Cassoulet the Michael way

Julia makes a mean cassoulet, but boy is it a lot of time and work. My version, which is still a work in progress, still takes beaucoup de temps (at least 2 days), but better fits in with my cooking work ethic.

Cooking up some iPhone 4 wallpapers

OK, I'll admit this post has nothing to do with food but I felt like I should share. Many, including myself, find Apple's iPhone wallpaper offerings too busy, so I made some low-contrast ones for myself. These are a Japanese paper texture similar to the nice background Apple uses behind windows in Safari on iPad and in folders on iOS4.

Download them here.

Some other options: Zachery Bir’s Non-Busy iPhone Wallpapers, Jim Ray’s very dark gray one, Marco Arment’s black leather texture one

Stupid radio guy

Jeff H and I were in the car listening to NPR (I think) and there was some guy talking about wines and how the Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais is a great food wine and really undervalued. So later that day we're at Whole Foods and low and behold guess what we find: A 2008 Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages. Well, all I can say is that my rule about getting what you pay for in the sub-$50 range holds true. This wine is very bright and acidic, though it was much more tolerable once it was open for more than half an hour. Or maybe I was just tipsy and I didn't care so much at that point.

Beef stroganoff

I got this recipe from Jeff (via Gourmet?) years ago. Since we were dust-clearing in the kitchen already I decided to rescue this little guy from the bottom of the recipe box. I am seriously out of practice and flubbed a couple of things that affected the texture, but luckily not the flavor, of this yummy dish. Photos by guest photographer Jeff H.

Done with the dark ages

I'm back! Cooking was on hiatus due to ceiling light failure. The "dark ages" were dark indeed and mostly involved me preparing breakfast cereal for dinner by flashlight. But thanks to major help from Jeff and Russ last weekend, a new 12-foot track light now illuminates the kitchen in a nice warm glow. Critics say it's a little much, calling my well-lit kitchen "broadway", but I like it!

I got the marred area of the ceiling repainted and everything reasonably cleaned up yesterday. Thanks to a trip to Lowes I also discovered that PAR-16 bulbs will fit entirely inside the track light fixtures making them seem less huge (not pictured) ... yay!

Jeff's snow day challenge

Jeff invited me over Saturday for a day of drinking and cooking -- we had tons of fun. I made a rather tasty butternut squash and potato gratin, and Jeff made lobster, ribs, brisket, and "cowboy" beans. Show-off. Read about it on Jeff's blog.

Chicken meatballs with chives and a lime raita

Recipes from the New York Times very often call for exotic ingredients and have lengthly, complicated steps that keep you toiling for hours. To make it worse, more often than not the result is entirely lacking given how much time and effort you put into it. This recipe is not that. The three best things about it: Amazingly delicious, easy to come up with lots of variations, and the end result makes great leftovers. You can even freeze them -- just heat them up like Ikea meatballs and they're just as tasty.