liv bites

We’ve been cutting up chickens on a daily basis at Tante Marie’s over the past couple of weeks, so dinner this week was more practice: Roasted Chicken and an Arugula and Butternut Squash Salad with Pomegranate Seeds. The recipe for that is still in the works, but even more interesting was what I decided to [...]

I discussed last week’s fish workshop in plenty of detail, but I couldn’t wait to try baking the filets in parchment paper at home. Thus, it’s recipe time! It’s been a while since I posted a recipe on the blog, mostly because I’m focusing on taking everything in rather than producing something new. But I [...]

Last night I prepared a meal that contained no cheese. No sweet potatoes, no balsamic vinegar. Not even a pinch of chopped basil. Who is this girl? The second challenge in Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog asks contestants to go outside their comfort zones and prepare a classic dish from a foreign cuisine. Admittedly, the first [...]

The best thing about being in between my old job and new school is all the free time I have left to cook! I spent hours in my kitchen yesterday working on delicious blog material, and then my assistant came by for a quiet dinner for two. Between traveling and entertaining, we haven’t had one [...]

I know I just wrote about how easy it is to take instant couscous camping, but the truth is that my heart belongs to the big, pearl, Middle Eastern couscous over the smaller African variety. I know I’m not alone. The larger grains are softer and chewier than their cousins, more like a satisfying pasta [...]

When you’re craving a juicy, old-fashioned, no-nonsense steak, I find there is no substitute. A delicate filet of fish can’t compete, and even a hearty pasta dish falls short. It must be the umami flavor that makes your mouth water at the mere thought of red meat (I stopped myself from writing “je ne sais [...]

Ever since we made that delicious pork tenderloin in our Napa Valley cooking class, I’ve been dying to try some more pork dishes of my own. The catch, of course, is that I couldn’t just rip off the same recipes we cooked in the lesson, so this time I went in a completely different direction. [...]

Although most people imagine Mississippi as a hub for consuming grits, my mom only makes them once a year, at Christmas brunch. Along with about a hundred other side and main dishes, she whips up her version of gruyère grits that I adore, topped with mouth-watering grillades that take her all day to make (it’s [...]

My complaints about not having an outdoor area to grill in have been well-documented on this site, and I guess my generous dad took note! He sent me a very cool product, the Sanyo Electric Indoor Barbeque Grill, so I can fire up some meat and veggies in my little one-bedroom. The grill doesn’t get [...]

I love pizza. Especially the fancy Neapolitan kind with the rich, moist cheese and crispy crust that bubbles up. In fact, I love it so much that I gave it extra attention on my About page, but I’ve never made it for the blog before. Truthfully, I’ve been waiting for a very special ingredient that [...]