Tag: food

Pan Handlers or Latin Spiced Pork Loin cooked with Great Magefesa Cookware

A couple of months ago we were contacted by a cookware manufacturing company called Magefesa, located in Florida.  They had somehow read our blog and wanted us to test some of their cookware and then review it on the blog.  We were very happy to oblige and they sent us a complete set of their Ecotherm Plus cookware, a lovely pressure cooker and a set of frittata pans.  Several weeks later we arrived home to see this on our doorstep.

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Karen Schmautz7 Comments

Celebrate National Watermelon Day with Watermelon Gazpacho and homemade Creme Fraiche

Watermelon Gazpacho

Well, today is National Watermelon Day.  What a coincidence that I happened to make Watermelon Gazpacho yesterday and it is perfectly chilled and ready to eat tonight.  It’s  quite warm here in the Sierras, so maybe it will help cool us off.

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Karen Schmautz11 Comments

Gazpacho with Cornbread Croutons or Everyone says Toe-may-toe…nobody says Toe-mah-toe

Gazpacho with Corn Bread Croutons

There are two things I look forward to in the summertime:  Farmers Markets and Great Tasting Tomatoes.  It seems like I can’t seem to get enough of either.  I try to go to the Farmers Market as often as possible and I can’t  resist the tomatoes (both buying them and taking pictures of them.)  So it’s natural that I would make Gazpacho with them. Well, maybe it would not be natural to anyone else, but it was natural to me.

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Karen Schmautz11 Comments

Pork Chops Two Ways: Smoked Grilled or Parmesan Encrusted…but never dry.

Yes!Chef! loves pork. No, that’s not strong enough.  HE REALLY LOVES PORK.

I am coming around to being a pork lover (see Pulled Pork Sandwiches).  I have never much liked pork because whenever I had it growing up or even in my adult life it was always so dry.  I do not like dry meat.  And, I especially did not like pork chops because they were always drier than dry.  Over-cooked hockey pucks.  Pttooey.  That’s what I had to say about dry pork chops until…

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Karen Schmautz10 Comments

Cool Watermelon Mojitos and Spicy-Sweet Glazed Shrimp on the Bar-B; or It’s time to celebrate again!

Watermelon Mojitos on the deck

The members of the Schmautzhaus have gotten together again for some summer celebrating.  This time we were celebrating two birthdays for the price of one, so to speak.  Two birthdays were exactly a week apart, so we all got together yet again.

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Karen Schmautz5 Comments

The Eternal Quest for Perfect Pizza Dough because Pizza is a Way of Life

Perfect dough: Crispy on the bottom and chewy but never doughy

My husband, Yes!Chef!, started his cooking adventure many years ago when he began working at Pizza Hut while attending the University of Minnesota (brr.) He learned how to make their style of pizza and then he was elevated to manager and learned how to run a business.  Now, I never knew Yes!Chef! in those days.  I met him some years later in Wisconsin (which is a whole ‘nother story”), but I know he’s always had a love of pizza.  I discovered the joys of Chicago style stuffed pizza when I spent some time in Chicago for work and then when I moved to Wisconsin for a couple of years. BTW, I loved living in Wisconsin except for the bitter cold winters and the hot sticky summers. Yes, I’m a born and raised California girl, but I’m not a weather wimp because I was raised in the hills and mountains of Northern California.  We had very hot summers (but no humidity) and cold winters with snow.  But nothing like the extremes of living in Wisconsin.

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Karen Schmautz18 Comments