Happy Mother’s Day Weekend!

I'd like to wish all you Moms out there a very happy Mother's Day tomorrow. A special shout out to my mother Pauline (you may remember her from such videos as, "Key Lime Pie" – see below), I love you, miss you, and hope to see you soon! And of course to my mother-in-law, Peggy, who, from the very beginning was the blog's fairy godmother.

If some of you are still looking for a gift, here's a neat trick for turning an ice cream cake into an edible potted plant! I encourage you to read the original post from a few years back for more information. Enjoy your day!!

This potted plant was inspired by a post on The Pioneer Woman. Thanks!

Bonus Mother's Day Video Recipe Repost: My Mom Makes Key Lime Pie 

A Hazy Gaze at a Glaze for the Lazy Days of Summer

This somewhat mysterious post is for a Pinot-glazed mushroom burger topping that will make it's official appearance as part of a sponsored recipe I'll be doing at a future date. I can give no details, except that it's a cheeseburger, and it kicks ass.

I'm not a huge fan of sloppy toppings for cheeseburgers. I don't mind beef grease dripping down my forearms, but I'm not really into chopped vegetable matter following it down my elbows. These mushrooms are a delicious exception. Plus, they're not even that messy.

The key is browning whatever fungi you happen to choose in a good amount of brown butter. Then, when you add the pinot noir, the wine will glaze the surface rather than soak into the mushrooms. The fat sort of makes the flesh wine-proof, and everybody wins.

Stay tuned for the mysterious burger post, and the next time you want to dress up a cheeseburger, give these pinot-glazed mushrooms a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

8 oz sliced mushrooms

salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup lighter red wine

*also great with any number of spices and/or fresh herbs

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Here's a collection of video recipes featuring fantastic food inspired by the cuisines of Central and South America. You never forget your first love, and when it comes to ethnic food it was the foods of Mexico and points south that first captured my imagination some 28 years ago, as I began eating my way across San Francisco. I realize Cinco de Mayo is a bigger deal out here in California, but no matter where you live, I hope you give some of these festive recipes a try. Enjoy!

Pineapple Pork Al Pastor

Scallop and Mango Ceviche

Salvadorian Chicken Stewed in Cream

Chicken Chili Verde

Mexican (Spanish) Rice

Chicken Chimichanga

Chili-Rubbed Pork Chops

Lobster Scrambled Eggs and My Father's Favorite Dinner Table Joke

This post's original title was, " Lobster Scrambled Eggs – I Wonder What the Poor People are Having for Breakfast Today?" Of course I would have explained this socially insensitive query in this first paragraph, but I feared that casual browsers would only read the headline and think I was some kind of major d-bag.

We certainly grew up around a ton of great food, but being of fairly modest means we only enjoyed expensive luxury foods like lobster or Prime Rib once in a great while. Whenever such occasions did present themselves, my father John would always use the same joke. He'd take a bite of whatever, and say to the table with a twinkle in his eye, "I wonder what the poor people are having for dinner tonight?"

We'd all laugh, but it was a more than a simple one-liner to him. The son of immigrants in rough and tumble New York City, he grew up in less than opulent surroundings. You could tell he loved being able to afford splurging on things like lobster once in a while, and I'm sure as we ate he thought back to much leaner times.

Anyway, enough with the selfish shellfish reminiscing. When and if you find yourself in possession of some leftover lobster meat, I suggest you do what I did in this video. By the way, feel free to borrow my dad's joke, but only if you're also from modest means, otherwise it's just not funny. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

4 eggs

handful of lobster pieces, cut in large chunks, dusted with cayenne

tarragon leaves, to taste

salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Later Today: Lobster Scrambled Eggs

Dinner party poussin

Sorry, this turns out to be a bit blurry. But you can get the idea.

One solution to a dinner party crisis - especially if you are not a magnificently confident cook (who is?!) - is to throw a lot of money at the problem.

I don't like doing this, because I have been brought up to think that if I do not buy all my clothes from H&M and make dinner out of half a loaf of stale bread and some turnips then I am wretched and profligate and will probably go to hell. Although when you're from a family as protestant in thought and word and deed as mine, hell is a far too good, interesting and racy place for sinners.

This is why I'm always cooking cabbage.

But it is a fact that you can just go out and spend a lot of money and throw an impressive dinner party. Like doing this Lucas Hollweg thing I found in the Sunday Times the other week. I don't have much time for Lucas Hollweg normally - partly because he says things like "I cooked this for my book group and they loved it!!!!!" but mostly because he's got a fucking wicked job and I am not big enough NOT to hate him for it.

Nigella's always going on about how marvellous poussin are for a party and my objection has always been meanness. "£3.99 each?!?!" I find myself screaming silently to myself. "Absolutely not. They can have boiled ham and carrots."

But if you are half-minded to unload some cash, poussin are a good idea - as everyone gets one each, so you don't have to do any tedious carving and they're more festive, somehow.  The idea is to pile up the poussin in a bowl and everyone helps themselves in that modern, faux-naif, nauseatingly bourgeois way.

Lucas does this with a sort of middle-eastern marinade thing, which works pretty well and smells great. It also means that you can do this with a salad and couscous, rather than dicking about with a lot of veg.

This is not his exact recipe, but it's kind of the same idea.

For 3 poussin you need the following quantities for the marinade:

4 tbs olive oil
1 tbs groundnut oil
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp paprika - any sort
3 crushed garlic cloves

Soak the birds in this mixture for as long as you can. Ideally for a few hours, but even one hour makes a difference. If you've got a lot of poussin, increase the quantities of your marinade accordingly.

Then sprinkle over with salt and roast at 180C for 35-40 mins.

If you're doing this with couscous, add to it some lemon juice, coriander, salt and pepper, chopped cucumber and toasted pine nuts. We also had this with some minted yoghurt, which was just a lot of fresh mint chopped up and added to Greek yoghurt with some salt and pepper.

V nice. If pricey.

Hello from Healdsburg!

Michele and I just finished our 15th Passport to Dry Creek Valley event at the magnificent Frick Winery, and this may have been our best year yet! We are dead tired and heading out to dinner, but I wanted to share a few shots of the menu and pairings. We got so many wonderful compliments, which really makes all the hard work worthwhile. We have to give a HUGE thanks to our sous chef Elizabeth Howes, from Saffronlane.com. She was truly a delight to work with, and a pros pro.

We'll be back into San Francisco tomorrow afternoon, and things will get back to normal soon. I do have a new video right around the corner, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the photos!

Green Goddess Seafood Nachos - Dungeness Crab, Shrimp and Lobster Cream Cheese on Green Avocado Chip. Paired with Grenache Blanc and Viognier.

The Classic - Cambozola Cheese on Fig Bread with Fresh Strawberries. Paired with Cinsaut Rose and Cinsaut

Sausage Skewers Deluxe - Italian Sausage Skewered with Luxardo Maraschino Cherry and Fennel Pollen. Paired with Counoise and Grenache.

"Main Line" Philly Cheesesteak - American Kobe Beef with Truffle “Cheez Wiz” and Peppadew and Jalapeno Pepper Relish. Paired with Carignane and C2 North Coast Red Rhone Blend.

Duck ala SFQ - Duck Leg Confit, SFQ Barbeque Sauce and Scallions on Chocolate Tortilla Chips, with Duck Crackling and Orange Gremolata. Paired with Syrah and Cotes Du Dry Creek.

View of the winery from the Kobe grilling station. What a gorgeous morning it was.

For more information about all the great Frick wines mentioned above, check out the winery website. Cheers!