Life in the key of E flat minor

In looking for a good Creole flavored baked bean recipe, I was disappointed that none of them started with a base of the Holy Trinity , the Cajun and Louisiana Creole variant of mirepoix . I did my research on the hallmarks of good Creole flavors and created this dish. After all was said and done, it was a lot of work to make a these baked beans in particular. While they did taste different than the baked beans out of a can, it was all subtlety. The thyme was a nice addition to the sweet and a dark flavors of your usual baked beans, while the andouille added a great smoky meaty flavor that didn't overpower. Slow Cooked Creole Baked Beans Ingredients: 2 lbs. dried beans (I use 1lb. navy and the other lb. Great Northern) 2 large onions, chopped 1 large bell pepper, chopped 4-6 celery stalks, chopped 1-2 cloves garlic, minced 2-3 Tbsp. butter ½ lb. andouille sausages, cubed ½ cup bourbon ½ cup molasses ½ cup dark brown sugar 1 cup ketchup 2 Tbsp. Creole seasoning ...

A week ago, my department had its biannual meeting in the Harrison Auditorium of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology . Before the start, I got to snap off a picture of the beautiful ceiling. It takes a moment like this to make me appreciate where I work and all the access I have to world-class collections. I'll make sure that I stop by for Vaults of Heaven: Visions-of-Byzantium which runs through February 12, 2012.

For this week’s recipe, I wanted to try something Chinese and came across char siu , the Chinese version of barbecue.  Usually the recipe is made with pork, either loin, pork belly or pork butt. However I had no pork in the house and I didn’t feel like going to the store.  However, by luck, I had all the other ingredients.  Plus, I did have a stash of chicken quarters and thighs that I thought would be a good substitute for the pork.  I went ahead and made the dish with chicken. Char Siu Chicken , adapted from Cooking Light’s Slow Cooker Char Siu Pork Roast Ingredients: Char Siu Chicken served over rice vermicelli ¼ cp soy sauce ¼ cp hoisin sauce 3 Tbsp ketchup 3 Tbsp honey 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated\ 1 tsp dark sesame oil ½ tsp five-spice powder 2 lbs of dark chicken pieces (quarters, thighs and/or drumsticks) ½ cp chicken broth Directions: Mix everything but the chicken and the broth in a small bowl and wh...

No photos were allowed in the exhibition. For New Year’s Eve, I traveled down to Raleigh again with my favorite traveling companion, Steve, to enjoy the city and the Rembrandt exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art.  We had picked Raleigh for the holiday, since we enjoyed the trip last year and Rembrandt in America was a big plus.  Thankfully, we were able to get into the city a day earlier to explore at a leisurely pace. Kneeling Angel Rembrandt in America is the largest collection of Rembrandt paintings ever presented in an American exhibition, the focus of which is the exploration of the collecting history of Rembrandt paintings in America. In addition to the Master’s works, the show also delves into the ideas of authorship and attribution.  Several of the pieces in the exhibition were originally thought to be Rembrandts, yet through advanced scholarship, they have been identified as either pieces started by Rembrandt and completed by others in his wo...

This week I was looking for something vegan again to try in the slow cooker. I naturally thought of Indian cuisine. After searching “slow cooker Indian recipe”, I found a recipe for a Punjabi dish of curried kidney beans, called rajmah, on Chicago’s ABC 7’s site about The Indian Slow Cooker. Rajmah is a Punjabi comfort food and not usually something that you would find at a restaurant.  This sense of it not being refined enough to serve at a restaurant made the dish intriguing.  Added to that is the interesting the story of Anupy Singla, the Indian Slow Cooker, which compelled me to cook this Punjabi entrée. Indian-born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Singla eventually worked her way as a reporter in Chicago – frequently as a correspondent for Chicago-based news on CNN.  To conform with her hectic schedule she would work with her mother to adapt many of her favorite Indian dishes for the slow cooker. This became her favorite way to cook. Singla has her own blog, In...

I've only posted two #shitISeeAtTheGym on my blog, since I've been more than just lax in going to the gym. However, I've been following the trend on twitter.  I figured it would be trending more, especially now with everyone's New Year's Resolutions in full force.  It's really be crickets, I haven't seen anyone else use the hashtag since before my first posting. Therefore, I was excited that yesterday someone tweeted: @itsquinc: #ShitISeeAtTheGym http://t.co/adfaDQhG . However, I'm not sure what he's commenting on.  Me, I think that it looks like someone in a demin skirt working out which is odd, but I wondered if I was missing something. What do you think?

While I had time off during the Christmas break, I spent it working on a braciole recipe for the slow cooker.   In Italian American cuisine, braciole (the word is commonly pronounced /ˌbrä-zhəl/ from the Sicilian dialect) is the name given to thin slices of meat, usually beef, that are prepared as a roulade, a meat slice rolled around a filling then browned and braised. When I first had braciole, they were small individual servings, like the German Rouladen.  However in my search for a slow cooker version, I discovered recipes that made a large roulade versus the individual portions.  If Giada can do it, then so can I. The effort that goes into crafting the individual braciole is intense. Therefore, I was excited that most of the recipes called for a big roast sized braciole.  Cutting down the directions to a comfortable level of simplicity makes for a delicious meal without the hours of toil and let's the cook enjoy the food. I played with these two recipes, Bo...

After viewing the "Rembrandt in America" exhibit at the NC Museum of Art, Steve and I went to look at the Museum's permanent collection. I wanted to show how the piece of art commands the far wall on the gallery while catching the sky lights that collect the indirect light from outside. If you look at the doorway, you can see Steve making sure that he got into the picture I was trying to take.