It’s been some time since I’ve added anything to these pages but I’m back. After all, you didn’t think you’d be lucky enough to get through the entire summer without my virtual smiling face on your computer screens, did you? 
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far. It’s been a busy one on this side of the internet with lots of things happening all at once. (On that note, thank you for the emails checking in during my absence. It was great to hear from everyone and I sincerely appreciate the sentiments and concern. Thank you.)
Not only has it been a busy summer but it’s been a very hot one too! So, I can’t wait to tell you about the salad in today’s post – it’s cool and refreshing, the perfect foil to steamy summer days – but first a little detour… [click to continue…]
Curled up in the fetal position, I was in my own personal nightmare.
If you’ve been to the CeramicCanvas.com in the past two weeks you may have noticed something….there was no CeramicCanvas.com. It seems that we were experiencing some technical difficulties or as our web hosting support tech calls it, “a fatal programming loop.”
I confess, I’m way too IT-challenged to even begin to understand what that means. But luckily for me, all is well again with our little slice of the internets…and I’ve managed to pick myself up off of the floor. There’s just one little problem. Because of our blackout, most of you never got the chance to see last week’s Blackberry Custard Tart recipe – which is a real shame, cause it is one of my favorite desserts of all time.
I found it back in 2000 while perusing a copy of Saveur magazine – and have loved it ever since. Packed with a one-two punch of berry flavor, it’s one of those fail safe recipes that you make when really need to wow a crowd. If you get a chance, check it out. [click to continue…]
I doubt that I will survive the experience.
Since as far back as I can remember, I’ve never really been the tough guy. I have pre-school memories of a 5 year old me being mocked by the ‘mean girls’ cause they wouldn’t let me cook with them in the kindergarten’s play kitchen. “Go outside and play with the boys,” they’d taunt.
Considering this, I very seriously doubt that I would survive prison today. I shudder thinking of my first day behind bars and how it would bring back awkward pre and high school memories.
Would I fit into any of the cliques? Which cafeteria table would I sit at (would anybody even let me sit at their table)? Would I be as bad at making a shank as I was in high school wood shop? Ugh! [click to continue…]
If it wasn’t for that fact that I will have my own personal chauffer and someone to dress me up, I’d be late to my own funeral.
Whether it’s meeting friends for a movie or a movie, I am almost always running a tad bit behind scheduled plans. This “Tardy for the Party” mentality (if you get that joke, you, like me, watch way too much reality TV) extends to all reaches of my life. For instance, take asparagus season.
Asparagus season has been in full swing for quite some time now and somehow I am just now getting around to making a dish with what is my favorite veggie. I am not sure what took me so long to get around to it but let me tell you, this recipe for Ribbon Asparagus Tart is a great place to begin. [click to continue…]
Changing your name and moving to an undisclosed location can be a massive disruption in your life but sometimes it’s so worth it. By the time you read this I will have already gone underground, totally untraceable and been made to ‘disappear’ like a KGB ‘person of interest.’ I’ve been enrolled in the Culinary Secret Witness Protection Program.
It’s a program for those who have committed the most egregious culinary gaffes… gaffes that have earned them shame and the scorn of their fellow foodies. I knew the second that I decided to make this easy ‘caramel’ sauce that my name would be mud. I mean, technically it’s not even a caramel (no brunt sugar) but man oh man, it is so delicious and best of all, it’s so so so easy to make. [click to continue…]
It’s the first day of Spring 2010 and it was the night before Christmas!
Let me explain. It was life imitating art. As penned in the famous poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas, “The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar-plums danced in their head,” last Saturday, I was lying in bed half asleep, half awake when I was startled to consciousness by a vision that could only be described as a gift from the heavens… Mini Chocolate Pound cakes soaked in ginger syrup and topped with a white chocolate ganache (Wow! Was that a run-on sentence or what?).
The more I thought about this flavor combo, the more excited I got. And as luck would have it, I remembered that I already had little 3 ½” loaf/cake pans that I had bought over a year ago but never got around to using.
This was coming together. I was wound up. I could barely go back to sleep. I tried counting sheep but they would start turning into chocolate pound cakes jumping over a country wood fence in front of a stream of white chocolate ganache. Ahhh, they were so cute. [click to continue…]
BREAKING NEWS…BREAKING NEWS…BREAKING NEWS!
University of California, Davis researchers have found that drinking beer can help prevent weak bones.
You hear that Sally Fields? You can give it a rest now. My drinking buddies and I aren’t taking your Boniva…anymore.
To celebrate this life changing medical discovery, I decided to make a companion snack to my new beer diet regiment. The usual suspects came to mind…pretzels (which I will make some day but not this time), potato chips and/or maybe a ‘gourmet’ popcorn.
None of these options really struck my fancy. I wanted something different. Around the same time, I came across a recipe in Food & Wine magazine for an interesting way of turning pasta into a snack food. [click to continue…]
Ok guys, you gotta be honest with me. Does this bright orange make my backside look big?
Notice anything different? The Ceramic Canvas is trying on a new outfit, a new look, a complete redesign of the website. Although it keeps the old sharp orange color scheme (what can I say, me likes bright shiny colors), the new site is more user friendly with a stronger emphasis on the food and photos.
I’ll be honest – reprogramming the site was often painful. I mean, I’m no html, css.layout data pro. At one point I thought I had lost all of my old content. I responded the only way I knew how – I curled up on the floor in the fetal position. And nothing good can come from a grown man on the floor in the fetal position. Well, except that I realized that I really need to dust my floors more often.
But here we are – a new look. I hope you like it. What do you think? What better way to kick off this new bright and shiny web design then with a bright and shiny dish. [click to continue…]
Everyone has one. For some it’s a no fuss baked chicken. For others it may be a satisfying tray of hearty lasagna.
It’s their ‘go to’ recipe. A dish that you’ve made so many times that you can cook it on autopilot – an easy dish that always seems to hit the spot.
I have several ‘got to’ dishes (a few of them from McDonald’s). This recipe for Spaghetti all Carbonara is one of my favorites. It’s delicious, filling and very pantry friendly – between the fridge and the cupboards, I tend to always have the ingredients on hand. [click to continue…]
No doubt that many of you reading this entry will be very disappointed with the content. It’s all about cocottes. Evidently, the French word cocotte has two meanings. There’s the culinary definition – an individual serving sized dish of baked eggs and cream. And then there’s the other meaning referring to – well, you know – ladies of the evening.
So, if you’ve landed here via a Google search with hopes of photos and info on the red light district cocottes, sorry, this post is all about eggs. But if you’re here for the edible cocotte (I’ll restrain myself and not make an off-color joke here) then boy-oh-boy, do I have a dish for you. [click to continue…]
