Author: Deborah M

A Story for Piña Colada Day

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Happy Piña Colada Day! Possibly it is a bit early where you are to indulge – it’s only 8:15am here. If so, then indulge in THIS classic tune ’till the bar bell goes off.

Lyrical Musings

The residents of TransAtlantic Towers often discuss this song and its story. We’re puzzled as to how and why this song ends the way it does. I mean, don’t get me wrong – I like a happy ending as much as anyone else. I hope those two kids worked it out and lived happily ever after.

But does it make sense as given? Surely, once they arrived at O’Malley’s, one or both would ask in affronted tones, “What the hell were you doing placing/answering personal ads?” Then there would be a row, someone would huff off. Or they’d make up over piña coladas. But I feel there may be unresolved issues in that relationship.

And that’s not the only potential dust up linked to the fruity tropical drinks. Just try to establish who invented it. See, it’s like this – there were these two Puerto Rican bartenders. Come to think of it sounds like the beginning of a joke (“two Puerto Rican bartenders walk into a bar…”) but it is really the beginning of a great cocktail mystery. Continue reading “A Story for Piña Colada Day” →

On The Cookbooks We Create

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Jay Rayner has been doing a weekly column on notable cookbooks – notable to him, to cooking, to cultural moments. I happen to love Rayner’s writing style and always read him anyway but these columns, every Sunday for the last few months, I have especially enjoyed. This week is the last one and it touches on the ‘cookbooks’ we create for ourselves, often not books at all but folders full of clippings, binders full of notes, etc.

It reminded me of my mother’s ‘cookbook’ which encompassed both folders full of clippings, spirals full of her absurdly neat handwriting. No, seriously you have no idea – she may drive me nuts but there is NO DENYING the woman has the best handwriting on earth. Don’t even start me on her colour-coded note taking. But I digress… Continue reading “On The Cookbooks We Create” →

Happy Crème Brûlée Day

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Today is Walk On Stilts Day, Scotch Whisky Day, Norfolk Day, and Crème Brûlée Day.

Now, I do not have stilts and even if I did – I have no idea how to walk on them. I don’t drink Scotch Whisky unless I am on a tour of a distillery of the same and I am not only not in Norfolk, I have no real connection to the place. So, that leaves Crème Brûlée Day. Happy Crème Brûlée Day!

When We Say ‘Barbecue’, Do We All Mean the Same Thing?

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As we just had lovely weather this weekend (and it looks like we might have more happening more frequently over the next couple of weeks, grill covers are being removed and Brits are starting to talk of BBQ.

Here’s the thing though. When they say BBQ – they mean grilling. They don’t mean BBQ in the sense that many Americans means BBQ (the cooking of meat for long periods of time at low temperatures with smoke from a wood fire).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of grilling. But it isn’t BBQ just because you use the grill. BBQ is a multi-faceted, often-debated, regionally varied thing in the States.  Of course, it will necessarily follow that laying out my views on what each style is and means, others will have differing views and won’t hesitate to share them.

That’s fine. It’s a big broad, barbecue-y world – and I did mention ‘often-debated.’ Continue reading “When We Say ‘Barbecue’, Do We All Mean the Same Thing?” →

Saucy Pasta Pairings

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If a month is both Noodle Month and Sauce Month, surely the obvious thing is to write about which sauce goes with which pasta. But then I thought – “Wait, Pasta Month is October. What’s the difference between noodles and pasta?” So off I went to find out.

I can’t say I am much the wiser for  the effort. I assumed (for instinctive reasons rather than actual knowledge) that all pasta was noodles but not all noodles were pasta. Turns out I might be right – or it might be the other way around. It depends on where you live and who you’re talking to (and what site you believe most).

Bottom line for today though – I did confirm that posting pasta information would be relevant both during Noodle Month and Pasta Month. So I can proceed with my saucy plans for this post.

Pasta – dried pasta that is – is very much a staple in our house, as it is in a lot of people’s homes. It’s relatively cheap, comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, can be served in a wide variety of ways and keeps for ages and ages without going bad. We always have a few shapes on hand: linguine (which we prefer to spaghetti), fusilli, lasagna, penne. Why so many? Well, certain shapes handle certain sauces better than others and some hold up better than others in certain types of dishes.

So what shapes go with what? Here are some (but by no means all) of the combinations we use.

  • Fusilli – these twisty shapes hold onto sauce particularly well so you can use almost anything with them. Use it pasta bakes, oil-based sauces, cheese or cream sauces, meat sauce, pesto – even in pasta salads and soups.
  • Lasagna – the flat surface doesn’t hold slippery sauces well so skip the oil based options and stick with the heartier meat sauces and heavy cream or cheese sauce. It’s basically a structural element so it does VERY well in pasta bakes.
  • Linguine – like fusilli, this shape (a slightly heftier, flatter version of spaghetti) holds onto sauces of all types so use it with almost anything. I think it does especially well with seafood sauces.
  • Penne – these ribbed tubes have just the right nooks and crannies to keep lighter sauces on board but they aren’t really robust enough to handle the heavy meat sauces. This isn’t to say you can’t have them with a chunky sauce – but it would probably be best if it were a marinara or pomodoro as opposed to a Bolognese.