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Here’s one of those recipes that pops out of my folder when I see burstingly fresh zucchini at the produce stand. It’s adapted from a recipe that’s been passed around in my family as ‘Doris Fenton’s Zucchini Bread’ for donkey’s years, and so when I lightened up on the oil and tweaked other quantities to [...]
West of Sienna, sunflowers paint the softly rolling hills as far as the eye can see. The road dips and sways through the Tuscan landscape, with shoulder high banks that rise to either side. Swallows glide on late afternoon thermals in the clear blue sky. At an opening to one field a man holds up cars to [...]
Let me tell you about these blueberries that followed me home from California. There they were the other day, in a hunking great display the size of a small garden shed, right at the front of my local organic megastore: clamshell packages bursting with plump ripe fruit. Okay, these particular blueberries were not organic, but [...]
My Italian was not at all up to this. ‘Lo sportello automatico non pagare il denaro,’ I said to the beautifully tailored man across the desk from me – as close as I could get with my tourist phrase books to ‘the bank machine ate my money.’ I felt perspiration rise on the back of [...]
My daughter the Cake Princess looked quizzically at the dough laid out on a wooden peel in the kitchen. “Do you make pizza every day?” she asked, striking a pose. “Just this week,” I assured her. “Yeah, right,” she said, and flopped off to check her facebook page.
Thin to thick: Last week's selection
We’re all [...]
I’ve never been to Bolivia, but I’ve been many times to the Copacabana Café in the Pike Place Market. A South American beer tastes fine there on one of those perfect Seattle afternoons, when mountains come out to stand boldly against a wondrously blue sky. Okay, they’re not the Andes. But perched there on the Copacabana’s deck, with [...]
“No meat!” The Greek proprietor slashed the air with his pointed finger. He bent behind the counter to pull out a large tray, which he proceeded to set before us. We inhaled the wonderful smell of tomatoes mixed with rice, onion and herbs. No meat. A smile spread across the face of my wife the Salad Queen.
We had come in from the late afternoon heat to [...]
‘I don’t want to go bowling!’ My son stamped his foot.
‘When you’re in France,’ I said in my best, all-knowing fatherly voice, ‘you do what French people do.’ I ruffled his hair and he pulled away.
‘But bowling?’ he howled. ‘Who goes to France to go bowling?’
Well, I guess he had a point. When the Bullhogs [...]
A friend who once owned a cheese shop told me the Cambozola story. That blue cheese with brie was a winning combination had been well known in cheese circles for years, but the French refused to adulterate their Camembert with blue cheese and the Italians didn’t want to tone down their gorgonzola. In 1970, a German [...]
Here at Chez Bullhog, we love our beans. As a delicious comfort food, a hearty alternative to meat, or tender nuggets that suck up all kinds of exotic flavoring, they never fail to satisfy. And so when we learned that we could cook them the way people used to do it, with the bean pot right in [...]
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Welcome Aboard At Woodfiredkitchen.com, Sortachef takes you on adventures in the kitchen and beyond, with tales to suit. Many of his offerings are woodfired - a flaming good recipe for pizza, bread, or something different. All recipes are original and tasty. Enjoy!
Sortachef Adventures Early this summer, Sortachef took his trusty steed down to California for two weeks, camping and cooking with fire along the way. In Arcata, Lodi and Mt. Shasta City, he visited with owners and operators of woodfired ovens.
The trip opened new avenues for woodfired ideas. See ‘Camping Clam Spaghetti in the Redwoods’ and ‘Beautifully Barbecued Baby Back Ribs’ for two of his stories.
In mid summer, Sortachef spent several weeks collecting material in the U.K., where he followed leads on bakers using specialty ovens and sampled a variety of pizzas. See 'The State of British Pizza: 2010' for an overview; it just might change your views on British food.
Sortachef and the Salad Queen will be heading to Puebla, Mexico in October to visit the birthplace of Mole. Stay tuned for more, Amigos!
Flame On!
Got a good campfire cooking story? In his quest for the perfect camping food, Sortachef talked to many folk from Grants Pass, Oregon to Yosemite. Almost everybody had a tale to tell. If you’ve got a good one, send it to Sortachef@gmail.com, and he’ll try to use it in an upcoming entry.
Kudos “Do you know those days when it feels like a hot chocolate day? That’s what Don’s site makes me feel like.”
“Sortachef on Woodfiredkitchen.com includes an eclectic mix of travel, food memories and photographs to accompany his recipes. Since we believe food, wine and travel are the best geography lesson you can have to understand and appreciate various cultures, his style of sharing his message is what we enjoy.
"(Don) may not be a chef, but he is a great cook and a good writer which shines through on his blog.”
“You have two very special gifts, one your love of cooking and the other, one with words.”
"Sortachef's woodfired chicken is not just a recipe to try, but his writing is just as savory. Part travelogue and part rambling joke, you'll enjoy the introductory anecdote just as much as the cooking."
“Reading your post nearly brought me to happy tears remembering how (my mother) prepared this masterpiece with such loving care. I didn’t have a copy of her method so I think I will bridge the gap with yours.
Thank you so much for jogging a jovial food memory for me.”
“The bread is as beautiful as your writing.”
“One of my favorite things is when people blog for themselves and the people they connect with, not to make money or to get a book deal. That being said, I think Don should make money and get a book deal”
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