"season" news and stories

Ah, to be Chef Gordon Ramsay and to have free time to sit around and spout ridiculous nonsense.

His newest attention-getting quote? His Highness thinks that restaurants should be fined for using out-of-season vegetables. Yep, fined.

The money quote: "There should be stringent laws, licensing laws, to make sure produce is only used in season and season only." Now, I'm all for using in-season fruits and veggies - we all know they're more flavorful, more fresh, and usually more decently priced - but stringent laws?

If I want to order summer squash in the dead of winter, or a strawberry tart in October, or pumpkin soup in July, that's my prerogative, dude. Don't take that away from me.

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New year, new episode of Bravo's Top Chef. The season picked up again this week with only seven of the original fifteen competitors still in the competition. At this point, the chefs have been living together for several weeks and, as in many situations where you have a group of type-A personalities, things are getting a little tense. Everyone in the group seems to oscillate back and forth between feeling compelled to act as a team trying to screw over everyone else so that they, as individuals, can get ahead. It makes things more interesting from a dramatic standpoint, but the chefs really need to get a grip on their tempers if they want to end up as Top Chef.

As the episode started out, one of the first things that we got to see was that Michael had a wisdom tooth pulled. He made it sound like he went to a less-than-reputable individual for the procedure, but seemed to be getting along fine aside from the pain and swelling. Medicated, Michael was much less feisty than usual. He noted that he hoped the challenges weren't too long and the rest of the tired-looking competitors agreed.

White truffles may be in season, but the theme of this month's Sugar High Friday, the popular sweets-oriented food blogging event, was the more chocolaty - and perhaps more indulgent - type of truffle. The roundup of all the participating blogs was just put up by Johanna, the passionate cook and host of this edition of the event. If you want to try your hand at making truffles, all of the entries will provide lots of inspiration. Some of the recipes include Hazelnut Nougat Truffles, S'mores Truffles, Kahlua Truffles, Strawberry Balsamic Truffles (which use dehydrated berries for flavor) and Salted Caramel Fudge Hearts, just to name a handful. The black on black truffles pictured above were made by Veronica's Test Kitchen and are a classic truffle recipe, using high quality chocolate, cream and a little bit of butter. The truffles are rolled on cocoa powder to keep them from sticking together, as well as to simulate the earth that the other kind of truffles are found in.

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The Pumpkin Spice drinks might the most popular seasonal beverages - hot or cold - at Starbucks and there are more than a few people who mark their calendars with the release date every fall, but their two more Christmas-y drinks - the gingerbread and the eggnog lattes - deserve their time in the spotlight, too. Especially since those flavors are popping up at other coffee houses. The gingerbread latte is made with a spicy gingerbread syrup that is blended into a regular latte and topped, if desired, with whipped cream. The eggnog latte is a bit different and is made with real eggnog, which is mixed with a bit of regular milk (whole, nonfat, etc) and steamed as usual. You might not expect eggnog and coffee to go well together, but the combination is actually quite good. Especially if you know a barista that will a little something "extra" to the eggnog lattes on Christmas Eve (not that that would ever happen or anything...).

Gingerbread is my favorite, as the spices are both warming and satisfying. Which do you prefer - or do you skip those typically seasonal flavors in favor of the peppermint mocha?

Cranberries are an under-appreciated fruit, but not because people don't enjoy them. In fact, over 90% of all the cranberries harvested each year are used for juice and juice blends, most of which are enjoyed year-round. But fresh cranberries might only be tossed into sauces, quick breads and cakes around the fall holidays, as the very tart flavor and a general lack of familiarity with the fruit stops people from experimenting with them. Cranberry Cooking for All Seasons is a book that can help with this by providing 125 different recipes for the berry, from Pumpkin Cranberry Bread and Cranberry Applesauce to dishes like Couscous with Dried Cranberries, Pinenuts and Fresh Mint, Tangerine Yams with Cranberries and Sauteed Chicken in Cranberry Balsamic Vinegar Sauce.

In addition to the recipes, the book provides the reader with a comprehensive look at everything you could have wanted to know about cranberries, from their history and the culture associated with the, to information about the growers and where around the world the berries end up.

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