Category: A BostonZest Shop

  • Another Trick from My Favorite, Little Cooking Pot

    Have you ever had ravioli float out of the water when you’re trying to cook them? I’ve been using this trick with that great little Kuhn Rikon Multi-Pot.  

     IMG_5799 - Version 22012-09-13-4th burner-kuhn Rikon Multi-pot- ravioli-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    I use the basket that comes with the pot to hold down the ravioli. A wooden skewer or chopstick through the rungs lets me set it at just the right height to keep the pasta off the bottom but in the boiling water. Sometimes one raviolo will attempt to sneak up the side of the basket but I push that little devil right back down.

    We did a post about the 4th burner pot last year! Since then, some of our friends have added one of these to their kitchen collection and have been raving just like I do. 

    I bought my Kuhn Rikon 4th Burner Multi-Pot from Amazon, where you can read a bunch of great reviews and get even more ideas for using it. 

     

    Details:

    Words: Penny Cherubino
    Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers’ comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

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  • Another Trick from My Favorite, Little Cooking Pot

    Have you ever had ravioli float out of the water when you’re trying to cook them? I’ve been using this trick with that great little Kuhn Rikon Multi-Pot.  

     IMG_5799 - Version 22012-09-13-4th burner-kuhn Rikon Multi-pot- ravioli-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    I use the basket that comes with the pot to hold down the ravioli. A wooden skewer or chopstick through the rungs lets me set it at just the right height to keep the pasta off the bottom but in the boiling water. Sometimes one raviolo will attempt to sneak up the side of the basket but I push that little devil right back down.

    We did a post about the 4th burner pot last year! Since then, some of our friends have added one of these to their kitchen collection and have been raving just like I do. 

    I bought my Kuhn Rikon 4th Burner Multi-Pot from Amazon, where you can read a bunch of great reviews and get even more ideas for using it. 

     

    Details:

    Words: Penny Cherubino
    Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers’ comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

    Enhanced by Zemanta
  • Another Trick from My Favorite, Little Cooking Pot

    Have you ever had ravioli float out of the water when you’re trying to cook them? I’ve been using this trick with that great little Kuhn Rikon Multi-Pot.  

     IMG_5799 - Version 22012-09-13-4th burner-kuhn Rikon Multi-pot- ravioli-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    I use the basket that comes with the pot to hold down the ravioli. A wooden skewer or chopstick through the rungs lets me set it at just the right height to keep the pasta off the bottom but in the boiling water. Sometimes one raviolo will attempt to sneak up the side of the basket but I push that little devil right back down.

    We did a post about the 4th burner pot last year! Since then, some of our friends have added one of these to their kitchen collection and have been raving just like I do. 

    I bought my Kuhn Rikon 4th Burner Multi-Pot from Amazon, where you can read a bunch of great reviews and get even more ideas for using it. 

     

    Details:

    Words: Penny Cherubino
    Photos: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers’ comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

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  • The Boston Homegrown Cookbook

    When my review copy of The Boston Homegrown Cookbook: Local Food, Local Restaurants, Local Recipes arrived last month, I leafed through page-after-page of old friends, long-admired farmers, and chefs and recipes I wanted to try. This is a collection that will be dear to Boston food lovers.

    Kate and jj

    The book profiles 28 Boston area chefs who work together with local farms to bring the freshest, locally grown, sustainable foods to their menus. Farmers like Kate Stillman, from Stillman’s at the Turkey Farm, and Chef JJ Gonson (above) often work together and laugh together.

    The author, Leigh Belanger is a food writer and the program director for the Boston-based Chefs Collaborative, a national network of chef and culinary professionals dedicated to improving the food system through education and community building. With this publication, she has shown the strong community links that exist between Boston area chefs, local farmers, and food producers.

    Pairings

    The book is first divided into seasons. When you create a local and sustainable menu, seasonality is a driving factor. Each season has a collection of pairings of a chef with a food producer. An introduction gives some background on each member of the team and then recipes with the chef creating dishes using the food from that farm or source.  

    Among the chefs of summer is Steve Johnson of Rendezvous in Central Square paired with Eva Sommaripa and her legendary Eva’s Garden herbs that have been the secret of chefs since the 1960s. Steve puts summer tomatoes to good use in a Turkish Tomato Salad that he pairs with Grilled Mackerel.

    I can't wait to try both. And, with the new fish vendors at the farmers' markets, I may be able to shop for the entire menu in one spot.

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    Photography

    In addition to celebrating local heroes, seasonal food, and having recipes you’ll want to try year round, this is a beautiful book. You may want to keep it on your coffee table so you can open it often, each season, and try new recipes.

    Photographer Margaret Belanger has a keen eye for the beauty of food from hoof, to field, and onto the plate. Her photographs are a family album that captures the people, places, and products that are part of the Greater Boston foodshed right now.  

    You can sneak a peek at some of her art in the preview provided on Amazon.

    Book Tour!

    There will be a cooking demo and book signing for The Boston Homegrown Cookbook: Local Food, Local Restaurants, Local Recipes on June 28th, 7 pm, at Trident Booksellers & Cafe on Newbury Street. 

    We've invited Leigh to update us on any other book signings and appearances in the comment section of this post. We'll send word out to you as we learn of them.

    Thanks to everyone who remembers to click over to Amazon from here to support this site! And, for our readers in other parts of the country, there may be a Homegrown Cookbook for your area.

     

    Details:

    Words: Penny Cherubino

    Photograph Of Kate & JJ : © 2012 Margaret Belanger

    Cover Art: Courtesy of Quayside Publications.

    Disclosure: The publisher did provide me with a review copy of this book.  Here is our full disclosure policy.


    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

  • Hiking with Your Dog in Greater Boston

    This time of year, we always see a flurry of visitors to our post reviewing the book, Best Hikes with Dogs, Boston and Beyond. We thought we'd bring this gem to our newer Sunday Dog fans who might want to take a hike with their own Sunday Dog. Just click on that link to jump over to it.

    Invest in this book and enjoy the weekends ahead by letting Jenna and Tasman guide you to some "hidden pockets of magic" in Boston and beyond.

    IMG_5147 - Version 22012-05-16-summer-riding-dog-carrier-backpack-© 2011 Penny Cherubino

    And, because we wanted to have a little someone for all of you who tune in each week to see what local dog is in the BostonZest spotlight, we thought we would feature Miss Summer in her neat carrier. She spends her days with her person Rose walking other dogs. Sometimes Summer walks and sometimes she rides. It's a great solution if your small dog is not quite ready for a long hike!

    And, there are companion books for hiking with your dog in other areas of the country. Click here to see if there is one for your next outdoor destination with your furry friend. Below are the direct links to Boston, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and outside New York City.

          

    Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.

    Details:

    Words: Penny Cherubino

    Summer's photo: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

    (Bookcover courtesy of Mountaineers Books, all rights reserved)

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

  • Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin Enters the James Beard Hall of Fame

    Home cooking

    One of my daily reads, A Proper Bostonian, gave me the great gift of an introduction to Laurie Colwin's books. Somehow, it hadn't registered with me that this essayist, that I had read in Gourmet and The New Yorker, also had books I should read.

    I borrowed the Boston Public Library copy of Home Cooking for far too long and when they wanted it back, because another fan requested it, I bought my own copy.

    Last week, the James Beard Awards placed Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin in their Hall of Fame for cookbooks. However, this is far more than a cookbook. It does have some recipes, but it also has stories flavored with witty and wise insight. 

    A big thank you to Ms Proper for putting so much enjoyment into my evening reading sessions. I think my summer reading list will include the rest of this author's books. That should make for a warm, relaxed summer with lots of gentle laughter.

    By the way, here's where you can find the rest of the winners of the James Beard Foundation Book Awards. Just click on the category under, "Browse more book awards" in the left hand column.

    What's on your summer reading shopping list? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!  

    More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen

     

    Details:

    Words: Penny Cherubino
    Cover art courtesy of Vintage Books

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

  • The Food Lover’s Guide to Wine: Book Review

    With our sparkler of the month on March 1st, we mentioned that we had put The Food Lover's Guide to Wine on our book wish list. That afternoon, we received an email from the authors Karen Page & Andrew Dornenburg saying they would love to send us a review copy. 

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    It arrived a few days later and hasn't made it to a bookshelf yet. It has spent a few nights beside the bed as Penny's relaxation reading, we've used it explore a couple of new wines, and we're planning to feature some recommended producers as our Sparkler of the Month.

    Learn in various ways from a collection of great wine lovers.

    • If you were hanging outside our door, you might have heard us reading quotes from the book to one another. It has the greatest collection of quotes from wine lovers and wine experts you can imagine. Boston's own Cat Silirie is often cited.
    • Ed loves the pronunciation guide in the core listing of wines, grapes, and wine topics.
    • The system used to emphasize the importance of wine grapes, characteristics, and producers (by using bold and all caps in lists) is brillant and intuitive to use.
    • The end chapters on matching wines with foods, cuisines, and courses will have us exploring new options.
    • We love the gold boxes with great asides on topics. A few are already marked with page tabs. 
    • Since these writers believe that the wine you like is the right wine for you, they've prepared a series of recommendations based on your own taste. If you like a flavor, for example almonds, they give you a list of wines to try. If you like a particular wine, they give you others with similar flavor profiles.

    A Great Interview Grabbed Our Attention 

    We first hear about The Food Lover's Guide to Wine on the Heritage Radio Network show, A Taste of the Past. Penny listens to podcasts of food shows while she cooks, and this one was good enough for a shared listen during an afternoon of crab-cracking and conversation.

    Host Linda Pelaccio began by covering the history of American Wine (the book contains a timeline) and then a discussion of the book that really gave us an insight to the authors' points of view and how this book would fit into our collection. Here's a link to that show.

    Meet the authors and hear what some experts say about this book.

     

    We are not only recommending this book to our readers, we'll be buying copies as gifts for wine-loving friends. It is a treasure and we expect it to look a bit worn and well-used pretty quickly. It may even suffer a few wine stains but we doubt that Karen and Andrew will mind.

    Here are more books from this team:

    The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs  

    What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea – Even Water – Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers

    Becoming a Chef

    and of course

    The Food Lover's Guide to Wine

    Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

     

    Details:
    Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
    Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino  

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

  • Peaceful Places Boston, Book Review

    Last month, we had the pleasure of attending a Boston Society of Architects Placemaking presentation by Lynn Schweikart, author of Peaceful Places: Boston: 121 Tranquil Sites in the City and Beyond. She is a kindred soul who enjoys, promotes and, with her book, will help preserve havens in our area.

    Peaceful Places2012-03-29-peaceful-places-boston-cover-

    As Lynn showed slide after slide of some of our favorite spots, she must have noticed us nodding in unison and smiling at one another in agreement. We've shared some of these places with you, our readers, over the years and hope you will consider adding this book to your Boston books collection. 

    Lynn lists 121 sites and tells you what she feels is special about each one. She also includes: directions to reach them, times they're open to the public, and reasons to go there. 

    Here are a few of the place that we have covered that Lynn has included in her book. 

    Allandale Farm 

    Arnold Arboretum

    Boston Public Library Courtyard

    Boston HarborWalk

    We could go on and on but, even for us, there are new places to visit and new ways to think about other places as urban escapes. We highly recommend this book and plan to make it a list that we'll explore in the years ahead.

    For those who read us from other parts of the country, the publisher has some peaceful books for other cities.  

    Peaceful Places: Boston: 121 Tranquil Sites in the City and Beyond

    Peaceful Places: Chicago: 119 Tranquil Sites in the Windy City and Beyond

    Peaceful Places: San Francisco: 100+ Tranquil Sites in The City and the Greater Bay Area

    Peaceful Places: Los Angeles: 100+ Sites for Tranquility Across the City of Angels

        

    Details:
    Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
    Cover art © 2012 Lynn Schweikart 

  • How Sodastream Set Me Free!

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    If you’re tired of hauling bottles or cans of that favorite carbonated beverage, a SodaStream soda maker just might set you free! It certainly has lightened my load. We used to buy the largest cases of sparkling water we could find– easier on the budget, not on the back.

    Then, one of our smartest friends told us about SodaStream. (Thank you Liz!) This one compact device lets us carbonate bottle after bottle, each in a matter of seconds, using our choice of water while controlling the amount of fizz.

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    There’s no need to store bottles, and we never run out when hosting a party. Pre-packaged flavorings are available, although it’s easy, and sometimes preferable, to add your own. (Penny adds a dash of bitters!)

    Power is supplied by a convenient CO2 canister that can be exchanged for re-charge (keep at least two cylinders on hand to rotate).

    We’ve had our Sodastream for about six months. It’s one of those products that’s simple, convenient, and really works. How often does that happen? 

    Amazon can ship a SodaStream kit to get you started.

    Details:
    Words: Ed Cherubino
    Photography: Used under AttributionNoncommercialNo Derivative Works  this creative commons license, Some rights reserved by kenworker

    Link to the close up bottle with bubbles

    Link to the hand working the machine

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those add a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.

  • The Serious Eats Book is a Seriously Good Gift for…

    One of my favorite food sites, Serious Eats pubished a really wonderful book this year. Serious Eats: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Eating Delicious Food Wherever You Are, will make a Seriously Good Gift for a food-loving friend who loves to travel for food or find great food when they travel.

      Serious Eats

    How do you know if someone is a serious eater and would love this book? Fortunately the team has put together a simple test to help you decide. They say to ask the following:

    "Are you a Serious Eater?

    1. Do you plan your day around what you might eat?
    2. When you are heading somewhere, anywhere, will you go out of your way to eat something delicious?
    3. When you daydream, do you often find yourself thinking about food?
    4. Do you live to eat, rather than eat to live?
    5. Have you strained relationships with friends or family by dictating the food itinerary—changing everyone’s plans to try a potentially special burger or piece of pie?"

    If you're nodding your head as you read, you'll want this book! And, if you're like me you'll turn right to the pages for your favorite locations. 

    The Boston area is well represented.

    Serious Eats executive editor, food-lab guru, and recipe czar J. Kenji López-Alt has serious Boston connections. He's an MIT grad who has cooked in some of Boston's top restaurants and spent a few years working behind the scenes and in front of the camera at Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen.

    Serious Eats Up and Down the Price Scale & Recipes too!

    Lets take burgers as one example. The book covers What Makes A Great Burger, Burger Styles, Regional Burger Styles, The Hamburger Fatty Melt, Got Buns Hon?, Where the Beef Is: 30 Great Burgers, and the Patty Melt. 

    They tell you where to find the best regardless of price. Five Great Chefy Burgers details the ledgendary offering at Craigie on Main along with others great burgers they've found around the country. 

    But, they also cover the Five Fast-Food Burgers Worth Your Time, including a new entry in our area, Five Guys.

    Finally, they devote pages to Making Burgers At Home. Remember, this team holds a daily conversation with a vast community of food lovers. They have tested and then incorporated the tips from this remarkable resource. 

    Reviews

    This book has had rave reviews from the New York Times, The Amateur Gourmet, Publishers Weekly, Mercury News, and Weekender.

    For yourself or someone else, we highly recommend this book. Leave it out, and you'll find yourself picking it up and getting lost in the 368 pages of delicious!

     Serious Eats: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Eating Delicious Food Wherever You Are.

     

    Details:
    Words: Penny Cherubino
    Cover Art courtesy of Clarkson Porter Publishers, NY

    Disclosure: Penny is a paid, freelance contributor to Serious Eats. Here is our full disclosure policy.

    Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often those comments add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.