It seems like yesterday I was pondering the fact it was almost the 4th of July. Now, how can this be? This weekend is the Labor Day weekend?  And I know sometimes I get so caught up in the crazy schedule of life I completely forget what the holidays truly represent - beyond having a day off!

I often remind myself of the many sacrifices made to live the way we live today, so I remember to appreciate how good I have it compared to my grandparents. It seems like a much more hectic life sometimes, but it’s filled with so many more conveniences than Grandma and Grandpa were ever able to enjoy.

Gourmet Standard makes fabulous cookware. Quality, long-lasting, and beautiful looking.  One of my favorite lines is their Copper Tri-Ply. Now of course with the copper exterior you’ll want to hand-wash the pots if you want them to look great for for a lifetime. But just look at this copper stock pot for example - what’s not to love?

Imagine all of the wonderful soups and dishes you can create in this beauty!

I remember fondue being very popular when I was a growing up.  There were these great wine and cheese places around town and they had lots of board games to play, and of course, fondue. We’d go to kick-back with a few friends and end up spending hours there,  treating ourselves to different wines and yummy fondue.

Gourmet Standard has this fabulous fondue set that’s perfect for a get together or family fun. We love dipping fresh fruit like strawberries and bananas in chocolate (oh, and marshmallows or chunks of pound cake too).  Or another favorite is pretzels, bread or apple slices in cheese. Not only is fondue a fun, wonderful treat - it’s like an instant party!

I was just over on the Martha Stewart site, one of my favorite places to visit on the web. And of course I was salivating over her current feature on summer appetizers. Marinated mozzarrella, ginger shrimp with tomato relish,  chicken satay with peanut chutney sauce and the list goes on. You can check out the list and photos on her site - I’m not sure which one I’d like to try first but they all look wonderful and oh so tempting.

I love visiting sites like hers and others because sometimes I just plain run out of ideas on something different to make for dinner or a get together, especially in the heat of summer - and I can find such wonderful (and relatively easy) new goodies to make and try. It’s a great way of introducing family and kids to new foods and tastes too. 

Do you love watching all of the great food shows as much as I do? I salivate as I watch chefs whipping up their great dishes and oh, the desserts! I was flipping through the channels earlier and came across a wedding show devoted specifically to wedding cakes. This particular part of the show was showing cakes that ranged from “$500 to $5,000″. Wow, $5000 for a cake I thought?  Then I saw the cakes…works of art! How could you put a knife in them? But as beautiful as they looked, I think I’d want to know what a $5,000 cake tastes like….

The creativity is amazing. It would be wonderful to be able to study with one of these cake masters, to learn to create such beautiful desserts. Imagine the impressive goodies you could create for the next family holiday!

Well it’s hard to believe it but it’s the July 4th holiday weekend approaching. Time to hit the store and buy lots of great goodies for a big backyard barbeque - it even looks like the weather will cooperate.

 There’s a lot of fun to explore around town and it’s such a nice time to kick back and spend time with our favorite people.  Hope you and yours have a very Happy and safe 4th of July!

If you’re a fish-lover like many of us here are, there’s nothing like  cooking up some fresh fish for dinner in the summer - especially if it’s your own catch of the day.  Have you ever baked up a tasty fresh water Rainbow Trout you’ve caught in your favorite river? Or grilled a delicious Flounder or Striped Bass you reeled in from the ocean? (We love this great fish spatula from Gourmet Standard - it makes flipping the fish over  so much easier!)

We usually serve ours up with a fresh salad and a pasta dish on the side. Oh, and wine, we mustn’t forget the wine.

Here on the East coast we’ve had a long, record-breaking heat wave (and it’s only June!)  It’s definitely time to get out the ice-cream maker and start whipping up some nice, cool treats.  Homemade ice cream is so much fun - it’s not tough to make and you can adapt just about any recipe to your personal liking.

We love to experiment with the different fruits like banana, strawberry, peach, cherry - which also make a great sorbet when we’re in the mood for something lighter and bit less fattening. But sometimes we just have to make something rich and there’s nothing better than a dish of homemade rocky road or butter pecan ice cream. Yum!

When I saw these beautiful chafing dishes and this classy soup tureen I felt this overwhelming need to buy them and throw a party.  The truth is while we do a lot of the big holidays around here, we’re not generally party-throwers throughout the year.  But these servers are so enticing, it’s hard to resist.  Now to figure out where to store them..

We were away and we missed last week’s episode of Top Chef.  After finding the time to unpack, catch up on business and get back into a bit of routine it was time to catch up on the latest news from Bravo’s Top Chef. 

Was anyone surprised that Spike was eliminated? Not around here, but we are still a bit puzzled to see that Lisa remains but Dale doesn’t.  If you read Tom’s latest blog you’ll see some interesting comments from him on the perspective on Dale’s elimination from a viewer’s point of view since it’s one of the times he wasn’t participating as a judge. It’s worth a read.  So now let’s see what next week brings - I’m glad we’ll be here to check it out.

Salad is often thought of as something on the side or to be served before a big meal, but salad makes a great main dish too.  Especially as we get into the summer season, a nice cool salad tastes so good.

There are countless proteins that round off salad making it a satisfying meal - nuts like walnuts, almonds, cashew - eggs - cheeses like gorgonzola, blue or cheddar — and one of our favorites, sliced chicken cutlets. Top it off with one of your favorite dressings - store bought or homemade.

Right now is prime strawberry season in our area and we try to go strawberry picking anytime we can. The farms have a pretty small window of opportunity around here- generally the month of May and into early June if the weather cooperates.  Too little rain and the plants stop producing and well, too much rain and they cease to flourish. I have great respect for the people who farm, it is hard work and you are always at the mercy of Mother Nature. Plus they’ve told us they are often being tempted with offers from developers for their land. 

When we go strawberry picking we always freeze a bunch of them so that we can use them later to make smoothies or ice-cream or just to munch on.  We’ve learned the trick to freezing your strawberries is to first lay them out flat on a cookie sheet or any pan that fits in your freezer (we line ours with wax or parchment paper) and then bag them once they’ve been frozen.  This way you can pick out them out individually as needed instead of them being frozen solidly together.  Here are some great strawberry recipes too if you’re looking for something different to create!

What, it’s from a jar, a can? Well the truth is at our house it usually is made from canned tomatoes and tomato puree with some spices tossed in. And when we cook our favorite vegan meatballs in the sauce the taste is really good and we spend the rest of the week dipping Italian bread in it until it’s gone.

Now that’s not necessarily what sauce is all about, so I think I’m overdue to start practicing making some real sauces sometime soon – and not necessarily tomato sauce since there are hundreds of different kinds of sauces I could try and create. While I still might not be cut out for a career in fine dining, it will be fun to try. And honestly any excuse having something new to dip bread into sounds like a perfect excuse to me.

Did you catch the latest episode of Top Chef?  It was interesting how they were teamed  -  my favorites were all on one team. And it was inspiring how Richard offered his win to Stephanie who then responded they should share it. Now Dale was on the other team and he is super talented, but he just loses his temper too much. And I don’t see him behaving the way Richard and Stephanie did. I do think he’ll be part of the final four, but I will be shocked if the Top Chef isn’t Richard.

Stephanie is amazing too, she has been a pretty consistent and inventive chef - did you see the way she whipped up the mayo in the team quick-fire challenge.  But will the judges think she’s as creative as Dale?  What is it that Tom and the others are ultimately looking for in a Top Chef. Is it only the number of quick fire and elimination challenges a chef wins that are ultimately counted up for the winner or is there more to it?  I’ve gone to the site for last year’s winner Hung and I see his stats…. if I read the current stats correctly it’s Richard then Antonio in the lead followed by Stephanie and Dale.

Will the strongest chefs still hold on to their leads? There will be some intense challenges coming up and I can’t wait to see them!

I don’t think I could ever give up bread, it is by far one of my all-time favorite foods. Even better is fresh home baked italian bread with sweet butter.  Or dipping it in a bowl of yummy tomato soup.  I know it’s getting warm out, but I’m still on a soup kick - it’s such a great comfort food, especially combined with fresh bread.

As I write this I could really go for some right now…do I have to share the loaf? Well,  I guess I could bake some extra for the rest of the family!

I just don’t get around to using our good china as often as I should. Then I remind myself that life is short and I really should use it more often for the fun of it.  And I know one thing that stops me is all of the hand-washing. Though with good company that process can be a lot of fun, chatting and being silly in the kitchen!

With that in mind, here are some basic tips for washing your China to add to the dishes longevity and lessen the chance of breakage.

1. Fill a dishwashing pan with mild detergent and warm water and set up your dish rack drainer or drain board. (Consider buying one of the great dishwashing pans they make now with handles and a drain that can make the job easier).
2. Add several small items at a time (cups, saucers, small plates), making sure they are first emptied of any leftover food or beverage. Large dishes should be washed individually. When washing the smaller items, be careful not to add different kinds of dishes in the pan at the same time since breakage often occurs when you mix dishes of different shapes and sizes.
3. Wash and rinse each one at a time, setting it up on the dish rack to drain. When all in the first batch are rinsed, begin hand-drying the first item rinsed with a soft dry towel.
4. Avoid using hot water, too much soap, or harsh detergents- these will damage the color on your dishes and cause crackles in the finish.

With the proper care, you’ll be able to enjoy your beautiful dishes for many years!

This note was prompted by a question from one of our customers who was wondering why some quality cookware is 18/10 and some of it is not.

For instance, the Gourmet Standard Professional Series Tri-Ply is  made with the interior a polished 18/8 stainless steel, the core is aluminum (increases heating efficiency) and the outer is 18/0 stainless steel. Now the reason it’s not 18/10 is that 18/10 has nickel in it and then it wouldn’t be induction compatible.

This is top quality cookware. As a matter of fact, Cooks Illustrated (it’s like the Consumer’s Guide for cookware) rated the sauté pan from this series second only to the All Clad which sells for double the cost. 

Similarly, the Copper Bottom series 18/10 Stainless with aluminum core and copper capsule bottom is also excellent quality , but not induction compatible and something to keep in mind if you’re working on an induction cooktop.

I love watching Top Chef.  The dynamics and personalites of the different chefs competing,  I bow to their ability to create diverse dishes under such enormous pressure. But I guess that’s why they’re on the show and not me.  Of course lately I keep catching the same episodes with the contestants that I know have already exited .  I’m just anxious to find out who’s going to win this year. 

I have a couple of favorites myself - one of them is Stephanie - her dishes always seem to turn out really well (at least I think they have as I might have missed an episode) - and even more, she’s very calm under pressure. It will be interesting to see the final episodes — I hope I haven’t missed them!

I was flipping through the TV channels and caught a Molto Mario show where he was preparing an scrumptious eggplant dish. Now I can’t get the craving for baked eggplant off of my mind. It looked so simple, so delicious - pick an eggplant that is not too fat (less seeds, less bitterness), cut it up into fat slices and dip both sides in olive oil, make some small holes in each and stuff in pieces of garlic cloves, (then I missed a moment of the show here), and bake in the oven on a jelly-roll pan.

So can you guess what I’ll be buying on my next trip to the grocery? And maybe I’ll check out Mario’s cookbooks and see if there’s one to add to my cookbook collection. I already have so many, but I don’t think you can ever have too many. (Until you run out of storage space!)

I don’t know about you, but I can never seem to find enough storage in my kitchen.  So I started toying with the idea of getting a nice hanging pot rack. We had the center isle, but the problem was we had this big clunky light fixture hanging over it.

Well, we recently got around to buying a nice modern light fixture and the stainless pot rack and wow, what a difference. I now have a great place to hang my favorite pans and utensils, plus it looks so sharp!