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Posts Tagged ‘Foodie’

Cover of "My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs ...

Cover via Amazon

The title of this blog post is a phrase that my husband has said to me many, many times!  Why? Well, because for some reason, I often (almost always) have a difficult time deciding what I would like to order when we are dining out.  And put me in an ice cream shoppe and I revert to a kid with a nickel in a penny candy store!  I can’t pick a flavor I want, I want all of them.  Mostly I order two different flavors for my cone or cup.  Hey at least I’m getting two out of the 3o I had to choose from!!  When this behavior takes hold, Peter looks at me and reminds me, “This probably won’t be your last meal”. 

Little did I know that there’s a book and a game about your last supper!  Actually not your last supper but rather the last meal of 50 great chefs.  The title of the book is: My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals/Portraits, Interiews, Recipes, Melanie Dunea is the author.  

If the title of the book alone is not intriguing enough for you to purchase  one for the Foodie on your list, then let me drop a few names of the very famous chefs who have been interviewed for the book and they’re so famous, I need only to use their first names:  Wylie, Lidia, Scott, Daniel, Mario, Gordon, Jean-Georges, Alain and MORE!   

The following has been excerpted from Amazon’s web site – Chefs have been playing the “My Last Supper” game among themselves for decades, if not centuries, but it had always been kept within the profession until now. Melanie Dunea came up with the ingenious idea to ask fifty of the world’s famous chefs to let her in on this insider’s game and tell her what their final meals would be. My Last Supper showcases their fascinating answers alongside stunning Vanity Fair-style portraits. Their responses are surprising, refreshing, and as distinct from each other as the chefs themselves. The portraits–gorgeous, intimate, and playful–are informed by their answers and reveal the passions and personalities of the most respected names in the business. Lastly, one recipe from each landmark meal is included in the back of the book. With My Last Supper, Dunea found a way into the typically harried, hidden minds of the people who have turned preparing food into an art. Who wouldn’t want to know where Alain Ducasse would like his supper to be? And who would prepare Daniel Boulud‘s final meal? What would Anthony Bourdain‘s guest list look like? As the clock ticked, what album would Gordon Ramsay be listening to? And just what would Mario Batali eat for the last time?

I think this would be a really interesting addition to any Foodie’s cookbook collection!  Personally I would love it, however, I just received a fantastic present of a cookbook.  My FB friend, Melissa sent me an autographed copy of Ree Drummond a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman‘s  latest cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks Holidays.   This gift is very special;  I’ve never met Melissa and she lives in Texas.  She posted on Facebook that she was going to a book signing by Ree.  I replied to her how lucky she was because I’m follower of Ree’s blog.  She offered to get me a copy and would not allow me to pay for it.  Isn’t that a wonderfully generous gift to receive for Christmas?

My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals/Interviews/Recipes  is available through Amazon.com for $30.11

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Not all Foodies excel in the kitchen, some just love good food and they eat out all the time.  They love gourmet food, they  follow certain chefs but they may not do much cooking or baking at home.  However, if the Foodie on your list cooks and bakes, this handy-dandy little kitchen tool will make a great gift!  And inexpensive too – just $10.39!!

I know you’ve seen those famous chefs on television crack eggs with one hand swiftly and efficiently but how about the rest of us?  And what if you’re cooking for someone who is watching their cholesterol intake and wants only egg white omelets?  Or your recipe calls for eggs and then extra egg yolks?  

Well lookee here…You need to buy a PLUCK.  A PLUCK is a cleverly-designed egg separator. Think Sunny Side Out! Extracting the yolk from healthy egg whites can feel as tricky as pulling a rabbit from a hat. Pluck makes it easy by separating the two with a simple squeeze and release of its silicone chamber. Now everyone from bodybuilders to soccer moms can just pluck that caloric yellow stuff right out.  Pluck’s clear tip plastic and silicone bulb come apart for easy cleaning by either hand or machine.

Squeeze Me

Squeeze Me

Can you imagine how easy this makes separating a yolk from the white?  No more tiny bits of shell floating in the gooky yolk  or the sticky white!  I think this is a terrific kitchen toy for a Foodie.

Available online through Amazon and in stores such as Bed, Bath and Beyond.

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While cooking dinner this evening and thinking about writing today’s Foodie gift blog, it occurred to me this past April I found a wonderful new kitchen tool and I should write about it.  My husband and I and his sister and husband took a trip to Quebec in April.  We thought it would be lovely and spring-like;  Instead, it was cold, windy and rainy.  However, we were undaunted and covered the Lower Town and the Upper Town.  One afternoon while strolling though the Lower Town in Old Quebec City, Stacey and I wandered into a lovely shop filled with kitchen ware and flatware and cookware.  We are both Foodies and love to cook, so we spent considerable time picking up item after item, many of which we had never seen at home.

We came across a pair of strange-looking scissors. Fascinated, we asked the clerk about them and were told that these shears were meant to julienne herb leaves or thinly slice mushrooms, lettuce, and even ham.  Immediately I knew I had to have these scissors to slice my basil leaves over my juicy Jersey tomatoes.  Not only would the little shreds be distributed more evenly over a caprese salad, the slices would release some of the basil oil.

Made of stainless steel and with 5 blades, this is one of the most useful tools in my kitchen.  Available for purchase online from several stores as well as Amazon, you can purchase these MASTRAD shears for under $10.00

Shear Delight

Shear Delight

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Foodies have kids too!  At least many of the ones I know do.  It’s important to introduce your children to good food and good nutrition – we all know it, we all talk it, but often in practice harried Moms serve chicken nuggets and mac and cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches.

It’s a new world out there, so different from the childhood I had.  I grew up in the 50’s, my mother didn’t work and she cooked dinner every night.  There was no money to eat out and we surely didn’t live in a place where you could order in.  One of the results of this upbringing was that I was 20 years old before I ever ate in a Chinese restaurant and certainly I never held chopsticks!  NOT SO for my daughter and my grandchildren.  I hope my Finley and Francesca learn to use chopsticks much sooner than later.  

And I have found just the item to assist them in their Foodie cultural growth.  Check out these Dinosaur Chopsticks.

Dinosaur-Chopsticks

Dinosaur-Chopsticks

You can order them through Amazon and they cost $4.97 plus shipping.

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It’s hard to imagine being a real Foodie,  lover of food and not owning several cookbooks.  That’s not to say that you need to actually make any of the recipes although that would be the expected thing to do, you can just leaf through the pages.  Sometimes I do that, it’s like window-shopping.  I think of it as grazing without actually eating, a behavior known to perpetual dieters who can visually satisfy themselves (I’m not really one of those).

Besides The Joy of Cooking (I’m not a fan), there literally thousands of cookbooks available in every Barnes & Noble and through Amazon.  That’s not to mention the great recipe sites such Allrecipes.com, MarthaStewart.com, the cooking magazines and the hundreds of niche blogs dedicated to cooking and eating.  I could easily recommend  a cookbook a day for the next 18 days but I’m not going to do that.

Today my Foodie gift of the day is a cookbook written by Mark Bittman of the New York Times.  It can be purchased at Amazon.com for $25.75.  The cookbook is 

How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition) Hardcover

by Mark Bittman (Author)
How To Cook Everything

How To Cook Everything

Don’t be put off by the fact that the author is a New York Times staff writer.  Believe me, I’ve made several of his recipes that were featured in the Dining Section of the newspaper and we’re not talking gourmet ingredients and techniques.

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I wish I had started this countdown on the first but somehow I forgot/got bogged down/was obsessing  over my granddaughter’s missing Elf on the Shelf.  Add a couple of nights devoted to movie going, a few hours at the office and all the other daily/weekly things that fill up your time.  All that and playing Scrabble online and Words With Friends lol.

Alright so I didn’t make this into an Advent Blog month, probably you don’t care one way or the other.  Well I decided to do it tonight (even though it is actually tomorrow -2am!).

Gift choices  for the Foodies on your list are almost endless.  You can go the imported wine route or single-malt Scotch, or the fancy small specialties such as caviar or truffles or choose from the myriad sources of artisanal cheeses, salamis, or smoked salmon.  Catalogs offering overnight delivery for every foodstuff imaginable are clogging the mailboxes. I really didn’t know which item to feature (Mmmm I may have an idea here about doing 2o days of gifts for Foodies), so I just picked one that sort of jumped off the page at me.

That’s it, I’m changing the name of the post, I’m going for 20 days of food and drink gift ideas.  WHY? Because I had almost forgotten the rule we have about receiving gifts;  If we can’t eat it, drink it or attend it, then please keep it for yourself because we have way too much stuff now!!

#20 – GOAT MILK CARAMELS

Want to spoil someone you love? Goat ahead. These caramels, made with goat milk, sea salt and bourbon vanilla, come in a lovely wooden gift box.  Caramels seem to be a hot item this year, I wonder if they pushed French Macaroons into second place?  You can purchase this tasty sweet treat from  bigpicturefarm.com. Cost is $50.

Sea Salt and Bourbon  OH BOY!

Sea Salt and Bourbon
OH BOY!

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