Michael Ruhlman's Blog, page 50

Hi Dad! And Happy Halloween!Spiced Cider with Rum

Wishing all a Happy Scary Halloween, America’s great pagan holiday. Friday is reserved for another post, so this will stand in for The Friday Cocktail Hour. And in the wake of Sandy, many Halloween celebrations are rightly delayed till Sunday, as they are here in Cleveland Heights. Donna loves spiced cider, and since it’s so [...]

Easy Chicken Curry for My Pal Blake

My dear old pal Blake, author of two superlative biographies of American authors, Richard Yates and John Cheever, and currently the authorized biography of Philip Roth, ended a recent email with “and send me that damned curry recipe.” Blake works very hard, both as a writer (he has not one, but two new books coming [...]

Michigan = Italy = Ohio = France

I’ve recently returned from inspiring days at Pigstock, in Traverse City, Michigan, where I and my partner in Salumi, Brian Polcyn, were invited to participate in a celebration of the pig. But we also got to sample wines and spirits made from the abundant fruit that grows in this unique climate. I have, since I [...]

Pigstock, Traverse City, Michigan

I had one of the most inspiring days of my life Monday, watching Austrian farmer/butcher Christoph Wiesner kill and dress a hog. See video below of evisceration shot by Austrian journalist Jürgen Schmücking, covering Pigstock TC and Michigan wines and beers. We met on Marc Santucci’s farm, on a warm fall day, surrounded by leaves, apple [...]

Pigstock

I had one of the most inspiring days of my life Monday, watching Austrian farmer/butcher Christoph Wiesner kill and dress a hog. See video below of evisceration shot by Austrian journalist Jürgen Schmücking, covering Pigstock TC and Michigan wines and beers. We met on Marc Santucci’s farm, on a warm fall day, surrounded by leaves, apple [...]

Käsespätzle

While I’m at Pigstock, an all-around Pig Love event in Traverse City, MI, here’s a guest post from my friend and fellow writer Stephanie Stiavetti; I’m not going to say what her upcoming cookbook is about but here’s a hint. —M.R. By Stephanie J. Stiavetti Käsespätzle Many folks believe that macaroni and cheese is a [...]

Friday Cocktail Hour: The Southside

Excited about our Chicago trip to promote the new book, Salumi, I tweeted for a Chicago cocktail and got a few suggestions (only a few), including one for an actual Chicago (which I’ll save for later). But the suggested Southside proved to be easy to prepare with ingredients at hand and uncommonly refreshing. I was able [...]

The Amazing Potato Gratin (and Le Creuset GIVEAWAY)

My daughter was assisting Donna during these videos for Le Creuset cookware (which I love, and am genuinely honored to be working with this company; seriously, not worthy, but I try). After the shoot, Addison said, angrily, real anger, “Why don’t you make that potato cheesy thing for me?!” “Good lord,” I said, “I’d make them [...]

Why Is Ruhlman Writing About AIDS on a Food Blog?

Tracy Jones, executive director of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland. Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman. October 14, 2012, Cleveland Heights—I’ve just walked home from a brunch held by a neighbor, and now friend, Susan Zull, to benefit the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland. In 2000, I lost one of my closest friends, Rusty King, [...]

Friday Cocktail Hour: Between the Sheets

I was, by chance, in the offices of the venerable publisher Little, Brown with Donna a few weeks ago during a surprise trip to NYC, and the editor I was speaking with about a potential book deal mentioned a cocktail book they’d published the previous fall. He described it. I asked, nay, demanded, to see it. He [...]