Foreward

Recipes with Life Lessons

Cuisine Manager

Food plays such a large part in our lives. Think back to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners spent with family and loved ones. I’m sure you begin to conjure up fond memories. Now think of every day occasions spent with family, friends or even strangers that involved or were centered on food. Maybe it was a special dinner you prepared for a lover. Perhaps a meal shared with friends that when thinking back a smile immediately spreads across your face. No matter what the event was I bet food was involved in some fashion. Have you ever gone out to eat and expected to just have a meal and something happens either on the way or while you are there to make it one of those stories that become woven into the fabric of your life. This book is about those stories and the meals that accompanied them. Richard and I have known each other since grade school and have shared our life’s experiences over the last 45 years. Through good times and bad we have laughed, cried and supported each other through this journey we call life. Along the way we have lived and eaten in some amazing places and have some interesting stories to tell. As with everyone else the majority of these experiences had a meal or a special food associated with them. As in real life some of the stories are funny, some are heartwarming and some will make you think of your own stories.

     Shopping for family or friends is part of the process!


Neither Richard nor I are chefs but  like so many others we do like to cook. Surprisingly most of our meals turn out quite well.  As a matter of fact we probably cook like you, we read a recipe, follow the parts we understand and hope for the best. The Internet has been a God send to cooks like us. You can now watch a video from an accomplished chef and follow directions step by step. There is a great pleasure in planning a meal, shopping for the ingredients and spending the day in the kitchen preparing and cooking a culinary creation which you get to share with family and friends. A well thought out and executed meal is like a work of art that you get to digest. Enjoy our stories and please try the recipes, they can't be that hard if we can cook them so can you.


Please leave us a post, we would love to hear what you think of our stories. Please check the archive for Cuisine Manager for our earlier stories. Many Thanks
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The Odd couple in Stockholm / County Cork Irish Stew

Recipes with Life Lessons

Stockholm, Sweden

Cuisine Manager

If you read the earlier story about Richard meeting his first wife and her recipe for that weird Swedish dish, you know why I was living in Stockholm with Rich.

I had been there for about a month by this time and was tired of telling people that I was just visiting. I decided to become something. I chose to be a writer. I went out and bought a sports jacket with leather patches on the elbows carried a newspaper under my arm and hung out in coffee houses and pubs. I became known around Stockholm as the American writer.

I had been there long enough that I thought I should contribute to our living situation in some fashion. I started cooking meals for us. Richard had a linen calendar hanging on the wall of his kitchen he had brought with him from his stay in Ireland. On it was a great looking recipe for Irish stew. 

I decided to surprise him and make it for that nights dinner. I took the bus into downtown Stockholm and spent the afternoon going around buying all of the ingredients need for our Irish Stew feast. I splurged and took a cab home so that I could make the stew and let it simmer for hours before Richard came home. I put some great music on the stereo and spent the next hour making my stew. I stirred and tasted the stew all day and couldn’t wait for Richard to come home for dinner. Rich had said that he would be home at the normal time about 5:30ish. I had bought a loaf of special bread that I put in the oven and timed it to be ready about ten minutes after he got home. At about ten of six I started to wonder if Richard was going to be much longer. At 6:15 I started to get a little perturbed. By 6:30 I was pissed. No Richard, no phone call and my bread was getting hard and cold. When Richard walked in at 6:40 I said" where the hell you have been". Richard stopped dead in his tracks because of the tone in my voice and before he could answer I said," I worked all afternoon making this Irish Stew and you said you would be home at 5:30"." If you were going to be late you could have had the courtesy to at least call me". We looked at each other and both burst out laughing. We realized we were one step away from being an old married couple. We ate the stew, it was delicious and went out to hit the club scene to prove to ourselves that our manhood was still intact.

                                 Night life in Stockholm


From the TAO--

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other. Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever. 

COUNTY CORK IRISH STEW

8 small lamb chops
1 tablespoon olive oil, butter, or lard
1 tablespoon fresh Parsley, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon each whole peppercorns, rosemary, thyme
3 to 4 medium potatoes
2 cups cabbage, shredded
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large leek white, thinly sliced
10 small white onions
1-1/2 cups celery stalks, diced
1-1/2 cup peas
Salt and pepper to taste

Season lamb with salt and pepper. In large saucepan, layer the chops side by side.

Turn once to brown both sides. Spoon off any melted fat and add enough water to cover chops. Bring to a boil and add parsley, bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme and rosemary tied up in cheesecloth for easy removal, or simply add to stew.

Reduce heat and simmer on low heat. Peel potatoes and shape into bite sized rounds. Add potatoes, cabbage, onion, leek, white onions and celery to stew.

Simmer 20 minutes and add peas. Add a little more water if required during cooking.

Simmer an additional 10 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender. Correct seasoning.

Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.

Serves 4.

Please leave us a comment, we would love to hear from you. For early stories of Cuisine Manager please check the archives. Many thanks.

Food Plays a Major Role in our Lives

Food plays such a large part in our lives. Think back to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners spent with family and loved ones. I’m sure you begin to conjure up fond memories. Now think of every day occasions spent with family, friends or even strangers that involved or were centered on food. Maybe it was a special dinner you prepared for a lover. Perhaps a meal shared with friends that when thinking back a smile immediately spreads across your face. No matter what the event was I bet food was involved in some fashion. Have you ever gone out to eat and expected to just have a meal and something happens either on the way or while you are there to make it one of those stories that become woven into the fabric of your life. This book is about those stories and the meals that accompanied them. Richard and I have known each other since grade school and have shared our life’s experiences over the last 45 years. Through good times and bad we have laughed, cried and supported each other through this journey we call life. Along the way we have lived and eaten in some amazing places and have some interesting stories to tell. As with everyone else the majority of these experiences had a meal or a special food associated with them. As in real life some of the stories are funny, some are heartwarming and some will make you think of your own stories.

Neither Richard nor I are chefs but  like so many others we do like to cook. Surprisingly most of our meals turn out quite well.  As a matter of fact we probably cook like you, we read a recipe, follow the parts we understand and hope for the best. The Internet has been a God send to cooks like us. You can now watch a video from an accomplished chef and follow directions step by step. There is a great pleasure in planning a meal, shopping for the ingredients and spending the day in the kitchen preparing and cooking a culinary creation which you get to share with family and friends. A well thought out and executed meal is like a work of art that you get to digest. Enjoy our stories and please try the recipes, they can't be that hard if we can cook them so can you.

                                                                   

Help for Haiti

For each person that becomes a fan of Cuisine Manager on Facebook and a follower of this website between April 15 and June 30, 2010 we will donate $1 to a reputable charity involved in the reconstruction of Haiti. When the number reaches 250 the donation will double to $500. Once 250 people have signed on we will have new donations levels in place at 500, 750 and 1000 people. The results will be sent out on facebook May 16, 2010.
April 15, 2010 - May 15 2010
May 16, 2010 - June 30, 2010  Animal Preservation in the Gulf / Nashville Assistance 
Many Thanks for your help with this important effort!

Haiti should be a tropical paradise but through corrupt government and a devastating earthquake it has been ravaged! While there is no real immediate silver lining there is a chance to rebuilt  into something Haiti should have been a long time ago!
Thanks for your time, effort and caring!

Ben's Worst Nightmare

Recipes with Life Lessons

Lutherville Md

Perfect Mashed Potatoes

I met my wife on a blind date and even though neither of us was looking for a long term relationship, we were married three and a half weeks after we met. My wife, Maggie had two boys, PJ, 11 and Ben who was 8 at the time. I had a 5 year old son, Halston who lived with his mother. When we decided to run away for the weekend and get married we had to pick a weekend that neither of us had kids. It actually worked out that both of us had our respective kids on the same alternating weekends. We told the boys on Thursday evening and had made plans to be married that Saturday in Severn, Maryland. We would spend our honeymoon in the beautiful Inn at Perry Cabin in historical St. Michael’s and be home by Monday morning. The first night back I wanted to make dinner at home and start to get to know my two new step sons. After all I had only met them about three or four times in the last three and a half weeks. I love real mashed potatoes and decided to make them and asked Ben to help me peel them in an effort to bond. Of Maggie’s two sons, Ben was extremely skeptical about this strange man his mother had brought home to compete for her attention. Ben was standing on a stool by the kitchen sink next to me as I showed him how to peel a potato. During the conversation I said to Ben “so what do you think about having a new roommate“?

     Ben still mashed potato challenged to this day!!

Ben immediately looked at his mother with a look of terror on his face and tears beginning to form and said “I thought he was sleeping with you”. It was all we could do to keep from laughing as Maggie explained what I had meant by” roommate“. The look of relief on poor Ben’s face when he realized that he did not have to share his bedroom with this strange, old hairy guy was priceless. The boys soon found out that real mashed potatoes would become a component of our new family dinners several times a week. Strange as it may seem, Ben never volunteered to help peel potatoes again.
That night was a precursor of things to come between my youngest step son and me. Over the next several years Ben and I butted heads a lot. I couldn't understand why he didn't accept me the same way PJ, his older brother had. I expected us all to get along because we were a family. What I didn't realize was that I needed to earn Ben's respect. Ben was right that night. Who was this strange man and why did he have to let me into his life? Would I become his worst nightmare? I am happy to say that over time we earned each other’s respect because deep down we wanted to like each other. We just needed to not prejudge each other and be willing to work through our differences. You tend to meet people throughout your life that at first you think, there’s no way I want this person involved in my life. Given the chance, that person could become your best friend.

                                          Ben at 28

Perfect Mashed Potatoes Recipe
Recipe courtesy of Damian a lifelong meat and potato guy!
1 1/2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered length-wise
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup half and half
Salt and Pepper

Peel and quarter potatoes and place in a large pot of cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer on medium low for 25-27 minutes. Drain potatoes and let steam dissipate. In a small saucepan add butter cut into 1/4 inch pieces plus half and half. Simmer until the butter melts and the half and half is hot but not boiling. Add salt and pepper to taste and place potatoes in a mixing bowl and mash with a hand held potato masher. Slowly add butter and half and half mixture while mashing potatoes until you reach the desired consistency. If needed add a bit more half and half and butter (no need to heat) until you achieve the perfect mashed potato. If you are not going to serve immediately then cover and place in a warm oven or stove-top.