Pennington's Foodstory

    I grill all the time.  Rain, sleet, or snow, it doesn't matter, I will be grilling.  There's something so rewarding to me to cook food over an open flame.  It's man's fascination with fire that brings out a primal nature that is the driving force behind standing in front of a grill in the most adverse of conditions.  Now there are many schools of thought on grilling:  Gas vs. charcoal, hot and fast vs. slow and low. Some call it "barbeque-ing", or simply "cooking out".  Whatever you call it or however you do it, as long as you are doing it, (wink) is important.  Here's my basic stance on the whole shebang.      1.  I prefer charcoal.  There's just something about it that takes me back to simpler time, but without the overcooked meat.  I insist on using a "chimney", one of those metal cylinders that you put newspaper in the bottom and the coals on top.  This eliminates the need for lighter...

    Jamie Oliver is 100% correct.  This country is in need of a "Food Revolution"!  By now I would love to think that most everyone has heard of Jamie Oliver, the British chef, TV personality, and author who is on a major campaign to change the way America eats.  His new show on ABC is called "Jamie's Food Revolution" and I think he's on the right track.  It's on Friday nights, which is why I DVR it, because many of us are out kickin' it, disco dancing, and whatnot, making it hard to be home watching TV.  Please check it out and if his views are similar to yours, please support him.  All he wants to do is help.     I started watching his show "The Naked Chef" when it first came on several years ago and loved it.  His approach to food is practically a mirror image of my own.  He's all about simple preparations that just plain taste good.  There really no use of fancy ingredients or technical applicatio...

    My very good friend Jerry has been wearing me out (just kidding) recently about a Hollandaise recipe I showed him years ago.  Everyone should know what Hollandaise is, that creamy yellow sauce served on Eggs Benedict.  It's fantastic on asparagus (which is in season), broccoli, and a host of other veggies.  He suggested I post it to my blog, but I told him that I couldn't give away all my secrets.  After a brief moment of Zen contemplation, I realized that I'm a selfish dumbass and holding back this recipe would create suffering in the world.  I can't have that on my conscience, so I'm gonna share it.  It's so easy I must first say not to blame me if your cholesterol shoots up because you will want to put it on everything.  All you really have to remember is 3-2-1.     3 egg yolks   -    2 tablespoons of lemon juice   -   1 stick of melted butter ...

    So we now know Thomas Keller got to (hopefully) enjoy an iconic Nashville joint, Prince's Hot Chicken Shack.  Let me give my breakdown on this beloved establishment.  For those not in the know, Nashville has become famous for a dish called "Hot Chicken", which is as the name suggests, is a really spicy piece of fried chicken.  There's many places that do it, but Prince's has reached Superhero status and has become world famous.  It's been written up in numerous publications including Southern Living, Food & Wine, and Bon Appetite.  It's located in an old strip mall that is always crowded, loud, not overly clean, but that doesn't really matter because we keep going back for more.     They offer breasts & wings or legs & thighs, or a 1/2 or whole chicken, along with slaw, tater salad, and the like.  Ordering is done through a cut out hole in the back wall.  After what seems...

    Kelly and I were at Green Hills Mall the other weekend and made our regular stop into Williams-Sonoma to drool over expensive kitchen equipment, when lo and behold, a sales associate asked us if we would like to see Thomas Keller and have him sign a cookbook when he's in town in a couple of weeks.  As we were picking our jaws up off the floor, I managed to squeak out a 'yes'.      For those not in the know, Thomas Keller is thought to be one of the greatest chefs alive.  His restaurant, The French Laundry, is one of the most highly acclaimed eateries in the world.  If you have read my earlier stuff, this is the restaurant I was thinking of when I mentioned dropping a mortgage payment on a dinner for four.  Some would say one must envoke a higher power just to get a reservation.     The woman went on to explain that he would be in town signing copies of his new cookbook a d hoc at home.  I signed up right aw...

    On Saturday, my wife and I went to the Farmers Market to check out the goods.  We were having some friends over for dinner and wanted to prepare something from the pre-spring bounty.  It was also a celebration of the fact my wife now has weekends off due to her new job.  It was pretty busy when we got there, so we were pumped that there would be a lot of great stuff.  We did a quick run through to get the lay of the land in order to really begin our search.      On that first flyby, what struck me as really freakin' odd were a couple of booths offering pineapples and bananas. Huh? It's March!  Not only that, but we're in Tennessee!  Not a lot of local, tropical fruit 'round these parts.  As strange as it was, those bananas still looked better than the green variety at the grocery.  I didn't speak with these vendors, but figure they're buying their stuff from a purveyor much like the grocery store would. No h...

   Ok, I've gotten a ton of requests to do a wine column, but I haven't felt that motivated to do one, mainly because wine is my day to day gig and this blog is about food.  But I was thinking last night that maybe I should talk a little about it.  I mean, I might be able to demystify things a bit, make things easier to understand.  People get all worked up about a beverage.  Let me give my two cents...     Suggestion #1:  Drink what you like.  Ask yourself, does this taste good?  The answer should be yes, or you probably shouldn't be drinking it.  Taste is 'subjective', but folks always try to make it 'objective', especially when it comes to wine.  There is no right or wrong answer.  If you like Brussel sprouts, great.  If you don't, no worries.     Suggestion #2:  If you regularly buy wine or want to regularly buy wine, find a good retailer.  And by good retailer...