Went to a town in Mississippi last Sunday that I’m going to make a point of returning to some day, but not on a Sunday and Monday. The town is Clarksdale and bills itself as “ground zero for blues aficionados.” But it’s pretty much closed on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday through Saturday, there seems to be a lot to do.

I was there with Will Crocker, a photographer from New Orleans, to shoot a recipe for grilled sea bass developed by Lee Craven, the chef at Madidi’s. It’s going to be the featured recipe on the Atmos Energy Cooks Web site soon. Not sure exactly when.

Here’s what we didn’t get to do.

Eat at Madidi’s. It’s open Tuesday through Saturday and is a five-star restaurant (not sure who gave it the stars) but its reputation is fantastic. And the chef is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. And the grilled sea bass sure looked good.

Listen to blues at the Ground Zero. Though we did catch a solo act that was performing for a bus tour that stopped by for lunch, and we stayed in the “Delta Cotton Company Apartments” that are above the club. Note: As their Web site explains: “Rooms are NOT equipped with telephones, microwaves, irons or Internet connections (this is Clarksdale, after all).”

Visit the Delta Blues Museum which “houses Muddy Waters’ cabin, visiting exhibits, signed guitars, blues photos and a gift shop.”

Stay at the Riverside Hotel where Bessie Smith, the most successful female blues singer of the 20s and 30s, died after her auto accident on Highway 61

Browse the rock ‘N Roll & Blues heritage Museum, started by Theo Dasbach and his wife Cindy Hudock who moved to Clarksdale from the Netherlands. (Gotta be a story there.) The museum is “full of rare rock and roll memorabilia from the 1950s and 60s.”

Walk the Tennessee Williams District from Sharkey Avenue at First Street to Court and Clark Street. Clarksdale is the childhood home of Tennessee Williams and the historic neighborhood is said to have greatly influenced his plays.

We did get to visit the Hopson Plantation, where “Hopson Planting Co. and International Harvester revolutionized modern cotton farming by introducing the first commercially produced mechanical cotton picker in 1944.”

The town fathers have kept the old buildings in somewhat the shape they were in, or so they say. It was hard to tell in the dark. But we did manage to catch the tail end of Pinetop Perkin’s Annual Homecoming Celebration that “features friends good and down home musical jams.”

We missed Pinetop and Blue Mother Tupelo but caught some great blues from a band whose name we didn’t get. We were looking for dinner and all we got were cold barbecued beef sandwiches (I got a cold hot-link sandwich as well) wrapped in aluminum foil and served from a cooler behind the bar.

But since the music was good, we settled in with our sandwiches, a couple of Coronas and fit right in with a mellow, beery crowd full of roughshod-looking folks who would not have been out of place at Altamont. And not a beer bottle flew all evening.

Posted on Tuesday 09 of October, 2007 [22:50:42 UTC]

They tell me if you want to blog, you gotta do it more often than monthly. I promise I will, partiuclarly after I got a mention on the Dallas Morning News Blog today.

The mention grew out of an appearance on KLIF-AM's Jeff Boulton show this morning. I was invited to talk about Get This Cookbook First: It's Full of Stuff Mom Should Have Taught You. Kim Pierce, a food writer for the News heard it and blogged it. Also, meeting Kim at an armagnac tasting the night before didn't hurt.

She's going to be blogging about the tasting so I won't.

But I will mention some of the new recipes on the Atmos Energy Cooks site, which I contribute to. This week, we've added a simple guacamole recipe and next Monday, we'll be adding a killer Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla recipe courtesy of Bo Pilgrim of Pilgrim's Pride fame.

So come back. I promise to post more often

Posted on Friday 28 of September, 2007 [15:50:19 UTC]

I prepared both the Midsummer Berry recipe and the Caesar Salad recipe with Egg Beaters, a readily available egg substitute that is pasturized.

The Midsumer Berries came out fine. I couldn't tell the difference in the taste, although the Egg Beaters tended to separate out more from the creamed butter mixture than do real eggs. As you're layering the mixture, you need to rebeat it if it sits too long.

The Caesar Salad dressing tasted fine, but it was at least twice as thick as the dressing made from whole eggs; more the consistency of a creamy ranch than the original which is thicker than a vinaigrette but not by much.

Bottom line: You don't need to take the risk with whole eggs, at least not in these two recipes. We'll be updating the recipes with this info as well as adding directions on how to incorporate raw eggs into recipes safely.

Posted on Tuesday 21 of August, 2007 [19:22:52 UTC]

I never thought so, until I got a comment from a Julia, a visitor to the Atmos Energy Cooks site. She noted that there could be a problem with the Midsummer Berries recipe in that it calls for raw eggs. Now, I've heard about the issue with raw eggs but thought it was another one of those cases of much ado about very little.

But I may have been wrong.

Here's some things I found.

Wikipedia seems to downplay the risk.

"A study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2002 (Risk Analysis April 2002 22(2):203-18) showed that of the 69 billion eggs produced annually, only 2.3 million of them are contaminated with salmonella - equivalent to just one in every 30,000 eggs - thus showing that salmonella infection is quite rarely induced by eggs."

But the FDA puts the risk a little higher.

"Today, scientists know that Salmonella Enteritidis, a harmful bacterium, can "be transmitted from infected laying hens directly to the interior of the eggs before the shells are formed. Even eggs with clean, uncracked shells can be infected.

"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimate that 1 egg in 20,000 may be contaminated. Although the number of eggs affected is quite small, there have been cases of foodborne illness related to infected eggs.

"...for those at high risk--infants, older people, pregnant women, and people with a weakened immune system--it can be life-threatening."

The FDA recommends "substituting a pasteurized egg product, egg substitute, or pasteurized shell eggs for the raw eggs in your favorite recipe."

And all the other sources I found by putting "raw eggs" into Google recommended against taking the risk. Most recommened a heating method that was described like this by the Egg Safety Center

"If the eggs are to be used in a recipe with other food items, dilute the eggs with with liquid or other ingredients, such as milk, or sugar (at least ¼ cup liquid or sugar per egg as in custard) and cook the egg mixture to 160°F, which will destroy harmful bacteria in a few seconds. Adequate cooking brings eggs and other foods to a temperature high enough to destroy bacteria that might be present."

That would probably work for the Midsummer Berry recipe but not for the other raw egg recipe on the site, Caesar Salad. So first, I'm going to try the Midsummer Berries recipe and the Caesar Salad recipe with Egg Beaters instead of the raw eggs to see what the substitution does to the flavor.

I'll let you know tomorrow.

Posted on Monday 20 of August, 2007 [18:37:20 UTC]

David Uygur will be the new featured chef on the Atmos Energy Cooks Web site as of Monday. Here's the release announcing it.

Atmos Energy Cooks™ to Showcase Award-Winning Dallas Chef
Lola’s David Uygur to Unveil New Grilled Pork Chop Recipe

DALLAS (August 17, 2007)—Atmos Energy Cooks™, a new cooking Web site launched by Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE: ATO), will showcase David Uygur, executive chef at the award-winning Lola the Restaurant, as its next featured chef starting August 20.

Uygur, who has been described as a “culinary genius” with a “masterful ability to balance textures and flavors” by one restaurant reviewer, developed his recipe “Grilled Berkshire Pork Chop with Peaches and Pancetta” especially for the natural gas utility’s cooking site.

Every two weeks, the site at www.atmosenergycooks.com is showcasing a new featured recipe and the recipe’s author. The first featured entree was “Chicken and Mushrooms with Balsamic Vinegar” by Dallas consultant and cookbook author Brian Cummings.

David Cea from the CapRock Café in Lubbock, Texas, and Tommy Cvitanovich from Drago’s Seafood Restaurant in New Orleans and Metairie, Louisiana, will be featured on the site in coming weeks. Cea will present his new recipe for “Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Chalupa Sauce” and Cvitanovich will share a longtime popular dish, “Shrimp Ruth.”

“With the increasing popularity of cooking and the renewed interest Americans have in preparing and sharing wholesome food with their families, we decided to provide an easy-to-use resource for recipes, cooking tips and appliance information,” said Robert W. Best, Atmos Energy’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, discussing the new site.

In past decades, Atmos Energy and its predecessor companies offered information about cooking with natural gas and operated showroom kitchens where home economists would conduct cooking classes and demonstrations. “This site restores a long tradition, but with a modern online twist,” Best said.
Atmos Energy is inviting its customers and employees from its 12-state service area to submit their own favorite recipes to add to the site’s more than 120 tested recipes.

Recipes are presented with step-by-step preparation instructions along with a nutritional information chart and a suggested shopping list. Site visitors also can rate the recipes, e-mail them to a friend or print them with the shopping list.

Besides recipes, the site contains detailed cooking information including sections about:

• Kitchen techniques, which explain grilling, broiling, sautéing, stir frying, roasting and braising.

• Cooking tips, such as information about kitchen skills, common cooking terms, basic ingredients, herbs and spices, kitchen utensils, knives and food safety.

• Cooking with natural gas, which explains why natural gas is the ideal energy source for cooking, provides information about outdoor rooms and kitchens, and offers guidance for buying a gas grill, cooktop, stove or oven, along with tips for keeping them clean.

About Atmos Energy

Atmos Energy Corporation, headquartered in Dallas, is the country’s largest natural-gas-only distributor, serving about 3.2 million gas utility customers. Atmos Energy’s utility operations serve more than 1,600 communities in 12 states from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West. Atmos Energy’s nonutility operations, organized under Atmos Energy Holdings, Inc., operate in 22 states. They provide natural gas marketing and procurement services to industrial, commercial and municipal customers and manage company-owned natural gas storage and pipeline assets, including one of the largest intrastate natural gas pipelines in Texas. Atmos Energy is a Fortune 500 company. For more information, visit www.atmosenergy.com.



Note to editors: Natural gas has been closely associated with cooking in the public’s mind for decades. Starting in the mid-1930s, natural gas utilities launched consumer and school programs to promote natural gas appliances—especially for kitchens. These programs included gas company cookbooks, appliance demonstrations, state fair exhibits, home economists, materials for schools and traveling displays. With the housing boom after World War II, many gas utilities set up Flame Rooms in company auditoriums to host cooking shows that displayed the latest in gas appliances for Blue Star Homes. Some gas utilities also sponsored local cooking shows in the early days of television. In recent years, gas appliances have been in great demand for larger home kitchens and for popular outdoor rooms. A selection of historic photos and art, screen captures of the new Atmos Energy Cooks site and photos of chef David Uygur and his grilled pork chop recipe are available at http://www.atmosenergy.com/news/media_downloads.html to help illustrate this story.

Posted on Saturday 18 of August, 2007 [03:41:56 UTC]

I found a new recipe site that aims to be "your gastronomic hub where every visit will bring inspiration and a rumbling belly..." It has a growing selection of international recipes that look exceptionally good. The site makes it elegantly easy to share your favorite recipe but there is a catch, you need to upload a picture of it as well.

For those of us who haven't advanced beyond the family snapshot, that will be a challenge. I uploaded two recipes--Chicken Breasts with Balsamic Vinegar and Mushrooms, and Pork Ribs Roasted on the Grill. Luckily I had good shots of those from a photo shoot for the Atmos Energy Cooks Web site. I wanted to upload my barbecue sauce recipe as well, but I'll have to take my own picture first. That should be grins.

In the meantime, the Atmos Energy Web site is getting some hits and some requests. The most recent was for Spicy Shrimp Gumbo. I got one from an old friend who grew up in Cajun country and, once I try it myself, I'll post it on the Atmos site. For those of you who want to try it yourself first, here it is courtesy of Jena Aldridge. (You'll need to define "a lot of seasoning" yourself):

''I make a huge batch in a large oval LeCruset pot (don't know the
size) or a large cast iron pot. You need a heavy one.
Gumbo freezes well and also is better the next day.

2 large onions chopped
1 large bell pepper chopped
4-5 ribs celery chopped
1/4 C. flour
1/4 C. oil
3 lb. peeled shrimp
1 lb. crab meat
1 lb. oysters
salt
black pepper
red pepper
white pepper
2 quarts chicken or seafood stock

Chop onions, bell pepper, and celery, set aside.
Make a dark roux with flour and oil. Add veggies and seasonings to taste.
(I use lots of seasonings!) Cook for about 5 minutes and add stock slowly and continuously stirring.
Simmer and cook down for about an hour. Add seafood and cook for about 15 minutes or until cooked.
Serve over rice and with fresh French bread.

Sometimes I cheat and use Savoy's Roux in a jar.
Lots of people like okra in their seafood gumbo, I don't like that slimy stuff''

Posted on Monday 13 of August, 2007 [21:54:50 UTC]

The CapRock Cafe in Lubbock lays claim to the best cheeseburger in town, and I can't dispute that. I took a ride on American out to Lubbock yesterday to try one. Definitely an award-winner. Then I tried to talk owner David Cea into letting me feature him and his hamburger on the Atmos Energy Cooks Web site. He liked the idea of being featured on the site, but was not about to give up the recipe. It was like asking Charlton Heston to give up his rifle.

We compromised on another stellar menu item: a chalupa grilled chicken sandwich. Although it wasn't the recipe I came for, it made the trip worthwhile and is a great alternative for a Labor Day cookout. So, you'll see it on the site come Sept. 3.

But back to the burger. It definitely has a special flavor that puts it a cut above most other burgers I've ever had. According to the restaurant's Web site the hamburgers "are not your run of the mill fast-food burgers though. Each burger is one half pound of 100% beef, carefully grilled and seasoned, served on a buttered sesame seed bun with lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles on the side." (It comes with mustard or ketchup. You have to ask for mayo.)

The secret's in the seasoned part. I thought I tasted some seasoned salt, but there's a little something extra as well. Whatever it is, David sure isn't about to give it up. You'll have to go to Lubbock for Texas Tech game one of these days. He's only about a mile from the stadium.

Posted on Friday 10 of August, 2007 [23:31:28 UTC]

Some news of note:

Atmos Energy Launches New Cooking Web Site
Gas Utility Rekindles Long Tradition using New Electronic Twist

DALLAS (August 8, 2007)—Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE: ATO) today launched a new cooking Web site called Atmos Energy Cooks™ to provide resources for its customers and to demonstrate the benefits of natural gas for cooking.

“With the increasing popularity of cooking and the renewed interest Americans have in preparing and sharing wholesome food with their families, we decided to provide an easy-to-use resource for recipes, cooking tips and appliance information,” said Robert W. Best, Atmos Energy chairman, president and chief executive officer.

In past decades, Atmos Energy and its predecessor companies offered information about cooking with natural gas and operated showroom kitchens where home economists would conduct cooking classes and demonstrations. “This site restores a long tradition, but with a modern on-line twist,” Best said.

The site, found at www.atmosenergycooks.com, initially is offering more than 120 tested recipes. Atmos Energy is inviting customers and employees from its 12-state service area to submit recipes they would like to share.

Every two weeks, the site will showcase a new featured recipe and the recipe’s author. The first featured entree is “Chicken and Mushrooms with Balsamic Vinegar,” by Dallas consultant and cookbook author Brian Cummings.
Many of the recipes and tips on the new site are adapted from Cummings’ cookbooks, You Said a Mouthful: Great Recipes and the Stories They Evoke and Get This Cookbook First: It’s Full of Stuff Mom Should Have Taught You.

Recipes are presented with step-by-step preparation instructions along with a nutritional information chart and a suggested shopping list. Site visitors also can rate the recipes, e-mail them to a friend or print them along with the shopping list.

“We’ve started with a wonderful mix of tasty recipes, and most can be prepared by even the most inexperienced cooks,” explained Cindy Foor, Atmos Energy’s vice president of corporate communications. “We have a number of features in the works to showcase other chefs and interesting dishes from restaurants, hotels and resorts across our service area.”

Atmos Energy plans to continually add more recipes, including ones submitted by its customers and employees, Foor said.

“We’ve tried to make our new site interesting, educational and easy to use, and we will be closely monitoring feedback from site visitors to make sure it’s as helpful as possible.”

Besides recipes, the site contains detailed cooking information including sections about:

• Kitchen techniques, which explain grilling, broiling, sautéing, stir frying, roasting and braising.

• Cooking tips, such as information about kitchen skills, common cooking terms, basic ingredients, herbs and spices, kitchen utensils, knives and food safety.

• Cooking with natural gas, which explains why natural gas is the ideal energy source for cooking, provides information about outdoor rooms and kitchens, and offers guidance for buying a gas grill, cooktop, stove or oven, along with tips for keeping them clean.

About Atmos Energy

Atmos Energy Corporation, headquartered in Dallas, is the country’s largest natural-gas-only distributor, serving about 3.2 million gas utility customers. Atmos Energy’s utility operations serve more than 1,600 communities in 12 states from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West. Atmos Energy’s nonutility operations, organized under Atmos Energy Holdings, Inc., operate in 22 states. They provide natural gas marketing and procurement services to industrial, commercial and municipal customers and manage company-owned natural gas storage and pipeline assets, including one of the largest intrastate natural gas pipelines in Texas. Atmos Energy is a Fortune 500 company. For more information, visit www.atmosenergy.com.



Note to editors: Natural gas has been closely associated with cooking in the public’s mind for decades. Starting in the mid-1930s, natural gas utilities launched consumer and school programs to promote natural gas appliances—especially for kitchens. These programs included gas company cookbooks, appliance demonstrations, state fair exhibits, home economists, materials for schools and traveling displays. With the housing boom after World War II, many gas utilities set up “Flame Rooms” in company auditoriums to host cooking shows that displayed the latest in gas appliances for Blue Star Homes. Some gas utilities also sponsored local cooking shows in the early days of television. In recent years, gas appliances have been in great demand for larger home kitchens and for popular outdoor rooms. A selection of historic photos and art as well as screen captures of the new Atmos Energy Cooks site is at http://www.atmosenergy.com/news/media_downloads.html to help illustrate this story.

Posted on Wednesday 08 of August, 2007 [16:22:18 UTC]

Or so says anthropology researcher Margaret Beck from the Center on Everyday Lives of Families at UCLA. She was quoted in a story in today's Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118644320548689855-email.html about research published in the July issue of the British Food Journal.

The research says that prepackaged convenience foods really don't save much time over simple meals made from scratch. In the study, the researchers videotaped families preparing meals. Turns out that people don't use pre-made foods (Lasagna was one cited) instead of the same dish made from scratch. Packaged foods are used to allow them to offer their families more elaborate meals than they normally would.

Bottom line: why use high-fat, high-sodium prepared meals when--in about the same amoount of time--you can prepare a simple meal of your own. The article suggests that readers visit www.drgourmet.com/ingredients/index.shtmlto find out the kinds of basic ingredients a well-stocked kitchen should have.

If you're going to spend 30 minutes or so preparing a meal, why not make it more healthy and nutritious.

Posted on Tuesday 07 of August, 2007 [14:11:12 UTC]

This week not only marks the launch of this blog, it also marks the launch of a new recipe web site sponsored by Atmos Energy Corporation. It’s called www.atmosenergycooks.com. My friends at Atoms asked me to help them develop the site as a way to showcase why cooking with natural gas is the best way to cook. It is you know. It’s more precise. You have better heat control. And it’s cheaper than the alternatives. That’s why most restaurant kitchens are gas kitchens. Chefs must know something.

We also wanted to encourage people to spend a little more time in their kitchens. True, that’s good for Atmos Energy since customers will use more natural gas, but more time in the kitchen preparing food (even an extra 15 or 20 minutes) is good for you too.

For starters, what you eat will be tastier and probably healthier. And most likely you’ll cook for more than just yourself, which means that mealtimes might just become social events too. And social events normally encourage the kinds of conversations that help hold families together or cement friendships. Sitting around the dinner table is a great way to find out what’s going on in others’ lives.

Most of the recipes on the site are based on the ones from my books. Over time, we hope that Atmos customers, employees and anyone else who’s interested will contribute their favorite recipes. We’re looking for ones that most people can do and that demonstrate that cooking is just not that hard. True, we’ll have some more complicated recipes, but none that are out of the reach of anyone who knows how to find the stove.

Visit the site when you get a chance. And stop by here from time to time. I’ll try to keep it interesting.

Posted on Sunday 05 of August, 2007 [17:41:42 UTC]