Pound For Pound Cake

Pound cakes are probably the most under rated of all cakes.Foodies don't like them becauseof their plainness or the calories. They are rich and dense, yet versatile to be eaten for breakfast, snack or dessert. They can be served just plain or toasted, dusted with sugar or drizzled with a simple icing. They can be covered in fruit , whipped cream or ice cream. Yet, no one tends to serve or even bake them anymore.

Pound cake actually started off as a sweetened bread in the Middle Ages. The recipe got changed around a bit to include a pound of everything by the British in the 1700s. Pound cake's recipe became lighter in the 1900's with the arrival of baking soda and baking powder. Flavorings also were added such as lemon for a variation on the taste. Pound cake mixes were also ushered in during the 20th Century making it easier to create the perfect pound cake. Now you can also buy slices in almost every deli and supermarket across the US. There's still the plain but also there's the marble, lemon, orange and sometimes even pistacchio. Some have icing on them as well.

Pound cake can still be made at home using the same ingredients that have been used for the last three centuries. You can make it British style by adding dried currents and raisins or glaceed cherries You can make it French style, by adding chocolate or lemon . This is big in Brittany where pound cake is baked and served the most It's called quartre quarts or four fours.Mexicans bakes theirs with walnuts , called a panque des nueces You can add your own spins by adding a quarter cup of brandy, chocolate chips or cinnamon

Pound cake is an underrated cake that should deserve more press. It is one of the most versatile cakes out there and can be served with almost anything. It is definitely a cake to make this fall.

Eat This Not That - The Healthy Foodie's BIble

There is a great book out there, perfect for foodies and just plain folk watching their weight. It;s called Eat This Not That (ROdale Publishing), written by Men's Health magazine writer David Zinczenko and Matt Gould. This is an excellent little book to keep around if you're watching your weight but don;t like to give up taste or even foodie favorites.

This book is my favorite because it lists what national brands and menus to eat and to avoid. It;s also great at explaining what different food are and what have the highest calories. it let's you go to your favorite places like Taco Bell or Krispy Kreme and order some goodies, but not the high in calories or rich in sodium treats. The books lists every fast food joint from A to Z and what's their highest and lowest calories dishes. Eat This , Not That is also the perfect take along when going grocery shopping. It has the buys and don't buys of national brands. You can create a healthy low calories, breakfast lunch or dinner by following the pictorial guides.

Another aspect that I loved is the holiday guide. It tells you what's a better Christmas dinner and what kind of Halloween and Easter candies to snack on and to ignore. It also has Valentine's Day with a guide of healthy chocolates. Again these have marvelous pictorials that imprint what's good and what's bad on your brain. I also like it when the books explains the different ethnic cuisines and what's the healthiest and lowest calories dishes and desserts on the menu. It's a big help if you frequently eat out.

If you love food, then Eat This Not That for you. You can still love your favorite cuisines or treats but can sub in better and healthier ones. You'll continue being a foodie but a slimmer one

Mexican Dogs No Not that Kind

There's a new craze happening in America;s Southwest. Everyone is going crazy for Mexican dogs, No not Chihuahuas but hot dogs South of The Border style. Surprisingly this area treat is easy to make and actually based on a 1950's American idea

Mexican dogs are just hot doge wrapped in bacon and usually grilled. It was a popular recipe that hot dog companies like Oscar Meyer promoted back in the early Fifties. Somehow the Mexicans got hold of it and liked the idea. Their version includes guacamole and salsa covering the go(no chili like what you would expect). The roll is a hardier Portuguese roll which is more like a mini baguette. Hot do rolls are not used because they would be too flimsy when holding all that good stuff.

Mexican dogs are easy to make. Just wrap strips of bacon around a hot dog and broil or grill. Grilling them over an open flame could be dangerous because of all the bacon fats melting overt the coals. Be careful when cooking them and watch out for any sudden bursts of fire. You can als add homemade guacamole or if you want a Fifties turn put a slice of American cheese or cheddar on them. The roll id up to you. Serve them on a hoagie for a better base or try a sturdier hot dog bun such as Pepperidge Farm's.

Mexican hot dogs combine American food with Mexican flavor. They're easy to make and fun to eat.grill up a few today for some South of the Border taste.

Farm Fresh Vacation

It's Thursday and that means a dissection of one of the New York Times' Food section 's articles. the one that really caught my eye was an article about farm vacations. This is where you pay to live in a tent for a week and do farm chores and pick veggies and fruits. This would be an interesting vacation for me, considering most of mine are usually down in Atlantic City by a pool with a pina colada in hand.

The article, written by Kim Severson, tells of his and his family's week spent at a farm in upstate New York. here he and his partner and child got too pick vegetables and feed chickens.This is a wonderful experience for anyone, especially children . A farm vacation can not only teach about basics but also about global warming and the part agriculture can play in getting the planet green again. Another plus is that each tent (yes you stay in a tent but ieach also has its' own toilet facilities) does come with a wood burning stove where vacationers can make meals with fresh picked produce. Some farms offer goat cheese and tomatoes along with eggs for homemade pizzas and omelets. It is a good way of getting back to our farming roots and appreciating the land.


Agritourism , as it's formally called, can also be in the autumn too. There are farms in Vermont where tourists can not only enjoy the beautful fall foliage but also tap maple syrup and handle livestock. Some farms offer grape harvesting and taking care of smaller barn animals like the farm's cats. There's also apple and pumpkin picking along with some other usual chores. America isn't the only place to offer agritourism. Italy's lush Tuscany has vacation farms where visitors can pick peaches and strawberries in the summer and truffle hunt during autumn's early days.

If you're looking for a different vacation , one with fresh food , then go try a farm vacation. Being out in the fresh air and eating just picked veggies and fruits will do you and your family a world of good. Despite the vacation's starkness, there is a kind of luxury in agritourism.

Another Fine Jersey Diner The Coach House

I live in New Jersey where there's a diner or two in every town. There are so many but a few do stand out. One is the Coach House , which has two locations, one in my old hatching ground of Hackensack and the other in North Bergen (just outside New York City). Both offer restaurant quality food and variety. The prices are pretty OK too.


The original Coach House was on the site of the North Bergen location and started there in 1939. It was just a small joint where workers from local Jersey City, Union City and North Bergen could go for a quick sandwich or a burger. The Hackensack location as added within the last twenty years and both are currently owned by Greek lawyers. I love the North Bergen one which is more of a huge restaurant than a diner.The soup and salad bar are my lunch and dinner favorites. There are different soups designated for different days(try to get there on Saturday for the beef barley or potato leek). The salad bar is grand with a huge variety of different saladss. and green treats. You can stock up on a pea salad along with taking few dolmades or stuffed grape leaves. Every so often the salad bar offers free fresh baked banana bread. I love the Coach House on Christmas and Easter mornings when I can get a holiday breakfast after church services at my family's churches. The omelets are huge and could feed six . There's also a generous helping of hash browns and toast too.

What makes the Coach House also unique is their bakery. Their cupcakes are better than at the ones at the magnolia across the near by Hudson. They're bigger fluffier, and also have a better flavorwhich is more cakier. The icing is a wonderful mound of homemade butter cream topped off by either a strawberry or an Oreo cookie. The cupcakes come in vanilla and chocolate with either vanilla, a cookie infused vanilla or strawberry icing on top. The Coach House also produces some yummy homemade chocolate chip and cookies that they sell at the counter. Bring a bag of these home for some dessert or snacking. Theyre buttery and crisp and also are studded with walnuts to counterbalance the chips.

Jersey is known for its' plethora of diners but few stand out. The Coach House of both Hackensack and North Bergen does. Go to either location to have some of the best diner food in the state and in the NYC metro area!

The Little Rice Book

My cousin and her husband recently gave me a neat little cookbook. It's all about rice and different recipes for it. The books contains every kind of recipe from savory to sweet. All different kinds of rices are also used, from basmati to arborio from long grain to short. For a rice fanatic like myself this book is a dream come true,


The books is simply called Rice and Risotto and was compiled by Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen. The author herself has written numerous cookbooks from Jewish to French cuisine along with interesting books on Southern cooking and a slew of recipe books just on desserts. Her paean to rice is amazing. There are my favourites in here, the widely popular Risotto Milanese to the little known peas and arborio dish risi bisi. In between Wolf-Cohen also adds in easy risottos as well as pilafs and gumbos along with rice stuffing. There are Vietnamese dishes that call for rice flour wrappers and Mexican dishes that require rice mixed with broken pasta. Every corner of the globe is covered here with special emphasis on risotto dishes. There are so many of them here ranging from seafood to vegetarian wild mushroom to easy to classic.

Another aspect of the book that's appealed to me. is the variety of the dessert dishes. There are variations on the classic rice pudding, from a sinful dark chocolate one to a a creme brulee type with a glazed top. There's also a flan influenced Spanish style rice pudding that looks heavenly. Other sweet rice treats include rice pancakes, New Orleans fried rice cakes (a take on the famed beignet ) and shortbread made with a combo of rice and wheat flour.

Rice & Risotto is the book to get if you're a rice enthusiasts. There are so many different recipes you'll never get bored with them. They're tasty for any part of lunch or dinner.

Julia Child - A Culinary Star Reborn

Thanks to the summer's blockbuster hit, Julie & Julia foodies are rediscovering Julia Child all over again. We have a lot to thank her for. One, she got us Americans away form all that Fifties food like meat loaf and molded Jello and two, taught us how to have a more sophisticated palate. Thanks to her people could have boeuf bourguignon instead of beef stew and cassoulet instead of beans ad franks. She opened our taste buds to a new and wonderful world : French cooking.


Child is enjoying a revival and with it her most famous book, Mastering The Art of French Cooking. It is the best way to learn about the complexities of French cooking and Child also demystifies it as well. be warned however. The book was published in 1961 in a n era where butter and fat were used freely and people just didn't worry about cholesterol, heart attacks and clogged arteries. Some recipes call for an entire stick of butter while others are big on different meats and fats. This is course the best of French cooking and why the cuisine always has a melt in your mouth flavor. If you do have the book , make the recipes only on monthly basis . They're just too rich to be eaten on a weekly one.

There are also several other classic chefs out there you may want to research. TV also brought us the Galloping Gourmet, Graham Kerr from Scotland and England. He, like Julia Child, used large amounts of butter lard and cream in his cooking.If you want more recent vintage, there's the great master Jacques Pepin along with the Two Fat Ladies (both were believers in the butter fat, and cream approach to cooking) Of course they can't compare to Julia but some of their recipes are worth testing and trying out.

If you get the chance not only see Julie & Julia but pick up Mastering The Art of French Cooking. As a foodie you'll appreciate the wonderful dishes and flavors. As a cook, you'll appreciate the artistry that goes into creating a dish. You'll also appreciate the artistry and talent of one of our greatest chefs Julia Child.