Panettone (Italian Christmas Bread) – Hard to Make, Or At Least That’s What We’re Telling People

I’ve never tried to make panettone before, mostly because of how notoriously difficult it is to make, or so I was told. Turns out that wasn’t the case, unless people are factoring in the time, as this does take three days to complete, but other than that, I thought it was a pretty straightforward bread recipe. I think bakers like us regular folks to believe everything is super...

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Lobster Thermidor – Not Your Parents’ Thermidor

I don’t remember that much about the lobster thermidor I ate in culinary school in the early eighties, other than not really being able to taste any lobster. Instead of the nice, light sauce I used here, the meat was hidden in a thick, eggy, cheese sludge, which looked great broiled to a bubbly, golden-brown, but wasn’t the best method if you actually wanted to know you were...

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Chocolate Bark – Temper, Temper

In addition to sharing an easy, and beautiful edible holiday gift idea, I wanted to make this chocolate bark so I could test a simplified technique for tempering chocolate without a thermometer. It sounded too good to be true, but worked fairly well, which is the problem. Is fairly good, okay? Properly tempered chocolate will snap when broken, and retain that gorgeous...

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Butternut Bisque – To Roast or Not to Roast

That is the question, and for me the answer depends on what else is on the menu besides this delicious butternut bisque.  When you roast butternut, you caramelize, and concentrate the flesh, and get something sweeter, starchier, and richer, which is perfect if you’re enjoying it as a meal, but maybe not such a great thing if it’s going to be followed by additional...

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Tourtière – A Meaty Holiday Main Course That’s Easy as Pie

Many holiday main course recipes involve expensive ingredients, and/or time consuming, complicated techniques, not to mention the anxiety that comes along with worrying whether all that time and money will have been worth it. I’m looking at you, dry, overcooked beef wellington. If you want to avoid all that, maybe consider making tourtière. This French-Canadian meat...

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Holiday Cheese Board – Finding Michele

After posting the long, and relatively complicated croissants video last week, I decided to take a little mental break, and do a video for how to put together a holiday cheese board. I’ve wanted to do this one for a while, and since we’re in the middle of entertaining season, I thought the timing was perfect. It’s always stressful to have people coming over this time of the...

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