Aug 3 – Better Homes & Gardens “FRESH”

1st up is Jan Miller from Better Homes and Gardens to talk about “Fresh” another great book from BHG that has some great recipes, color photos and more.

The best of fresh, seasonal cooking from Better Homes and Gardens

As the farm-to-table movement grows, more people every day are choosing to cook healthier meals using fresh local foods. Better Homes and Gardens Fresh Cookbook presents 300 easy and creative recipes for getting the most out of your area’s seasonal produce. No matter where you live, this book shows you how to prepare simple, delicious meals using the very best fresh ingredients available to you.

You’ll find recipes for snacks and appetizers, breakfast, salads, soups, casseroles, main dishes, meatless meals, sides, and desserts. Plus, you’ll find super-simple one-pan recipes, as well as a detailed, illustrated produce guide to help you pick the freshest and most delicious fruits and vegetables in your area.

Features 300 fresh, flavorful recipes that are simple to prepare and impossible not to enjoy

Illustrated with gorgeous full-color photographs of prepared dishes and produce

Includes a section of menus to help you craft a wide variety of complete meals

From coast to coast, millions of people are discovering just how delicious and rewarding it is to cook and eat local foods. With Better Homes and Gardens Fresh Cookbook, you’ll find a wealth of recipes and resources to help you eat fresh, delicious meals every day.  Get a copy now!

In the second half Steve Ewing from the Spirivin Group joins us to talk about some exceptional wines from South America that will be featured at a great tasting at the Hereford House at Terradyne County Club on Tuesday August 20.  This is a great opportunity to taste some outstanding wines from Chile and Argentina  produced by Finca El Orgien and Santa Carolina.  Details:

South American Wine Tasting
Tuesday, August 20, 2013 – 7:30 p.m.
Light Appetizers Served
Only $25 – Reservations Required
Call 316 733-7800 and sign up today

Good Life Guy’s Wines of the Week:
Two of the selections being poured at the above event 🙂

2010 Finca El Origen Gran Reserva Malbec, Uco Valley Argentina
Despite having tons of oaky aromas of coconut and vanilla, it’s delicious, balanced and rich, with a graphite element. The full but smooth tannins carry the thick berry and plum flavors, which help absorb the generous oak like a sponge. WE90

 

2008 Santa Carolina Reserva de Familia Cabernet Sauvignon, Maipo Valley Chile
Classic notes of cedar and cassis come across on the nose and palate of this full-bodied yet delicately balanced Cabernet Sauvignon. Its graceful structure is complemented by smooth and elegant tannins. Its finish is imbued with strong notes of dark chocolate.  WA91

 

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July 27 – Hot Sauce Cookbook & LocalWineEvents.com

First up is Robb Walsh with his latest:  “The Hot Sauce Cookbook” – this definitive guide to the world’s most beloved condiment is a must-have for fans of dishes that can never be too spicy.

Here’s a cookbook that really packs a punch. With dozens of recipes for homemade pepper sauces and salsas—including riffs on classic brands like Frank’s RedHot, Texas Pete, Crystal, and Sriracha—plus step-by-step instructions for fermenting your own pepper mash, The Hot Sauce Cookbook will leave you amazed by the fire and vibrancy of your homemade sauces. Recipes for Meso-american salsas, Indonesian sambal, and Ethiopian berbere showcase the sweeping history and range of hot sauces around the world. If your taste buds can handle it, Walsh also serves up more than fifty recipes for spice-centric dishes—including Pickapeppa Pot Roast, the Original Buffalo Wing, Mexican Micheladas, and more. Whether you’re a die-hard chilehead or just a DIY-type in search of a new pantry project, your cooking is sure to climb up the Scoville scale with The Hot Sauce Cookbook.

In the second half my old friend Eric V. Orange, aka EV, who joins us to share an update about his most useful web site for food, beer, spirits and wine lovers – LocalWineEvents.com

Eric, a former “Wichita Wino” who worked for one of our local beverage distributors started LocalWineEvents as a central repository for posting food and wine events all over the country.  While it is still that, it is so much more!  Easy to use and basicly free, you can post your local event and it’s accessible to anyone on the web or the more than 230,000 subscribers to the weekly news letter.  You not only learn about events, you often buy tickets to the event of interest.  Join us and learn more!

Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:
Something light, fresh and fun for summer

 

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July 20 – Salt Block Cooking & Beer!

We begin this show with Mark Bitterman and his latest book “Salt Block Cooking.”

A precious pink mineral mined from ancient hills in Pakistan’s Punjab province has arrived on the American cooking scene as an exciting and enticing new form of cooking. Himalayan salt blocks, for years the stuff of Iron Chef panache, are today available at specialty retail stores around the world. And the market is growing. This is the first book to address this subject, along with 70 recipes designed for using this unique cooking tool.

This is the definitive text on Himalayan salt blocks, written by the man who wrote the definitive text on salt. Enough with salting your food—now it’s time to food your salt!

Mark Bitterman

Mark Bitterman knows more about salt than anyone else on the planet. If you’ve ever wondered what to do with those handsome slabs of Himalayan salt you see at cookware shops, Salt Block Cooking will inspire you with wildly innovative uses you’ve never dreamed of, from cocktails to candy, from curing to grilling, and from ceviche to pizza. Along the way, you’ll learn the half-billion-year history of the only food that starts as a rock.” ––Steven Raichlen, author of the Barbecue! Bible series and host of Primal Grill on PBS. www.saltnews.com

In the second half we are going to talk BEER!  It’s hard to believe, but in addition to it being a hot summer and a great time to enjoy a handcrafted brew (is there ever a bad time?), the Midwest Beerfest is right around the corner.

Sabrina LoPiccolo from Stone Brewing Company joins us to talk about this fine craft brewing operation and then Rob Miller, local beer guru joins us to talk about a great beer event next week.

Good Life Guy’s Wine Beer of the Week:
Stone Brewing Company – Arrogant Bastard Oaked Ale

This is an aggressive beer. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory — maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it’s made in a little brewery, or one that implies that their tasteless fizzy yellow beer will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you’re mouthing your words as you read this.

 

 

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July 13 – Masumoto Peaches & More

My guest this week is David Mas Masumoto.  The Masumoto family have been producing heirloom peaches that are sought after by restaurateurs and consumers alike.

A cookbook showcasing the luscious flavor of peaches in 50 sweet and savory dishes, drawing on the life stories and experiences of America’s foremost peach farming family, the Masumotos of California’s central valley.Enjoy the luscious versatility of summer’s finest fruit with fifty sweet and savory dishes.

The Masumoto family’s amazing heirloom peaches—which are available for a few weeks each year at the best produce markets and top restaurants in the country—are widely considered the best peaches in the world. Their debut cookbook gathers the family’s favorite recipes, from classics like Hearty Peach Cobbler, Peach Chutney, and Slow-Cooked Pork Tacos to inspired combinations such as Prosciutto-Wrapped Peaches, Caprese with Peaches, Spice-Rubbed Pork Chops and Grilled Peaches, and Stuffed French Toast. And the pristine flavor of a just-picked summer peach can be enjoyed year-round with the easy-to-follow instructions for drying, canning, freezing, or jamming the best of the harvest.

David, Nikiko and Marcy Masumoto

With rich recipe and location photographs fresh from the orchard, this beautiful cookbook paints an intricate portrait of an organic farm that has been in the family for four generations. Accompanied by eloquent essays that evoke the soul of family farming and the nuances of a life filled with peaches, The Perfect Peach is for anyone who longs to savor the flavor of a pristinely ripe peach.

Then Tricia Carr, AKA: The Concoctologist joins the party to share some “Peachy” drink ideas for summer fun!  Tricia is Director of Mixology for Southern Wine and Spirits, Southern California and President of United States Bartenders Guild Los Angeles Chapter.  In her own words:

Tricia Carr

“I have been inspired by the craft of the cocktail since I first experienced how “cooking” a cocktail with fresh and quality ingredients is like creating a delicious entrée.  I travel all over training professional and home bartenders how to concoct libations from a place of passion and thoughtfulness.  I am passionate for this work because it is means of communication; it brings people together!   Learn more here and follow Tricia on Facebook & Twitter.

 

Good Life Guy’s Wine of the Week:

Let’s keep the peach theme and talk about Trenel Crème de Pêche de Vigne

The small “pêche de vigne” (wild peach) is so named thanks to the tint of its flesh, which evokes the colour of wine lees. Made with wild peaches gathered in Burgundy, Trénel’s Crème de Pêche de Vigne is a beautiful brilliant golden colour, with an amazingly fresh and pure, intense nose that exudes the distinctive fruity notes characteristic of this variety of peach.

The fruity flavours explode on the palate, powerful and rich but never cloying. – Learn more here!

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July 6 – Fabio’s Italian Kitchen

My guest this week is Fabio Viviani with his latest book; Fabio’s Italian Kitchen.  If you were lucky you got to see his Wichita cooking demo at the Kansas Star Casino a few months ago.  But now you can learn even more about this dynamic Chef and his new book.

When Fabio Viviani was growing up in a housing project in Florence, Italy, the center of his world was the kitchen, where his mother, grandmother, and especially his great-grandmother instilled in him a love for cooking and good food.   Now he shares the best of Italian home cooking while telling the story of his hardscrabble childhood, his success as a chef in the United States, and the women in his family who inspired him. In more than 150 delicious recipes, Viviani takes us from his family home, where his great-grandmother taught him to make staples like Italian Apple Cake and Homemade Ricotta, to the kitchen of a local trattoria, where he honed his craft cooking restaurant favorites like Gnocchi and the Perfect Tiramisu, and then across Italy where he studied each region’s finest recipes, from Piedmont’s Braised Ossobuco to Emilia Romagna’s Perfect Meat Sauce.   Learn more at www.fabioviviani.com

A gorgeously illustrated cookbook, Fabio’s Italian Kitchen is a celebration of food and family that brings all the joy, fun, and flair that Fabio Viviani embodies to your kitchen.

Fabio Viviani

Fabio Viviani was born in Florence, Italy, and became a sous chef at Il Pallaio, a trattoria in Firenze, at the age of sixteen. He now works as the owner and executive chef of Cafe Firenze, a renowned Italian restaurant in Ventura County, California, and Osteria Firenze, a Los Angeles Italian eatery. He has appeared on Top Chef (season five), Top Chef All Stars, and Life After Top Chef.

Get a copy of this cool book today and start cooking Fabio Style!
Click here to order from Amazon 

Good Life Guy’s Wine of The Week:
Something great from Italy 🙂

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