Accidental Hedonist

It’s probably surprising to no one that I have a fair amount of cookbooks in my collection. At last count, I was near two dozen. And if you must know, Five of them deal with Italian food (the latest is The Gastronomy of Italy which has been keeping me in various states of fantasizing bliss [...]

I know that the past election hit some sore spots with various members of the food blogs. And so, I offer the following information to do with as you please. It’s a list of major corporations and the percentage of their political donations that went to republican candidates or causes. And in case you were [...]

For those of you into food (and you know who you are), you will know of what I am about to speak. We enter each new restaurant, scour each menu, and read each new cookbook in search of it. “It” being “the one”. The one dish, the one recipe, the one experience which brings such [...]

Rule of Thumb #1: Any bread sold to you in a plastic bag should be looked upon with great suspicion. Rule of Thumb #2: Just because the package says demi-baguette, doesn’t mean that it is.

This is a summer dish, plain and simple. Why am I making this during the Thanksgiving holidays? Because it’s there. And because I didn’t want to bust out the grill simply to make some bistecca alla florentine (T-Bone on the grill for those who are too disinterested to look that kind of stuff up yourself). [...]

This is another one of the Peasant soups that Italy is known for. It’s great on a cold day, or as a start to Thanksgiving dinner. Little known made-up fact: the Tuscans were quite found of celebrating American Thanksgiv… It’s a must to use sweet onions in this soup, or you will get something far [...]

Yeah, I stole these from press releases. But if you need them, they’re here. If you need help in making T-Giving dinner tomorrow, give one of the folks listed below a call. U.S. Department of Agriculture Meat and Poultry Hotline: Food-safety specialists answer calls about meat and poultry preparation and cooking questions, year-round Monday to [...]

When you talk about wines in the Tuscan region, one varietal dominates: Chianti. For me, everytime I hear “Chianti”, I think of Hannibal Lector and his penchant for red wine with beans. Those of us who may be a bit older, may think of Chianti as the wine that is bottled with wicker adorning the [...]

Previous to this year, I had only been to Canada on one occasion: a band trip to Canada’s Wonderland just north of Toronto. Yes, I was a band geek. It’s a scarlet letter I wear proudly. But I digress. This year, I’m on my third trip. I’m taking full advantage of the fact that I [...]

Y’know…when I think of the holidays, I think of…err…citrus. So while everyone else has ladened up on chocolate and pepperment, I prefer to think of places far away, such as Brazil, Italy and…ummm…southern California. So in the spirit of holiday giving, I offer these traditional Christmas lemon cookies. Sheeesh. Okay, so they’re not that particularly [...]

My first “official” Tuscan dish (Actually the Fritatta con Cipolle was the first, but I didn’t note it in the post), this came out quite nice. 1/2 lb baby spinach 6 cups of water 2 Tblspoons kosher salt 2 Tblspoons butter 1 sweet onion, diced 1/2 lb finocchiona(or other Italian sausage) 3 cups Arborio rice [...]

In perusing the variety of food blogs that I frequent, I came across to an interesting post by our favorite amateur gourmet, Adam. In this post, he posits that some folks may be a tad to hard on McDonald’s. His argument is that the taste of the food at Mickey D’s isn’t that bad, and [...]