Pennington's Foodstory

    July 14 is the French Independence Day known the world over as Bastille Day.  On that day in 1789, the revolutionaries stormed the prison, released the inmates thus starting the French Revolution.  It's a day that I use every year to indulge myself with French wine and food, not that I don't do that on most days anyway.  As per usual, I'll be making Coq au Vin.  This is one of my favorite childhood dishes which was always prepared for my birthday along with German Chocolate cake.  I was into International relations from very early on.          'Coq au Vin' means simply "Cock and Wine", which of course throws up the party flag for many of you, but in this case I mean stewed chicken with mushrooms and pearl onions.  I'm going to leave you to your own resources to find a recipe that suits your needs since there are so many.  Traditionally, the dish is made with Pinot Noir, bu...

    I was working with one of my wine suppliers the other day when we decided to stop for lunch.  It was one of those brutal Tennessee days with 100+ degree heat with an equal percentage of humidity.  We walked into the restaurant hoping for a welcoming blast of AC, but because the place was so packed, that sensation was not available.  I was pouring down sweat, well past the threshold of comfort when I'm told there would be a 15 minute wait.  AARRGGHHH!  I was almost to the point where I needed to step into their walk-in cooler or start shedding clothes.  As exciting as that may sound, it would not have been appropriate.  I tried to work my brain into a Zen-like state where the heat is no longer an issue, but this was posing to be a bigger challenge than I was up for.  Luckily, a table opened up and we were seated.     The server noticed my discomfort and brought me a pitcher of water.  I contemplate...

   You just don't decide to cook ribs.  "Hey man, there's a cook out this afternoon, I think I'll make ribs."  If you care about food, which I'm assuming you do, this would never be a sentence you would think much less say aloud.  Like all things good, cooking ribs is a process that takes time and organization.  It's not hard by any means, but to do it right, one must plan ahead.  Oh, by the way, I'm talking pork here people.  A few summers ago I talked with a bunch of folks and tried a bunch of recipes in order to come up with a method I found to be great without too much hassle. I'm going to try and be as concise as possible, because I can ramble all day about cooking ribs.  This is the basic formula that works best for me and my set up.  The key factors are, Rub, Rest, Slowcook, & Finish.     I'll start with the most important part, the meat.  "Babyback" ribs are the standard, because they're nice a...

    What a cool idea for a dinner party.  My friend Robin told me the other day of a style of dinner party that she has been having recently.   It's called "Scratch Night" and it's a group participation party.  She comes up with a fun menu and then teaches everyone how to make the dishes.  It works like this, she puts together an ingredient list that is emailed to all the guests.  Everyone picks the items that they want to bring, copies the other guests, and shows up with all the stuff.  Robin then assigns tasks and shows everyone how to complete them.  Food is prepared, everyone chows down with a sense of accomplishment.  How cool!      "Pizza Night" sounded great.  She premade a bunch of dough earlier in the day for the dinner pizzas and then for the lesson, everyone got to make dough for the dessert pizzas.  Since pizza dough takes roughly 2 hours to proof, timing for dessert was perfect....

    It's soon approaching... The daily question that happens to families all over the world.  What's for dinner?  It happens most everyday, yet I dread it none the less.  The reason that I dread it is that I'm trying to ward off a food rut.  You know, it's when you feel like you're eating the same foods over and over.  It's an easy pattern to fall into.  We tend to eat/cook what's most familiar and easy to pull off without too much hassle.  For me, it also means a run to the store, which is something else I dread.  After a long day at work, most folks don't feel like getting elbow deep in preparations, and if the hour is late, most default towards something too quick and more than likely unhealthy to eat.  But less about the timing thing for now, I want to get to the heart of the matter which is the flavor rut.     Food/Flavor ruts are the only thing that burn my ass more than a flame about 3 feet high.  K...

    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...