Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Today's Word

Today's word from the Food Lover's Companion is important if you ever plan to visit 4 or 5 star restaurants. It's actually 2, but here it is: "Prix Fixe". 

Pronounced PREE FEEKS it is a french term meaning "fixed price", referring to a complete meal served by a restaurant or hotel for a preset price. Sometimes a menu offers several choices for each course for this set price. 

Many upscales restaurants use this type of menu to ensure they get top dollar for their meals, however this can limit the guests willing to pay the usually higher prices. Usually restaurants that use the Prix Fixe menu change their menu daily, and offer 3 to 5 courses for this fixed price. For more info on the history of Prix Fixe see wikipedia.org on the topic. 

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Today's Word

I hope this will be a regular feature on my blog as a way to educated myself and others about the culinary world. I found my copy of the Food Lover's Companion from my days at New England Culinary Institute, and decided that every day I would flip the book open and look for a random word I wasn't familiar with, and look it up. Hope you enjoy it:

Today's word is: Marmite: A tall, covered, straight-sided cooking pot from France, used for long-cooking stews and dishes such as Cassoulet and Pot-Au-Feu. It's usually made of EARTHENWARE. Petites marmites are identically shaped miniature  covered pots used as soup bowls. Here is what a Petite marmite looks like:

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Dressings: Southern Ranch

Southern Ranch Dressing:

Super tasty, Super good, and oh so un-healthy!

This recipe makes a quart of dressing:

2 Cups of Mayo
1 Cup of Sour Cream
3/4 Cup of buttermilk
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
2 tablespoons of black pepper
1 tablespoon of Salt
1.5 tablespoons of fresh minced parsley 

Mix ingredients thoroughly and refrigerate when done. Makes a great dip for a Superbowl Party, or for salad dressing!