Some days, you just can't care.

Some nights, you just can't be bothered to cook. I mean, really. Some nights, your heart just isn't in it. This coming from the man that loves to cook. But, I have good reason. I swear!! You see, most of the time, Sydney looks like this:

Even in the winter, most days are just like this, albeit a bit cooler than in the summers. On days like this, its no big deal to run to the shops and grab things for dinner. It's a joy really, walking around in weather like that. But today. Today, well... not so much. Today, well... Sydney looked like this:

On days like this, who can blame me for not wanting to go to the store, then drag the food home?? I would have had to practically swim to get to the grocer! Not happening, no way, sorry. 

So, for dinner, I got to treat JP and myself to one of my very favorite dinners: Japanese Noodles, or Ramen. Now, before we moved to Sydney, I pretty much thought ramen noodles where those little 99¢ packets of stale noodles that you eat in college. Nope, not so! It is actually totally amazing, with many different flavors and styles. We love it. Lots.

So, instead of making dinner, we decided to swim across the park to our favorite noodle house, Ichiban Boshi for a little hot noodle soup. Our favorite is a very spicy version of the soup, with minced pork. See how much I love it?

So yeah, totally not sorry for not cooking. It was worth it. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go wring myself out...

I got bored. So I made truffles. Sort of.

So, here's the thing. When I get bored, I tend to make food. Sometimes, it's something healthy, like the time that I made an entire stockpot full of Lentil soup. That was good. This time, however, well... see, JP, he likes chocolate...a lot.  And I was bored. That's my story, and I'm stickin to it!

I will be the first to admit that this little endeavor into making 'truffles' didn't start out that way.  I had made some chocolate bars from a Nigella Lawson recipe a few weeks ago. They were really great, but it got me thinking about mixing up the flavors and ingredients, trying to make something a little more interesting that chocolate bars with peanuts in it. So, while I was showering the other day, it suddenly hit me! White chocolate! Raspberries! Pistachios! Dark chocolate!

Then it all went wrong. I should have guessed that my cooking karma was off when I couldn't find salted and roasted pistachios that were already out of their shells.

But, no problem, I thought. I am totally into this idea, so I will just do it myself!

Then I spilled half the creme.

Then, the worst. I burned the dark chocolate. You know what happens when you burn chocolate? It separates... turns all weird and lumpy and oily... it was gross. Things didn't get better from there. I decided to let the white chocolate base set for a while until I figured out what to do with it... turns out, I used way too much creme while melting it. It didn't set hard. Tasted good, but was gooey. Not a good start for a chocolate bar, huh?

 Then, finally, inspiration! After forming the white chocolate into balls, I again melted down a few bars of dark chocolate (using a double boiler this time... I can be taught!) and started dunking them into the melted dark chocolate! Inspiration? That awesome chocolate shell you can get on soft serve.  Yum.

Finally, it worked!  I made White Chocolate Raspberry Pistachio Truffles! I'll work on the name.

Also, I told you JP loves his chocolate: he insisted on not wasting any of the melted chocolate...

Keep reading for the recipe

Comfort. It's a warm, gooey, cheesy blanket.

There is something wonderful about making comfort food. It's just so, well... comforting. Even better, is making a comfort food from your childhood. Even better than that, is making a comfort food from your childhood that includes cheese. Lots of cheese. Have I mentioned that I love cheese? Cause I do. So this comfort food that I am talking about. This is the stuff of legends. Baked Mac and Cheese. I am sure all of my sisters and my brother know exactly what I am talking about. This is the stuff that would cause epic arguments around the dinner table. I'm not even sure why my mother made it so often, cause the meltdowns it would cause among her 5 children were truly astonishing. You know what the cause of all this was? The top crust of the mac and cheese. It is that good. See? It's all crumbly and brown and cheese and delicious and... oh my god I'm drooling....

So, let me tell you about this mac and cheese. This isn't the type of recipe that comes out of a book somewhere. It's the type of recipe that looks like this:

And that is just one of the signs that it is a totally amazing meal. Another sign, and this is a HUGE sign really, that this recipe is amazing is this:

Cheese! Butter! More cheese! Just look at all that cheese!!  You just know something that requires 2 pounds of cheddar cheese is going to be amazing. There is just no way around that, unless you happen to be lactose intolerant. In that case, I am truly and utterly sorry. More for me!  Wheeee!!!

Continue reading for my Baked Mac and Cheese recipe

Heaven. It's a little Bleu.

I wanted to share something with you. I've discovered heaven. Heaven is amazing. And, it's Bleu. Actually, its two bleus. 


I love cheese. It is easily one of my favorite things to munch on. Brie, Cheddar, Gouda, those little tiny Babybel cheeses... you name it, and I probably love it. And will eat it all off your plate if you aren't looking. But, there is one cheese that has taken a while to garner my affections. Bleu Cheese. It seems a bit silly now, looking back at it. 


Honestly, it wasn't about the taste. That has always been just fine with me. It was those weird looking veins of blueish-green running through it. I mean, what is that?! Mold?! And that smell... whew. But, then I discovered just how amazing Bleu Cheese Dressing is on hot wings, and suddenly, I'm all... hello lover! 


So, dressing. I love making my own. It's easy, and you get to control the flavors and quality of ingredients. So, easy enough, combine two loves!  This dressing is so simple, and so very delicious it should be sinful. But it's not; it's heavenly. I think it took me less than 5 minutes to whip it up. 


Just grab the ingredients

Put them all into a bowl

Mix them all up

Taste. Once for perfection, twice, cause... well, you just will. Trust me

Put it on a salad. You know, cause that makes it healthy. Right? Right?!

Enjoy Heaven. Cause you will. Promise.

Continue reading for my Homemade 2Bleu Dressing recipe 

Learning to Cook. Twice.

It's actually a bit embarrassing to tell the truth. But, here it goes. I graduated from college barely able to make boxed pasta. Most of the time, it would just end up a large gooey clump in the bottom of the pot of water. Nasty. The first few times I went to the grocery store, I had to drag one of my friends with me, just so she could teach me how to go about shopping without leaving the store with only Twinkies and frozen dinners.


I love Twinkies. Guilty secret.


So, after a few weeks, I started getting the hang of things. I started to watch more cooking shows on TV, and before long I was totally ready, for the first time, to make dinner for my partner, JP. I made my mom's baked chicken with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans. 


It was incredible, just not in that really great way that you always want. The chicken was scorched on the outside, and raw inside. The potatoes tasted like chalky, chunky buttered garlic. The beans were good. We ate beans that night.


Needless to say, with time and practice, I have gotten much better. That's not to say everything always works out perfectly, cause it certainly doesn't. But at least my chicken is cooked all the way through now. Usually.


Then, about a year and a half ago, a funny thing happened. One day after work, JP came home looking kind of excited. I mean, he always seems a bit like a big kid, which I love, but this was different. Apparently, we were being transferred. How exciting!


Next thing we know, we were on a plane and moving to Sydney, Australia. And I had to learn to cook. All over AGAIN! I am not just talking about learning to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius (there is a neat little google translator for that!). I had to relearn everything, right down to the grocery shopping. What a nightmare. I broke out the boxed spaghetti.


So, why so different, you ask? Normally, I would be right there with you asking that same question. In theory, it shouldn't be all that different. I mean, it's not like Australia is some third world country or something. Far from it, in fact. We moved here from a not-so-big southern city in the US. Now, we are in a very, very big city, living in a very small big-city apartment with a tiny kitchen. That means small appliances that cook things differently.


Also, things are called different names here. Spring onions? Yeah, that would now be a shallot.  Shallots are now brown shallots. Kale is rhubarb leaf. Cilantro is now coriander. Rocket? Yeah, that's actually just arugula. And really, what the hell is a corugette?? Oh, it's just zucchini.


I used to get everything from the local Harris Teeter or Whole Foods. Now, I have my grocer, my fish monger, my butcher, and my other grocer for when my main one doesn't have everything I need. There is also the third grocer, just in case the first two fail. Do you know how long it takes to do the shops now??


At least this time around, it took far less time for me to figure things out. The one thing that still gets me is the oven. Stupid tiny apartment oven. You have weird cook times.

Continue reading to get Ma's Baked Chicken recipe.

Hello, Internets!

It all started out innocently enough.  I swear.  I just wanted to be able to cook more than boxed pasta and pre-made sauce for dinner.  It became very apparent that it was going to be me that had to take the lead in cooking;  you see, my partner... well, he work a lot, and also... well, this is the huge thing.  He is deadly in the kitchen.  I mean totally dangerous with a knife.  I'm amazed he has all his fingers, really.


So, me it was.  This is me:

Hello, Internets!

So, what started out as just a simple necessity of trying to feed my partner and myself, has become... well... a total obsession.  I love food.  Perhaps adore is the better sentiment.  Yes, I adore food.  I am always thinking about my next meal, even while I am eating.  I record cooking shows, so that I can watch them while my partner is at work (he, it seems, is not as enthralled with food as I am).  Even though it is just the two of us, I cook almost every night.  I can spend HOURS in a good grocery store, just wandering around and drooling over the produce (seriously, ask my sisters who live near the Whole Foods headquarters.  They laugh at me... all three of them).  Food has become my obsession, in a very serious way.

But, here is the thing.  I have no real training.  I am not a chef.  I am just a guy, who, through many misadventures, has learned how to cook great meals.  And I love it.  Hopefully, I will be able to transfer some of that love to you.  Or at least some great recipes.  Cause, who can't use another way to cook chicken, I mean, really.