Chakhokhbili. I can’t blame you if your first urge was to say Gesundheit when you read this.  Yes, sounds a lot like a sneeze, and for some people it is very hard to pronounce.  Khokhobi in Georgian means pheasant.  Traditionally this dish was made with pheasant, but chicken took its rightful place right next to pheasant because […]

Here is my take on beans — they can be wonderful sometimes, but you won’t typically find me making delicious bean based dishes.  I enjoy a clear beef broth with giant lima beans occasionally; I do like them inside a burrito, and once in a while I have a hankering for a bean soup (how […]

Today there is going to be no nostalgic excursions. I threw this stew quickly together for dinner the other day, and it turned out very well. It’s got a somewhat soupy consistency because I didn’t brown the meat, I sweated it together with onions, just like my mom taught me. Then I added a few […]

This is the way my mom always cooked rabbit.  Rabbit was served for New Year almost every year, alongside Salade Olivier, Carp in Tomato Sauce, Beet Salad With Prunes, Green Apple & Celeriac Salad, etc. My family (not me) has very rocky relationship with rabbit as food, so if you are anything like them, I […]

Today is going to be just a quick post. No nostalgic ramblings, no gastronomical musings, no pseudo-scientific reports.  This dish is effortless.  I did no research, no recipe comparison, no option evaluation. All I did was — chop and load, chop and load. Shocked? Me, too!

Just wanted to put in a quick post this time.  Every time I cook something from Julia Child’s collection of recipes, I am amazed. I read through the ingredient list, glance over the instructions, and I swear, every time I have the same feeling: what’s so special about it? You see those five, six ingredients […]

Everyone has seen the movie Ratatouille a few years back and applauded the gorgeous layered vegetable dish the little rodent protagonist concocted to sweep a picky food critic off his feet.  I am sure that some of you already know that the dish featured in the cute animated film was actually not a ratatouille, but […]