Content
Clock Tower in Waterford Read the rest of Iconic Ireland through Instagram Stumble this Post | Share on Facebook | Add to Del.icio.us © Cooking With Michele®, 2013. | Permalink | Leave a Comment
There is something simply magical about spring. After enduring snow and freezing temperatures for months, the ground suddenly just comes alive. From a pile of dead foliage from last year’s garden, all of a sudden everything starts sprouting green shoots and leaves. It never ceases to amaze me, and it inspires me to make something [...]
I always say I’m not much of a baker – a few weeks ago I actually made 3 dozen banana muffins that I had to throw out in their entirety because they were like bricks. But every once in awhile I get an idea, I figure out the right ratio of ingredients, and it comes [...]
The town of Lecce in the heart of Puglia is known for many things – the intricate Baroque architecture, the many churches, St. Irene and St. Oronzo, the duomo and Santa Croce, Roman ruins and the end of the Appian Way, cascading flower boxes from balconies with iron railings, wine, hidden courtyards behind imposing large [...]
On my recent trip to The Awaiting Table, held at the Palazzo Bacile di Castiglione in Spongano, south of Lecce in Puglia, I fell in love with the Instagram app. Enjoy the filtered photo view of the week! Read the rest of An Instagram Tour of The Awaiting Table Cookery School in Puglia Stumble this [...]
A trip to Italy – at least for me – is always an adventure in eating. He are w few of the places I like to eat and my favorite dishes. Read the rest of Mangia Roma! Stumble this Post | Share on Facebook | Add to Del.icio.us © Cooking With Michele®, 2013. | Permalink [...]
Right before I departed for Italy I was invited by Michael Long, the former chef and partner in Opus, to preview the new spring menu of the talented Chef Sean McGaughey who look over the kitchen at Opus. I already had a dinner commitment, but knew I didn’t want to miss the tasting, so managed [...]
I have spent the last couple of days rambling around Rome, possibly my favorite place on earth. I have so many photos of the city that I sometimes lack the enthusiasm to shoot any more. But I decided on this trip to mess around with my Photogene app filters and give you a dramatic and [...]
As you read this post, I’m enjoying my first day in Italy. I am here to lead a group of 10 on a food and wine adventure in Italy, starting with a few days in Rome, then heading south to Puglia to a cooking school in a castle. I’ve scheduled a few posts to run [...]
It’s been a long wait for spring here in the Rocky Mountains – our past four weeks have included a freezing major snow storm every Tuesday (weirdly). But spring has finally sprung, and I can’t think of two spring ingredients that marry so well as strawberries and rhubarb.Read the rest of Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce – [...]
I’m leaving this week for a trip to Italy and Ireland, and as I prepare for my adventure, I’ve been asked at least twenty times how in the world I pack for a four-week trip. My response is simple: I always carry on and it seems whether I’m packing for a weekend or a month, [...]
I woke up this past Tuesday to the fourth week of spring snow storms in Colorado. I don’t mean a simple little shower that melts instantly, I mean temperatures back in the 20s and 30s and several inches of accumulation. My husband was out of town, so it was a wonderful time to stay in [...]
While just about everything about launching my cookbook has been exciting, I must say I got a small thrill when my publisher called to tell me that all 10 stores in Costco would be carrying the book. More than the obvious value of selling large volumes, for me, Costco’s decision to carry the book feels [...]
I’m not sure why so much of my time spent visiting my son in New York revolves around dining. Perhaps it’s because I’m a foodie and for me travel is about food as much as anything else. Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t want to play tour guide and do touristy things when his family comes [...]
I’ve written many times about my blog sponsor, Sun Prairie Beef. Yes, they advertise with me, and yes, they provide me product to create recipes and blog about them, but those things came years after my relationship with them as a customer. When I first started obsessing about where my food comes from (have you [...]
I have a fun tradition with my son in New York – whenever I visit, I treat him and a couple of friends to dinner someplace nice (read: expensive) that he might not otherwise get to. It’s my way of ensuring that I get to dine at a new place on my VERY long list [...]
If you search for shrimp soup online, you’ll be amazed at everything that turns up – Asian soups (both with and without coconut milk in the broth) alongside Creole types of gumbos with shrimp. I had it in my mind to make a clear broth soup with shrimp (don’t ask me why, I don’t even [...]
I recently had the chance to drive from Denver to Lead, South Dakota, for a wedding. In case you’ve never heard of Lead, don’t be embarrassed, as neither did we until we made our way up there. This part of America is known for a couple of things – and neither of them are the [...]
Whole grains. I’m sure you’ve notices that everything you read (except paleo diets) tell you to work to get more of these (and less of the simple, processed, white carbs) into your diet. I like variety, and thankfully there are a wide range of whole grains that can be used in a wide variety of [...]
A few weeks ago I attended what I consider to be the best foodie fundraiser event in town, Chefs Up Front. Chefs from the top restaurants in Denver and Boulder cook gourmet meals table side for a small group of ten guests, all paired with great wines. The meal stands in stark contrast to the [...]
Are you one of those people who avoids chicken because it can be so bland and boring? I am – in fact, I’d sooner reach for just about any other meat before chicken. But chicken can be quite lean, and therefore is a good lean protein choice in our diet. Plus I had some chicken [...]
I jumped out of bed early this morning, knowing that the Tasting Colorado cookbook would be featured in today’s Denver Post. Let me tell you, for a foodie like me who has chosen to make a career out of teaching others to cook and food writing, it’s more than a small thrill to find yourself [...]
I’ve been asked quite a few times how I decided to put the Cowboy Corn Cakes on the front cover of my new cookbook, Tasting Colorado. Besides being delicious (recipe follows), I felt this recipe was just a perfect example of what the book is intended to portray: the very best of Colorado cuisine. Read [...]
I buy just about all of my meat from local Colorado farmers and ranchers, which means large amounts of meat, big roasts – and incredibly delicious and healthy choices. Many of my friends lament they don’t like lamb – well I think that’s because they’ve only had older, more gamey lamb that tastes closer to [...]
Many people think of pesto as a summer treat, probably because many people only think of basil pesto, which would of course only be possible when your basil is in full swing during the summer. Some think the word pesto came from the Italian verb pestare (to pound or crush), and indeed that’s how we [...]
Today marks the 6th anniversary of my food blog, and I almost missed it. I’ve been so busy with my cookbook launch, book signing events and tastings (won’t you come to one? they are all listed here), and media spots, that I nearly passed over the day as if it were ordinary. But the fact [...]
When I started my quest to lose weight by following a carb cycle diet, I was kind of at a loss for what to eat. It’s hard enough to figure out a good dinner each night, but faced with creating 5 meals a day that fit the high carb or low carb model seemed almost [...]
Have you noticed how foods trend? One trend in the past year or so has been Korean food – I think it all started with that Korean BBQ food truck in California a few years ago. And along with Korean food goes the fermented condiment called kimchi (kim – chee). It couldn’t be more simple [...]
For those of you who might be following along, yesterday marked day 4 of my experiment with a nutrition and weight loss plan based on carb cycling. Before I share this recipe with you, let me set the record straight about some things I’ve discovered that you’ll need to know if you’re going to try [...]
I woke up after two weeks of trying to watch what I eat in order to shed some excess weight and found myself right back where I started two weeks ago. Despite this gorgeous sunrise that should have been inspirational, I felt deflated. I’m not an obese person, just a short person who struggles with [...]
One of the reasons my husband and I moved into Denver proper after spending 20+ years in the suburbs where our kids were raised and went to school was to be closer to restaurants. For whatever reason, the suburbs around Denver are filled with all of the usual chain suspects, with only occasionally a creative [...]
I’ve started cooking for a special event this week. The Colorado Authors’ League (of which I’m a member) is hosting an event at my house this Thursday, March 7th. It’s a special chance to sample some of the recipes from my new cookbook, Tasting Colorado (available here), mingle with some fun people, have a glass [...]
I love a quick trip to Las Vegas. The flight is less than 2 hours from Denver, the temperatures are mild, and it has a Disneyland sort of atmosphere thanks to the many elaborate hotels. I don’t go to gamble, although I won $251 dollars in a penny slot machine in 60 seconds this time. [...]
You might recall some time ago that I wrote a few words about having lunch at Earl’s. Well, such is the world of social media and food blogging. My post made it to the restaurant and I was invited back to bring a group of friends for a tasting of the menu and to learn [...]
There’s a lot going on in Denver restaurants this week – Denver Restaurant Week is actually a 2 week affair where local restaurants offer a multi-course meal for two for $52.80. If that seems like a weird price, that’s a nod to our mile high altitude of 5280 feet. So during restaurant week I figured [...]
Being a food blogger, I’m often contacted to review books or products. Sometimes things are just sent to me, as in this case when I received a copy Suzanne’s Kitchen, An A-Z Guide. This is not the type of book I would normally order – I mean I have over 500 cookbooks including most of [...]
Let me introduce you to my great niece Bella. She loves Lucy’s cage almost as much as Lucy does.Then Lucy will tire of the company and bound out of the cage, leaving poor Bella bewildered. (Note: this may be one of the weirdest optical illusion photos I’ve ever taken. Lucy jumped into the camera just [...]
What a whirlwind life has been for me lately. With my cookbook now in stock (if amazon.com says it’s out of stock, it’s not really – they just order in small batches and fulfill as they go), I find myself busy every day marketing the book to local retailers, lining up tastings and book signings, [...]
Boy, there are days when I wish I were a three month old puppy like my little Lucy. Or a 17 year old teenage boy. You know, any species that is so active and growing so quickly that they can eat just about anything and just about as much as they like because they are [...]
Before I get to the meat of this post – how to cook the perfect dried beans – I wanted to remind everyone that I’m giving away a copy of my new cookbook, Tasting Colorado: Favorite Recipes from the Centennial State. Check out last week’s post here, tweet or write about the book on Facebook, [...]
Just recently I had the pleasure of enjoying several days simply relaxing in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Our resort was the Royal Hideaway, Playacar (highly recommend!), which you can actually walk into town from (if your knees and feet are better than mine). One of the highlights for me every time I visit Playa is [...]
Yesterday a large truck pulled up alongside my garage and unloaded a palate of 15 boxes of my cookbook, Tasting Colorado: Favorite Recipes from the Centennial State. Never has the project seemed more real or exciting than seeing them all lined up in my garage! The book is now available (call the publisher directly at [...]
Let me just set the record straight – that’s not me calling my daughter, the culinary student, Jenny “bad ass”, that’s what her chef instructor called her via text message when he was explaining that he planned to call in any favors he needed to in order to land her an externship at a top [...]
I had somewhat of a disaster this past week – when searching for photos for a new magazine food writing assignment, I discovered that when migrating to my new iMac, I accidentally wiped completely clean and reformatted the external drive with the most current backup of all of my food photos. The net result? I [...]
Stress. Grief. Loss. Anger. Worry. Exhaustion. Frustration. Disappointment. These are the feelings that for me all too often seem to be better handled by indulging in whatever food and drink I feel like. I know better. I’m not some youngster just trying to figure this all out. And every time I eat either the wrong [...]
Food bloggers as a group sometimes get carried away with our own creations. We invent dishes, whip up cocktails, and post recipes designed to engage our readers. In that process, we sometimes forget simplicity – and just how great something simple can be. Read the rest of In Defense of a Simple Casserole Stumble this [...]
Somehow the holidays seem to inspire people to send fruit. Don’t get me wrong, I love fruit, and am sure most of you would love to have some great fruit sent to you. But when two people living alone are faced with a dozen pears and a crate of apples all at the same time, [...]
I’m thrilled to announce my next culinary adventure, a food and wine trip to the captivating town of Heidelberg, Germany, down the wine route that travels through the Palatinate wine region (home to world famous Riesling wines), stopping in the pretty resort spa town of Baden Baden, and ending in cosmopolitan Strasbourg, France, in the [...]
I cannot tell you how exciting this day is for me! I began work on my first cookbook project in the summer of 2011, tested recipes like mad through the end of 2011, and turned the manuscript in early in 2012. Then I waited. And edited. And waited. And proofread. And waited. And reviewed copy. [...]
I’ve been meaning to share some of the recipes from the seven course dinner I served on New Year’s Eve, but one little puppy has been keeping me up all nightRead the rest of Rosemary Creamed Cauliflower with Pine Nuts and Bacon Stumble this Post | Share on Facebook | Add to Del.icio.us © Cooking [...]
