This is the home page of "CCCCCC" Cooking-Cats-Collecting-Country Inns-Camping-Computing. We would like to share some of our experiences with all of you.
Cooking
Tom competes as a regional finalist in the Sutter Home winery "Build a Better Burger" cook-off in Pittsburgh.
Tom is selected for the fifth time to compete in the National Oyster Cook-off in St. Marys, Maryland!
Tom was the special guest in a video for
the NY Times Dining Section with food writer and cook book author Melissa Clark
preparing his Dark Chocolate Bark with Pomegranate and Ginger
What are your food fantasies? Do they correspond with ours? What would you consider a "dinner party extraordinaire"? What does it take to host a food and wine pairing seminar and realize that "It is wine's destiny to be paired with food". Where can you get fresh crawfish tails, Creole cream cheese, fresh morels in season, candied chestnuts in vanilla syrup, bison steaks, wine, or professional cook and bakeware at discount prices?
Are you looking to "kick your
parties up a notch" with some exciting recipes-- (including Tom's award-winning
Spinach Frittata, Vegetarian Chili, Shrimp and Chorizo Salad, Irish Crab Dip, Grilled Lamb Chops With Apple-Onion Chutney, Coddled Duck Eggs,
Summer Oyster Stew, Oyster Puffs, Goat Cheese Lettuce Cups and Chocolate Banana
Bundles
and his latest 2013 and 2014 winners (Dark Chocolate Pomegranate and Candied
Ginger Bark, Oysters Flambé and Ginger, Maple and Macadamia Nut Cookies.
We now have over
1100 in the
collection!!! Here's just a sampling to tempt you:
Oysters Rockefeller Soup, Honey Butter French Bread, Parmesan Sesame Biscuits,
Spiced Strawberry Sorbet, Glazed Chestnuts And Haricot Verts, Goat Cheese Grape
Truffles, Cranberry Upside Down Cake, Pumpkin Pie Brulee, Mango Tarte Tatin, Wild
Mushroom and Gruyere Tart, Cold Blueberry Soup With Herbed Orange Sorbet,
Sweet Potato Layer Cake With Cranberries And Orange Cream cheese Frosting, and Roast Turkey with Pomegranate Glaze, Roasted
Mango With Vanilla Yogurt, Mussels With Smoked Ham, Lemon And Oregano, Mango
Tea Bread,
Mixed Grill With Cherry Cola Barbeque Sauce, Grilled Stuffed Tomato With
Goat Cheese And Sage, Watercress And Radish Stuffed Eggs,
Slow Roasted Tomatoes, Lemon Passion Fruit Meringue Pie, Chocolate
Pomegranate Torte, Chilled Orange-Cantaloupe Soup, Spicy Crab Cakes
with Mango Puree, Blueberry Buttermilk Scones. Plum Crisp With Ginger Ice Cream,
Grilled Asparagus With Orange Mayonnaise, Kir Royale Sorbet, Grilled Citrus
Chicken Under A Brick, Roast Turkey With Riesling Gravy, Pistachio And Dried
Cherry Biscotti, Cheesy Zucchini And Red Onion Flatbread, Grilled
Goat Cheese Pizza With Figs, Beets And Wilted Greens, Zucchini Gruyere Tart.
Want some new ideas for holiday entertaining? Take a look at our new holiday and
dinner party menus.
What's it like to be filmed while cooking a dinner for a surprise guest who is a 4
star chef? Have you ever had your fantasies (the "foodie" kind, of course)
realized on nation-wide TV? Read about our TV Food Network experience with their
Food Fantasy show--we were the premiere show! Take a look at our most favorite restaurants
and wine and food suppliers. Share our culinary
weekend adventure as guests chefs at the Fox Creek Inn, Chittenden Vermont. Take a World
Culinary Cruise on "Le Gastronomique".
Join Tom on his Munchmobile Adventure. Learn
about Tom's partnership with
L &D 's Sapore Ravioli & Cheese, LLC.
Read
about Tom's culinary prowess in the New Jersey Home News Tribune, the Star
Ledger and Taste of Home magazine.
Take a look at Tom's featured spot and video in the NY Times (11/30 and
12/1/2013) for his Dark Chocolate Bark with Pomegranate and Ginger.
Share
Tom's
experience with competing in the
2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017 National Oyster Cook-Offs.
Take a look at Tom competing in the Sutter Home "Build a Better
Burger" Cook-Off. Hear about all of our food adventures and recipes by visiting our Cooking page
below.
Cats
2014 and 2016 have been a very sad year for us as 4 of our
kitty babies dies. In 2014, two of our furry babies
died within 3 months time in 2014--Pepper and Cheddar; and in 2016,
Marshmallow's life ended after a long bout with cancer, and Creamsicle died
suddenly in 2016. Read about it on our
Cats page. Read also about what's it like to have a family of six cats (4 little girls and
2
boys ranging in age from 12 to 15 years)? ---yes you read this correctly. Can you just imagine
six cats in a 2 bedroom apartment with all the antique glass,
copper, china, 12 Christmas trees and numerous Santa displays! Imagine taking
the kittens camping and fishing! Read about their antics and meet Marmalade, Truffle, Spice,
Licorice, Cocoa, and Tangerine. (Of course--they have culinary
names--what else would "foodies" do?) Let us introduce you to Diane and
Tom's babies at our Cats Page below. Take a look, we have
added some new pictures.
Collecting
Do you have to sell your furniture to make more room for curio cabinets? Do you have
to supply descriptive commentary for everything nailed to your walls? Do you need to
put up 12
Christmas trees (with six kitties)? Do you have to provide your insurance
company substantial documentation before they believe the size of your collections in a 2
bedroom apartment? Who do you know that has an antique cast iron asparagus buncher,
a bread crumber, a marmalade cutter, stove top tin coffee roaster, or a set of antique pineapple snips? Check out
all our new inventories and additions to our long standing collections. We
added two new photo albums of our Christmas decorations, Christmas
Photos - Living Room and
Christmas Photos - Office and Bedroom, so you can really
experience the extent of our Christmas collections.
Share in all our collections at our Collecting page below.
Country Inns
Do you long for a romantic getaway? Do you crave mountains, oceans, and relaxation?
Are great food, great wine and a pretty room to your liking? Is old fashioned
personalized service up your alley? Would you want all this and also be close to
antique stores, hiking, fishing and beautiful scenery? If all this appeals to you,
take a look at our County Inns page for some suggestions. We have updated our
reviews with our 2017 trips. We now have reviews for country inns in 12 states
along the east coast and the Rocky Mountain Region with photos . Read about our adventure
as featured chefs at the Fox Creek Inn. Visit our Winter
Wonderland Album and see what it is like to be a "snow-bunny" in
Chittenden, Vermont--24 inches over New Year's Weekend, 2001.
Read our updated review of the Whistling Swan Inn in Stanhope, NJ--still a
wonderful place after 10 visits and with new in keepers. Look at
our new discoveries in New Jersey, The Lillagaard Bed and Breakfast in the
Victorian Jersey Shore town of Ocean Grove and The Lilly Inn a beautiful B&B
in a restored colonial building in historic Burlington.
Camping
Have you ever seen a bear up close---real close? Were
you camping in the middle of Hurricane Irene? What does a gourmet eat when
camping in the wilderness?
We've added new menus from this last summer---MMM---grilled foie gras with
honey marinated figs, Frittata with Chanterelle mushrooms, tarragon
marinated grilled rack of lamb with pineapple pecan relish, French toast with maple apple compote, chilled
heirloom tomato soup with grilled garlic crouton, grilled zucchini and
eggplant pizza with tapenade & Fontina cheese, grilled panzanella salad, grilled Asparagus wrapped in
pancetta, grilled rack of lamb with pomegranate glaze, mango
chutney grilled pork tenderloin with sweet potatoes and onions, mussels
steamed in spicy white wine and tomato broth, grilled citrus Cornish hens
butterflied under a brick, grilled lobster rolls with
scallion dill mayonnaise, grilled rustic plum and port tart, apricots with Moscato thyme syrup,
grilled peach tarte tartin, grilled pineapple with butter run glaze and
vanilla mascarpone cheese, nectarine & red raspberry walnut crisp,
grilled Portobello mushroom crusted with parmesan and thyme, spicy
peach rustic pie with Marsala wine, grilled
apricot hobo pack with vanilla mascarpone and heirloom tomatoes stuffed with
peaches, corn , cucumbers and basil, grilled duck breast with grilled plums,
triple ginger peach crisp, Mediterranean breakfast pie, grilled rack of lamb
with raspberry-rosemary compote, blueberry barbequed Cornish hens,
Cardamon peach galette with toasted hazelnuts, grilled suck two ways with
cherry sauce--duck breast and confit, grilled rack of lamb with spicy
blackberry and rosemary sauce, and grilled pineapple upside-down cakes!!
Want to see a picture of what your camp site looks like after an 8 hour
"nor'easter" storm with 75 miles an hour winds pounding on the beach ? Has your Coleman stove ever exploded? What would you do if your boat motor died in the middle of
the lake? Want to take a peek at our Camping and Waterfalls
Albums and see our idea of "God's country"? Want to see
"the one that we had to throw back"--Diane and her 40 pound striped bass? Have you ever gone camping and
fishing with multiple cats? Visit our Camping page
below and find out. We updated our Trials and Tribulations page to
include our 2017 camping "adventures".
Computing
Want to know our favorite graphics and HTML sites? Visit our Computing Page.
Updated April 21, 2018