Fire - How Cooking Made Us Human" and it intrigued me- a history book about cooking. How happy I was to find that Mike Howard over on Diet Blog checked into it a via New York Times writer Dwight Garner and that gave me more insights about the book. I've added it to my to read list.

A few bullet points from Mike's list include:

It's no secret that we are not meant to chew uncooked meat - our jaws are weak, our teeth are blunt and our mouths are small (most of us!)

Among the obvious advantages of cooking (including making food more palatable, chewable and less prone to spoilage) is perhaps a not-so-obvious, albeit ultimately important advantage - cooking increases the amount of energy our bodies obtain from food." What does this mean?

Cooking brought about changes in anatomy, physiology, ecology, life history, psychology and society. The energy that we formerly spent on digestion was freed up, enabling our brains to grow larger.

What's on your food bookshelf?

Read the rest....

NIGHTS have been so chilly this month that I’ve held off planting heat-lovers like tomatoes and peppers. But I started them from seed two months ago in the greenhouse and now they’re pawing at the door. They’re starting to flower. They’re too big for their pots.

So when Memorial Day rolled in, I wished my babies good luck and planted my salsa garden: three kinds of chilies, or hot peppers; two sweet-pepper varieties; two paste tomatoes, and one big juicy heirloom.

I’m growing about a dozen varieties of heirloom tomatoes this year, but my favorites for salsa are San Marzano, an Italian plum tomato that ripens to a brilliant red with clusters of five or six fruits on a vine, and Amish Paste, a large oblong tomato with a deep, sweet flavor. Both are meaty types that don’t turn to pulp when chopped, and are delicious cooked or raw. For contrasting color, I’m growing Yellow Brandywine, a juicy tomato with a rich flavor often lacking in yellow varieties.

Must-haves for chilies include jalapeño, a blunt three-inch pepper that can be harvested any time as it ripens from green to red; habanero, a wrinkled little fruit that can cause serious pain, so beware; and ancho-poblano, a heart-shaped flattened four-incher that is relatively cool for a hot chili. (When green, it is known as poblano; as it ripens to red, it is called ancho and can be dried for storage and used in smoky moles.)

Sometimes I also add a sweet pepper, Corno di Toro, to my salsa. This Italian frying pepper, which turns a gorgeous yellow, orange and red, is as sweet as the bell varieties but far easier to grow.

(White onions and garlic are key to a good salsa as well, but this isn’t the time to plant them: I started my onion seeds indoors in February, and set them out in mid-April, to give them time to grow sturdy green leaves before warmer temperatures and longer days trigger bulb growth. Garlic does best planted in the fall, when the cool soil encourages root growth.)

Read the rest...

The new year always brings new experiences, and 2009 has already brought several that we'd like to share with you.

In December, we participated in our first Menu for Hope raffle, which raised $62,206.86 in support of the UN World Food Program. Many thanks to everyone who participated, and congratulations to Ms. Deborah Bower, the lucky winner of our Family Favorites menu! A full round up of prize winners is now available at Chez Pim.

Santa delivered some digital goodies for us, so look for more photos and videos coming soon! We'd love to hear from you on what you'd like to see, so feel free to comment with suggestions and ideas for new features.

One of our newest customers (and latest reviewers) was revealed to be mail order food maven Laura McManus, President of Mackenzie Limited. We're delighted to help Laura achieve her resolution for healthier lunches in 2009. We are also pleased that we can provide her additional time to spend at her core business. As a long standing leader in at-home gourmet food provisions we wish her many happy tastings!

Chris Brogan tried the family menu, and said:

I’m munching the dinner roll, which came out crispy on the outside and doughy inside, with just a taste of brown sugar maybe? (Don’t know, but it’s delicious.) The pasta dish was delightful. It’s clearly family-friendly as the spices aren’t over-stated, and the chicken is just perfect. The broccoli was fresh. NOTHING about this meal felt like eating a frozen dinner. It’s delicious, fresh, and wonderful.

Julie Roads also tried the family menu and had this to say:

The food ships with ice packs and insulation to your door - and you can freeze it or stick in the microwave (something I detest and don’t own) or oven. And it’s really good - the chefs are real, live Professional Chefs - the kind that have cheffed for the Emmy’s and the Tony’s.

Chef Gene Castelluccio and Chef Blair Grossman use all natural ingredients, make everything from scratch and add no preservatives. Personal Chef To Go also provides automatic delivery - so you don’t even have to think about this - your food just shows up. And, if I can come home to a good, already made meal, then I can spend more time with my family - and that is invaluable.

Christine @But You Don't Look Sick tried food from the Busy Singles menu, and here are her thoughts:

They offer new entrees each week, and provide meal plans and packages designed for families, busy singles, and couples on the go. Each meal is well balanced, and includes key nutritional information (calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, sodium, etc) as well as a Weight Watchers Points equivalent – all right on the package. Cooking instructions are also included for both microwave and conventional ovens, so there is no guesswork involved.

In my experience with Personal Chef To Go, the company and the meals themselves were wonderful. My order was delivered on time, and arrived fresh as promised. I was impressed with how carefully it was packed for delivery. Meals were individually packaged and clearly labeled, and portion sizes were very reasonable I immediately noticed that each meal was nutritionally balanced, high in dietary fiber, and low in fat. Each entree was also unique, creative, and flavorful, without being overbearing or over-seasoned - which is often the case with lesser quality prepared meals.

Dani Gurrie @ Tots2Tweens tried food from the Busy Singles menu, and here are her thoughts:

Recently, I discovered Personal Chef To Go. They can actually help with a few meals or the entire week. And with family friendly menus that include things like: Texas BBQ Pork Chops, Grilled Veggie Pasta Bake and Southwest Chicken Chili their menus offer the diversity, flavor and nutrients that I just don't have time for!

...Chefs Blair and Gene have taken their love for food and skills in preparing it and are able to share it with everyone...thanks in part to their ingenious shipping containers which are delivered each week. (I received mine on a Friday.) The food is absolutely fresh when it arrives...(I ate my green salad first!) But the other items can be frozen for later use (which is much healthier than the store bought frozen foods).

Tara @Well Spiced Life took some time to write about our food and her visit to our kitchen here in Richmond:

In Richmond, Va., visiting friends, I had the opportunity to meet the folks who are behind the scenes of this operation. Personal Chef To Go is made up of a team of restaurant and culinary professionals who have passion about placing their food in anyone’s home in the country. To make this vision happen, they have created a proprietary method of preparing and packaging and shipping their food directly to you.

The facility for the Personal Chef To Go outfit was immaculate and the chefs/staff were extremely dedicated. That matters to me. I believe people have very high expectations of what they bring into their home, already prepared, to eat. When you go out to eat, people often give themselves license to experiment. When you eat at home, you want what you want. If you have high expectations, you should feel just fine about trying this out. Yes, I also tasted the food, which is why I can say all of this with such confidence.

Last but not least, fellow foodieJustin Levy @ PrimeCuts took some time to write about our service:

Personal Chef to Go is a gourmet food service which ships freshly made meals directly to your home. The concept was created by two award winning chefs, Chef Gene Castelluccio and Chef Blair Grossman. Now I’m sure you’re thinking that this is probably just a glorified microwave dinner. Wrong. Every meal is delivered fresh, yes fresh not frozen, directly from their kitchen to your home or office. There is a weekly menu which is made by the chefs from scratch.

Thanks for all the great feedback and support, we really appreciate it!