Semiserious Chefs

In the Norse cooking of Sweden, Norway, and Finland, potatoes usually accompany a main dish that may have a sauce and fresh herbs already included, so often they just serve the potatoes boiled and skinned to be added to the main plate and mashed with either butter or the main sauce. Here we have roasted […]

Samboosa are Arabic fried triangle pastries. They are most often savory, so the title word here, halwah or ‘sweets’ gives us a clue that this is a fried triangular pastry sweet snack. The original recipe I played off called for cashews and walnuts, but I am really not a fan of walnuts. For my rendition […]

Because quick pickling doesn’t require a bunch of time to be delicious, (not even overnight,) this is a FANTASTIC last minute dinner party recipe. It’s the perfect addition to the classic holiday dinner, but they are also just as good served with toothpicks along side your charcuterie board or other hors d’oeuvres. As for the […]

Somehow I think it is my life’s mission to discover the best way to serve cranberries. It’s like it calls me. I mean, who cares about cranberries, right? Perhaps that’s why I feel so impelled. Whatever the reason, I came pretty close last year with the Mulled Port Cranberry Sauce, but this year I stumbled […]

At the store recently I asked Nathan what kind of vegetable he would like to go with dinner and he picked out some nice looking zucchini. I know there are a lot of people who are not really fans of zucchini. In fact, I don’t often get it myself. I am simply not a ‘Spiralizor’ […]

I’ve made these breaded and deep fried mushrooms several times in the last 6 months, and figured it was time to add them to the site. As I was preparing to bring them to a barbecue recently I ran across a bag of pearl onions I had purchased on discount. I hadn’t really made a […]

This beverage was thrown together for a group of friends who happen to like mulled wine. I decided instead to mull some apple juice, (basically apple cider,) using cinnamon, mace blades, and cardamom, then spiked it with whiskey instead. A Note About Mace Blades I used mace blades to spice my apple juice. These intriguing […]

I first came across this recipe when looking for Lord of The Ring’s related dishes. It was originally called Smaug’s Balls. I played around with it a little and renamed it a much more sophisticated Smaug’s Gems, but now that I’m sharing it with the entire world, I think maybe they need another new name… […]

Although only given literately 5 seconds or less of attention on the air with Anthony Bourdain in Tangier, ‘Strawberries, Pine Nuts, and Honey’ pinged so loud on my foodie radar, “Make It! …Make It! …Make It!” that instead of having a song stuck in my head I pretty much heard this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9kv_V5lhiE ….from the moment […]

Cacao Nibs. They are all the rave, along side goji and acai berries. I purchased a little bag of each quite a while ago, looking for some hooty-snooty idea to make. When I found that Alton Brown had made a recipe for a ‘Chocolate Dressing,’ hailing all children for ovation, I said, “NEY! ‘Tis for […]