Meeting Take Home Chef Curtis Stone

Yesterday Sur La Table at Santana Row hosted a book signing for Curtis Stone's new cookbook "Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone"



Curtis walking to the stage for a cooking demo


Curtis during cooking demo


My cookbook autograph


Me with the adorable Curtis Stone

Cookbook Review - Gale Gand's Brunch!

I was recently asked if I would review a new cookbook from Gale Gand. The book arrived from the publisher on Wednesday. I poured over it that very night. Everything looked delicious. I was drawn to the photo on the cover for the baked eggs in ham cups, but felt sure that someone else would select that recipe to try.

Then a few pages later I looked at the glossy photo of asparagus with poached eggs and parmesan.
(click to embiggen photos)

I invited a few friends over for a sunday brunch. The recipe is very easy to follow, calling for ingredients that I readily had on hand. While I made a few modifications for my own cooking style (such as using an asparagus pot to cook the asparagus rather than the sauce pan) the food turned out delicious. I presented the dish on a platter and everyone served themselves.

All of my guests proclaimed the meal to be fantastic, including my best friends nine year old son. I served it with the bacon scallion scones from another recipe in the book.

I can't say enough good things about this book. I am anxious to try all of the other recipes and would like to thank Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness for asking me to be a part of this!

any book review that starts...

In Sicily they eat ice cream for breakfast. That fact alone was enough to convince Victoria Granof that she had to go there.

is enough to make me want to read it.

Sweet Sicily: The Story of an Island and Her Pastries is available on amazon.com.

101 tips

i actually paid the $10.00 for The Best of Fine Cooking Winter 2008 magazine.

it has some really terrific tips in it. things that i would never have thought of, and things that i wasn't sure what they meant. if you are a home chef, this magazine is a must to add to your cookbooks.

iron chef masaharu morimoto...

i snuck out of work a few minutes early this afternoon so that i could get to santana row by 5:00pm. my friend mrs. L had told me that the iron chef was going to be at sur la table for a book signing. she was unable to make it due to a prior commitment so i went in her stead.

this first picture is from the cooking demo that chef morimoto did.

this picture is from the book signing portion of the night. i was number 3 in line. when i thanked him in japanese, he got a huge smile on his face and shook my hand again and said "thank you so much..." :) how cool is that?

TV chefs coming to town...

tonight iron chef masaharu morimoto will be at sur la table in santana row for a cooking demo and book signing.

december 15th rachael ray will be at sur la table for a Q&A session and book signing.

this is what happens...

when you give me a new cookbook.

every one of those post it notes represents a recipe i want to try. and that's just ONE cookbook.