Gourmet

Looks Good | Tastes Good | Is Good !

Gourmet explores the fine art (and science) of preparing delicious foods using interesting recipes and online food articles to whet the appetite of all you”foodies” out there! Most people may not consider the Gourmet approach to be healthy and affordable. But consider the difference between the “Chef” (no constraints of a cookie-cutter recipe) and the “Cook” (prepares someone else’s food idea). Use both approaches depending on your situation. But don’t be afraid to experiment and innovate. Before you know it, you’ve become a “Chef“! Please enjoy the pages below!

• Kitchen Tips for the Gourmet
• Favorite Spices & Sauce Ingredients
• Cooking with Wine
• Movie Parties
• Chez Voisin

Kitchen Tips for the Gourmet

Click the image caption to find out more….

Favorite Spices and Sauce Ingredients

Above you will find some of my favorite spices I use for flavoring sauces and vegetables. I will continue to add to the gallery and give you a clue as to how you can create seasoning options for vegetables and meat entrees. Below are some of my favorites!

Tuscan Farmhouse Blend

• Dry Steak Rub –
• Salad Seasoning
• Tomato on Rice Cakes Lo-Cal snack
• Steamed Vegetables with chicken broth
  • Cut green beans
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Almost anything else!

Mediteranian Citrus

• Talapia Filets
• Salmon Filets
• Shrimp sauted in garlic
• Tomato on Rice Cakes Lo-Cal snack

Cajun Blackened Blend

• Dry Steak Rub with Salt
• Steamed Vegetables with chicken broth
  • Cut green beans
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Almost anything else!
• Cobble Salads ( when you cobble various ingredients together)

Cooking with Wine

One of the most flavorful and practical food preparation solutions is to use wine as s flavor collector and reduction technique. When you are cooking food in a skillet, liquids surrounding the food reduces and evaporates away leaving behind dry coatings of spices and food “juices”. That’s where the savory flavors are and adding some wine to liquify those flavors will prevent burning and coat the food with color and tastes you desire. Here are some cooking pairings I have found that give me tasty results.

To create sauces to serve with your meats and vegetables, you can use cornstarch for a quick, light sauce (5 minutes) or prepare a roué (skip the ads) for a more complex and heavier sauce (20-30 minutes). Next quarter, I will post two sauce videos here so you can see how do prepare them yourself!

Be sure to review all ingredients before using them to check for allergies and food ingredients that your doctor and nutritionists have asked you to avoid.

• White wines
  • Light Fish
  • Shrimp
  • Chicken
  • Vegetables
  • Sauces for light meats
• Rose wines
  • Pork
  • Salmon
  • Tuna
  • Heavier Flavorful Fish
  • Heavier Vegetables
  • Sauces for medium meats
• Red wines
  • Beef
  • Venison and other game meats
  • All Stews
  • Sauces for heavier meats

If you want to set yourself up with an exceptional wine purchasing decision (so you can cook with wine as much as you want), I have discovered the Liberty Creek brand which is about $8-9 per bottle (1.5 liters). I use the following Liberty Creek wines for cooking and even blend them for a glass of wine for “Chef drinking” a la Julia Child. Occasionally I have a really good bottle of wine open and then I will use that also. But good wine is consumed within hours of it’s opening at Chez Voisin!

• White
  • Pinot Grigio
  • Chardonnay
• Rose
  • Pink Moscato
  • White Zinfandel
• Red
  • Founders Red Blend
  • Merlot
  • Sweet Red

My favorite Liberty Creek blend for drinking while in the kitchen (or any other room), is a 2:1 blend the Pink Moscato (Pink-Rose) with the Founders Red Blend (Red).

Movie Parties

Comedy Corner

Comedy is vital to our soul because it can connect us to others. Laughing is good for the body and mind because it releases endorphins as Scientific American states in this article.

Dark comedy IS NOT my cup of tea because you are laughing AT someone. Relationship comedy IS my cup of tea because you are laughing WITH someone. Below are links to some my favorite comedy sketches. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

• My Name is Five Spice…
• Beautiful Nail…

Chez Voisin

Chez Voisin is a family catering enterprise that my Grandmother Anna Marie Voisin started after her husband, Rene Voisin passed away in 1952. She created authentic french meals at private dinner parties in her home for Bostonian Doctors and Attorneys. Her apple tartes were always a favorite and I have continued the tradition of preparing them from scratch for our family. We may develop a frozen tarte kit for restaurants in the future and some new products such as fruit leathers, trail mixes, and bagel spreads may also be in the works. Our full line of products may include apple | pear | and nectarine fruits. We are also developing an all organic North Carolina ingredient policy and will be looking into special dietary need solutions.

Anyone can Gourmet!