Over the past few years, I’ve become a big fan of pomegranates. The quirky red orbs signal the start of fall, cooler weather, and more reasons to craft festive cocktails using their vividly-colored juice. Native to Iran and northern India, pomegranates feature prominently in Mediterranean cuisine, including pomegranate molasses. If you see a bottle of this on your market shelves, pick it up and give … Continue reading The Poms Are Here! The Poms Are Here!
Volume 3, Issue 1“Cooking Ex-Libris” is a CasaFestiva.com series exploring new recipes from my own cookbooks. Enjoy! By Katy Budge At the beginning of this century, the Sunday newspaper used to make a resounding plop when it hit the driveway. The hefty edition also had a multi-page travel section, with compelling articles and beautiful photographs that enticed you to travel the world. Also in this … Continue reading Cooking Ex-Libris: Seasons of My Heart
Volume 1, Issue 4 “Cooking Ex-Libris” is a CasaFestiva.com series exploring new recipes from my own cookbooks. Enjoy! By Katy Budge Well, of course I have Mastering the Art of French Cooking on my bookshelf. C’est de rigeur, oui? This seminal tome — written by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck, illustrated by Sidonie Coryn — pulled back the curtain on all those fancy French … Continue reading Cooking Ex-Libris: Mastering the Art of French Cooking
April 1, 2021 By Katy Budge Like most of their species, my dogs have been obsessed with chasing squirrels – tearing out into the yard with great bluster and in full throat whenever they spotted one of the little critters. Over the many years and countless times that this ritual has occurred, I’ve always joked that when they catch one, we’ll be having Squirrel Burgoo … Continue reading Squirrel Burgoo
Volume 1, Issue 3 “Cooking Ex-Libris” is a CasaFestiva.com series exploring new recipes from my own cookbooks. Enjoy! By Katy Budge Full disclosure. The cookbook I’ve chosen for this month’s “Cooking Ex-Libris” is not one of my well-worn, dog-eared, sauce-splashed tomes. That’s only because We Are La Cocina: Recipes in Pursuit of the American Dream was just published by Chronicle Books in 2019, and didn’t hit my … Continue reading Cooking Ex-Libris: We Are La Cocina
Volume 1, Issue 2“Cooking Ex-Libris” is a CasaFestiva.com series exploring new recipes from my own cookbooks. Enjoy! By Katy Budge It’s hard not to love any book that begins with the Oscar Wilde quote, “I can resist everything but temptation.” So begins the foreword of the eponymously named (and self-published) Gumbo Shop: Traditional and Contemporary Creole Cuisine: A New Orleans Restaurant Cookbook by Richard Stewart. … Continue reading Cooking Ex-Libris: Gumbo Shop
Cooking Ex-Libris is a series exploring new recipes from the cookbooks already on my own shelves. Enjoy! Continue reading “Cooking Ex-Libris: The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook”
It’s late February, so visions of turkey, cranberries, and pumpkin pie have stopped dancing in my head. But I still keep thinking about mashed potatoes, past and present. The only time I remember seeing my mother make mashed potatoes was the time she showed me how to make them. From the age I could see above the kitchen counter, it was then my job to … Continue reading Pass (on) the Potato Buds, Please
Since we’re in the throes of holiday flavors, let’s talk vanilla. I recently wrote a piece for Edible SLO magazine about the R.R. Lochhead Manufacturing Co. in Paso Robles. (A link to the article is below.) Founded in 1963, this family-owned and –operated vanilla processing company sells its products under the Cook’s Vanilla brand, and it’s likely you have a bottle or two in your … Continue reading Vanilla … Anything But Plain
The turkey had found its way into sandwiches, fajitas, more sandwiches, and soup. The Brussels sprouts had been eaten, and the pumpkin pie was long gone. A lot of the big batch of mashed potatoes remained, so I figured I’d try to make some gnocchi – an Italian pasta akin to a dumpling, typically made with potatoes, flour, and egg. It couldn’t possibly be worse … Continue reading Day 5: The Thanksgiving Leftovers Utilization Project – Gnocchi
