Arroz con Pollo on the Grill

By Andrew Hunter

This past Sunday, we enjoyed a simple Father’s Day at home…Marilyn, Ben, Nick and I. My only responsibility for the day was manning the grill. But instead of my usual steaks, burgers or fish fillets, I grill-smoked chicken thighs, then put my paella pan directly on the hot charcoal and made rice for an outdoor Arroz con Pollo.

Almost every culture has a version of chicken and rice, which is simple comfort food. I usually think of it as a Caribbean and Latin American dish, but Spain’s signature paella can be chicken and rice and I recently had congee at a Chinese dim sum joint. Besides some ingredients I couldn’t identify, the chicken feet and glutinous rice made this savory porridge another version of chicken and rice. The common thread is that the chicken is at least partially cooked in the rice, and the rice is usually wet, like porridge.

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Soup in a Hurry

By David Hu

There’s nothing quite like a nice, comforting bowl of soup when it’s cold outside. While many soups are time consuming, today’s Mexican-inspired chicken potato soup is not. From start to finish this recipe should take about 30 minutes.

If you have the time, let the soup sit for a day to allow the flavors to develop. But if you’re like me, you simply won’t be able to wait that long because it smells so good. I particularly love serving this soup with baked tortilla strips, which I like to add a little at a time to enjoy a nice crunch before it goes soggy.

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In Love with Rosemary

By Lori Powell

I am in love with rosemary – the plant, the flavor and the look of it! Unfortunately I haven’t had my usual luck with growing this grand plant as I have had several of them die on me recently.

Rosemary plants need lots of water but only after they run dry. But if you’re not around…that’s where it all goes wrong! The plant will only take so much stress. Once is enough or if you are lucky, twice, with this beauty.

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The Family that Cooks Together…

By Sandy Hu

So much of our family life and social life center around food and cooking. In December we had a big holiday party for 75 guests and the whole family – all five of us – prepped and cooked for it. We cooked our Christmas Eve dinner, complete with a Bûche de Nöel for dessert, and we prepared our annual Christmas night Dungeness crab fest.

We had a traditional Japanese New Year with soba noodle soup on New Year’s Eve and mochi soup on New Year’s Day. We ate traditional New Year foods like sushi and other celebratory Japanese dishes and each family member, including our new daughter-in-law Lynn, prepared a dish for the feast.

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Don’t be Foiled

By Katie Barreira

I remember a drawer in my nana’s kitchen that was dedicated entirely to neatly folded squares of used tinfoil. Although we find ourselves in the midst of a recession, I won’t push this sort of Depression era scrapping. Instead, here are three great ways to use aluminum foil that will save you loads of time and frustration.

Don’t be…
Foiled by Parchment Paper
Cooking en papillote refers to food that is baked in a neat envelope of parchment paper, which puffs full of steam for gentle cooking and a dramatic presentation when the paper is slit open at the table and the eater is enveloped by the aromatic steam.

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