Ginger Bread Christmas Cookies

Ginger Bread Christmas Cookies. One of the first cookies that I remember my great aunt would bake was gingerbread men. Every Christmas she would make a full array of seasonal holiday cookie treats. I like the taste of ginger and find that the use of ginger as that secret ingredient found in some cookies is most satisfying to the taste bud. When I was baking Xmas cookies in mass amounts for a well-known restaurant group the Christmas baking was done hands on following colonial era recipes. Each batch of dough was hand crafted and the cookies that came from the dough batch...

Christmas Prime Rib of Beef

Christmas Prime Rib of Beef Here is the prime rib and Yorkshire pudding recipe that has been requested. Makes me hungry for a good feed. For the beef to qualify it has to be free of bruises, evenly marbled steer meat, dry aged for at least 29 days and a one inch thick fat cap is also required. Start by rubbing a spice mixture which contains equal amounts of kosher salt, garlic powder, beef base, ground black pepper, keens mustard powder and mild paprika. The spice rub is most important to making a tender roast. Massage this mixture all over the room temperature beef until...

Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner .

Turkey Dinner With the holiday season fast approaching, it is a good thing to start looking for your free range turkey and putting in your order. I like to make a trip to the usual last area farm markets and pick up all my pantry items from the farm vendors. One of the first meals I ever cooked for guests was a roast turkey dinner. Some chefs stuff the bird with a bread stuffing and cook covered at low temperature for several hours to keep the meat from becoming too dry. Other chefs roast breast side down to keep the breast meat moist. A few chefs have deep fried whole...

The Classic Chateau Briand

The Classic Chateau Briand. Working at Hotel Vancouver during my apprenticeship The Timber Room and the Panorama Dinning Rooms steak nights were popular on a regular bases. For those having a special dinner out the Classic Chateau Briand for two was beautiful aged beef tenderloin done to perfection. If you were a capable cook the sous chef would give you the privilege to work one of the cooking stations during these orchestrated periods of chaos. When the lunch or dinner hour was in full swing you had to be ready to produce your part of the menu at least 40 or 50 times....

Finding Seafood Nirvana

Finding Seafood Nirvana Shopping for some quality fresh seafood has become more detective work tracking down where it where and when and who caught it. Most of the my best recipes start with a good selection of fresh wild caught and prepared shellfish. Lots of chemicals used for fish preservation, especially from foreign companies using forced labour and under the radar practise of over fishing and protected species. Even today I still have not found a seafood purveyor like the fish surgeons at One Fish Two Fish in Langley BC or at the Satellite Fish Company Sidney BC and...