Giuseppepaolo

Yesterday my daughter brought home a leek. A very large leek. My mind instantly went to an amazing Julia Child recipe: Potage Celestine . But what I needed tonight was simplicity at its finest (short of having it delivered). I had spent most of the day pulling weeds and prepping my little garden strip for planting. I'm exhausted to say the least. After flipping through a couple cookbooks, I discovered that Potage Parmentier fit the bill. I mean...seriously. Soup doesn't get any more simple or easier than this. And it's delicious. It's satisfying without being heavy. It has full flavor and a bit of richness without a dozen ingredients. Aaaaaaaand...it's a Julie Child recipe from Master the Art of French Cooking. Can it get any better than that? Did I mention that its vegetarian? And if you use vegetarian butter....it's vegan! Side note: you may choose to drink a white wine with your soup. I had started the red a while ago....and kept with it. A nice Merlot. Which...

Thighs Spread Wide - Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms There are some books you can't NOT buy. Fifty Shades of Chicken, a parody in a cookbook, is one of those books. I couldn't help myself. I tried. I glanced, I picked it up...giggled to myself, put it down and walked away. I even got as far as leaving the bookstore and going home. Only to find myself thinking about it. Often. I cook chicken a lot. 90 percent of my dinners are chicken. I have friends who call me The Chicken Queen. So, I think it was meant to be. Destiny. A requirement for The Chicken Queen to possess this particular cookbook. 5 days. I put myself through 5 days of thinking about the book before I realized....YES! I must make it mine. There are 50 chicken recipes. As if I need more, right? But honestly, is it possible to have too many recipes of any kind? Of course the main question is....are they quality recipes. The answer? Yes. Delicious. And so fun to read. I mean when a cookbook starts off with "H...

I love pistachios. Actually, I love most nuts (this is not a reflection of my personality). Out of all the nuts out there, I wonder why the pistachio has it's own muffin? I mean...you never hear about peanut muffins, or almond muffins...or even cashew muffins. hmmm...interesting. (sorry, I don't have an answer for this. I can't even find anything about the origin of pistachio muffins. And yes, I did Google it). It wasn't until very recently that I even tasted a pistachio muffin. I mean...within the past few months. You know when you hear about or see a certain food and you have a mental idea of what it's all about? And for some reason it just doesn't mesh with your mental taste buds? That's how it was for me. I thought it was odd that the muffin is green. Mentally, I assumed there were artificial flavorings involved. Some things, I just can't do artificially. Nut extracts are among them. Thank God that's not the case here. Once I tasted them...and di...

I post a rather wide variety of recipes here on Peaceful Cooking. It started out with recipes I was familiar with and made often. But as my interests grew....so did my range. Looking back, I can see how I've grown and changed in my cooking styles and food desires. Often times I post recipes that I've tried for the first time. Such as these English Muffins. Just because I post a recipe, doesn't mean I'm an expert at it. Far from it. It just means I've conquered a challenge. An inner challenge. I figure if I show that I can do it...someone out there with inner doubts will see that they can do it too. With all that said, I feel like I've crossed something off my 'Bucket List' by making English Muffins. It's something I've been wanting to try for a very long time. What held me back was the lack of 3" ring molds to cook them in. Sure, I could've bought them online and spent more money in shipping than the actual product but that doesn't w...

I didn't wake up one morning and decide....'hay, I want to make Angel Food Cake'. As much as I enjoy this cake, I don't think of it very often (it's usually a strawberry season thought). Believe it or not, my decision to make Angel Food Cake stemmed from my desire to make English Muffins. It's a weird, twisted path but I needed rings to make English Muffins. Sorta like cookie cutter rings, and I didn't want to order them online. I'd heard that small tuna cans, with both ends removed, works well. The only problem was, my can opener couldn't remove the bottom of the can. I guess, somewhere along the line, tin can manufactures started making the can bottoms rounded and a can opener can't wrap it's little gears around it. Bummed me out. So I sat on the idea for a while. Searching stores for 3" cookie cutters that are sold separately. Searching different tuna brands. I even got so desperate that I started looking at the cat food cans at the m...