Playing With My Food ~
A journal about food, thought, travel, and life; by Chef & Raconteur Chaz French.

Baked Sundays: Buttermilk Lasagna

Oh, hi there! I hope you didn’t think that Baked Sundays was all about cakes, cookies and sweet decadence.  It’s most certainly also about savory decadence! What you’re looking at is a lasagna made with a buttermilk bechamel, layers of baby spinach, mushroom, emmentaler , chevre, leek and garlic.  The noodles were made by my […]

Baked Sundays: Recipe: Banana Bar Bites

This weekend I was away visiting my friends in Mendocino, pics from that to come.   While i was staying with Sydnee & Ken I got to watch as Ken made this recipe.  It’s strangely fascinating to watch someone else make something from my instructions.  As promised here’s the recipe for the Banana Bar Bites from […]

Baked Sundays, a little early

Hola!  So while I will be baking on Sunday, the site will be undergoing some background maintenance and I won’t be able to post tomorrow’s baking until Monday.  And yes, I said a little early up top because, I have for you test 2 and 3 of the chocolate cake from last week’s BS. In […]

Misadventures in gluten-free baking

No, I am not going “Gluten-Free” or “GF” it ain’t happening. But I have friends with gluten issues from confirmed celiac, to people who just feeling better without gluten, so I’ve decided to see what’s involved in faking gluten.  So far what’s involved is a lot of money!  Baking gluten-free is fucking pricey. Ingredients from […]

Baked Sundays

Welcome to Baked Sundays, wherein I bake and share on Sunday.  The photos at least you get today, the recipe was a first draft, so while you’ll get to see my chocolate/ginger/yogurt cake, and I get to eat it, you have to wait a bit to try it yourselves. Happy Baked Sunday! Tweet

Orange Loaf for Lionel

So, my buddy Lionel is a dessert man but he prefers the use of chocolate to be limited; he feels it’s overused in desserts, and he has a point. And it was a chocolate orange bread from Nigella Lawson, that got me thinking about an orange loaf, but I didn’t want a pound cake, or […]

Persian Kotlet

Kotlet is a Persian dish made from ground meat, mashed potato, onion, herbs and spices.  It’s damn tasty, and dead easy to make.  If you can make a meatball, you can make this, it’s that easy.  It’s also an easy way to impress your friends with how ‘cultural’ you are. ;^)  Serve with rice and […]

What Remains…

Gets a makeover. I used the leftover beer braised oxtail, and salsa verde to make a twist on Heuvos Rancheros.  Here I simmered the oxtail meat in the salsa verde served with two eggs over medium, refried beans, and corn tortillas, with a few dashes of Tapatio hot sauce. Tweet

Salsa Verde With Roasted Tomatillo

  This is a fast easy recipe for a salsa verde that is bright and flavorful. Salsa Verde – Time 30 minutes, Yield aprrox 2 cups. Ingredients: 1 pound tomatillos 2 teaspooons olive oil 1/4 cup red onion, minced 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1/3 bunch of cilantro, finely chopped 1 jalapeno or 1/2 an […]

Oxtail tacos with cuitlacoche, goat cheese, and salsa verde

Cuitlacoche is a fungus that grows on corn, in the United States, the FDA has gone to great lengths to eliminate this blight known as “Corn Smut,” in parts of Mexico they intentionally inoculate corn with the spores that deform the kernels and grow these fungal tumors.  They are intensely delicious, and they’re now being […]