This Old Chef

Here's a Hamapalooza 2015 recipe that's sure to tickle your hambone!

When you reach that point with your Easter ham that you have...

Shall we say...

Odds and ends... Pieces that are still really good, but way too irregular to…

This is truly not the glamorous part of cooking... but it’s a really valuable one. 

If your family is in the Ham-at-Easter camp, on Easter Monday, you get ready to break down all that's left of that pig taking up…

OK... so this is hardly a recipe, but OMG was it fun.  Through some idiocy on my part, the day after Easter left me with not only ham, but also the rolled turkey breast I had concocted a few days…

For your consideration...  A St. Patrick's Day flashback from a few years ago:  salmon three ways!

It's that time of year again!

You're either really Irish, or you wish you were!

So do yourself a favor, eschew the supposedly traditional…

Following a large number of requests... I'm going to repost a recipe for soda bread today...

Bear with me... and be prepared, I like a far more traditional recipe... no fat and no sugar or raisins...

So... while I have…

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

I know, I know... but the family names are McCann, Kavanagh, McCullough, Shannon, Murphy, O'Gara... 

Clearly... I have no choice.

In these rollercoaster times, we're at least to travel a bit more and enjoy spending with…

So… Last year, Charlie wanted chicken on St. Patrick’s Day, a radical deviation as salmon has been our go-to for years now.  On went the thinking cap.  Chicken is very Irish… as is cream.  Then I started thinking about a…

I try to make sure that we eat well every night.

I try not to fall into "The Rotation Trap..."  Seven (or however many) dishes served on an endless loop.  Yes, of course there are faves that consistently reappear on…

I have recently come to the conclusion that if you can lay out the money and have the freezer space, buying large cuts of meat is the way to go.  Not crazy large like a whole cow or anything.  But…

I happened to have some milk rapidly approaching its use-by date.  So I made some paneer, just to be ready the next time we wanted some Indian food...

Paneer

Make fresh ricotta...

http://www.thisoldchef.com/blog.html/homemade_ricotta_with_fresh_herbs/

Drain about 1 hour in a towel-lined…

I often wish that described me...

But in this case, it's a poppyseed cake I've been making since the early '80s.  The original recipe (found in the old Joy of Cooking) called for two layers and a pastry cream…

Sometimes the universe is a lovely thing.

The test kitchen gave me a perfect piece of first-of-the-season wild halibut, frozen at sea.

OMG.  Gorgeous.

And with fish this perfect, first, Do No Harm!!!

I salted and peppered it.

I sautéed…