Culinary Coming Attractions for 2015

Would you like steaming bowl of Split Pea Soup on a cold and overcast winter's day?

How about a cool Korean style Cucumber Salad, or an old school party time Warm Artichoke Dip?

2015 is going to be one delicious year in my cheap$kate kitchen. I have some sumptuous eye candy for you, but you'll have to satiate your appetite with these digital bytes, until the real recipes soon show up, here.

 And I have plenty of recipe videos on the way, too. Most unusual is my Pozole video. It's an old world Mexican dish that is made with rehydrated spicy red chile pods, and slow cooked with pork and hominy. It is an intense one pot meal I know you will like - and it's not that hard to make, either.

I go extra cheap once again with my version of Chicken Parmesan. Usually expensive white meat breast is used. You can do it that way or try my version with boneless and skinless cheaper dark meat. And I break the rules again with a better way to keep the chicken moist. Check back for that one, it's a good one, and I'm sure the recipe will stir up a hornet's nest of comments.

And most outrageously, I hook up with my long lost brother from another mother, The Swamp Chef. My dad got around and now you have to suffer the consequences of his indiscretions in my wacky recipe video from Louisiana.

My Mom just turned 80 and is still cooking and I shot a video of her sweet and nutty candy Praline recipe.

All these cooking videos and blog post recipes are in various stages of completion and will be showing up in the next few months, along with a bunch of other food themed blog posts, including my latest arty nighttime exploration of the Los Angeles dining scene, Restaurant Nocturnes XIV.

So do check back for a lot of informative, creative, appetizing, entertaining, and  original food content -- coming at ya!

Deal of the Day - Pizza & Pecans

The Chef is introducing a new feature called "Deal of the Day." You must act quickly to take advantage. As an example, today I was in line eating from a 99 cent bag of pecans and the Armenian fellow in front of me was eyeing my basket full of nuts; I offered him a pecan, he tasted, dropped his basket, went and grabbed four bags, then thanked me; meanwhile the Hispanic lady behind me grabbed a few pecan bags as well. The three of us depleted the pecan stock in a matter of seconds. So when the Chef posts "Deal of the Day," rush to your local 99c only Stores to take advantage; if you tarry please do not blame the Chef if "Deal of the Day" is not there when you arrive.
Today the 99c only Store, in Hollywood, has a four cheese pizza by Lean Cuisine. The Chef occasionally diets as much as the next person; while tasty, this is the most anemic frozen pizza out there. Hey, Lean Cuisine, how about less dough and more cheese. Don't believe the photo!



Back to pecans; what a thrill to see unsalted pecan halves in the 99c only Store. A remembrance of things delicious. What the Madeline is to Proust, the Pecan is to The 99 Cent Chef; a memory trigger to his southern past. One bite of a pecan and the levee of memory overflows. The Chef is flooded with images of his earliest youth under the shade of a pecan tree gathering its fallen crop for his "Nanny" (grandmother) to be turned into a warm pecan pie, while visiting her in Paris, Texas. The Chef is lucky that his mother still makes a pecan pie when he visits her in Louisiana.
Another pecan delicacy is the Praline, a sugary, nutty confection. If you visit the French Quarter in New Orleans, go to Praline Connection. They make a delicious Praline combining two of the Chef's favorite ingredients, Bourbon & pecans.

Bourbon Praline Ingredients
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup half & half cream
1 1/2 cups pecans
3 tablespoons butter
One 99 cent airline bottle of Bourbon

Directions
In a saucepan, bring cream and sugars to a low boil, stir with a wooden spoon until mixture thickens, about 10 minutes. Add Bourbon, butter and pecans and continue stirring a couple of minutes. Turn off heat and allow to thicken slightly, then spoon cookie size amounts on wax paper a couple of inches apart to allow for spreading. The pralines will harden into soft candy as it cools down. Makes about a dozen pralines.