Crouton’s Slow-Cooked Beef Back Ribs
This is not my photo, but one I found on the net. Next time I make beef back ribs (and there will be a next time) I’ll take my own photos and update this recipe with visuals. Notes Beef back…
Seventh Rule of Cooking Club
Outdoor grilling and smoking requires every bit as much planning & preparation as cooking in the kitchen. Yesterday’s bimonthly meeting of the On On Gourmet Hash House Harriers was a grilling cook-off. Ditalini and I were the designated hosts, so…
Sixth Rule of Cooking Club
When doubling Cajun recipes, don’t double the cayenne. The On On Gourmet Hash House Harriers met again Saturday night, this time at the home of Giacomo “Hercules” Mandriano, where we were joined by Giacomo’s brother, Washington DC refugee Giuseppe “Pastoso”…
Caldo de Birria
I discovered this stew at a Mexican restaurant in Tucson. So far I’ve found only one other local restaurant serving it. I’m told it’s street food, highly regarded as a hangover cure. What impressed me was its rich beefiness, reminding me a…
Fifth Rule of Cooking Club
Know your coconut milk products. The On-On Gourmets cooking club met Saturday at the home of Anitra and Manzo Spezzatino for an evening of Thai cooking and consumption. Three new members attended: Pomodoro Calde, an experienced cook with years of…
Ditalini’s Oxtail Soup
When I was a kid, living in Germany with my USAF family, one of my favorite dishes was ochsenschwanzsuppe — oxtail soup, a thick and flavorful beefy broth. In later years, married and living in the USA, I’d sometimes pick up a…
Fourth Rule of Cooking Club
Don’t overload electrical circuits. Members of our cooking club met last night at the home of Magret de Canard for our second attempt at a do-it-yourself dinner, this time to cook our own meats and vegetables on raclette grills. Everyone…
Crouton’s Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa
I hate grocery store and chain restaurant salsa, with its chunks of tomato and green pepper swimming in tomato-flavored water. Here in Tucson a local restaurant called El Charro makes its own salsa, thick, smooth, and … even though the main ingredient is tomato … not tomatoey. I…
Third Rule of Cooking Club
Pull your own weight. We come to cook, not just to eat. Last night we tried something different. At earlier meetings, members prepared their assigned parts of the meal at home. Once we gathered at the host’s house we sat right down to eat. Ditalini and…
Spring Cleaning
You may notice blank spots where photos used to be on some of the older recipes here at Crouton’s Kitchen. Over the years we uploaded a lot of cooking and food photos to the server our blog lives on, and we were running…