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.
Recipes Archive
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Steak sous vide with corn-jalapeno hash
On night two of our great sous vide experiment, I decided to try using sous vide in a way that just about every contestant on Top Chef seemingly has used: steak sous vide. The benefit of sous vide cooking is since the meat comes up to temperature gradually, it maintains the same doneness throughout the [...] -
Fried sous vide egg yolk salad
Thanks to one of Jessie’s coworkers, we have a SousVide Supreme to play with for a couple of weeks. Neither of us has ever tried sous vide cooking before, and it’s a little scary. Fun, sure, but since we both have day jobs, we’re putting our dinner in jeopardy — after all, we can’t have [...] -
Root veggie hash with radish sprouts
Jessie got a co-worker’s weekly CSA share this week, so we had some beautiful potatoes, carrots, turnips and radish sprouts to use. I’ve never eaten or used radish sprouts in anything before, but I can already tell I’ll be buying some whenever I see them. I improvised a bit and put together flavors I thought [...] -
What to make for the Big Game?
Football, basketball, you name it, this recipe for stuffed Italian bread would be great to make when entertaining family and friends. -
Recipe Review: Braised Chicken Thighs and Legs
My mom tried this recipe a few weeks ago and suggested we give it a try. Like her, I have a plethora of recipes bookmarked, copied, saved, earmarked and so on, which is where she found it (bookmarked after seeing it on the Today Show). We’ve been into planning menus lately, which is great because [...] -
Pass the ramen shrimp, please
If you are new to our blog or have not met me, you should know I’m not a big fan of eating seafood and/or fish. There are two main reasons – texture and taste. However, Bryan insists we try to have more variety in our diet, so we’re taking baby steps and experimenting with shrimp [...] -
Horseradish Vodka Recipe Review
There seems to be some controversy on whether or not drinking the morning after you’ve had a few the night before helps cure your hangover or hair of the dog. Personally, I’ve found a great Bloody Mary does the trick (along with some greasy food, of course). I will admit I was skeptical of trying [...] -
Creamed Chicken and Biscuits
I was fortunate to know two of my four great-grandmothers when I was growing up and have some fond memories of meals I had at their homes, including the best tasting oatmeal for breakfast. Really, how can it NOT be the best tasting oatmeal when it is covered with brown sugar, whole milk and half-and-half. [...] -
Cinnamon-glazed donuts
If you’ve never had a homemade donut fresh out of the fryer, you’re missing out on what a donut should be. There is no such thing as a “bad” fried dough (taste-wise, not health-wise), but making donuts from scratch, compared to donuts that are designed to survive long-distance transport, long shelf-life and uniform shapes, yields [...] -
Recipe Review: Ham and Cheddar Sourdough Stuffing
Our Thanksgiving tradition is to try out new recipes for the big meal. No, we don’t make them ahead of time, we just wing them and hope our luck in knowing what will taste good holds. Luckily, we’ve picked delicious recipes over the years and have quite a collection of well-loved November and December issues [...] -
Turkey Tortilla Soup
Round two of inventing Thanksgiving leftovers and we’re only left with the turkey. It is still a bit blustery out and we’re fighting colds left and right, so a soup made perfect sense. In case you are new to our blog, Bryan isn’t a huge soup fan, although I think I’m converting him as I [...] -
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. [...] -
Same old booze got you down?
One of the highlights of our trip to the 2010 Food and Wine Classic in Aspen (wow, was it already three months ago?) was an opportunity to sample new and exciting liquor hitting the market. My love for the hard spirits comes and goes, and usually when I’m at a bar I stick with my [...] -
Greek yogurt totally from scratch
OK, if you want to make Greek yogurt (think brands like Fage and Chobani), the simple way to do it is to drain plain yogurt overnight. But if you really want top-notch Greek yogurt that not only tastes better but costs a wallet-load less, you’ll want to start from scratch. Fear not – the bacteria [...] -
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 [...]