Me and My Family's love affair with Cuisine: Divine, Mundane and All Good.

Welcome to the book of Marseglia Recipies. Here are (hopefully) the best recipies, tips and tricks for cooking. We love food and we hope you do too!

Cookbooks

Here is a list of cookbooks I highly recommend. These books have OUTSTANDING recipies and are filled with excellent "how to" type instructions.

Cook's Illustrated

asin: B000069YW9
binding: Magazine
list price: $35.70 USD
amazon price: $26.95 USD

I'm Just Here for the Food: The Director's Cut

author: Alton Brown
rating:

asin: 158479559X
binding: Hardcover
list price: $32.50 USD
amazon price: $21.45 USD

The Cook's Illustrated Guide To Grilling And Barbecue: A Practical Guide for the Outdoor Cook

rating:

asin: 0936184868
binding: Hardcover
list price: $35.00 USD
amazon price: $23.10 USD

The Cook's Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbecue is a comprehensive nuts and bolts volume that thoroughly examines outdoor cooking—starting with the basics. The 12-page introduction to grilling, "Outdoor Cooking 101," walks you step-by-step through the essentials of grilling, grill-roasting, and barbecuing using both charcoal and gas grills.

And since outdoor cooking requires just the right tools and equipment, the editors of Cook's Illustrated share the results of their product tests in an extensive buyers guide, "Equipment and Tools for Outdoor Cooking," where charcoal grills, gas grills, grill brushes, tongs, instant-read thermometers, and more are rated. At a glance, you will know which brands we recommend (and why) and which to avoid.

Armed with the right equipment and instructions, you'll be ready to tackle just about any recipe from a simple and perfectly cooked burger to succulent pulled pork and restaurant-perfect grilled tuna. You'll find more than 450 recipes for all your favorites—steak tips, ribs, and barbecued chicken as well as some that will expand your repertoire—from Thai-Grilled Chicken and Skirt Steak Tacos to Grilled Corn with Spicy Chili Butter and Bruschetta with Fresh Herbs.

The Cook's Illustrated Guide to Grilling and Barbecue also contains more than 300 step-by-step illustrations that walk you through the basics of food preparation, such as how to cut beef for kebabs, trim beef tenderloin, and grill-roast a turkey.

Whether you're a novice outdoor cook or aspiring grillmaster, this encyclopedic examination of one of America's favorite pastimes will be your guide to foolproof grilling and barbecuing.

Who doesn't love food?

I love food...and I love to cook, even if it's only OK or sometimes terrible, it's my cooking and nothing tastes like it.

There's something to be said for preparing a meal with your own hands, for killing or growing your own food.

For those of you who are shrinking back at the thought of killing your food, need I remind you that all shellfish and mollusks are cooked live. So if you've ever cooked your own lobster, clams, mussels, crabs, etc., you're a killer. :)

For 2006 our tomatoes did very well. However, our broccoli and lettuce was destroyed by a woodchuck...damn him...

If you love food as much as us then take a peek around the Marseglia Cookbook. I'll post recipies now and then, some original, some stolen from Mr. Brown, and others of dubious and unknown origin.

Birthday Cake Cookies

Makes 2.5 dozen cookies

Ingredients

* 1 box cake mix (any flavor)
* 6 oz Cool Whip
* 1 egg
* Confectioners sugar (to roll dough in)

Directions

* Preheat oven to 350
* Mix together cake mix, Cool Whip, and egg (batter will be really really stiff and sticky)
* Place small amounts into confectioners sugar and form into balls.
* Bake for 10 minutes. Don't overbake. Cookies are done when they are a light golden brown along the bottom of the cookie.
* Allow to set on the cookie sheet (~ 5 minutes) before moving to a cooling rack.

Notes:
Yellow cake mix is the best so far. Devils Food cake mix is also good, but tastes more like a brownie.
I highly recommend using a stand mixer because the dough is so dense and sticky.

Fried Rice

I have an awesome fried rice recipie culled from a few other's I've read on the Net. This recipie uses some Chinese Food leftovers and some uncommon ingredients for a unique combination.

The key to any good fried rice reciepe is the rice. If you've ever tried fresh rice, it never comes out right. That's because the secret is cold, cooked rice. Preferably that white rice you get from Chinese restaurants when you order your Pu Pu or Entre and never use, but it sits in the fridge until it gets old and crusty. Don't let it get old and crusty, make good use of that rice, use it in this recipie.

I also use the leftover pork shortribs from the Pu Pu. Ours comes boneless, making it easy to prep. I cut the strips into small cubes.

Software:

1 Pint White Rice, leftovers, cold.

Leftover pork ribs from Pu Pu, cubed and de-boned. (lucky me, mine come boneless)

tofu

zucchini

half a small onion

a large clove of garlic, or two small ones

ginger, fresh or dry. use more if it's dried.

seasame oil, blend

authentic soy sauce, regular

kosher salt

pepper

a stalk of celery

Hardware:

Chef's or Santoku Knife

Cutting board

large non-stick deep sided skillet or Wok. A saucier or frying pan will not work as well (if at all). If you don't have this equipment, you're going to have to experiment.

large spatula

Prep:

Measure out 1-2 cups soy sauce, depends on your taste.

Measure out 4 tablespoons sesame oil

Cut zucchini into slices, then quarter. Or just coarsely chop.

Mince garlic

Slice onion

Take rice out of the box, crumble with fingers into a bowl.

Cube leftover pork.

Slice tofu. Oil lightly on both sides.

Take cover off dried ginger, or grate fresh ginger.

Chop celery

Cook tofu:

Grill on both sides.

Cube.

Cook rice:

Heat pan on high, add oil, pinch of kosher salt. Let this get real hot. Wait about 5 to 10 min. depending on your stove. The hotter, the better. This action is fast, so keep everything handy. Keep things moving in the center constantly once you start adding things.

The key here is to be able to keep some things on the heat, while moving others off. If you lack a deep sided frying pan or Wok you'll have to figure out how to do this.

Add garlic, onion and celery all at once.

Add ginger.

Add zucchini. Push garlic/onion/celery up the side of the pan, away from the heat.

Turn zucchini over and cook on other side.

Add pork to center, stir with zucchini.

Add tofu to pork/zucchini in center. Keep those aromatics up there on the sides.

Move everything up around the side and make room for the rice.

Add rice.

Fry rice for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Add soy sauce and stir everything together.

Shut heat off and move pan off burner.

Serve.

One pint of rice and about a cup or so of pork will feed two people.

String Bean and Shalot Salad

This is a tasty recipie I remember from somewhere and along the way I modified and tweaked it a bit. It could still use some work, however.

String Beans, green.
Shalots, two medium-sized.
Pinch of Sugar
Pinch of Salt, kosher. Less if using table salt.
Two tbsp. Olive Oil
Two tbsp. Red Wine Vingar

Slice shalots lengthwise. Put shalots in 6" square foil pan. Oil and salt shalots.
Put string beans in medium sized glass bowl. Oil and salt the string beans. Grill string beans until browned.
Put foil pan containing shalots on grill over medium-medium low heat. Do not brown the shalots, just get them softened up a bit.
Add oil and vinegar to glass bowl, wisk until emulsified. Add sugar and salt to bowl, wisk to combine.
When beans and shalots are done, add both in same glass bowl used for green beans. Toss.

Where To Shop

To make really good food you must obtain fine ingredients. Akin to mining for precious stones, discovering fine ingredients takes investment in time, research and sometimes a little money (but also luck).

Michael's Meats

Michael's Meats is the archetypal butcher. They carry a variety of grocery and have great service.

Rabbit's Dance Farm

We came across Rabbit's Dance Farm through a friend and it also happens to be very close to where we live. http://www.rabbitsdancefarm.com, Rabbit's Dance Farm offers sustainable-grown, chemical-free produce through their Community Supported Agriculture program.