The Perfect Pantry

Homemade chicken stock (Recipe: vegetable-beef soup)

 

Knock wood, Ted and I have escaped the worst of the season.

No cough, no cold, no flu. No swine flu.

Doesn't mean we'll get through the holiday season without a few sniffles, though, so I'm stocking the freezer with homemade chicken stock.

Brazil food: Bars, bolinhos, and biscoitos (Recipe: Marlene's biscuits)

The fifth in an occasional series of posts about Brazilian food and ingredients we discovered during our recent visit.

Our first taste of the food of Minas Gerais, the agricultural and culinary heart of Brazil where we spent most of our visit, came not at the pousada in rural São Gonçalo do Rio das Pedras, but in the heart of Rio de Janeiro.

Every neighborhood needs a place like the Bar do Mineiro, a combination café-gallery-hangout (where, if you lived nearby, everyone would know your name) that spills out onto the streetcar tracks in Rio's artsy Santa Teresa neighborhood.

Other People's Pantries #97

From Marianne (Just the 9 of Us), in Utah:

You might remember my previous pantry from August 22, 2009, pantry #82. Now we are in our new house.
 
Notice the pantry is empty, and its contents are all over the countertop.

Spice up the holidays: the ultimate mail-order gift for the pantry lover

Photo courtesy of Nupur of One Hot Stove

At this time of year, newspapers and magazines and, yes, some of my favorite blogs, offer holiday gift suggestions for food lovers. I've picked up some wonderful ideas for new cookbooks and gizmos, and I'm looking forward to Menu for Hope (December 14-25), where I'll bid on more great foodie-friendly items to give as gifts.

Last year, I put together a series of eight posts with gift suggestions for food lovers. This year, I have one great idea, borrowed from Indian cooks. Take it and make it your own.

Puff pastry (Recipe: puff pastry cups filled with sweet potato, apple and nuts)

If I hadn't watched Julia Child on television all those years ago, smearing the butter and folding and turning and folding and turning again, making it all seem so utterly doable, I never would have had the courage to make puff pastry from scratch.

I did make it, and it was rich and buttery, and it puffed.

And it took all day to make.

Then I discovered frozen puff pastry. Someone else does the smearing and folding and turning for you. Imagine that! Puff pastry any time, without devoting an entire day to making it.