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.
Latest Headlines
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Take that, Double Down.
I didn’t intend to cook a take on the KFC Double Down sandwich the other night, but about midway through I realized I was. One of the things I love most about cooking is that you can improvise as you go, as long as you know the basic techniques. This recipe is far from technique-intensive, [...] -
Fresh take on grilled corn: Tequila
Jessie and I grill flank steak on a regular basis, and almost always grill sweet corn with it. Tonight, at Jessie’s prompting, I tried something a little different with the corn. First, here’s my typical procedure for grilling sweet corn: Peel back the husks, making sure to not remove them completely. Remove the silks (I [...] -
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 [...] -
Stuffed peppers that go to 11
One of our local grocery stores had some gorgeous, huge Anaheim peppers fresh yesterday, so Jessie and I decided to throw together a quick and spicy take on chiles rellenos. The end result was just about right for our tastes, especially with a squeeze of lime juice, tablespoon of sour cream and a few dollops [...] -
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 [...] -
Real ‘popcorn’ chicken
Tired of using breadcrumbs for the breading on your fried chicken? Try popcorn. Jessie made a tasty rice dish last night and asked for chicken to go along with it. Since I didn’t feel like doing the same old, same old, I tried an experiment with some freshly popped large-kernel popcorn we picked up in [...] -
Sauteed potatoes and toasted pine nuts
I’ve been trying to find new and creative uses for pine nuts since buying a bunch of them a few months ago. I think I’ve finally found my favorite use of them, and it wasn’t where I expected: with potatoes. Pine nuts, especially when they’re toasted, give a hearty, nutty flavor to a dish. They’re [...] -
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. -
Fear not the chorizo
I don’t know why Mexican chorizo isn’t a staple in the typical American household. After all, it’s a versatile protein that can add wonderful heat to any dish. Want to make great tacos without buying expensive (and generally tasteless) taco seasoning? Just saute up some Mexican chorizo. Want to replace ground beef in (some) recipes [...] -
One-recipe review: ‘Cooking Know-How’
In honor of Jessie’s birthday, I wanted to cook a grand meal tonight. I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to try a meal (and, hence, do a traditional one-recipe review) from Cooking Know-How by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. We were fortunate enough to meet the authors and attend a cooking demo of [...]