Pauline Parry's Delicious Story

 What happens when you combine love and love of food? The answer is Pauline Parry's new combination  autobiography and love story My Culinary Love Story (2022).It's full of good recipes and good stories.

Chef Parry is not new to recipe books. A well known Southern California caterer and party planner she has also written Food, Fun and Love.  This book, however is more personal. She tells how she met her first husband , got married you had two kids right after almost and then got divorced. She took the kids and lived above her first restaurant where she learned the trade.It also helped that she loved food and wine along with enjoying cooking . It;'s also a story of journey , how she left her comfort zone in Mendip Hills England , a small village near Bristol and then moved to Malibu with her second husband and true love Dennis. Readers will appreciate her determination and grit as she goes from working in a small restuarant to learning about hospittality while working for the entrepreneur Kenneth Bell at the famed Thornbury Castle. Readers will also get a good  glimpse into life as a daughter, mother , fiancee and wife. She is a food adventurer which shines thorugh in the recipes placed at the end of each chapter. The food she write about in each chapter stars at the end in each one.

These are the gems that I love. Many are familiar to me since my Mom made several of these recipes in the Seventies and Eighties. Chef Parry includes classics like Coq au Vin and Floating Island. There is also a nod ot her Polish heritage, being the daughter of a Polish immigrant father and English mother. She includes the deeply rich recipe for Bigos , the famed Slavic hunter's stew made with pork, keilbasa and bacon.There are also recipes from her time at Thornbury Castle, once , the home fo the Duke of Buckingham and later tthe haunt of Henry VIII and Anne Bolyn. Other restuarant recipes are also included in this as well. Chef Parry gives the recipe for create your own pizza which was new to Bath where she spent the weekend with Dennis. What I got a kick out fo was her joy at trying American food when she went to visit her love in Southern Californua. The devilled eggs with caviar is a must try, Of course she has cheesecake with strawberry sauce along with juicy hamburgers. There are also recipes for her new American favorites , onion rings and ranch dressing. Again these are must tries. It's not only food that featured.  Try her recipes for Bloody Mary's and Margaritas the last perfect with her fish taco recipe. There is even a recipe for English wedding fruit cake with marzipan icing for those considering a traditional British style wedding.

My Culinary Love Story is a must read and a must cook. It is chock full of interesting stories and ewven more interesting recipes. Read it today and fall in love with her story.

Barbie Party Time

 The girl of the summer is definitely Barbie. Thanks to the Margot Robbie -Ryan Goslin movie , the original girl power is everywhere. There are Barbie Crocs, dresses , jackets and even pillows. Now Barbiephiles can celebrate the doll and the movie with a Barbie core do,

Most fans will probably have a pink themed party with Cosmos and trays of little girl pink Double Bubble gum. However Barbie herself may have more sophisticated that. yes , you could have Cosmos to celebrate the Nineties version (and yes, there are Sex and the City inspired barbies) along with putting the gum with ahost of other pink candy as favors. However Barbie has always been a California girl, right down to her Malibu Beachhouse. HAve a California themed party featuring burgers to symbolize the In and Out ones along with a host of food truck food to symbolize Los Angeles food truck culture. Think about fish and bulgoki tacos where guests can put all sorts of toppings from traditional pico di gallo to kim chee. Tater tots with a cheddar topping is another big food truck iitem and they're easy to make in an air fryer.Avocados are a big  Southern California product so think about a refreshing salad made with them and a tangy lemon vinaigrette. what to serve afterwards? LA's own chiffon pie fist made in 1929 by Los Angeleno baker Monroe Boston Strause, It's a kind of  a vanilla mousse fillling in a graham cracker crust. Serve with strawberries if you want a bit of pink.

Barbie has been around since 1959 so another party idea is picking a decade themed party. The Fifties and Sixties brought an era of both  hominess and sophistication. You could feature a baked ham with pineapple alogn with an ambrosia salad fullof marshmallows and citrus fruit like pimeapple and oranges. You could also end with a pineapple upside down cake, very popular in the era. The Sixties also brought us Camelot and Jackie Kennedy's love of anything French. Think croissants filled with tarragon chicken salad, or steak Diane with a creamy Bearnaise sauce.Dessert could be Barbie pink  strawberry macarons (although you can throw in some chocolate and pistacchio ones along with lemon ones) The Seventies brought us fondue but it's too hot for that. Try cheese balls dipped in chopped nuts along with a platter of  devilled eggs. You could also serve party franks with a tangy sauce and mini crabcakes. Barbie embraced the glam Eighties and you can too. Serve lobster canapes and champagne along with caviar topped crostini. What about the NIneties and the early Aughts? Try comfort food, like pizza bagels and beer that got us through the Y2K anxiety. You could also make comfort sweets like cupcakes which had a revival twenty years ago. Think Funfetti ones with mounds of homemade strawberry icing.

It's the summer of Barbie! Get wild with a LA - So Cal themed do or pick a decade and celebate. All are perfect for toasting this doll  of a woman. Enjoy the movie and the food of her life.

Heating Up With The Summer Issue

Summer's here and that means one thing: fun food and treats! The New York Times Food section know this and today's issue was dedicated solely to all those summer pleasures. Find out about hot dogs and ice cream sandwiches, pot lucks and picnics. There's also a piece about an night market , full of tasty treats. This is summer at its' delicious best.

Everyone contributed to this keeper issue. Sam Sifton, Melissa Clark and Julia Moskin weighed in bout the best and worst hot dogs, participating in a taste test  to determine what's hot and what's not. This is a boon for hot dog lovers and grillers. The best are the all beef ones, namely Wellshire Farms Premium All Natural Uncured Beef franks and Hebrew National Beef. They also have a guide to label terms to help home chefs navigate towards the best grillers. They explain the difference between cured and uncured, along with the different types of casing. The trio also debunk the phrases old fashioned , premium, signature and classic - all marketing ploys. Ms. Clark also has her column about pot lucks too, perfect go withs for hot dogs. She offers a tomato and zucchini casserole with crisp cheddar topping. This dish will definitely take advantage of  a garden's bounty along with a plethora of such herbs such as mint and marjoram. There also is the extra recipe of pickled deviled eggs, always a fun summer treat. The dinner could end with Samantha Seneviratne's recipe for ice cream sandwiches made with homemade chocolate cake and good quality vanilla ice cream.

New York is known for summery nights and picnics in the park and there are articles on these as well. Tejal Rao goes on a picnic with Marisol and Angel Morales  They're not famous chefs but avid picnickers who love to go to their nearby park, Coffey Park for some tasty eating. Theirs is a mix of restaurant made grilled  chicken served with Ms. Morales  arroz con grandules. Ms. Rao also talked with Marnie Hanel who wrote the book "The Picnic: Recipes And Inspiration From Basket To Blanket . She suggests improvising. No cooler?No problem. Fill a  plastic wagon with ice to keep bottles cool. There's also a recipe for fried chicken  biscuits with hot honey butter.for an outdoor lunch or dinner. New York is also a city that never sleeps during the summer months.  This is true of the Queens Night Market, located where the 1964 World' Fair was held.It's where all sorts of tasty street food is sold. Here visitors can sip chicha morada , the Peruvian drink made form purple corn, pineapple peels, cinnamon and, cloves.  It's  definitely would soothe the heat of fuschka, an Indian semolina shell lined with a mash of yellow peas and chiles, splashed with tamarind..These are from the stand called Jhal NYC. Korean and Bolivian food are also there along with Indonesian  cakes of coconut and rice.Nigerian and Persian food is also represented too.

Summer is here. Enjoy the bounty of the season, whether at a picnic or all night fair. Take advantage of it and enjoy .