Dinner reviews from our Casa SaltShaker evenings
When you have lots of strong flavors, it can become quite a balancing act to combine them and make it all work. Two dishes over the last week or two stood out in that vein – both dishes that took a fair amount of practice to get the combination just the way I wanted it.… Read More Strength in Flavors
Once again, two different menus during the last week, and a couple of dishes that for me stood out. A bit of an Italian, French and Peruvian mashup here for the pasta course. Fish mousse, a classic preparation – starting with a humble white fish, the merluza, or hake, and processing it with sauteed leeks,… Read More Inner Secrets
I’ve decided that instead of posting details on each and every menu, especially when we’re repeating a lot of dishes these days from our repertoire, I’m going to focus a bit more on the dishes that standout and/or are new. Now, here, I’m going to be wrapping up the whole period following the Christmas dinners… Read More Wrapping Up the Holiday Weeks
Each January, like so many other folk out there, I take a look back at the last year shortly after it ends. In past editions, I’ve focused mostly on what amounted to the statistics of Casa SaltShaker – how many people and dinners, strange requests, food allergies, etc. When it comes down to it, there… Read More The Round-Up, v. 2.0.1.4
As I said in my write-up of last week’s dinners, logistically I’m not overly fond of being open for the holidays – historically, too many problems with getting ingredients, things disappear from the shelves so quickly, there’s nowhere to go to for something that suddenly occurs at last minute, transportation is always an issue for… Read More The Seven Sea(food)s for Christmas
“…I said we should celebrate my new found feelings by eating a bucket of fried chicken, with 16 ounce drinks filled with sausage gravy to wash it all down with, and she readily agreed so we walked to the local chicken joint to affirm our commitment and love for one another…” – Jarod Kintz, A… Read More Fried Chicken Dreams
We went for it again, another dinner with plenty of chili and other spices, and once again, nothing but raves. I’m not sure that two weeks can be considered “on a roll”, but it seems to be eliciting a lot of pleasure amongst our diners. A new version of a causa I’ve been playing around… Read More Another Round of Spicy
It wasn’t until after we were serving our menu this last week that I realized that I’d ended up with four savory courses in a row that featured chili in one form or another. The good thing, it was a hit, and we got nothing but compliments for providing a good dose of spice for… Read More Fun with Chilies