Happy New Year ~ A Look At The Best and Rest Of A Great Year

by Melody Kettle

Jonathan's Balloons

Team Hot From the Kettle recently got together to talk about the best of 2012. So many ideas were exchanged, so many opinions were strong, but most surprisingly were the number of times each of us paused and realized we had forgotten something truly great from the past year.

Sure, there were the usual Coke vs. Pepsi and Ovaltine vs. Nesquik debates, but in the grocery aisle everyone agreed that Nutella wins hands down. At one point “Gangam Style vs. Call Me Maybe, which is more Pepto inducing” discussion started until we all agreed that we had to focus our attention back on the matters at hand.

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Sam Mickail's CUT Steak House Opens in West Orange

by Melody Kettle

West Orange nightclub, 4Sixty6, has opened CUT Steak House on the second floor of the luxe entertainment complex.  Owner of 4Sixty6, Ralph Cestone, has brought in Chef Sam Mickail, formerly of Rare Steak House in Little Falls, Il Tulipano and Highlawn Pavilion, to create contemporary American steak house cuisine, infused with Mickail's Mediterranean influences.
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Meatless Monday - Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffle Pie

by Dianne Wenz in ,

Need a last minute dessert idea for your New Year's Eve festivities? This sweet treat comes together so quickly it gives new meaning to the phrase "easy as pie"! And it's so delicious that your fellow party-goers won't even notice how healthy it is!
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Great Foodie Discovery : Catering From The Thai Elephant Food Truck

by Melody Kettle

One of my favorite recent foodie discoveries is the Thai Elephant Food Truck plying the streets of Montclair NJ.

The nature of Thai Food is that everything is fresh, preparing in advance, or even using frozen items just doesn't work. That tradition continues here.

Anyone who has run up to the truck as it arrives at a new location knows all too well that there is about an 8 or 9 minute wait from the time the truck parks until the first food can start to be served. There's peeling, and chopping, and dicing that is done just before the actual cooking. Of course everything is cooked to order so once that initial preparation work is done, the longest I've ever had to wait for an order was 2 minutes. And it's so worth that wait.

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Meatless Monday - Holiday Cocktails

by Dianne Wenz

Vegans don’t like to celebrate or have fun, right? Wrong! Vegans love food, drink and celebrating just as much as everyone else! Veganism isn’t about depravation at all, it’s about celebrating life – the life of all living creatures.
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Best Last Minute Shopping For Foodies and Their Significant Others: Watchung Booksellers

by Melody Kettle

Watchung Booksellers Exterior at Christmas

 

The locals know Watchung Booksellers as the community bookstore with a great selection of the latest releases and the best children’s section around, all without the door dings and parking lot scrapes associated with the big box stores. Whispers among the local foodie community refer to the Watchung Plaza shop as a Librairie Gourmande, and with good reason, but today the whispers are being replaced with shouts. WATCHUNG BOOKSELLERS IS COOKING WITH GAS!

 

To understand the cookbook sections, yes, sections, one must first understand a bit about what make this store so special. Watchung Books is locally owned and staffed by a team whose passion for the written word is a motivating force above all others. These people know books, all books.

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