Chefs
Hi, we are Bryan and Jessie - a recently married couple who enjoys cooking at home, eating at our favorite local restaurants, and trying new restaurants and recipes. We also have two pets - Brew, a black lab, and Alton Brown, a domestic shorthair.
Foods we couldn't live without: blue cheese, potatoes, gin, popcorn, garlic and butter
Number of cookbooks we own: 57 and counting
Favorite kitchen tools: Shun knives, Le Creuset cookware
For more information, click here.
Food Archive
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Thanksgiving Leftovers Reinvented
Wondering what to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers? How about making a turkey “shepherd’s” pie? Faced with Thanksgiving leftovers after warming up turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and dressing (post to come on the recipe we used soon) for the third time in 36 hours, I thought it would be good to reinvent our leftovers. [...] -
An Afternoon in St. Helena
On our trip to Napa and Sonoma, we stopped by St. Helena to check out a few places downtown, including WoodHouse Chocolate. The chocolates at WoodHouse Chocolate are outstanding and we had tried a piece of chocolate with wine at Rombauer Vineyards, rivaling chocolates from Europe. In the words of Bryan, the truffles we had [...] -
Morimoto Napa Review
As Bryan’s last post touches on, we were lucky enough to spend a few days in Napa Valley in mid-October. Trying to decide what vineyards we should go to on our first visit proved to be a difficult decision, although we did pick quite a few great places along the way. But figuring out where [...] -
Roasted Banana and Coconut Ice Cream
Sorry for the lack of posting recently. Our jobs have taken up a lot of time. We haven’t stopped cooking, or inventing and trying new things — far from it — we just haven’t found much time to write in the last month or so. Lately, I’ve been baking a lot, and Jessie’s been making [...] -
Open-Face Pizza
After a crazy day at work for both of us, neither of us wanted to spend too much time on our feet in the kitchen, but we were still hungry. Ordering pizza from one of our numerous pizza places was tossed out, but a decision on where and what couldn’t be reached. Instead, I went [...] -
Leeks, Garlic and Ginger, Oh My
We both got home from work a bit late tonight and we didn’t feel like cooking up a complete meal. After searching through our pantry, refrigerator and freezer for inspiration, I found some chicken and vegetable potstickers and decided to pan-fry them and create a quick rice dish. The rice dish turned out better than [...] -
Lettuce Eat
Making Dutch Lettuce sounds quite simple, but it was delicious. -
Comprehensive list of Aspen awesomeness, Part 1: Famous people
Last week we attended the 2010 Food and Wine Classic in Aspen. It was an amazing experience, made even more special by the fact that it was our honeymoon. I tried to write great, glowing prose that would encapsulate all the facets of the experience, but could not. Alas, the little bits and pieces below [...] -
VIDEO: Chef Tom Colicchio sings
He may be the hard-nosed head judge on Bravo’s “Top Chef,” but apparently Tom Colicchio can let loose, too, especially when the tequila is flowing. Last night we attended T-bones & Tequila, a fundraiser for the Mario Batali Foundation at a home in Aspen, Colo. The food was great, the swag (including a pair of [...] -
UPDATED: Beware of pine nuts from China
UPDATE 6/6/10: I believe I’ve found the remedy. Read at the bottom of the post. On Monday night I made a pretty tasty salad of mixed greens, chives and mustard greens from our garden, 15-year-old balsamic vinegar, shaved parmesan and pine nuts. The pine nuts, I would learn, were a bad idea. Jessie didn’t suffer [...] -
Foodie honeymoon – two weeks and counting
Three glorious days of fabulous food and beverages, seminars with amazing chefs and beautiful Aspen weather. -
A gift to your tastebuds
Several weeks ago, I was watching Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” Hot & Spicy episode and heard Ryan D’Agostino talk about this spicy chocolate ice cream called Queen City Cayenne. I was ready to commit to memory the name of the place where he had found this ice cream, anticipating I would [...] -
Mood Cooking – Hot Stir-fry
I came home from work the other night as, what some of my coworkers would say, an angry bird. For some unknown reason, I was in a bad mood and I decided to take my mood out on some stir-fry. -
Tater Tot Hot Dish
Comfort food is an important part of our lives. Yes, we can make some elaborate dishes, but sometimes comfort food is all that we want. After a few nights of missing dinner at home for work, I was able to cook later in the week and I had one dish in mind. Over our various [...] -
Cherry Tomato Pizza Margherita – Recipe Review
My parents were here last week, so we went to a few of our favorite local restaurants over the weekend. On Monday night, we decided to have homemade pizza. We made a hot sausage pizza with garlic and cheese as well as cherry tomato pizza margherita. We started with the recipe from Bon Appetit, found [...]