More Than A Mount Full - A Culinary Journey

Asheville Wine and Food Festival

2011-08-15T13:03:00.003-04:00

The Asheville Wine and Food Festival was an outstanding event, so much to see, so many wonderful tastes and of course the best part, I got to spend time with some very good friends! I wish more of you could have been there! We had a wonderful time, sharing meals and sharing stories, and I want to thank Sommer from A Spicy Perspective, and her husband Lt. Dan for being such gracious hosts, and Adam and Cheryl from Picture Perfect Meals for helping to make the trip such a memorable event! I hope to be back down to see all of you soon!

Adam from picture perfect meals and Chef Dennis

The rest of this post is going to be a wordless one, while I share some of the images from the event. I got in late after being delayed in Charlotte because of all the Storms in Philadelphia and after spending 5 hours on a plane for and hour and half flight, I was pretty beat.

This will also be the last post for More Than A Mount Full, and I do feel a little sad about that, but Melissa from Fine Lime Designs needs this week to begin the move to wordpress. I hope you all will come with me after the move, and excuse the quiet time this week, I promise to be back with my new blog sometime on Friday, when it will make its premier! Keep your fingers crossed that everything works out ok, I know Melissa will be hard at work, making sure the transition will be seamless.....sigh

I give you the Asheville Wine and Food Festival!

This barely scratches the surface of the event, but the light wasn't the best and I have to admit I spent most of my time enjoying the company of my friends. We hope to see you there next year!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, and I don't know how to tell you all how much your friendship and support mean to me.

I look forward to seeing you all on Friday as we premier "A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis" I'll leave messages on Facebook and Twitter to let you know when I'm back, it will be later in the day on Friday August 20th. Have a Great week my friends, As I sign off for the last time, from More Than A Mount Full,.

Cheers

Chef Dennis

Peanut Butter Pie For Mikey

2011-08-13T09:54:00.001-04:00

Peanut Butter Pie Recipe*

When I heard about Jennfer Perillo's Husband it just reminded me just how fleeting life can be

Her husband had a massive heart attack on Sunday, and passed away. He was a loving father to two little girls. On this very sad day, Jennie has one wish. That you make Mikey's favorite Creamy Peanut Butter Pie, and share it with someone you love. Because you really never know what is going to happen tomorrow. Read more at For Mikey.

All over food blogs today people are making this pie, to celebrate Mike's life and honor our friend and fellow food blogger Jennifer. Take some time today and hold your loved ones close. We never know how much time we will have them, or be here to love them, and when you say your prayers tonite don't forget to include Jennifer and her girls.

It's Guest Post Friday with Maggie Cooks

2011-08-11T20:58:00.001-04:00

During the school year making it to Friday seems like an accomplishment, but in the summer it almost seems like a punishment. The week is over, and the summer draws to a close. Tick, tock, tick tock.....time is certainly not on our side. But as fleeting as the days may seem, what we do with our time makes each day special in one way or another. Someday's we accomplish a great deal and someday's we wonder where the day the went. It's natural and its human nature.

This week has gone much too quickly, but I do believe I got quite a bit done. My new blog is weeks away, and Friday morning I will be on my way to Asheville for the Wine and Food Festival! I hope to see some of you there, but don't worry if you can't make it, I'll enjoy it for you and take as many pictures as possible. Let's just hope the auto focus works well (it is a wine festival!)

As fleeting as the days may be, we are at the end of the week, and that of course means it Guest Post Friday! Today my friends were going a little South of the Border for our guest post today all the way down to Sunny Mexico, as I bring you Maggie of Maggie Cooks! For those of you that have not had the pleasure of meeting Maggie, you are in for a treat, Maggie is a 16 year who love to cook and loves to share what she knows with her friends, family and fellow bloggers. What more could anyone ask for!
So sit back, relax, put your feet up and get ready for a kitchen run as I give you........

Maggie Cooks

Frijoles Rancheros or Ranchero beans

When I asked ChefDennis to guest post on his blog I didn’t think that he would actually give methe opportunity, I was so excited and told all my family about it haha, I hadanother recipe in mind to share, but then I came up with this simple butdelicious main dish.

I remember travelingto Chihuahua, Mexico to visit my Mom's family and stay at my Aunt Lucy's house.

I didn’t pay muchattention to what we were going to eat back then but I do remember this dishvery well.

For me it brings meback to Chihuahua and of course to my Aunt Lucy who has really played a big roleon me enjoying cooking and baking as much as I do,

I really wanted toshare this special recipe with all of you; hopefully you'll try it and love itas much as we do :)

Frijoles Rancheros:

Ingredients:

500 grams pinto beans (2 cups)

¼ cup oil

5 strips of bacon chopped

1 tomato

½ onion finely chopped

1 garlic clove finelychopped

½ teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon pepper

Salt to taste

1210 grams tomatopuree (5 cups)

½ teaspoon chickensoup powder

Directions:

1. In a saucepan placethe 500 gramsof pinto beans with the double amount of water, 1/4 cup of oil, and a teaspoonof salt for one hour and a half on a medium heat.

2. Wait an hour and thenstart the other preparation.

3. In another saucepan ona medium heat fry the bacon, when it is almost cooked, add the tomato,onion and garlic, allow to cook for a few minutes.

4. Then add the oregano, pepper, salt ,chicken soup powder, and the tomato pureeand stir well.

5. Fry everything then add the beans and let it boil.

6. Serve and enjoy!

Thank you Chef Dennisfor the opportunity to show my recipe on your blog, I really appreciate it :)!

Thank you all forreading this and I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Enjoy what’s left ofsummer with your family, friends and of course enjoy it with

plenty of great food :)

Maggie

What a perfect side dish to compliment just about any meal, and especially anything you might be grilling! With my Mexican roots firmly planted in the Lone Star State, I whole heatedly agree that Pinto beans are the frijole of choice, and Maggie sure cooked up a great batch for us. Just hand me some tortillas and stand back! Now before you forget, please head on over to Maggie Cooks and say hello, just don't forget to tell her Chef Dennis sent you!

Have a great weekend my friend and make sure you get out and enjoy some time with your friends and family. Good food and good friends, what more could you ask for!

Till next time, ciao!

Chef Dennis

Feta Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms and Ask Chef Dennis

2011-08-09T23:17:00.004-04:00

They're Back...........Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the Kitchen. Zucchini Blossoms!!!!

Now you really didn't think you were going the whole summer with out seeing my precious, did you? We all know the therapy wasn't going to work and the 7 step program was a lot of fun, but let's get serious.
I love zucchini blossoms and that's one addiction I can live with. The blossoms arrived at our farmers market about a month ago and we have been enjoying them my wife's favorite way, stuffed with a blend of cheeses, battered and sauteed......sigh, it's a wonderful thing!

(Ricotta Stuffed Blossoms)

This week when I spotted my precious, I knew it was time for a change, and while I enjoyed all of my creations last year, I felt the need to try something different. Having received a bounty of the best Feta Cheese I have ever had from Euphrates , I felt the need to use that delicious feta in my blossoms.
Standing in the middle of the Collingswood Farmer's Market it came to me, Jersey Fresh Tomatoes, basil and feta, a match made in heaven! I didn't want these beauties to be too heavy so I stayed with a classical batter, simply sparkling water(S.Pelligrino) and Flour.

Feta Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

Ingredients:
12 Zucchini Blossoms
2 ounces Feta Crumbles
2 Medium Tomatoes very small dice
2 tbsp. Fresh Basil Finely chopped
Black pepper to taste

Batter:
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
3-4 ounces Sparkling Water or Proseco

Directions:
1. mix feta, chopped tomatoes, and basil in a small bowl, season with black pepper.
2. Allow mixture to sit for about 15 minutes before using, then drain off any liquid.
3. Carefully open blossom and spoon mixture into blossom until full, form flower closed.
4. Mix flour and sparkling water together to form batter, it should have the consistency or heavy cream so adjust it as needed.
5. Heat saute pan on stove with olive oil to fry the blossoms.
6. Dip Blossom into batter and place in hot oil, cooking on each side till golden brown.
7. Allow blossoms to cool slightly and serve.

* Blossoms should be served at room temperature they do not have to be hot!

Anyway you stuff those little beauties they are such a treat. If your in the mood for my ricotta stuffed blossoms, Click Here For The Recipe. Just make sure you give them a try you'll be hooked on those little bites of heaven!

Ask Chef Dennis
Social Media- I keep getting questions about the different types of social media out there and if they really make a difference. I came late to that party, and have been playing catch up not only in terms of followers or friend but trying so hard to learn to use these tools properly.

Google+ has come onto the scene and people are saying its the best thing since sliced bread, the next facebook but only better. I have to admit, that I haven't seen a lot to support that statement yet, but I do think that yet is the key word. Knowing the all powerful Google, I can't see them doing anything that would not be incredibly successful. So my advice, get on the Google+ wagon now, because if it does explode, you want to be ready. At this point it certainly couldn't hurt! So if anyone out there would like an invitation to Google+ just send me a note with your email address and I will get one out to you!

Twitter would have to be one of the more popular forms of social media out there, I'm still learning my way around, but its a nice place to make announcements, and to connect with friends. Just remember to retweet your friends posts too! If your on Twitter there are a lot of great tools to help, my two favorite are Your Twitter Karma and Tweetdeck . I would strongly advise checking out your twitter karma, just to see how many people have stopped following you after you follow them. It breaks down the list to who you are following and who is following you. As for Tweetdeck, it was so successful it now belongs to Twitter. You can keep track of facebook, Linkedin, and a few other medias at the same time on tweetdeck, and you can set it up just about anyway that works best for you. So start Tweetin'!

Stumble Upon Now this my friends is the sleeping Giant, I'm still in the dark about the specific, but if you get a good stumble, your page views can go off the charts, trust me on this one, get stumbling right away!

There are so many different types of social media, including sites like Foodbuzz, you do interact with your friends, and you can get something out of it in terms of page views. But what you must be careful with is your time, none of us much extra time, and what we do have needs to be spent productively.
We talk about foodporn sites all the time, and what you can get from them. It's great to see your images up on the sites, but if your not getting a substantial return for your time, it's not worth the trouble, not to mention how frustrating some sites are with all the different reasons they won't take your image, that the other site took...sigh So find what's best for you, and spend your time wisely!

Speaking of spending my time wisely, I think some sleep would be a good thing right now. Happy Wednesday my friends, if you can take a midweek break and do something special for yourself!

As always...

Share Your Knowledge-Together We Are Stronger!

Cheers

Chef Dennis

Blueberry Molasses Cake for our Vintage Recipe Swap

2011-08-07T23:55:00.001-04:00

Do you ever feel like Bart Simpson writing on the black board one hundred times......

I will not wait until the last day to do my post

I will not wait until the last day to do my post......sigh

It's not really a great excuse but it's been a crazier than usual week, and today when I had planned on making my cake early and taking advantage of some great natural light, we were out table shopping, When did tables and chairs get so expensive? Of course the sad fact is we are going to stay with the very first table we saw a few weeks ago....(we won't mention that's the one I wanted all along)

So here it is almost 11 and I'm finally sitting down to write the post, but if you've been around here before, you know I do some of my best work under pressure and the good news is it's time once again for our Vintage Recipe Swap!

At the beginning of the year Christianna from Burwell General Store found a vintage cookbook / hymnal (All-Day Singin' and Dinner on the Ground) during her travels, or as she put it a Junk Store Find! Well let me tell you my friends, what a find that little book turned out to be!!

This will be my seventh appearance in the recipe swap and over the last few months our little group has grown into quite a diverse bunch of bloggers and they will amaze you with the many variations of this recipe that they will come up with, so make sure you head on over to Burwell General Store to see a list of all of our participants this month! This month's recipe is for Sorgum Molasses Cookie and the rules are to change 3 of the ingredients while staying somewhat true to the original recipe.

I have to be honest and say I don't like Molasses very much, and while I could have changed the Molasses to something I like, such as Maple syrup, I thought I would challenge myself to make something really good using Molasses. I searched high and low for an idea and came across a recipe for an Old Fashioned Blueberry Cake at 101 Cookbooks, that had come out of the July 1974 edition of Gourmet Magazine. I will also admit that was my first visit to Heidi's blog and if you haven't been, do yourself a favor and stop by and see all the amazing dishes she cooks up every week. I stuck to the original recipe, making only slight adjustment along the way, and adding a coffee glaze to finish off this incredible cake.

Your going to have to trust me on this one, but it certainly is a keeper. The original recipe said to serve it warm from the pan with a dusting of confectioner sugar, or a dollop of whipped cream. I did like the coffee glaze, but next time I'm thinking a dark chocolate ganache, with an addition of pecans to the cake.

Anyway you make it, your going to get raves, so be prepared to share the recipe! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Blueberry Molasses Cake
(Idea & recipe from 101 Cookbooks who adapted it from Gourmet Magazine)

Ingredients:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. fine grain sea salt

½ tsp. cider vinegar

5 tablespoons milk (divided)

½ cup unsulphered Molasses

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3 tablespoons unsalted butter- melted

2 cups blueberries,fresh or frozen

1 teaspoon flour

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F degrees. Butter andflour a 9-inch round cake pan

2. Sift togetherthe flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large mixing bowl.

3. In a small bowl mix together the vinegar with 3 tablespoons of the milk.

4. In another bowl mix the molasses with the remaining 2 tablespoons of milk.

5. Mix the vinegar mixture into the molasses mixture, then mix in the beaten eggs..

6. Pour the wet ingredients overthe dry and stir until just combined (do not over mix)

7. Mix in the melted butter.

8. Toss theblueberries with 1 teaspoon of flour and fold them into the batter.

9. Pour the batter into theprepared pan and bake for about thirty minutes or until a toothpick inserted intothe center comes out clean.

10. Let cool on wire rack for 15 minutes, turn out cake and add glaze.

Coffee Glaze

Ingredient:

2 tsp. instant Espresso powder

1 Tbsp. Kahlua

2Tbsp. Heavy Cream

1 Cup confectioners sugar

Directions:

1. Add the heavy cream and kahlua to a mixing bowl, then add in the instant espresso granules and allow to dissolve.

2. Add in Confectioners Sugar and mix well.

3. Allow Glaze to sit for about 10 minutes before using, (this will let the flavor develop so the sugar is not the prominent taste)

4. Pour glaze over the cake and spread evenly allowing the glaze to run down the sides of the cake.

*the cake may also be served plain with just a little confectioner sugar and /or a dollop of whipped cream.

I do hope you give this cake a try, you will be pleasantly surprised, as I was (and my neighbors..lol) and please head on over to Burwell General Store and see the list of all the bloggers participating in this months swap, and check out there redo of this months selection.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great my friends!

Till next time

Dennis

It's Guest Post Friday with The Deep Dish

2011-08-04T20:10:00.003-04:00

It's getting scary! This week just disappeared, I have no idea where the week went or what I got done.....sigh

Well that's not entirely true, I have been working feverishly with my Blog Designer, Melissa from Fine Lime Designs trying to get all the things done for her that were supposed be done weeks ago....where did the time go? It's okay, don't get worried, were on schedule and my new blog will premier sometime Friday night August 26th. We will be down for a short time while every word and image is very expertly moved to my new blog on Wordpress, (notice I said expertly, that means I won't be doing it..lol)

I think we'll have to have party to celebrate!! Hmm, give aways would be nice! Stay tuned for more details as it gets closer, but let's get to why everyone is here today!

It's guest post Friday!!! Woo Hoo!! Today were going taking a vacation to the Cayman Islands, where life is good and the temperature almost never changes (what would that be like, no more snow!). Today my friends I'm bringing you Carsley form The Deep Dish, or as many of you may recognize her Parsley Sage.

I met Carsley a few months ago and what impressed me the most was her easy going positive attitude, it wasn't till a while later I discovered she was living in the Cayman's, that made perfect sense! Perfect Weather = Happy People! Week after week Carsley would make delicious dishes to tempt us with or take on excursions to area restaurants where master chefs would showcase their talents.

So my friends, sit back relax, put your feet in the water and as the sunsets into the ocean, and enjoy the trip as I give you......

The Deep Dish

Okay, so I may have squealed a littlewhen I got an email from Chef Dennis asking me if I

was interested in guestposting. And by ‘a little,’ I mean Iscared both the dogs and roused my husband from an afternoon snooze. Full on geek out. So exciting!

Seeing as how I have a Cayman Islandsfood blog, I had a devil of a time trying to figure out what I would featurefor this post. Cassava Heavy Cake? Toocomplicated. Turtle? Too controversial. Conch fritters? Too early in theyear. In the end, I decided to go withKISS. ‘Keep it simple, stupid.’

I'm a hardcore meat eater. When Ithink about making dinner, I think about meat. I'm usually pretty fuzzyabout the sides and its not until my meat is finished cooking that I have that'oh crud, what I am gonna serve with this' moment. Happens all the time.

Fortunately, I've found a really good'go-to' side that takes like 10 minutes to whip together. Introducingmango couscous!

Mango Couscous

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups cooked couscous

2 spring onions, diced

1 fresh mango, peeled and diced fine

2 cups celery, very fine dice

½ head cilantro, washed and chopped

2 sprigs mint leaves

Dressing:

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup lemon juice

1 tbsp. vinegar

Directions:

1. Mix dressing ingredients and set aside

2. Combineall of the other ingredients for the salad

3. Pourdressing over salad and mix well

Big, BIG thanks toChef Dennis for letting me snag a few moments on his outstanding blog!

I guess its safe to see why Carsley is always cheerful, good food, good friends, and good weather, what more could you ask for! Now before you forget head on over to The Deep Dish and say hi to Carsley just make sure to tell her chef Dennis sent you! Make sure you spend some time their and go through some of her older posts, I know you'll find something you'll want to share with your friends and family.

I know its not the same Islands but it's as close as I can get for now, all I need is a little reggae I'm almost there......sigh

There are still tickets available for the Asheville Wine and Food Festival, just stop by The Southeastern Food Lovers Association to Register. It's only $69.00 for both events and breakfast. We will also be having a food blogging session at the festival for a group Q and A, on everything from growing your blog, to food photography.

Have a great weekend my friends, and the summer days are getting shorter so make sure you get out and enjoy them while you can!

Cheers

Dennis

My Guest Post at In Katrina's Kitchen

2011-08-03T08:52:00.002-04:00

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor......I'd sing the rest but I'm sure everyone remembers Fred Rogers and his welcoming song! So Welcome Neighbors, we are after all cyber neighbors in this great community of food bloggers, and today my friends you can will find me at a neighbor's home, sipping espresso and eating biscotti....sigh, It's a good life! So please head on over to In Katrina's Kitchen where you will find my favorite biscotti recipe.

I would like to thank my friend Mike from Amelia's Spicing Pecans for so kindly sending me samples of his delicious pecans, you'll find two varieties in my biscotti today. Please stop by his facebook page and say hi, he's a great guy and can use your support!

My thanks to Katrina for allowing me to share her blog today, she is an incredibly talented chef, photographer and food stylist so make sure if you don't know her to stop by say hello and spend some time looking through her posts, you will be so happy you did!

One quick Ask Chef Dennis note today- Check out the great photography series The Language of Food Photography that Sylvie at Gourmande in the Kitchen is sharing with us today, it's already part 3 so give yourself time to catch up and read the entire series! She has a great guest stylist today Paula Walters!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I do appreciate your support and friendship, it means the world to me! Enjoy the rest of the week, the weekend is just around the corner, and I hope that where ever you are, the weather is treating you well! Till next time,,,,,,

Cheers
Dennis

Heirloom Tomato - Lemon Cucumber Salad with my Strata

2011-08-01T12:13:00.003-04:00

I had such a good time at the farmer's market this Saturday that I decided to make a few dishes for a Meatless Monday! It's such a wonderful feeling being at the market surrounded by locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables, and Collingswood Farmer's Market is by far the best market in the area!

I haven't seen too much different this year, but there seems to be a greater variety of Heirloom Tomatoes in the market and I have tried a few of the varieties, but field grown Jersey tomatoes are still the best tomato you could ever have! I did buy some red and green zebra tomatoes, but technically those aren't heirloom tomatoes having made their entry into the market in 1983. The zebra is a tangy sweet tomato, with a little different flavor, and as Lisa says it nice to try something different. (which usually means but don't buy it again!)

I also picked up some heirloom lemon cucumbers which have just started showing up in the market. Lemon Cucumbers have a sweeter flavor than regular cucumbers and are not supposed to have as much of the chemical that makes them bitter and hard to digest. I found the skins to be a little tougher but not too bad. These little beauties would be great for pickling!

What I did end up with was a beautiful combination of colors and flavors that made a perfect side dish, or would have went well over a green salad. I just added some extra virgin olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar a little salt and pepper and let nature do the rest with by commingling the flavorful juices from these fruits! That's right scientifically speaking both the cucumber and tomato are classified as fruits, but from a culinary standpoint they are counted as vegetables.

I had been thinking about Strata's for the past few weeks, I don't why but I remembered a lunch that Mama Jeanette had made one afternoon, she didn't want to interrupt my work on the house, so she threw together a dish from what she had available. A stale loaf of bread, eggs, and of course cheese!
A Strata is very similar to a quiche or frittata, I think the only real difference is the inclusion of bread in the strata.
You can add vegetables, or meats to the strata, but I kind of like it the way Mama made it that day, so when I recreated that lunch I kept it basic, and it was feast for the stomach as well as the soul.

Strata is a quick and easy dish to prepare, that could be served at any time of the day, be creative, add your own touch just keep the basic recipe intact and it will never disappoint! The nice people at Euphrates Feta Cheese had graciously sent me a sample of their feta cheese to have some fun with, so I did decide to alter the recipe with the addition of feta, and it was an outstanding decision. The tang of the feta added another dimension to this flavorful dish. Feel free to substitute Chobani Low Fat Greek Yogurt for the heavy cream in the recipe, a great way to keep the fat and the calories down!!

Strata
Ingredients:
2 cups of old bread cut into large cubes
1 tbsp. melted butter

6 Large Eggs
1 cup Whole milk
1/2 cup Heavy Cream (or Chobani Greek Yogurt)
1 cup Sharp Cheddar shredded
1 Cup Euphrates Feta Cheese crumbled
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
Black pepper to taste
6 Zucchini Blossoms (optional)

Directions:
1. Cut bread into large cubes and lightly coat with melted butter, season with garlic, onion, and pepper and place in a 350 degree oven to toast.
2. Place Toasted bread in the bottom of a baking dish (or 9" springform pan)
3. Lightly beat eggs, add milk, heavy cream , grated romano and black pepper and mix together until well blended.
4. Sprinkle shredded cheddar and Feta over the bread.
5. Pour egg mixture over bread and allow to stand for 10-15 minutes to allow bread to soak up the egg mixture.
6. If your using zucchini blossoms place them on top of the mixture and just press down into the egg lightly to cover them. (they may float back up its ok)
7. Place in 350 degree oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the egg mixture is fully cooked in the center.
(you may need to cover the with aluminum foil if the top is getting too dark)
8. Allow Strata too rest for 15-20 minutes before slicing, so it sets up well.
9. Cut into squares or remove from the springform pan , slice and serve at room temperature.

Strata is such a versatile and fun dish to make for friends and family, serve it as a late supper with a salad and a nice glass of wine, or at a brunch. Any way you served it just make sure you have enough, because your guests will be coming back for seconds!

Have a great week my friends, August is upon us and the Dog Days of Summer can't be far behind! So stay cool, eat light, eat healthy but save room for dessert! Till next time.....

Cheers
Dennis

It's Guest Post Friday with Apron Appeal

2011-07-28T22:03:00.001-04:00

It's that happy time of the week again, the weekend is almost here! Somehow I think I shouldn't be that excited about finishing another week! The summer is just flying by and that means were about 5 weeks away from school..sigh Now you know I love my job, but it's been so nice being a gentleman of leisure, and sleeping till 6am, I could get use to that.

Well, it's still too far away to worry about it and it is my favorite day of the week!! It's guest post Friday, and that my friends is a good day, and great way to lead into the weekend!

Today I have the great pleasure of introducing one of my more recent acquaintances, Gwenevere from Apron Appeal. Gwenevere had emailed me with a question right after we first became friends and I remember telling her that she had one of my most favorite names. Being a fan of Camelot and King Arthur, of course I loved the name of his Queen.......I think it's time to throw the DVD on a watch it again.

But let's get back to my wonderful guest today, and my favorite day of the week, Although Gwenevere is a new comer to our Community, she has been making quite an impression with her culinary skills and the delicious creations she has been posting for us to drool over week after week.

So sit back, relax, put your feet up and get ready to find yourself a snack, because your going to be hungry when you leave here today, as I give you Gwenevere and ....

Apron Appeal

Ifsomeone hands me a microphone, I’m going to use it. When Chef Dennis emailed mea few weeks ago and asked me to hold the proverbial microphone by guest postingon his blog, I happily agreed and promised that I would give him my absolutebest. But what was my best?

WhenI started blogging all I wanted was to share recipes and stories with anyonewho cared to read about them however since the beginning my desire to givesomething more had begun to take over. Sure I wanted to share somethingdelicious but I also wanted to share something that was healthy andbetter-for-you. Could I pull that off AND still give my best? It was defiantlyworth a shot.

Aftermuch deliberation, I finally made a choice of what to sing…. errr…I mean….makefor this guest post. The recipe I’m sharing is a variation of something I’msure most of you have seen before…pull-a-part bread. But in grand Apron Appealfashion, I’ve done my best to “healthy it up” as much as I dared. And so Ipresent to you….

100%Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pull-A-Part Bread

Aftera few trial loaves and tweaking the ingredients here and there, I can attestthat what you get today is my absolute best. I’ve swapped out all of theall-purpose flour for white winter wheat flour, the eggs have been replacedwith flax, the dairy has been exchanged with coconut oil & coconut milk andthe sugar has been reduced by almost half. The result is a loaf of heartypull-a-part bread that can satisfy your desire for something sweet but won’tleave you with a sugar overload headache. J

100% Whole Wheat, CinnamonPull-a-Part Bread

Ingredients: ( Yield: 1 8x4inch loaf Pan)

2 ½ teaspoons yeast

¼ cup water

2 tablespoons ground flax seed

8 tablespoons water

2 ¾ cups whole wheat flour (I usedfresh milled white winter wheat)

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup coconut oil, melted

1/3 cup coconut milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:

1 tablespoon coconut oil, meted

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

To make the dough, dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup warm water. In a separate bowl combine the flax with 8 tablespoons water. In microwave safe bowl, heat the coconut oil and milk until the oil is melted, set aside to cool (115-125˚ F)
Combine the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Add the milk mixture, yeast, vanilla and flax mixture to the mixer bowl and mix on low until a cohesive dough forms. Switch to a dough hook and knead for 5-7 minutes until dough clears the sides of the bowl and can be stretched without breaking.
Shape the dough into a round, place back in mixing bowl let rise for 1 to 1 ½ hours. Once dough has doubled and does not spring back when indented with a wet finger, gently deflate the dough, shape into a round and let rise for another 30 to 45 minutes in a warm draft free place. (A front porch of a home stuck in 90˚ F with 100% humidity works wonderfully.) Gently deflate the dough again, shape it into a round and let sit for 10 minutes. (After the dough has been shaped into a round it can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated overnight. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before proceeding.)
While dough rests, mix the cinnamon and sugar together, melt the coconut oil and generously grease an 8x4 loaf pan with shortening.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to an 18 x 12 inch rectangle.

7. Brush the dough with the coconut oil the sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon and sugar
blend.
8. With a pastry cutter cut the dough lengthwise into 4, 3-inch strips. Carefully lift each layer
on top of the other and line up one cut edge of each strip evenly. Then with a serrated knife
cut the stack of dough into 6, additional pieces (you should end up with layers that are 3x3
inch squares.
9. Place all of the squares into the loaf pan. Thepan should be filled edge to edge – if you need to press
the dough to make roomfor all of the dough, do so gently.

10. Cover the dough with a bread cloth and let risefor 30 minutes.
11. After 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Once oven is ready put the pan into the oven
and bake for 30-35 minutes. If dough is browning too quickly, cover the dough loosely with
foil. Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool for 20 minutes. To turn the dough
out, run a knife along the edges and either turn the pan upside down or gently push the
ends of the loaf together and lift it out of the pan onto a serving platter. Be aware that once
you pull the loaf out of the pan, retaining a loaf shape may be difficult

Source: Adapted from Annie’sEats

Gwenevere

That bread looks positively delicious, and something that I know my girls would love to learn to make, that's going on my list for next years classes! Of course now I'm hungry too...(I think there's a scone left!) But before you rush off to the kitchen to satisfy that grumbling in your stomach, head on over to Apron Appeal and say hi to Gwenevere, just make sure to tell her chef Dennis sent you! While your there check out some of her other posts, I know you'll find a lot of dishes to add to your must make list! Mine keeps getting longer and longer!

So my friends that brings us to a close of another week, the heatwave has returned and we are supposed to have another seven days in the 90's with loads of humidity.....oh joy! I think it might be time to drag my old body to the beach and hope for a cool ocean breeze, some Johnson's popcorn and a Mack and Manco pizza.....sigh (the real reason I go to the beach!)

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and please do your best to stay cool and don't forget to hydrate!

Till next time!

Cheers

Dennis

Blueberry Lemon Pistachio Scones and Ask Chef Dennis

2011-07-27T21:16:00.004-04:00

The weather has been so nice lately (90's and no humidity), that I have been taking advantage of it and doing a little more baking. I am constantly amazed by the creativity that abounds in our community, just when I think I have seen it all, someone post a new dessert, muffin or bread and the juices start flowing and the hunger sets in....sigh
Unfortunately baked goods are the last thing I need, but most days the first thing I want! Now I have been using fresh fruit, in most of them so that should count for something.....yeah, it's fruit. I also got a new gelato maker and have been having fun trying to get up to speed with my frozen concoctions., again seeing so many wonderful creations in our community!

Last week saw my first attempt at scones, which didn't turn out well, I had peaches that were begging to be used and Brian at A Thought For Food had made these incredible peach scones. Well, having never made scones before I had no idea how the dough should be....sigh.....it got ugly.
First it was too dry (I thought), then it got too wet, then I had to add more flour. On a positive note they looked great and that's the kindest thing I could say. Brian, I should have trusted your recipe and just made them, your scones were stellar! A few days ago I came across another scone recipe that caught my eye, it had this lovely glaze on it and looked just heavenly, I couldn't remember where I had seen them but I did remember they were adapted from a Recipe by Tyler Florence, so this morning I found his recipe and had a go at it.

This being only my second attempt at scones, I think they are still a work in process but they were oh so delicious! The crumb was delicate and light, moist and not at all sweet. The Lemon glaze added the last dimension of taste to this creation, I would advise on making a little extra to dip them in!

I hope you enjoy them as much as Lisa and I did!

Blueberry Lemon Pistachio Scones

Adapted from Tyler Florence, Inspired by Brian Samuels
Makes 8 large scones

Ingredients:
2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tbsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Salt

5 tbsp Sugar
Zest of one Lemon
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
½ cup Heavy Cream
½ cup Greek Yogurt (plain or Lemon, or Vanilla)

½ cup Salted Pistachio's (optional)

1 cup Fresh Blueberries

Glaze:
2 cups Confectioners Sugar

Juice of One Lemon½ tsp Vanilla

1 tbsp Greek Yogurt (plain or vanilla)

1 tbsp Unsalted Butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor add in the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and lemonzest,

pulse to blend.

2. Add the cubes of butter and pulse until the butter has been cut into the mixture, it should like

coarse grains of sand.
3. In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt, cream, and vanilla until combined.

4. Add to theflour mixture and mix with a spoon until the mixture just starts to cometogether. Do not overmix.

5. Add the blueberries and pistachio's and gently fold together, Mix just enough to incorporate

so the scones do not discolor.

6. Form the mixture into a ball and place on the parchment paper.
7. Use your hands to form the dough into a large circle and flatten about one inchthink.

8. Brush the finished Circle with a little cream or milk to get a good finish.

9. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a deep golden brown in color. Transfer to a wire rack to

cool.

While the scones are cooling make the glaze.

10. Stir together the lemon juice, vanilla and confectioners sugar in small bowl

11. Add the melted butter and stir well until all the sugar is dissolved.

12. Add in the Greek Yogurt, and let rest for 5 minutes to build flavor.

13. Cut the Scone into eight sections

13. Drizzle the glaze over the tops of the scones and serve!

*these were truly delightful scones, the only thing I would do different next time is to make them

individually before baking so the entire exterior of the scone is golden and crunchy!

Ask Chef Dennis

Blogging Etiquette-
Now I'm not trying to come off as Miss Manners, or an expert in etiquette, but after a few emails from friends this week and a few of my own experiences I thought it was time to pass on a little advice to the newbies.

1. If you are kind enough to leave a comment for your friend, leave a comment, not a self promoting statement. Last week I had one too, it read, I made a really great dish last week, you should stop over and see it at myblogisbetter.com . That's not a comment, its Spam! If you get these, just delete them, and don't bother going back to that bloggers site.

2. Ok, now you've left a nice comment, but feel the need to end it with your blog address, again
not cool. I do leave those up, while I don't delete those comments, they do tend to grate on my nerves a bit. If you set you leave your info when you comment, your comment will link to your blog, you don't have to add it to your comment. Your name is always a welcome addition, just not as a link!

3. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything.....just move on. If your life is so miserable that you have to berate someone online, find somewhere else to do it. Remember if you don't like someone, just don't talk to them. You don't have to like everyone, it's not a prerequisite to blogging.

4. If you leave a comment and ask a question, but leave it anonymous, or don't have an email address associated with your blog, How are you going to get an answer?

My new blog will let me answer comments directly after them, but if you don't go back to check you may not see the answer, but if you ask me a question and have an email address in your profile, I will answer you. If you don't want to have your home email published, then start one at gmail, it's free and it's easy.

For the most part, I don't think anyone is acting maliciously, perhaps just a little over zealous. But trust me, that is not the way to grow your readership.

Social Media-
There's a new kid in town and he's making quite a commotion! For those of you that have missed it, Google+ has arrived, and it looks like it's going to be the next best thing......I've taken a let's wait and see attitude, but just in case it does take off, my advice would be to get in on the ground floor now! It's one of those shoulda, coulda, woulda, moments. You need an invitation to the party at Google+, so just send me an email and I will be glad to extend an invitation to you, so you can start getting your circles filled up!

Pinterest is my newest time consuming activity! It is actually quite a bit of fun and I am seeing hits on a regular basis from it, you will be reaching a lot of new bloggers on Pinterest, so check it out! You also need an invite to this party, so let me know and I will send one out to you!

Amplify is another great platform for getting your name out, and it's very, very easy! You just clip what you want to post, write a few words and your done! Another way for google to find you! I haven't seen much action from this yet, but I think its going to develop into a widely used tool. Check it out, I don't think you need an invitation for Amplify, but if you do just let me know.

Klout I really have no idea where this is going, but it's really easy to sign up, it works off of twitter, or facebook.
I just don't know enough about it to decide if it's going to be around or not, but if you have a few minutes take a look, you never know!

Awesome Food - They're giving away $1000 micro grants for food projects at this new site, well that's what it says, but don't hold me to it. It says once a month micro grants will be given, so stop by and look around, someones got to get the money, why can't it be you!

Foodie Crush- I stumbled upon this site quite by accident, and I have to say I like it! It's an online magazine, and it's got some great content and I think you'll enjoy it.

Food Lovers Web- This is another social foodie group where you can post stories, or recipes, and you set up google ad sense ads on it and share in the revenue you bring in. It's a 50-50 split with the house, I don't know how much you can generate, but It's a pretty nice site and its owner Correen is very nice and very knowledgeable, stop by and say hi when you have time!

I think that's quite enough to keep you busy for awhile! I know it's a lot to think about, and not everything will work for everyone or appeal to everyone, but if you don't see what's out there you might miss something that's the perfect fit for you. There is a place for all of us we just have to find it!

I hope your midweek is going well, stay cool and stay happy, and please do remember......

Share Your Knowledge - Together We Are Stronger

Cherry Vanilla Muffins

2011-07-25T15:02:00.002-04:00

After gorging myself on cherries every night for the past few days, I finally decided to bake something while I still had a few on hand. I didn't want to make anything too decadent or sweet today so I my turned to muffins, or as I like to think of them "almost cupcakes".

I have a good go to recipe for muffins, which has seen a quite a few variations over the years, and has yet to fail me. The muffins were perfect, a delightful crumb, not too sweet with just a little bit of crunch on the exterior.

Feel free to change them up a bit, but the base recipe is a keeper and should be filed away for further use.
I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

Cherry Vanilla Muffins
Ingredients:
1½ Cup of All Purpose Flour

½ Cup Sugar
½ Teaspoon Salt
½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Cup Low Fat Greek Yogurt
½ Cup Oil
2 Large Eggs
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Powder or Pure Vanilla
1 Lemon Zest(grated) and a good squeeze of juice

2 Cups Sweet Cherries (fresh or frozen) pitted and cut in half

½ cup Granola for topping

Directions:

1. Mix all your dry ingredients together in one bowl (including Vanilla Powder)
2. Lightly beat the eggs and add in the Greek Yogurt, oil, lemonzest, and juice from the lemon.

Mix all these ingredients until wellblended.
3. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and mix just enough to blend.

4. Fold in the Cherries into the muffin mix. (donot over mix; it will make the muffins tough)

5, Sprinkle the tops with granola.

6. Bake for 25-30minutes at 350 degrees until the tops are golden brown.

This will yield 6 large muffins or 12 small muffins

These little muffins truly are a wonderful treat, they freeze well an can provide a much better start to your day then some store made over processed version. If you don't have cherries try peaches, nectarines, or berries.....just try them.

*one thing I do is measure out all my dry ingredients and have a few sets made up in zip-lock bags ready to go. That way when I stumble out of bed, its not such a chore to make the muffins and have them ready for breakfast by the time my wife gets up. If you have fruit to prep do it the night before too!

I would like to thank everyone for the well wishes, I think I have gotten rid of my last bit of summer flu, and things are definitely looking better! Our heatwave finally broke today, after reaching temps of 103 last week 87 is looking darn good!

My new blog is taking shape, hopefully it will be finished within the next few weeks, I'm really getting excited!!

And of course I will be in Asheville on August 12th and 13th for the Asheville Wine and Food Festival and would love to see you there. If your within driving distance, I can promise you a great time for very little money! Food glorious food, and local beers and wine! Stop by our website to get your tickets, click on the link for more information. You can also email me with any questions.

I hope everyone is taking advantage of all the delicious fresh produce that is in our markets, and if your lucky enough to have a farmers market in your area that's even better. Local produce is always a better choice!

That's about it for today my friends.

Thanks for stopping by, stay cool and stay full!

Cheers

Dennis

It's Guest Post Friday with Eat, Knit, Grow

2011-07-21T21:40:00.008-04:00

We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave, the temperature's rising.......but don't take my word for it, check out this quick you tube video for the weather report about the Heat Wave!

Hope that made your day a little brighter, I'm in the middle of a summer flu, and I don't think miserable is quite the word for it, so I thought I would entertain you bit, but the fact that I know Irving Berlin wrote that little diddy shows my age.....sigh

I would also like to take this time to let everyone know that Foodbuzz is holding a fund raiser for Share Our Strength, No Kid Hungry. All you haven to do to help this cause is make Yahoo your home page, just click on this Yahoo link. that's all you have to do, and you can help raise $20,000 to help fight childhood hunger in America.

Now lets get back to why you're here today, its Guest Post Friday!!! Today I get to share the spotlight with my friend and Philadelphia Neighbor, Lindsay from Eat, Knit, Grow .

Lindsay is quite the accomplished home chef and she will consistently wow you with her culinary creations that run from Crusted Tilapia to Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies (two of my personal favorites!) One thing for certain, you'll never leave Eat, Knit and Grow without seeing something that you'll want to make at home and share with your friends, and that's what good food is all about.

So sit back, relax, put your feet up and start your stomach rumbling as I give you Lindsay and.......

Eat, Knit, Grow

Thank you so much to Chef Dennis for inviting me to guest post Friday. I am extremely honored to be sharing my recipes, passion, and blog with all of his wonderful readers. I am a huge fan of Chef Dennis and of the guest post Fridays. I have discovered many new and amazing blogs this way and delighted to be joining the list!

My blog, Eat, Knit, Grow started out as an outlet for me to talk incessantly about my garden, my crafting, and cooking when no one really wanted to hear it any more. Cooking quickly took over and absolutely pushed the other two off the front page (all though they are still in my life). I like to think, for the most part, my posts fall into two main categories: extremely health conscious and wonderfully seasonal, and over the top indulgences. I think that is a pretty good reflection of me, in general I like to eat sensibly and seasonally, but every once in awhile cheesecake is calling my name.

I definitely began my culinary experiments as a baker. My brother and I loved to make cakes from boxed mixes when we were little. Soon we began adding our own toppings and mix ins, and eventually I graduated from mixes all together. Baking is my first love, the smell of cookies in the oven makes my heart flutter, so I knew I had to share something baked with you all. But, how to add in my sensible side, how do I sum up all my schizophrenic cooking passions into one single recipe? Then it hit me, a simple, healthy, but extremely delicious baked breakfast. So, without further ado, a baked oatmeal breakfast cake.

Oatmeal Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup of oats, quick cooking

½ tsp. of baking powder

¼ tsp. of salt

2 tbsp. of maple syrup

1½ cups of milk or non-dairy substitute

1 egg

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 cup of blueberries

1 banana

1/4 cup of sliced almonds

1/4 of brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and lightly spray a pie pan or an 8 inch cake pan with non-stick spray. Mix together the oats, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl beat together the maple syrup, milk, egg, and vanilla extract. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until well combined, then stir in the blueberries. Pour batter into prepared pan, and using a spatula smooth top until the batter is distributed evenly. Slice banana, and top the cake with slices. Bake until just set in the middle, about 20 minutes then remove from the oven. Turn the oven up to broil. Top the cake with the brown sugar and almonds. Broil until almonds are golden and the sugar is fragrant, watching very carefully so the almonds don't burn, about 2-3 minutes. Let cool slightly before slicing. Serve plain or topped with yogurt.

As we say over at Eat, Knit, Grow...

Happy Eating.

I know everyone just wants to rush into their kitchen and start making this delicious cake! I can tell you it's going on my menu at home and at school! But before you rush off to start baking please be sure to go by Eat, Knit, Grow and say hi to Lindsay, just remember to tell her chef Dennis sent you. Stay awhile and look through her posts, your going to be glad you did!

One other request, please help us raise $20,000 for Share Our Strength by making Yahoo your
home page . Please take the time to share this opportunity with your readers and followers.
Share with your friends on Facebook
Tweet your followers
Use this HTML code to add a banner to your blog

Thanks again for stopping by today and I hope all of you survive the heat wave were having and manage to stay cool, comfortable and well fed!

Until next time my friends
Dennis

No Bake Peach Tart - A Summertime Treat

2011-07-18T15:05:00.001-04:00

Bring on those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer!! When summer starts to give it's worse, it also means it's time to give us its best, Jersey Peaches!! The first local peaches of the summer have been showing up at our farmer's market and there is nothing better than a ripe peach in all its juicy sweet glory! I think the best of the summer are still a week or two away, but if these aren't our best there pretty darn close to it.

With the heat of summer in full force, I try not to bake too much or if I do it's in the early hours of the day before the heat has set in. For this wonderful fresh creamy concoction, I only needed the oven for a few minutes to bake the tart shell, after that it was as easy as pie! Peach pie that is, or to be more specific a No Bake Peach Tart!

One of the easiest pies to make, and the perfect treat on a hot summer's day, cold and creamy with those luscious fresh peach slices....sigh

So my friends find yourself some local peaches, nectarines, or even berries and enjoy the taste of summer, for those of you in the winter of your year, you can substitute frozen fruit, and you have my permission to taunt me in December when your season is in full bloom! But what ever you do take a few minutes to make this delicious treat!

No Bake Peach Tart
Pastry Dough
Ingredients:
1½ cups All Purpose Flour

1½ teaspoon Sugar
½ teaspoonSalt
½ cup cold Unsalted Butter (1 Stick) cutinto ¼ inch pieces
2 Large Egg Yolks

¼ cup Ice Water

I made my dough in a food processor, but feel freeto do it the old fashioned way.

Directions:
1. Add the flour,sugar and salt in the food processor and pulse 2 times to mix.

2. Scatter the butter over the flour mix andpulse 7 or 8 times to cut in the butter.
3. Add Eggyolks one at a time and pulse 2 -3 times to incorporate.

4. Fluff mixture with fork and then add your icewater, pulse 5 or 6 times or until the dough

begins to form clumps, do not let the doughform a ball on the blade!

5. The dough should look like coarse crumbs,dump onto a floured work area and form into

two equal balls, then flatten into a disc,wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least

½ hour.

6. After dough has chilled remove one disc fromrefrigerator and allow to warm up for 5

Minutes, then roll out the dough untilyou have a disc big enough for your tart pan.

7. Mold dough to fit tart pan and cover theinside with a round of parchment paper, fill

with dried beans or pie weights and bakeat 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes

8. Allow tart shell to cool completely beforefilling.

Cheese Filling

Ingredients:

8 oz Mascarpone Cheese

8 oz Cream Cheese

¾ Cup Confectioners Sugar

½ cup Heavy Whipping Cream

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Zest of one lemon finely grated

6 peaches, pitted, peeled and sliced

¼ cup Peach Preserves (or orange marmalade)

Directions:

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, blend the mascarpone, cream cheese andconfectioners’ sugar

until smooth and creamy.

2. Add the lemon zest and vanilla extract and mix well.

3. In another bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks appear andfold it into the mascarpone

mixture.

4. Spread the mixture into the tart crust. *

5. Top with the peach slices.

6. In a small saucepan heat the peach preserves and brush thepeaches with the liquefied peach

preserves, this adds a nice glaze to the dessert.

7. Refrigerate the tart at least 1 hour orovernight before serving.

*your going to have an extra pie crust, and some cheese filling left over. Add one egg to the leftover cheese filling and make some small cheese pastries out of the dough and filling, top with any fresh fruit you have

There you have the perfect pick me up dessert for these hot summer days! Now all you have to do is throw dinner on the barbecue, grab a glass of sweet tea, sit back and watch the boys of summer......

It doesn't get much better than this my friends, till next time.

Cheers

Dennis

It's Guest Post Friday with The Kitchenarian

2011-07-14T20:52:00.003-04:00

Do you ever wonder what happened to the day? As I sit at my kitchen table writing out my post, or working on another aspect of my blog, I look at the clock and its 11 Pm and I wonder what did I do today? I was productive, of course I had to be, I mean how could I have just wasted a whole day, that just wouldn't happen.
Although it seems like most of what I do get accomplished is not as tangible as it use to be when I worked more with my hands.

I have a house full of doors that need to be stripped, and repainted, work that my contractors abandoned, begging to be finished, and of course just the normal household maintenance, shopping, cooking....lol, but I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know, where all pretty much in the same boat.

But when I stop and think about my life, what comes to mind first is that I am truly blessed. I have my health, a job I enjoy, a home to live in, and more food than I need. I have my best friend Lisa to spend the rest of my life with, and all of you, my wonderful, talented friends, who inspire me and keep me motivated. So when I stop and think about it, I really have more than my share of happiness and good fortune.

Thank you my friends for everything you do, every word you right, and every dish you cook. Your support and friendship mean the world to me.

Ok, I know the old chef is getting sappy again, when your all really here for one reason, it's guest post Friday!!

For those of you that don't already know Lorie, she is the owner of The Kitchenarian, and since Mr. Webster declined to give us a definition, I am going to borrow the one from Lorie's website.

kitchenarian — [kich-uhn air-ee-uhn]

— noun

a person trained in kitchen science
of and all things pertaining to the kitchen
a blog that examines all subject matter related to the kitchen

What this definition leaves out, is that not only is this person trained in the Kitchen science, she is also the instructor, the professor of Culinary Acumen. When you stop by The Kitchenarian you will also find drool worthy images of Lorie's creations. But most of all you'll find a friend.

So my friends, sit back, relax, put your feet up and let's get ready to stomach rumble!!! As I give you.....

The Kitchenarian

Thanks to Chef Dennis for inviting me to join the fine listof bloggers in the tradition of Guest Post Fridays. For a gentleman that hails from the greatnorthern state of Pennsylvania, Chef Dennis sure has a lot of southernhospitality! It just goes to prove thatsouthern hospitality has no geographical boundaries but resides in the heart ofgenerous people. Thank you Dennis forallowing me to share a recipe today with you and your readers.

Over at my blog, The Kitchenarian, I try new recipes in myVirginia kitchen, write about them, and in the process, I work to improve myphotography and expand my cooking skills. By profession, I am a free-lancewriter specializing in corporate SEO blog writing. My personal blog offers a creative outlet formy love of cooking and my passion for cookware. I spent seven years as a store manager for Sur La Table, so, as you canimagine, I have a lot of kitchen equipment! My daughter, Sous Chef, bakes and writes with me whenever she is homefrom college. I have two boys and a husband that eat (almost) whatever I makeas fast as I can make it.

I must confess, I spent an inordinate amount of time tryingto decide what recipe to feature today. For this occasion, I dug down deep into my southern roots and, stillbeing mindful of the hot summer temperature, decided to make pimento cheese,bacon and tomato panini sandwiches. Inthe hot and humid southern summers, I try to avoid turning on the oven when atall possible. Salads, panini sandwiches and anything grilled become thefeatured meals around here.

I love summer produce and the seasonal farmer'smarkets. I traveled to one of my localfarmer's market to get Hanover tomatoes for your sandwich today. Hanover tomatoes are grown in Hanover,Virginia and in my opinion are the best. Although not necessarily one of the prettiest tomatoes, theirdistinctive flavor and juicy character, make them a local favorite. I'm not sure how wide-spread their fameis. My suspicion is that we are a small,but dedicated, following.

I love pimento cheese and have eaten it for as long as I canremember. I never realized until I wasolder that pimento cheese is considered southern fare. To me, it was just great comfort food. I grew up eating pimento cheese sandwichedbetween two slices of Wonder bread or generously piled on top of Ritz crackers.It's a classic cheese spread enjoyed as a delicate crustless sandwich for aladies' tea and also as a delicious topping for a grilled burger. Here, I am serving it with thick cut pepperedbacon and fresh Hanover tomatoes warm and melty on a panini sandwich. Making your own pimento spread is so easy andso worth it. If you have the time, makethis several hours (or one day) before you make the panini sandwiches. It allows the flavors to blend together andmakes the sandwich even better.

Pimento Cheese, Bacon and Tomato Panini

Ingredients:

Pimento Cheese:

1(3-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature

1 ½ cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 ¼ cupsgrated Monterey Jack cheese

1/2 cupmayonnaise

2tablespoons pimentos, chopped

2tablespoons chopped, seedless jalapeno pepper (optional)

2teaspoons grated onion

Salt andpepper to taste

Panini:

Thick sliced peppered bacon

Tomatoes

Boule bread – or any crusty bread

Butter, softened

Directions:

Grate the cheeses and put together in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese andmayonnaise together until smooth. Addthe pimentos, jalapeno pepper and onions. Pour into the bowl of grated cheese and blend well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until about 30 minutes beforeserving.

Cook the bacon, slice the tomatoes and the bread. Butter bread lightly. Spread a thick layer of pimento cheese on oneslice of bread. Layer with bacon andtomato. Add second slice of bread. Heat in a panini press until hot and toasted.

Kitchenarian Notes: If you choose to leave out the jalapeno pepper, then add one moretablespoon of pimentos to the recipe. Iused diced jalapeno peppers from a jar. This keeps them the same consistency as the pimentos.

If you don't have a panini press you can actually makepanini sandwiches in a skillet. Cover abrick in aluminum foil and place on top of sandwich. When bottom side is browned, remove brick, turn sandwich and replace brickon top until toasted on second side. Youwon't get those characteristic panini stripes, but it will still be just asgood. Enjoy!

Now, don't tell me I didn't warn you!! If your not hungry now, check your pulse! So before you forget, head on over to the The Kitchenarian, and say hi to Lorie, just don't forget to tell her Chef Dennis sent you! If your not already one of her friends on facebook or twitter, now would be a good time to take care of that, and while your there check out the great give away she has going for clearly fresh storage bags, that's one product I need to get for my home!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, It looks like its going to be a glorious weekend, so get out there and have some fun! Oh and one more thing, for the record, I'm a native Texan, not a northerner......sigh (although some of my best friends are northerners!)

Till next time my friends, Ciao!

My Famous Crabcakes and Ask Chef Dennis

2011-07-13T21:55:00.002-04:00

Over the years I have made more crabcakes than I care to remember, I have used claw, special, lump, jumbo lump and a mixture of two or more crab meats, all depending on what I could charge for the crabcakes.
At home my crabcake of choice is usually made with claw, its got a lot of flavor and is the least expensive type of crabmeat to buy. The only problem with claw or any crabmeat for that matter is finding a wild caught product from U.S. waters or the gulf down to South America. If you buy crabmeat from other any waters, let the buyer beware!!
This time of year the crabmeat is fresh and abundant, and I'm fortunate to have a reliable source in Wegman's to purchase Maryland Jumbo Lump crabmeat, at a reasonable cost! You do have to think about what it would cost to go out for a really good crabcake dinner, and you can justify the cost very easily. Of course my justification is that Lisa loves good crabcakes, and any man who has lived as long as I have knows, if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

My recipe for crabcakes is pretty simple, it uses my standard imperial sauce as the binder with just enough bread crumbs to bind them. You can also eliminate the breading step and broil these beauties and they are every bit as good, without the added calories of frying them.

My Famous Crabcakes
Ingredients:

1 lb Crabmeat (wild caught)
1 Tbsp. Italian parsley finely chopped
1 Tbsp. of Roasted Red Peppers or Fresh Red Peppers finely chopped (may be left out)
1 Tbsp. of Red Onions finely chopped (you may sub any type of onion you like)
1/4 cup of seasoned bread crumbs

Imperial Sauce
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Hellman's Mayonnaise
1 Large Egg
1 Tbsp, Sugar
1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning
1 dash of Worcestershire Sauce
1 Squeeze of fresh Lemon Juice

Directions:
1. Mix crabmeat, chopped parsley, onion, and peppers together. Gently mix them do not break up
lump crabmeat.
2. In another bowl add the mayonnaise, and egg and mix together, then add the sugar, Old Bay,
Worcestershire and lemon juice, mix well.
3. Add the imperial sauce to the crabmeat and mix together gently, add in the bread crumbs
and work them into the mixture.
4. Allow this mixture to sit for about 10 minutes, the bread crumbs will soak up any extra liquid
so you can easily form the crabcakes.
5. Divide the crabmeat mixture into 8 small or 4 large crabcakes.
6. If you are frying the crabcakes, lightly coat the crabcake in seasoned bread crumbs, and saute in
olive oil till golden brown on both sides. Place in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 15
minutes.
7. If you are broiling the crabcakes, place them directly into a baking dish with a little bit of water
in the dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. (when I broiled them at the restaurant they got
a little butter on the top of each before baking)

*This mixture can easily be doubled and these crabcakes freeze really well!

Ask Chef Dennis

Food Porn and other Resources

It seems like every time I turn around that I am getting invitations to new foodie sites, and lately they seem to be improving! If you have a few minutes stop by and check them out!

THE DAILY DISH by Trish - This is really a pretty neat site, using articles, blog posts, video's and images from Trish's followers on Twitter. It's a great concept, well executed, and it looks like you can set up your own paper too. Definitely worth a look!

eRecipeCards - Another great concept and fun site, you can upload an image with a link to the post, in a recipe card format, and share the cards with other members. Save your favorite recipes in your eRecipe Box!

Kitchenartistry - Now this is one beautiful foodporn site! I love it, and guess what? Your images don't have to be squares!!!!!! Did I ever mention I hate square images...lol

This is my pick for the next great foodporn site, let's keep our fingers crossed!

(let's Thanks Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line drives for sending this site my way!

Half Hour Meals - This is another beautiful site, more community oriented, with the right concept for today's busy home cook. Delicious meals that you can prepare at home with out spending all day in the kitchen.

Group Recipes - Another wonderful community oriented site, with lots of great people to interact with. You can build your own community/Group or join in one that's already established.

Make Me Drool - This is a really slick site, with a blog like feel to it, "dishing out the best recipes from the blogosphere" definitely worth the time to stop by here!

Suite 101- If your an aspiring writer, this is the site for you. Sign up, send in a sample of your writing, get approved and start writing about what ever your interests are, and you might just make some money! What's not to love about that!

Southeastern Food Lovers Association - Join me in Asheville, North Carolina on August 12th and 13th for the culinary event of the season, at the Asheville wine and food Festival! Stop by and say hello, and if you could please like us on our new facebook page,

This should be enough to keep you busy for awhile, and although I don't think that joining every site you come across is a good idea (just not enough hours in the day). I do think it's important to find your niche, to see what really makes you happy. Spreading yourself too thin is not a good idea, everything suffers, but finding what really makes you happy can make all the difference in the world. We all fit in somewhere, all we have to do is find out where.

That my friends is what makes us such a diverse and creative community, we all join together in the common bond of being foodies, but we all have our own goals, priorities and interests. That's what makes us unique as individuals and stronger as a community.

I hope your week is going well, and the weather is good in your part of the world. Thanks for stopping by, be happy, and of course please remember.....

Share Your Knowledge-Together We Are Stronger

Blueberry Lemon Cake for our Vintage Recipe Swap

2011-07-10T23:26:00.004-04:00

It's time for another of my favorite posts, our Vintage Recipe Swap!! Earlier in the year I was asked to join a recipe swap by Christianna from Burwell General Store, she had found a vintage cookbook, All Day Singin' And Dinner On The Ground, a junk store find, and each month we get a vintage recipe from the cookbook, to update and remake as we interpret the recipe.. This time around, our recipe was for a "Jelly Cake", an old-fashioned layer cake.

Although we get these recipes a few weeks ahead of time, I try not to think too much about the recipes until I actually need to make it, usually waiting until a day or 2 before its due to begin preparations for the challenge. I always work better under pressure!

While at the farmer's market Saturday morning, they had local blueberries available, and I began to think about a blueberry cake, but it was supposed to be a jelly cake, so I needed some type of jelly to put in between the layers. Last years attempt at jelly making was less than stellar, but I needed a good filling to wedge between my luscious blueberry cakes. As I walked further into the market, one vendor had a display of very non local fruits, and the lemons began calling to me........hmmmm, then it came to me lemon curd, and that I can make!

I did remember seeing an article on lemon curd on the Fine Cooking web site (one of my favorite magazines), and the writer had mentioned how her hairdresser had made her lemon curd with great success by treating it as though it was a cake. Now I'm all for making life easier, so I thought I would give it a try. What makes this recipe so different is the technique, instead of making it on the stove and risking cooking the eggs in the process, you simply make it all in your mixer then transfer it to the stove to finish thickening the curd.

What I did come up with was the best lemon curd I had ever made, it was so creamy and velvety that I wanted to just eat the whole bowl full! Feel free to use your own curd recipe, but do try the mixing method you won't be sorry!

Blueberry-lemon cake

Blueberry Cake
Ingredients:
¾ Cup butter

¾ Cup white sugar

½ teaspoonsalt

2 teaspoonvanilla extract

3 egg yolks

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoonbaking powder

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cupGreek yogurt

3 egg whites

¼ cup white sugar

2 cups freshblueberries

1 tablespoonall-purpose flour(to coat Berries)

2 tablespoonRaw Sugar

Directions:
1. Preheatoven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and Prepare 2- 9 inch round cake

pan ( 8” may be substituted ad 5 minutesto cooking time)

2.   Creambutter and 1 cup sugar until fluffy. Add salt and vanilla.
3.   Separateeggs and reserve the whites.
4.   Addegg yolks to the sugar mixture one at a time and beat until creamy.
5.   Combineflour and baking powder; add alternately with milk to egg yolk mixture.
6.   Ina separate bowl, beat whites until soft peaks form. Add 1/4 cup of sugar, 1tablespoon at
          a time, and beat until stiff peaks form.
7.   Foldegg whites into batter..
8.   AddFlour to berries to coat and add into batter.
9.   AddBatter into prepared pans, and sprinkle with tops with raw sugar. Bake at 350 degrees
         for about 30 minutes or until done in the center.

Lemon Curd (adapted from fine cooking)

Ingredients:
8oz. unsalted butter – softened

1½cup granulated sugar

1cup fresh lemon juice

3Tbs. lightly packed finely grated lemon zest

12large egg yolks

Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar in stand mixer untillight and fluffy

2. Add in egg yolks slowly mixwell.

3. Add in salt, lemon juice andzest and mix well*

4. Place in heat proof bowl overa small pot of simmering water and using a

wooden spoon continue to mix until thickened.

5. Allow mixture to cool to roomtemperature, then refrigerate for at least 4
hours before using.

*curd will look curdled after mixing inthe lemon juice, don’t worry it will become velvety smooth

My friends this cake turned out exceptionally well, the crumb of the blueberry cake was dense, but not dry, it had a little more substance to it then just a yellow cake, and the sweet tart flavor of the fresh blueberries added to the experience. But I have to say that the star of the show was the lemon curd, not only did it compliment the cake so well, but the contrast in flavors made this cake into a symphony of flavors that just danced across the palate....sigh

This cake would make a wonderful coffee cake as well, just using the blueberry cake recipe, I would just cut it my one third and make one layer. Just dust it with confectioners sugar and you have a perfect breakfast treat! Although I do encourage you to give that lemon curd a try, you certainly won't be disappointed!

Thanks for stopping by today and if you get a chance stop by Burwell General Store and see all of the other bloggers participating in the recipe swap. If you would like to join us next time, just send Christianna an email, we would love to have you!

Cheers
Dennis

It's Guest Post Friday with Adora's Box

2011-07-07T21:43:00.000-04:00

I seem to remember that the last few summer's started out so slowly for me, June just dragged along, July wasn't much faster and it wasn't until August that my head would begin to spin in anticipation of the end of summer. I know that every year as you get older time goes by more quickly, I think I remember some laws of something or other, that stated as you age one year becomes a smaller and smaller part of your life, so there fore time goes by more quickly.
It could be that this is the first summer that I really have so many things that need to get done, no rest for the weary my mother use to say, I still have no idea what it means but I find myself saying it more often.

But your not here to listen to the old chef lament about the waning days of summer, it's Guest Post Friday!!

Today my friends I'd like welcome Adora from across the pond in London Towne. Adora is the sole proprietor, Chef and Photographer extraordinaire at Adora's Box, where she amazes me with the variety of dishes, and the presentations of those dishes week after week. Trust me, if you have not visited Adora's Box, as soon as your done here head on over and check it out, you won't be sorry, just take some time to go through some of her older posts, just a word of warning though, bring a napkin with you to wipe the drool off your keyboard!

So my friends sit back, relax, put your feet up and prepare to be amazed as I give you........

Adora's Box

When Chef Dennis invited me to guest on his blog, I was so excited. Itwas like being invited to Oprah! I couldn't believe that my little blog wouldbe read by the numerous people reading Chef Dennis' blog. Of course there werenerves and self doubt but the Chef kindly included morale boosting words (solike him) in his e-mail.

I am a full time Mum to two teenagers and wife to a Chinese Malaysian.All of us love food and are lucky that here in melting pot London, where welive, there's lots of it. My daughter suggested that I do a food blogsince I was always cooking. She says all I need to do is take photos of thefood that I cook. I wish it was as simple as that. I thought showing how thefood looks like was good enough. Not so I learned. I am a bit disappointed thatthe recipes are only of second importance to the photos. My biggest challengetoday is learning how to take good photographs. I guess it's never too late tolearn a new skill.

When I started my blog nine months ago, it was meant to be asource book of recipes for myself (because I forget my own recipes), my familyand friends. I share recipes of food that I cook at home. They are easy tocopy and usually calls for only a few ingredients. The best reward I get iswhen people tell me that they've tried my recipes and actually liked it. A fewsmall groups have held what they call Adora's Box parties. They each cook foodfrom the blog recipes and bring it to a potluck. Some kindly sent me photos. Iwas so amazed that their food really looked like my food! I find greatsatisfaction in sharing recipes and knowing that someone out there would bewilling to try making the food and enjoy eating it the way I do.

I would like to share with the dear readers of Chef Dennis' blogsomething that I know would suit most tastes and cooking styles. It is Asianstyle but uses regular ingredients that can be found in most supermarkets. Ihope you all like it and perhaps try making it. This recipe is for twoservings.

GRILLED PRAWNS, PEA SHOOTS AND NOODLE SALAD

Ingredients:

For the grilled prawns

16 prawns, shelled but tails left intact

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 tsp. chopped red finger chili

1 tsp. grated lemon rind

1 tsp. light soy sauce

1 tsp. corn flour

1 tbsp. cooking oil

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients except the cooking oil. Leave the prawns tomarinate in the seasonings while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Addthe cooking oil just before grilling. Grill the prawns for 2 minutes on eachside.

Ingredients:

For the Dressing

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. wholegrain mustard

1 tsp. garlic powder

1tbsp. light soy sauce

1 tsp. fish sauce

2 tbsp. honey

1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1tsp. sesame oil

Directions:

For the dressing, mix all of the ingredients together

Ingredients:

For the salad:

100 gms. uncooked soba noodles

1/4 c. shelled edamame

2/3 c. pea shoots

1/4 c. sliced spring onions

Directions:

Cook the soba noodles in plenty of boiling water for 5 minutes. Drainand refresh with cold water, then drain again. Boil the edamame in water for 5minutes. Drain.

To assemble the salad:

Set aside 2 tbsp. of the salad dressing. Mix the rest with the sobanoodles and the spring onions. Divide into two portions. Pile each portion on aplate to form a nest. Top with half each of the pea shoots, edamame and thegrilled prawns. Drizzle each portion with 1 tbsp. each of the reserveddressing. Enjoy.

Now was that not one delicious Salad!! From top to bottom the flavors and textures were just incredible!
So before you forget, head on over to Adora's Box, and say hi to Adora, you might even want to become one of her newest followers, you won't want to miss one of her delicious creations, just remember to tell her chef Dennis sent you.

Before I send you off I would like to remind you about our Food Bloggers Festival in Asheville, NC on August 12 and 13th, click on this link to register and for more information. Asheville Wine and Food Festival, it's only $69.00 for the two day event and I promise you won't find a better value anywhere, and of course you get to meet me Chef Dennis!! (sorry they made me put that part in) But seriously its really going to be a fun time meeting all the bloggers in person that you have know for so long on line, not to mention all of the local wines, chefs all trying to outdo each other, it promises to be quite the event!

I hope everyone's summer is going well, and that you're taking some time to just enjoy life! Forget the diet a day a week and just eat something for the pure pleasure of it, we are after all foodies, and it's what we live for!
Till next time!
Ciao
Dennis

Save The Bay - Chesapeake Bay Ray and Ask Chef Dennis

2011-07-06T10:16:00.002-04:00

Last week at Wegman's as I looked over my seafood options, I saw a new item in the case, Chesapeake Bay Ray. It had a rich red color, and looked a little like a tuna steak, but best of all it was only $7.99 a pound. I watched as another customer purchased a nice piece of the Ray, and asked her if she had ever had it before, she replied no......the draw was the price. With the ever increasing prices of seafood, it was an unheard of steal!

Not really being sure I quizzed the staff, how can I cook it? Broil, bake, pan fry, or grill they told me, okay lots of options but it really didn't tell me what I wanted to know. What's it taste like? No one knew for sure, the Ray had just arrived and no one had taken any home yet to try, but they offered what little they knew. It taste's like veal, now I just couldn't accept that a logical explanation for the flavor, how could seafood taste like veal! Then the staff proceeded to tell me that the Ray was destroying the balance of the Chesapeake Bay, eating everything in its path, lobster, clams, crabs, and also disrupting the oyster beds, and the slogan was "Save The Bay, Eat A Ray".

Ok, they had me with that slogan. I love my Chesapeake bay clams, and crabmeat, and if this almost prehistoric creature was disrupting the delicate balance of the Chesapeake Bay it was my duty to help!
While the Chesapeake Bay is still a hundred or so miles away, it terms of Local, it still falls into that category, and I do try to eat local foods when ever possible. So I purchased two good sized pieces and was on my way home.

Once I got home I started to do a little research and found that the Chesapeake Bay Ray, aka as the Cownose Ray, was indeed damaging the balance of the bay. Opinions on the Ray went both ways, it was delicious, or it was terrible, but nothing conclusive either way. I found recipes that included blackening, marinating, and one for a Marsala sauce......I thought, who in their right mind would put a Marsala sauce on fish? But I also found more people saying it tasted like veal.....Now I was really confused.....sigh
So when in doubt I fall back on my traditional preparation methods, of Olive Oil, salt and pepper. It is grilling season and I thought that grilling would be the best way to cook the Ray.

What I found was that the shape of the steak made it difficult to cook properly, it started off as a nice thick piece a little more than an inch thick and narrowed down to about a half an inch. so I ended up finishing the Ray in the oven to make sure it was fully cooked. I may have overcooked it slightly, when I first opened it up it was still a little rare in the center which may have been the best way to serve it, but I knew there was no way my wife would touch it if it wasn't fully cooked. Cooking it long enough for the thickest part to be done, really overcooked the one end. My suggestion would be to cut down the pieces and cook the thinner parts separately.

Now here is the major discovery about Ray, it does taste like Veal! It eats like a roast of a not real tender steak, has absolutely no fish flavor or odor, and would have been wonderful with a Marsala sauce or possibly even a demi glace. The Ray desperately needs more flavor in the preparation, I think comparing it to veal would be accurate in the terms that it was fairly non descript in flavor. Blackening or a really strong Asian marinade would have definitely improved the flavor.
So to all you Pescatarians out there, or those of you who miss veal, give it a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed, just remember to amp up the flavor a little more than you think you should, and for non fish eaters it would be a wonderful compromise, you get all the health benefits of fish without any of the flavor!

Ask Chef Dennis

Desitination Asheville
Everything is in place for the Southeastern Food Lovers Associations First Annual Food Bloggers Festival on August 12th and 13th!!! Wow that was a mouthful!! Just click on the link to register for the festival!

This year we are proud to be partnered with the WNC Mzgazine's Wine and Food Festival, and my friends let me tell you it's going to be a stellar event! The cost of the two day ticket is only $69.00, which includes a breakfast with us at the Early Girl Eatery with a Q & A session afterwards as well as some other goodies!

There are a lot of great hotels in the area ranging in prices from very affordable to extravagent, just do a search on Hotels.com and you should find something to make you happy! If your flying into Charlotte, its about a two ride to Asheville, and Charlotte is a US Air and United Hub, so check their options first for direct flights.

If you have any questions, please drop me a line at drayden4@verizon.net, or click on this link to register and pay through paypal, Southeastern Food Lovers Associations, click on the Register button.

Photography
A subject near and dear to every food bloggers heart is how to take better food pictures....sigh, well I have news for you!! I recieved an email from my friend Elin at Elinluv's sweet delights with a link to a great site for food bloggers with 31 days of Food Photography Tips at Learn Food Photography and Food Styling their on day 5 so head on over and check out the posts! They have other valuable information on their site, so when you have time check the other posts out as well. They also recommend Plate to Pixel by Helene Dujardin which is an incredible book and a steal at $16.00 at Amazon!

FoodPorn
I have been asked to repost my list all of the foodporn sites that I know of, so here they are with a few new additions.

FoodGawker

TastesSpotting

TasteStopping

Photograzing

DessertStalking

Dishfolio

Tasteologie

Liqurious

FoodPornDaily

Bakeolicious
Vegolicious
Make Me Drool
Savory Sights
Foodie View
Cookbook Karma

Here is an interview I found from the Editor of TasteSpotting, at Learn Food Photography, check it out if you would like some insights into the process.

Now remember its important to get your images on some of these sites because they will send traffic to your blog, more traffic = more exposure. Just don't spend all your time uploading images, find the ones that generate the most hits for you.

When you shoot start shooting a set for uploads, squares seem to be what works best on some sites, so make your image large enough to crop into a square.
Keep your composition interesting and compelling, good lighting, and good focus. Those seem to be the main reasons for having your images denied(at least mine).
Food Writers
For all of you aspiring food writers or any writers, who hope to someday make a little something (or a lot) to help defray the costs of your blog, or just as an added income I have a new site for you! Its called Suite101.com, click on the link and then what ever topic that interests you. You submit a sample of your writing or a link to your blog, and when they approve you, your all set to start on your writing career, and you actually get paid! check it out when you have time.
Health
For those of you that may not know, the USDA has come up with a new site and a new image for the old food pyramid, its called Choose my Plate, it really does make a lot more sense, so check out the site when you have the time. We will be using this at school this year.

Well my friends that's it for today, I had a great holiday weekend, the weather has been hot hot hot, but thats ok it's summertime! I hope everyone is enjoying good weather where ever you are and you have some time to get out and enjoy the summer! Have some fun, eat something delicious, and spend time with your family and friends, after all that's what its all about! Till nest time, remember.....

Share Your Knowledge- Together We Are Stronger

Oh So Creamy, Mascarpone Strawberry Cheesecake

2011-07-04T11:25:00.001-04:00

Two hundred and thirty-five years ago in the sweltering summer heat of Philadelphia, representatives from all of the 13 Colonies came together to vote on the issue of Independence from England and on the Fourth of July, 1776 congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence and the United States of America was born. Happy Birthday America!

Our founding fathers by their own admission were not great men or radical thinkers, they just did what they saw as their duty to preserve their "natural-born rights as Englishmen". The ideas for our Independence form England can even be seen at work in the Magna Carta first established 1215. While it's true no colony had ever succeeded from the England before and the British were quick to call it treason, everything our Founders did was, in fact, legal. Jefferson himself explains that the Declaration was not meant to express anything new. Jefferson said it was "not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before, but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject."

For all the talk about democracy, another great misconception is that the United States is a democracy, we are in fact a Republic, and our founding fathers went to great links discussing this matter, and felt it was necessary that the distinction was made. They claimed that a democracy was both extreme and dangerous for a country as it would most assuredly result in the oppression of the minority by the majority. Take this one example from Founding Father, Elbridge Gerry: "The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy." And Thomas Jefferson said that democracy should never be practiced outside the limits of a town.

Don't feel bad if you didn't know these facts, I found them courtesy of Fox News in their "10 Things You Might Not Know About America's Independence" Click on the link to learn more!

In honor of our Country's birth I have made a dessert for the occasion, and what better way to celebrate the Fourth than with a creamy Cheesecake! Now of course since the United States is a melting pot, I have gone back to one of my favorite recipes for a delicious blend of cream cheese (Philadelphia Brand of course) and Mascarpone, that wonderfully versatile Italian cheese! Feel free to use all cream cheese for the recipe, but I have to tell you, it won't be as creamy without mascarpone.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 cup Shortbread Cookie crumbs* or Graham Crumbs

6 tablespoons butter, melted

* I was lucky enough to find Barilla Mulino Bianco Brand Rigoli

Filling:

2 8 oz packs cream cheese, softened

2 8 oz packs Mascarpone cheese

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon lime juice

zest of one lime

1 tablespoon vanilla bean powder or extract

5 eggs, lightly beaten

Strawberry Topping:

2 cups fresh strawberries

3/4 cup water

2 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

Whipped Topping:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 envelope gelatin

1 tablespoon super fine sugar

Directions:

1. Place the shortbread cookies in a food processor and pulse to a fine crumb.

2. In a small bowl, mix the cookie crumbs with the butter. Press onto the bottom and up one inch on the sides of a prepared 9 or 10 inch springform pan. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 325° for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cheeses, sugar, lime juice, zest and vanilla until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beat on low speed just until combined. Pour over crust. *optional water bath method
4. Bake at 325° for 50-60 minutes or until center is just set and top appears dull (do not overcook or the top will crack). Remove springform pan from the oven, and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around the edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer.
Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Before serving, prepare topping and Strawberry Glaze.

* If you want to have a perfect top of your cheesecake, place your prepared springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 18 in. square). Securely wrap foil around pan. Continue with the process and before placing in the oven, place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan. Since I almost always put a topping on my cheesecake, I rarely use the water bath method, but if you want a perfect top to your cheesecake, give it a try!
(After your cheesecake has properly set up, you can continue with the topping.)
5. In the bowl of your mixer, add the heavy cream and sprinkle the gelatin on top of the heavy cream and allow it to set for a two minutes. Add the sugar and whip till it is become whipped cream.
6. Place whipped cream in a pastry bag and make a ring of whipped cream on the top of the cheesecake to help keep the strawberries in place.

7. For the glaze puree 1 cup strawberries, mix the cornstarch into the water and add to the
strawberries and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until mixture is thick and
clear. (a drop of red food coloring may be used if it is not red enough)
8. Cool to room temperature.
9. Clean and remove the tops of the remaining berries, place on of the top chilled cheesecake. Pour
the glaze over the berries and chill one hour.

Now all you have to do is slice it up and serve it, just be ready to hand out the recipe, because once your friends and family taste this creamy and oh so delicious cheesecake they're going to want to make it at home!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, and where ever you are I hope that your Fourth of July is a happy one, and to all my friends in other countries, please join me in our celebration!!

Cheers'

Dennis

It's Guest Post Friday with Neo-Homesteading

2011-06-30T20:09:00.006-04:00

As we come to the end of yet another week of my summer vacation, and the days have begun to get shorter, I have to come to the sad realization that eventually yet another summer will be behind me. As I grow older, I stop to think about all the summers past, and how they were spent. In my younger days when I wasn't working they were spent in Atlantic City. Atlantic City in the 60's was such a different place, the boardwalk the piers with all their rides and attractions. and the movie theaters......sigh what a good life it was. My favorite place had to be the Steel Pier, you got to see a popular band, 2 movies, a stage show and of course the diving horse (you could never convince me the horse or the rider enjoyed that dive).

It also amazes me that I have become my father, which in truth is not a bad thing, but I think about my younger days, and I listed to oldies......heavy sigh But of course I digress, the summer has just begun and I still have so much do this summer, and it's still a good life! So lets get on with it!

Today it's guest post Friday and I know you're all here to see who is in the spotlight today, and you couldn't have picked a better day to stop by! Today my friends I want to introduce you to Cat from Neo-Homesteading. You'll find her given name to be Catherine, but all of her friends and family know her simply as Cat. If you haven't been to Neo-Homesteading before your certainly in for a treat, and I know you're going to become one of Cat's newest followers. Cat will not only tempt you with her delicious creations, but she'll have you drooling on your keyboard with the gorgeous images she takes of her food!

So sit back, relax, put your feet up and get ready for a serious stomach grumbling post as I give you.....

Neo-Homesteading

My name is Cat, I am a 26 yearold homeschooling-homemaker. I have two adorable little boys. Although theymake my hair fall out, just like any mother I happen to think they are thegreatest kids in the world. I wasn't born with a passion for cooking, (ormothering for that matter) however I have always had a desire to eat. WhenI was a teen I had more "problems" than I could count on one hand, Ihad no goals, no positive inspiration, no directions. I was going a millionmiles an hour on a dead end street and I was lost. A predictable story, it allstarted to change when my husband came along. We moved into a small apartmentin Philadelphia. I was on my way to being an 18 year old pregnant, newlywed. Iwas young, scared and about to be a mother. Soon enough, I'd have a human beingin front of me that would demand nourishment. It was a very powerful timefor me. I really extended my passion for food from eating, to cooking. I triedharder, and harder each day, with self-defeat at my heels I always wondered ifI was good enough. Will my kids feel what I was trying to share with them? Iwanted so badly to be perfect. Then there was thisepiphany. I realized that to make good food, love was the only additivenecessary. Food made simple and fresh was the best thing I could give myfamily. This deep connection to my food was because of my memories of food, and it wasn't just the food itself. Food to me was a reminder of times when Iwas happy, time spent with family. Strawberries for instance, I realizedbecame so much more than just a fruit to me. The humble little gems alwaysremind me of strawberry picking as a kid. I couldn't help but to remember howrewarding it felt eating the homemade preserves in the middle of a winterblizzard. It was the summer of 2003, and I'd made my very first entirelyfrom-scratch recipe, a strawberry pie. A hideous mess of a pie, but deliciousand rewarding.

Every meal to me is a littlereminder that to nourish your body you need food, to truly sustain yourself,you need love. Food was and is, the ultimate representation of love to me. Fastforward a few years and we've moved into the sticks. The setting is entirelydifferent, but I'm still pretty self-defeating. At least I'm no longer a waywardmess of a girl. I'm a woman with a destination almost in sight. Although I maynot have an itinerary, I at least have a path to follow. I know that food is mypassion. If I can share my passion for food then I'm sharing my love andpossibly helping to sustain someone else's desire to feed their families andfriends. Neo-Homesteading is just me, sharing my fondness of natural homecooked meals. Its a testament that food can still be made at home, and areminder that a meal is not just a meal. Its a bit of a surprise to me, but ithas become deeply personal. There's little noses behind my computer screen,there's little hands stealing my food before I get the "perfectshot." There's happy, healthy, monsters sharing this with me. (I do thework, they "share" the food.)

I'm grateful to have thisopportunity to do a guest post, it's an honor to be invited to do a guest poston any one's blog, let alone a great one! Blogs are extremely personal, forsomeone to share that piece of their life is a real gift. More than A MountFull has been an inspiration for me, its wonderful to see a chef involved withthe online food community in such a personable and humble way, and not onlydoes Chef Dennis reach out to fellow bloggers but he has one of the mostimportant jobs in the world, he is a teacher. Its spectacular to think he caninspire so many young minds, he can give them the map they need to avoidgetting lost, he can help them realize their own potential. Thank you ChefDennis, for sharing your little piece of the world in each and every post, andthank you for guest post Friday!

Super-Moist Strawberry Cake

This is a very moist, sweet anddelicious strawberry cake. I used fresh strawberries for the icing, homemadestrawberry & honey preserves for the filling and for the cake itself I usedfrozen strawberries that my family picked from a local pick your own farm lastsummer. Much like my very first pie it's not much of a looker. I assure youthat even though I lack the patience to make stunning meticulously decorateddesserts, this is a cake that you should enjoy barefoot with your eyesclosed.

Modified From A recipe from Vegan Thyme, entirelyun-veganized. Sorry Kelly!

Cake:

Wet Ingredients:

¾ cup butter (softened)

1 ½ cups sugar (I used a little raw sugar)

2 eggs

2 ounces softened cream cheese (softened)

¼ cup milk

1 ½ cups strawberries, mashed (thawed if previously frozen)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:

2 ½ cups all purpose un-bleached flour

1 ½ tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Filling:

½ cup Strawberry Jam

Icing:

4 ounces cream cheese (softened)

4 tablespoons butter (softened)

1 tablespoon vanilla

¼ – ½ cup of strawberries (*see note)

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter two 9” round cake pans. Dust with flour, patting outthe excess. (If you have parchment liners you can use those as well, this is avery moist cake and it will help prevent sticking.)

In one bowl combine dry ingredients. Whisk together or siftto remove any lumps.

In a large bowl combine butter, cream cheese and sugar. Beattogether until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Combine strawberries,milk and vanilla. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients, and the strawberrymixture into the creamed mixture. (Mix half of the dry , half wet, the otherhalf of the dry and the remaining wet) Pour half of the batter into each pan.Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly golden brown, or an inserted toothpickcomes clean. Allow to cool fully beforefrosting.

To Prepare the Frosting:

In a large bowl combine butter and cream cheese. Beat untilcombined and fluffy. Add vanilla and strawberries until combined. Once thismixture is fluffy and combined well incorporate 1 cup of powdered sugar at atime until you've reached your desired texture.

To Assemble:

Place one of the cooled cakes onto a plate or cake platter.(Refrigerating the cakes until they are fully cold makes working with them mucheasier) Smear the top evenly with the strawberry jam. Place the other cake ontop. Ice the cake and decorate if desired. Enjoy!

*note: For a more traditional fluffy butter cream frostinguse less strawberries, or even mash the strawberries and strain them. This reduces the moisture allowing it to beperfect and fluffy, ideal for cup cakes or a cake that needs to travel.

Ok, I know everyone is going to be heading for the kitchen for a serious strawberry fix, but before you do, make sure you stop on over to Neo-Homesteading and say hi to Cat, and tell her how much you enjoyed her post today, just remember to tell her chef Dennis sent you! After you've eaten something, start going through her past posts, just be prepared to stay awhile, she does know her way around a kitchen.

Before I let you go I would also like to remind you about the Asheville Wine and Food Festival, Its August 12th and 13th and you will have the time of your life eating and drinking your way though the culinary mecca of the South, and of course I'll be there too! The two day event starts Friday at The Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar for registration and a welcome cocktail! Stop by our website, The Southeastern Food Lovers Association for links to the event, we will be updating the page as we go, providing more information. The price of the Festival is only $69.00 and will cover tickets to the Sweet Event and the Grand Tasting, as well as a special breakfast with us, and few other little goodies thrown in.

If you live in the anywhere near Asheville, you don't want to miss it!

Thanks so much for stopping today, and I hope everyone has great weather and enjoys a wonderful holiday weekend !!

Our Food Bloggers Festival - Destination Asheville

2011-06-29T14:04:00.005-04:00

I am sorry I have been absent this week, I went down to Asheville to finish coordinating plans for our involvement in the Asheville Wine and Food Festival on Sunday and Lisa and I had a wonderful time enjoying that beautiful city! We were lucky enough to have a guide for part of the trip, Sommer from A Spicy Perspective was kind enough to pick us up for our meeting with the Festival Director Bob Bowles, but also showed me around beautiful Asheville.

I have to say I fell in love with the area, the wonderful restaurants and the Artisans that have made Asheville their home have turned this city into quite the destination! Sommer and I we're fortunate enough to be invited to the directors home for a wood fired pizza party and we actually made up our own pizza's, even Lisa got into the act making a pizza. Thanks to Bob, his wife and friends for making us feel so welcome in their home and sharing this delicious wood fired Pizza with us!

Bob Bowles

Sommer from A Spicy Perspective

my pizza creation

Wood fired pizza's

I don't know how many of your friends have their very own wood burning brick oven in the back yard but it was quite an experience seeing one used. The oven reached a temperature of 750 degrees and the pizza took all of about 3 minutes to cook. It reminded me of being in Italy....sigh

With our business finished and our bellies full we headed back into Asheville to check into our hotel, and a much needed rest before exploring the city. We stayed at the Grand Bohemian Hotel, just outside of the city right across from the Biltmore Estate. Now if you wanna talk having more money than you know what to do with how about building a home with 43 bathrooms! We did not get to tour the estate, but it will definitely make it on our next trip down.

Monday we spent exploring Asheville, taking our time walking through out the city. The shops, galleries and restaurants had something for everyone, including 3 gourmet chocolate shops!! What more could you ask for! Asheville is definitely a culinary mecca as well, with a restaurant to fit every palate, whether your in the mood for some down home Barbecue, a Vegetarian feast, or Himalayan Food, they truly have something for everyone!

Outside the Asheville Civic Center

As we would our way through the city we spent some time in the shops of the Grove Arcade . The Arcade will be the sight of the first part of the Asheville Wine and Food Festival The Sweet Event on Friday night August 12th. The arcade is a wonderful collection of shops and restaurants and that night we will be having one big party inside sampling an array of locally-sourced desserts as well as champagnes, specialty cocktails, spirits, and dessert wines!

Grove Arcade

Stalls outside the Grove Arcade

The next morning we will be heading down to the Early Girl Eatery for Breakfast, and a blogging Q&A session. From what the locals tell me, this is their favorite place to meet for breakfast.

Early Girl Eatery

Later that day we're off to the Main Event, The Grand Tasting of The Asheville Wine and Food Festival at the WNC Expo Center. The best part is you don't have to drive, transportation to and from the Expo Center will be provided so you can feel free to sample the wares of the many different wineries there for the event.

The evening will wind itself down with one last gathering at a local pub, to talk over all we saw and say our goodbyes. Now make sure you stay an extra day, just to explore the city and everything else it has to offer.

So mark your calendars, for August 12th and 13th, and join us for the culinary event of the season in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina.

As our web site is updated with all of the new information, I will post a link so you can register for the event, with a button for easy payment via paypal. You get tickets to both events and a special breakfast with all of us for only $69.00! Now that's a great deal!

If you have any questions about the festival feel free to drop me a line at drayden4@verizon.net

Thanks so much for stopping by today, I promise to be back on schedule next week, and perhaps even a little about being stranded overnite in Detroit on may way home from Asheville.....sigh

But just because I love you, here's one last image to share with you........

My Precious

Cheers
Dennis

It's Guest Post Friday with The Harried Cook

2011-06-23T20:03:00.003-04:00

It's summertime and the livin' is easy.....sigh. It is a wonderful thing to be off, I had almost forgotten how good it feels to sleep to 6 and dare I say even 6:30 in the morning, just because I can! Now don't think I'm just lying around doing nothing, while it doesn't seem like I have gotten a lot accomplished my time has been spent just catching up with all that I hadn't done. I either have to start taking a serious regiment of vitamins or really figure a better way of time management. My company must have a class on time management but first I have to find the time to take it.....sigh

Ok, enough of my frivolous banter, I know why your here and its not to hear the old chef ramble (although I am very good it!), it's guest post Friday!!!! I do love Fridays, not only do I get to share the stage with one of the rising stars in our foodie world, more importantly I get to introduce a friend to all the wonderful people in our community!

Today my friends, I would like to turn over my blog to Marsha from The Harried Cook. For those of you that don't already know Marsha you are going to make a new friend today, and one that you will want to visit a few times a week! I think I've put on a few pounds just looking at all of the sinfully delicious creations she shares with us. So don't say you haven't been warned, you're going to find The Harried Cook not only fattening but addictive! Your also going to find one of the nicest bloggers your every going to meet.

So my friends sit back, relax, put your feet up, and prepare yourself for a snack run after you get done here, because your going to be hungry, as I give you..........

The Harried Cook

Mango MascarponeCheesecake with Cardamom Whipped Cream

It really is an honor to be guest posting on Chef Dennis’sblog. I don’t have to tell any of you what an incredibly generous andsupportive person he is. I know from reading past guest posts, and the commentsthat his readers leave, that he has touched the lives of so many people – notjust the students at his school – but each of us who has had the chance tointeract with him in the foodie world.

He was one of the first people to comment on my blog when Istarted about four months ago, and reach out to me on Foodbuzz with valuableadvice on how to increase my readership. I love his blog and the food he cooks,and I am sure I am not the only one who has greatly benefited from his ‘AskChef Dennis’ series. Thank you, Chef Dennis, for all that you do!

For those of you I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting sofar, my name is Marsha. I am a work-from home mom to the cutest 20 month old inthe world, and I am sweetaholic! Yep.That’s me! I have 32 sweet teeth in my mouth, and I cannot go through a daywithout a sweet treat (or four). I am the kind of person who goes to a buffet,and nibbles on some good bread, skips all the other courses, and heads straightfor the dessert counter. So when Chef Dennis asked me to guest post, I didn’thave to think twice about what kind of dish I wanted to make. Dessert, ofcourse!

The rest of the decisions didn’t happen so easily though. Ithought, and thought and thought some more. What would be good enough for ChefDennis’ blog, and for his readers? Finally, this is what I came up with. Here’smy Mango Mascarpone Cheesecake with Cardamom Whipped Cream. I really hope youlike it!

Mango season is still going strong here in India, and we’reloving every minute of it!

Most mangoes that come into our home just get devoured asthey are, but this time we made an exception. And we were pleased with theresults.

I must mention that this is a small batch recipe. I haverecently started making everything in miniature, just to make sure my sugaraddiction doesn’t take over completely. I used 3” fluted pie tins to bake thesebeauties. This recipe makes four 3” tarts. To make the same recipe in an 9”springform pan, you need to make three times the amounts mentioned below.

Mango MascarponeCheesecake w/ Cardamom Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

Crust

3oz ginger nut cookies

1/2 cup rolled oats

2 tbsp salted butter

Filling

4oz mascarpone (I used homemade)

4oz cream cheese

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

½ tsp vanilla

½ tsp lemon juice

A pinch of salt

Mango Gelee

½ cup pureed mango, strained

1 tbsp powdered sugar (more if the mango is sour)

1 tsp lemon juice

1 ½ tsp powdered gelatin

2 tbsp water

Cardamom WhippedCream

½ cup whipping cream

1 tbsp powdered sugar (or more if desired)

½ tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp fresh cardamom powder

Method

Crust

1. In a blender or food processor, powder theginger nut cookies and oats until fine, and transfer to a bowl

2. Pour in the melted butter and stir well tocombine.

3. Divide the mixture among the four mini pie tins,and press into the base and the sides of the tin.

4. Refrigerate until required.

Cheesecake Filling

1. In a large bowl, whip the cream cheese andmascarpone until light and fluffy.

2. Add the sugar and continue whipping for anotherminute.

3. Add the egg. Beat well to incorporate.

4. Mix in the vanilla, lemon juice, and salt. Whipuntil evenly blended.

5. Spoon into the prepared pie crusts, making sureeach crust is about ¾ full.

6. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until the fillinghas puffed up slightly and the centers of the cheesecakes wobble slightly whenshaken gently.

7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Thecheesecakes will continue to cook and firm up while cooling.

8. When completely cool, top with the mango geleeand refrigerate at least 3 hours, until the gelee has set.

Mango Gelee

1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the powdered gelatinover the 2 tbsp of water and allow the gelatin to soften for a few minutes.
In a medium bowl, combine the mango puree, sugar and lemon juice.

2. Place the bowl with the gelatin in a larger bowlfilled with warm water and allow the gelatin to melt.

3. Stir the liquid into the mango puree and stirwell to combine.

4. Spoon ¼ of this mango mixture over eachcheesecake and refrigerate to set.

Cardamom WhippedCream

1. Whip the cream till it forms soft peaks.

2. Add the vanilla, sugar and cardamom powder andcontinue to whip for a few minutes until well combined. Do not over-whip thecream.

Serve the cheesecakes chilled (maybe garnished with a sprigof mint) and spoon some of the cardamom whipped cream alongside eachcheesecake.

This cheesecake is really, really creamy because of themascarpone. The gelee is supposed to be just set, and still creamy and notrubbery or chewy. The mango flavor really comes through. To be completely honest– cardamom is my LEAST favorite spice. And so, I don’t know why I decided touse it in this recipe. It just made sense to me when I thought about it, and Ihate to admit it works really well with the mango.

I really love being a guest here on Chef Dennis’ blog, and Ireally hope all of you enjoy this recipe. Thank you for having me, Chef Dennis!Happy weekend, all! J

I have to say that is one of the prettiest little cheesecakes I have ever seen, I hope you enjoyed this wonderful post as much as I did, and before you forget, please head on over to The Harried Cook and say hi to Marsha, just remember to tell her Chef Dennis sent you! While your there you can enter to win a copy of Jill Colona's book Mad About Macaroons, in fact Marsha is giving away two copies of Jill's book so you really have two chances to win!! So hurry over to The Harried Cook to enter to win, you have until June 26th to enter.

Well my friends that's about it for today, for anyone in the Asheville Area, I will be down on Sunday and Monday to finalize the plans for our part in the Asheville Wine and Food Festival, it is truly going to be the must attend event of the season and I promise to have more information for you when I return. Just mark your calendars for Friday August 11th and Saturday August 12th. It is truly going to be a stellar event!

Have a wonderful weekend, and please make sure you take some time to spend with your family and friends. Eat something wonderfully delicious and just enjoy the day!

Grilled Maple-Brined Pork Chops and Ask Chef Dennis

2011-06-22T12:52:00.000-04:00

I feeling kind of lazy today, I had full day yesterday meeting friends and feeding relatives, so today I'm taking a me day and devoting it to not a whole lot of anything.....lol

I had the great pleasure of meeting up with Julie from Mommie Cooks yesterday while she was visiting Philadelphia . We had one of those moments when you actually meet someone for the first time, the awkward first hello. While we knew each others online persona oh so well, here we were actually meeting for the first time, but it didn't take long to get over that feeling. When your a foodie, your never at a loss for conversation, and at the end of our visit we parted as old friends. One thing for sure when your a foodie your never at a loss for conversation, and my wife was happy not to be the one having to listen today to my endless talk about food and blogging about food!

We enjoyed a walk through the Reading Terminal Market, and lunch next to the famous Terminal Pig, which her boys had a great time playing on!

If your ever in Philadelphia I highly recommend a trip to the Reading Terminal, you won't be sorry, it is a foodie paradise, with foods from all over the world.

With the pig in mind I thought Pork Chops would be the perfect topic for today's post. This time of year I grill as much as I can, and while we don't eat a great deal of pork (and I don't eat beef), we do enjoy an occasional chop or tenderloin. Grilling pork, especially boneless chops is always a difficult proposition, they get tough and dry so easily. I have brined poultry before with great results so I thought I would give it a try with pork chops. They turned out very flavorful and tender, but just a bit dry, I only had 2 hours to brine them and I think they would have benefited from at least 8 hours, if not over night.
There's no real secret ingredient to brining other that salt and water, anything else you add in is mostly for flavor and color. Fresh herbs are always a wonderful addition, but sadly I had nothing on hand, so I settled for a sweet and spicy garlic brine, with maple syrup as the sweetener.

If you haven't tried brining please do, you'll surprise yourself!

Maple Brining Solution (for 6-8 pork chops)

Ingredients:
6 cups Water
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 cup Maple Syrup
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Dijon Mustard
12 cloves of Garlic crushed
1/2 cup Kosher Salt or Coarse Sea Salt
1 tsp Red Pepper flakes
2 sprigs of Fresh Rosemary (or herbs of your choice)

1. In a large pot, combine the water, salt, brown sugar, maple syrup, sugar, vinegar, garlic, mustard and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat.
2. Let the brine cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Add the pork chops to the brine and refrigerate for 7 to 8 hours, turning the chops after 4 hours. (don't let them brine for more than 12 hours)
4. Remove the pork chops from the brine and pat dry
5. Lightly coat the pork chops with Olive Oil and sprinkle a liberal amount of black pepper on them.
6. Sear the chops directly over the hottest part of the open grill for about 2 minutes on each side. Then move the chops to the medium area of the grill, cover the grill, and cook to the desired doneness.
7. Make sure to use an instant-read digital thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chops. A reading of 145° will give you a pink, moist chop (that temp was just approved by the federal government for pork) If you want them more well done, let them cook until 160° but no more.

Serve the chops immediately with your favorite sides and enjoy!

Ask Chef Dennis

it's been a pretty slow week as far as questions go, but one topic that does consistently come up is about our dear friends at foodbuzz, so once again for all of the newbies out there, here is the article that started it all.

Chef Dennis' Foodbuzz Etiquette 101

1. When you send a friend request to a potential friend, you should do the following!

a. Buzz your potential new friend (where it says buzz'em under their name)

b. Buzz a post or two of theirs (look under activity on their profile for their newest

posts)

c. Check out their website, and leave a comment, show some love!!!

d. Follow them on twitter and facebook if they have those options on their page.

Add them to your page if you don't have them!

2. Now as you make more and more friends, you will begin to find your place in the

community, where ever you find yourself be a responsible foodbuzz blogger.

a. Follow the posts of your circle of friends, buzz their new posts, everyone wants to

make the Top 9 and they need your votes!

b. Make new friends, if they don't know the etiquette, teach them. Share Your Knowledge!

3. Comments are like a drug to bloggers, we live for them, we love them, they keep us

going! When someone cares enough to leave you a comment, leave one for them.

Foodbuzz comments are great, but they aren't the same as blog comments!!

a. Your comment should be more than 2 or 3 words, "Looks Great" is not a

comment, its a drive by! Leave a comment that shows you read the post.

b. You can't always leave a comment for every one left for you, but do your best

to let your fellow bloggers know you haven't forgotten them and appreciate their

comments.

c. If someone leaves you a comment on your blog, leave one on their blog, don't just

leave them a foodbuzz comment, its not the same thing!

(Leaving a comment on their post on foodbuzz, does increase their buzz score!)

d. Now repeat after me....Blog comment = Blog comment!!!!

(I know practice what you preach...sigh, summer is coming I promise)

4. Interacting with fellow bloggers is a wonderful way to build friendships and build

community.

a. When a blogger asks a specific question, answer them, emails are the best way to

do that.

b. Now if you ask a question, make sure you leave an email address, so it can be

answered.

5. Setting up your Foodbuzz account is important, getting your information where

others can find it, it's important!

a. Don't forget to list your website, click on Edit Your Profile. on your homepage.

That makes it easier to find you!

b. Don't forget to list an email on your blog about you page!

c. If you don't have a blog, but like to leave comments it's ok, just don't be anonymous!

6. Facebook and Twitter are a great way to network, use them, but put the links

where we can find them! It's hard to like you if we can't find you!

a. Place your Facebook link near the top of your page where we can find it as we are

reading your post.

b. That works for Twitter too!

7. If you have any questions, ask someone who has been around for awhile. If it's about

the buzz system, well its complicated.

a. Your buzz goes up when others buzz you

b. Your buzz goes up when you post more often

c. Your buzz stays longer when you buzz others and buzz their posts.

Buzz Points- we all want them, were just not sure how to get them. I believe the answer lies in these areas.

1. Personal Buzz. To get your personal buzz score higher, you need to post! That is post regularly and post as often as possible. Now here is where I believe it gets tricky, but I could be way off base. I think the system recognizes your blogging schedule to a point and it gets use to it (really quickly), so if you blog 2x a week, and then change to 3x a week, and then go back to 2x a week, I think your points start to drop off faster. At least it seems that way to me.
I believe your personal buzz is also based on the number of visits your Foodbuzz page gets, and of course if anyone buzzes you! So newbies, if you want a new friend, make sure you Buzz them when you make the friend request, now remember that works both ways!! Buzz the newbies, when they friend you!!

Now this is just pure speculation but I believe if you buzz others and others posts, it will also help your buzz score. Think about it, Sponsors pay on the number of hits that are received, so wouldn't it make sense to reward those who took the time to go to other bloggers Foodbuzz page and buzz them, or check out their activity and buzz their posts, thus creating more hits?
So the first Golden Rule of Foodbuzz is: Buzz unto others as you would have them Buzz unto you!

2. Post Buzz-How do I get my post buzz higher. That answer seems a little easier, In order for you post buzz to go up, others need to buzz it! Pretty simple, huh! Well not really, if your new and you don't have a lot of friends not that many will get your share notice and go see your post. Does everyone know they have to share their post? So how do you fix that, you need to friend more bloggers, I would say you need at least 300 to get a good base! So get to work!! Now even if they all don't buzz you ( vote for your post), I have to believe you get something for the traffic to your page. See there is the traffic part again, hits = $.

Photography

I would like to leave you with one tidbit about your images before I say goodbye.

when you name your images, do not just leave the numbers that come out of the camera, make sure you name the image exactly what it is, such as Grilled-Maple-Brined-Pork Chop. Just add a number after that, and you may have noticed I added a dash between each word.

The reason to name your images exactly what they are, is to let the search engines know what they are, giving you a better chance to have them come up in searches. The dash makes them easier for the search engines to read. Go figure.....

I was also told my my web Designer Melissa from Fine Lime Designs, that I need to have a Flickr account for my images, it gives you more of a chance to be picked up by the search engines, just don't forget to name your images! If your thinking of moving to wordpress, I highly recommend Melissa, drop her a line and tell her Chef Dennis sent you!

So my friends that's it for today, short and sweet for my lazy day! Thanks for stopping by, please send your questions, comments and ideas to me and I will be sure to give you a shout out when I share the information! Have a wonderful week and as always please remember.....

Share Your Knowledge-Together We Are Stronger

White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Blondies

2011-06-20T11:07:00.001-04:00

Today begins the official start of summer for us, and this morning to celebrate the start of summer, I slept until 6:30, can you believe it! Lisa and I both begin our first full week of being off from work, and today is just a lazy day! The weather's a little dreary today, but since were off it's still a beautiful day!!!

Our first outing of the summer will be this Sunday as we head down to Asheville, North Carolina to begin preparations for our Blogger festival in August. We will be part of the Asheville Wine and Food Festival on August 12th & 13th, and its going to be the must attend event of the season! Make sure to mark your calendars now so you won't forget. Our official website will be updated shortly and I will be able to direct everyone to the site to register for the event. If anyone is going to be in Asheville Sunday or Monday be sure to drop me a line, I welcome the opportunity to meet you all in person!

To start my week off, I was in the mood for something a little sweet and having been given a block of white chocolate to work with, I thought what better way to kick off the sweet season at home. I had come across a recipe for this white chocolate decadence at Your Homebased Mom, and let me tell you she certainly raised the bar with this incredible creation! I did tweak the recipe a bit and used a bit more white chocolate in the my bar, and adjusted the frosting a bit since the original recipe was a bit too sweet for us.
It was a dense white chocolate treat that truly was decadent, and the actually size of the bites were about a quarter of a normal bar (that's just how rich it was). I hope you enjoy my first white chocolate creation of the summer, those little beauties were delicious and very simple to make.

White ChocolateBlondies

Ingredients:

1 Cup Butter

1 Cup White Chocolate-chopped

4 Large Eggs

2 Cups Sugar

1 1/2 Cups Flour

2 tsp Vanilla Bean Powder or 1 tbsp Pure Vanilla

White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Butter

1/2 Cup White Chocolate-chopped

3 Cups Confectioners’ sugar

8 oz Cream Cheese

2 Tbsp Heavy Cream

2 tsp Vanilla Bean Powder or 1 TbspPure Vanilla

Directions:

Preheatoven to 350 degrees.

White Chocolate Blondie:

1. Melt the bar portion of the white chocolate and butter ina stainless steel bowl over a pot of simmering water, don’t let it get too hot,it burns easily!

2. Allow chocolate to cool slightly

3. Whisk in eggs one at a time and then add in the sugarslowly.

4. Add flour and vanilla bean powder, mix just enough toincorporate flour.

5. Place into a buttered 9 x 13 baking pan. Bake for35-40 minutes, or until blondies are cooked through.

6. Allow to cool and then apply a liberal layer of frosting.

White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting:

1. Melt white chocolate and butter in stainless steel bowl over pot ofsimmering water

2. Remove the chocolate mixture from heat and in add thepowdered sugar and heavy cream.

3. In the bowl of your stand mixer whip 8 oz of cream cheese with yourvanilla, then add in the chocolate mixture and allow to mix thoroughly.

4. Apply a liberal amount of frosting to blondies, chillbriefly and cut into small pieces.

The flavor of the ground vanilla beans really hightlighted the flavor of the white chocolate, but if you don't have any of the powder just substitute pure vanilla, any way you make them they will be decadently delicious!

Have a Great Week my friends, and thanks so much for stopping by today!!

It's Guest Post Friday with Kate From Scratch

2011-06-16T20:38:00.000-04:00

We've had some great weather in the Philly area this week, temps in the low 70's and no humidity, it has been truly glorious, especially after the 98 degree temperatures last week! I know we can't expect this weather to hold much longer, I mean it is almost officially summer, and the heat will definitely be upon sooner or later.....

While I wouldn't say this is my favorite time of year, it does have its good points. What I love most about this time of year is how long it stays light out, as the days get longer, I seem to have so much more time to enjoy life. I don't feel as rushed and each day just seems longer. I remember being 13 or 14 and riding my bike just for fun, not really going anywhere or doing anything, but just to be outside, and of course I would always push it to see how long I could stay out, most times making it home after the last light had disappeared. Those were the days....sigh

But enough of the old chef's ramblings, it's time to get to why everyone is here today, it's guest post Friday!!!! I know how much everyone looks forward to Fridays at MTAMF, and I am no exception, it is my favorite day of the week!

Today My friends I get to share my blog with Kate, who is the author, photographer, and chef extraordinaire at Kate From Scratch, where she tempts us regularly with her culinary creations. I met Kate a few short months ago when she burst upon the scene at foodbuzz where she quickly became a rising star, tempting us with each and every post. It has been my pleasure to get know her, and for those of you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Kate yet, your in for a treat!
So my friends, sit back, relax, put your feet up and get ready for those stomach grumblings as I bring you Kate and........

Kate From Scratch

Thank You Chef Dennis for this wonderful opportunity to introduce myself and show your readers what Kate from Scratch is all about!

Hello readers! Let’s all give Chef Dennis a round of applause! Yes, you, sitting at your computer…

Chef Dennis is a cornerstone of the food blog community, and uses his platform wisely with integrity, offering constant support to all who ask, without fail. He is a superior example of professionalism and kindness and the balance between the two, as you already know. The mouth wateringly flavorful dishes and recipes he publishes for us on a consistent basis are a reflection of his extensive experience and knowledge, which is very humbling, particularly for me, today, as I am honored to guest post here, on the highly acclaimed, More Than a Mount Full - A Culinary Journey. . I

My Foodie Philosophy:

The aroma of home cooking is timeless, classic, and comforting to the core of the human, social, and family experience. Cooking is my meditation with sounds of clanging pots and pans and the scent of fresh produce as I chop and prepare with diligent attention to detail and awareness of food integrity in the home cooking experience.

Home cooking (for us) is about excitement and anticipation building as flavors gain depth and layer upon one another with time and technique. The fragrant, soothing aromas roam the hallways of our home and flow through the windows, out to the yard. The experience calls to my family and loved ones as the quality of the long-awaited dish reaches its apex. I hope that someday the same, aromatic warmth fills my children’s homes, evoking happy memories and laughter, as they share their talents in the kitchen with their families and children.

On other days…I open a box of pasta and fancy-it-up.

It’s all about moderation and balance. We live by it.

About Kate from Scratch:

The Process: I write honestly about what we (me and my family of boys) eat on a daily basis. I love a challenge and trying new things. I research, weeding out flavors and elements from several recipes to blend together, learning as I go. I also might read something that seems very challenging and I’ll let it bounce in my brain for a while before mustering up the confidence to dive in (usually head first). I love studying and researching technique and practicing that technique to perfection. What I seem to be noticed for, however, is when I take elements from a seemingly challenging recipe and make it more approachable for the everyday, busy, home cook. I also write a lot on fixations that I like to call “projects”. I basically research one dish for several days or weeks and then let that research inspire something, naturally. I have tried to tame excessive researching and posting on projects, since it’s not that interesting (except for in my head).

The Food: We make blended family meals, which is how my family eats on a daily basis. We eat vegetarian dishes and I cook protein/meat as a side dish (or skip it altogether, if appropriate). This seems simple, but there are very few recipes out there that do it. For centuries we were taught that a meal revolves around meat, so it’s a very tricky concept to make peace with, particularly for meat-heavy cultures and older generations. Me? I’m an American lacto-ovo vegetarian born in the early 1980s and I have a family of insatiable meat-eaters to feed, so it’s been an organic evolution to cook and eat this (veg-blended-family) way. The food I make is just what we like to eat. I omit the meat and then add it back in at the end of the dish, separately (if that makes sense to you at all, you’re as nuts as I am). I love vegetarian dishes and sweets and the boys love meat dishes, comfort food and cookies and cupcakes. We’ve yet to post any seafood, but maybe that will change as the boys grow and I gain interest and experience in the area.

The Theme: If “Kate from Scratch” were just about what I like to cook, I’d have an audience of single ladies in the city eating fancy salads, wine and cheesecake (not that there’s anything wrong with that). However, I write in celebration of food, family, laughter and life which inspires our library of recipe-based-blog-posts that are eclectic, entertaining, hearty, and satisfying.

KfS Dinner Time!

I’ve chatted enough, now. Are you hungry, yet?

Let’s get to the cooking! I’d like to share with you this amazing recipe from a tiny little cookbook I found that I absolutely love so that you can go and eat it too. You won’t be sorry. It’s from my Italian food go-to book. The recipe is for ravioli. Ravioli is one of my favorites because it can be prepared in advance and then frozen. Convenient home-cooking on a budget that tastes amazing? Yes it is. Italian food is a very big staple for our family.

You can freeze the sauce as well as the ravioli and cook it up in the middle of the week in a matter of minutes without resorting to factory made frozen food that’s not that great as far as quality and taste are concerned. I make this recipe with makes several batches of fresh ravioli for fast-fix, weeknight dinners. Meals are always on hand with little planning, a fresh salad, and some effort ahead of time.

This recipe is the perfect balance of quality, freshness, and time management, creating the time to laugh with loved ones over a superior quality, fresh meal. I hope you join me, Kate, and my family, as we bask in the delightful, simple joys of the family, home-cooking, experience.

Raise your glass with us in celebration of food, family, laughter and life.

Enjoy.

Ricotta Filled Ravioli and Marinara Sauce

Adapted from “Cooking with the Italians of Newark New Jersey”, by Elizabeth Barone Callahan

Pasta Dough

· 2 cups flour

· 2 cups semolina flour

· 3 large eggs (lightly beaten)

· 1 tablespoon olive oil

· 4 tablespoons warm water (more if needed)

Filling

· 3 pounds of ricotta cheese

· 2 eggs, gently beaten

· 2 tablespoons parsley

· ½ cup Parmesan cheese

· 1 teaspoon pepper

· 1 teaspoon salt

Marinara Sauce

· 3 cans whole tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, or tomato puree

· 3 cloves garlic, chopped

· ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

· 3 tbsp. fresh basil or 1 tbsp. dry basil

· 3 tbsp. fresh oregano or 1 tbsp. dry oregano

· 1 tsp. sugar

· ¼ tsp. dry red pepper flakes

· Salt and pepper to taste

Ravioli

· Semolina Pasta Dough

· Ricotta Ravioli Filling

· Water

· Salt

· Marinara Sauce

· Parmesan & Parsley, for garnish if desired.

Note: This recipe made approximately 5 dozen ravioli for us. I’d recommend doubling the sauce recipe or halving the ravioli recipe, if you plan to have proportionate amounts of each. This lasts at least 2 months in the freezer. We usually eat it before that, though.

For the semolina pasta dough: Whisk flour and semolina together in bowl. Make a well in the center and add eggs, oil and water. Mix with hands until evenly incorporated. Knead thoroughly for another 8-10 minutes. Add more water if necessary kneading the dough until it is soft, smooth and elastic. Cover bowl with plastic for ½ hour, while you make filling.

For the filling: Combine ricotta and gently beaten eggs and stir. Add parsley, parmesan, pepper and salt. Stir again.

For the Marinara Sauce: Heat olive oil over medium heat in a 3-quart saucepan and add garlic. Gently fry garlic. Do not let garlic brown (bitter – yuck!). Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, sugar, pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Simmer for approximately one hour, stirring occasionally.

For the ravioli: Prepare sheet pans by sprinkling with semolina flour. Quarter the semolina pasta dough. Roll one quarter on lightly floured surface to a very thin sheet (1/8 of an inch). The dough should be very thin and translucent before filling. Drop a tablespoon of filling on dough three inches apart. Fold dough over the filling and cut with cookie cutter or pastry cutter. Place on prepared sheet pan and seal ravioli edges by pressing together with the tines of a fork. Repeat this for the remaining dough.

Before boiling or freezing, pierce ravioli with a toothpick to prevent bursting.

Fill large pot ¾ of the way with hot water and add salt. Add salt to taste (I recommend water taste like the ocean – or slightly less - better that way). Cover to bring water to boil. Remove cover when water starts boiling and gently drop 12-15 ravioli in boiling water. Boil for 10 minutes, or until ravioli reaches al dente. Remove ravioli from water and toss gently with fresh marinara sauce. Top with parmesan and parsley.

Enjoy!

To Freeze Ravioli: Place sheet pan in freezer after piercing ravioli with a toothpick. Once ravioli is frozen transfer to air tight container or bag. This prevents ravioli from freezing together.

To Freeze Marinara Sauce: Place any remaining sauce in a one quart or half quart container(s). This allows you to defrost one batch at a time, without wasting or having leftovers hanging in the refrigerator.

Now if that doesn't get the juices flowing, and make you wish you could try those delicious little pockets of ricotta, I don't know what will, and before you forget, head on over to Kate From Scratch and warm welcome to Kate, and if your old friends stop to tell her how much you enjoyed her post, just don't forget to tell her chef Dennis sent you!

Thanks for stopping by today, its been a wonderfully relaxing week, and I do hope all of you have a chance to enjoy this beautiful weather and take some time for yourself. If you have a few minutes, find yourself a lawn chair, or a blanket and join me outside to look for the first star of the evening and as the fire flies start to appear and the last light of the day becomes just a memory, ........think back to a simpler time, when the only worries we had were how much fun we were going to have tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weekend my friends and do try to take some time with your family and friends and just relax and watch the fire flies.....

Collingswood Farmers Market and Ask Chef Dennis

2011-06-14T23:48:00.000-04:00

After a long hard cold winter, our Farmer's market re-opened this year to record crowds and every week it seems even busier. There's just something so special about fresh fruit and vegetables, especially when they're local, sadly though this time of year we're seeing very little local produce and most of it is still hot house grown......sigh, but it's a start. The Collingswood Farmer's Market brings not only fresh produce, but a nice selection of baked goods, free range meats and eggs, local honey, flowers, plants and

even baked dog treats!

One of the best things about The Collingswood Farmer's Market is it's location, it's not only convenient for locals, but its right on the high speed line, which makes it accessible from Philly down to Lindenwold, and all points in between. They even have guest chef's from time to time, hey guys if your reading this, I'm available to help!

Grilling fresh veggies is my favorite way to prepare them, olive oil, sea salt and pepper and were good to go. Grill them before your entree and just let them sit at room temperature. They also make a great appetizer, serve them with some crusty bread and just watch them disappear!

Ask Chef Dennis

Foodbuzz

I don't think a week goes by that I don't receive 5 or 6 emails about foodbuzz, the hows and whys of the operation of the sight we all love, but don't understand.

In previous posts, I have talked about uploading your own post, and why it's important to do it yourself.

There are quite a few benefits to uploading your post, and one question I had received was what the difference was in posting as a blog post or a recipe. My thought was that since it was a blog post, that you should upload it as a blog post, it just makes sense. I didn't know why at the time, but it did. I had a few comments from other bloggers saying oh they do both, it doesn't matter. That just didn't sit right with me, I do understand that everyone has their opinion, but as a chef, details are important, you do things for a reason, sometimes you may not always know the reason right away, but you trust the system until you learn otherwise.

Well, yesterday I finally figured it out. When you upload a blog post, you can comment to that post, and guess what happens when your friends comment on that specific post? Your buzz goes up!

When you post as a recipe (even though it is a blog post) the comment function is not there.

So there is a reason for everything.....hmmmm

Now that's not the only benefit of uploading your post yourself. When you upload your post, you get to pick an image to send with it. If you don't upload an image, don't complain that you never make the top 9. No image uploaded = No top 9! Just remember something about the top 9, it's all subjective, it all depends on who is picking the images that morning and if they had their grande no fat, soy latte with half a shot of peppermint and a just a sprinkle of nutmeg, or if they're nursing a hangover.

I hear that you have to be a Featured Publisher to get into the top 9 too, I don't think that's true, if your images are good enough (and the stars are aligned) you can still get in. So hang in there and just keep working on your images like the rest of us, it will happen!

Photography

I am still struggling with the digital age, what's the saying you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Well this old dog is still living in the film age. I think part of the reason I have not gotten much better with my images is that it's too easy to shoot. Just click and keep shooting, fill up a card, just get another one.

In the age of film, I studied light, studied the subject, took readings, took test shots, and then fired off 2 or 3 rolls tops . With my pentax 6x7 I got 10 images to a roll. In those days if you got 2 or 3 really good images from that shoot, you had done your job. With digital, I feel more carefree, no film, no added expense, so just keep shooting........sigh, and if that's not enough, I can correct most of my mistakes with Photo imaging software. This summer I plan on learning how to get more out of my camera, that is a promise!

I would like to share with you a book I recently picked up, that has already had an impact in my shooting. I was an accidental find for me, then after reading it and looking at the sample images, I realized just how many of my fellow bloggers already had the book. If you pick it up, you'll understand why as soon as you see the images in the book.

The name of the book is Plate to Pixel by Helene Dujardin from Tartelette , if you haven't visited her blog, please do.....and please tell her Chef Dennis sent you!

I recommend the book to any level of food photographer, I had a reader ask me what I have been shooting with. I did get a new toy at the beginning of the year a Canon 7d, it is a great camera, I had wanted a 5d Mark II, but just couldn't justify spending that much money on it, but I did pick up a 100mm Macro L series lens and that was well worth the money. That being said, before you rush out and buy a new camera, spend the $17.00 for Plate to Pixel and see the difference it will make in your images.....trust me on this one. Then if you do decide to get a better camera, you'll be ahead of the game!

Blogging

I think the topic I received the most email on last week was about ad networks. Sadly, Foodbuzz is becoming a not very popular ad network. I have heard from friends overseas, that they are no longer being paid on their second ads, and most of their hits are not being counted since they are out of the United States, and they're locked into a contract with foodbuzz. It doesn't seem fair that they have made so many changes to the ad network, and still insist we remain exclusive, and let's not even talk about our friends in Canada, they got wiped off the map entirely!!

Just so you don't think that foodbuzz is the only bad alternative, I spoke with a friend who has their ads on the Foodie Blog Roll, there posts are on a feed and automatically go there, so there is no reason for anyone to go to their blog......there posts have been receiving 6-7k hits but none of then go to their blog page, all of them stay at FBR.......hmmmm, that seems a little one sided to me, don't you think?

The two best options are Blogher and Platefull, you need to apply to both sites and wait to see if your accepted. Then you go on a waiting list until they can add you to their advertising network. So if you haven't applied now is the time to do it.

Community

I do have some news to share with everyone. The first part of my news is that our blogger festival in Asheville, North Carolina is back on, and I would like to thank Sommer from A Spicy Perspective for all her diligence and hard work pulling this together for us.

We will be joining the Asheville Wine and Food Festival on August 12th and 13th, for what looks the premier festival on the East Coast! So mark down those dates on your calendar, we will have all the details for you very soon!

My other news is that my web designer Melissa from Fine Lime Designs has been working on my new blog design with my move to Wordpress, its finally going to happen! If your looking for someone to work on your blog, check out Fine Lime Designs, you'll be happy you did. You might remember Melissa from a blog post I shared with you on Photography, She is quite the photographer herself and runs Eyes bigger Than My Stomach, stop by and see a sample of her work, just remember to tell her Chef Dennis sent you!

So that winds it up for today, I am feeling rested and raring to go! The weather has drastically changes from 100 degrees to the low 60's which makes things even better, the days are getting longer, and life is good! Have a wonderful week and keep those emails coming with your questions, suggestions or just to say hello, I love hearing from you! And please remember........

Share Your Knowledge-Together We Are Stronger