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Solo In The Kitchen

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Good Afternoon, Darlings!

I am a little distracted by the thought of snow coming our way and have spent most of my day reading about the snow or running to the window to look for snow. I am snow obsessed.

It’s a perfect day for getting into the kitchen and doing a little cooking and baking. For me, being alone in the kitchen is something akin to meditation. I chop, stir, season and taste test. Old R&B is on the radio. No one needs my time. It’s just me and the stove. Well, and the dogs. The dogs love the kitchen (something might fall on the floor!)

More After The Fold

Guest Blogger – Curtis and His Deconstructed Paella

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Good Morning, Darlings!

Today we have a guest blogger – my hilarious blogging (and real life) friend Curtis from over at Complete Waste of Time. If you remember, Curtis and I made carrot curd together. If that piqued your interest, his cautionary tale of deconstructed cuisine will slay you. I laughed until my sides hurt upon reading his story.

I think you will, too.

Enjoy!

xoxo, Patti

Hungry and Waiting for Paella

Hungry and Waiting for Paella

Paella Calamity

St. Augustine defined pride as: love of one’s own excellence. Pride I have in excess. Imagination I also have in excess. Cooking technique I do not. Don’t get me wrong, I cook quite well. But every so often I decide to leave the safety of my tried and true abilities for the culinary unknown. When I’m at my best, I do this at the most inopportune time.
This whole fiasco begins with an episode of Bravo’s Top Chef series. They did an episode based around deconstruction. Each chef chose a classical dish and had to deconstruct it as part of the competition. The losing dish was a horrid failing of paella.

Seeing this I decide that I can do better than the trained chef on television and will make it myself. But for what occasion? Paella is a pretty big dish and you don’t just make it on a Wednesday night. And considering I’ve never made it before, I let my imagination run wild with the possibilities. The occasion presented itself in a trip to a cabin in Blue Ridge, Ga. According to the website, the cabin had a well appointed kitchen with every pot and pan needed except a paella pan. But I’m deconstructing so I wouldn’t need it.

Failure or Disaster? Keep reading ->