How I Taught My Brother To Cook

Improvisational Tuscan-Provençal Cookery (and other good stuff to eat)

Welcome to our "improv" cooking network. We'll share ideas about simple Italian, Tuscan, Provençal, French and "American peasant" cuisines.

Recipes, recipes, recipes!

You want recipe ideas? Use the search function on this page that says "Search Social Network" at the upper right corner (for example searching for "chicken" turned up over 30 ideas). Or just click here for hundreds of photos and ideas for creative dishes we've created. Improvisational cooking is what we're about - so our photos give you a picture of what we made, and a few ideas of how we did it. The rest is up to you - that's improv! If you need a tutorial, buy our book.




Blog Posts

Patrick

How To Watch A TV Cooking Show

Posted by Patrick on November 8, 2009 at 12:07pm — 1 Comment

John Barrows

What, me worry? (about what I eat)

Posted by John Barrows on November 1, 2009 at 2:29pm — 1 Comment

John Barrows

So you think you know pasta?

Posted by John Barrows on October 14, 2009 at 11:27am — 2 Comments

Patrick

Bake Sale Ban

Posted by Patrick on October 14, 2009 at 8:29am — 6 Comments

Laura

LES FROMAGES DE FRANCE

Posted by Laura on September 18, 2009 at 2:12am — 60 Comments

John Barrows

The Sicilian "pie"

Posted by John Barrows on September 16, 2009 at 5:20pm — 2 Comments

John Barrows

It's A Dog's Life

Posted by John Barrows on September 8, 2009 at 8:47pm — 2 Comments

Hilary Conway

Best Baked Halibut

Posted by Hilary Conway on August 13, 2009 at 9:06pm — 3 Comments

John Barrows

The Pizza Page

Posted by John Barrows on August 9, 2009 at 2:00pm — 5 Comments

 

JOIN THE SITE - "How I Taught My Brother to Cook". It's all about improvising with food. Whatta ya' got ta lose? Break outa the pack!



Johnny Gets interviewed by the Oregonian Newspaper

Read the Story in The Oregonian

Take a look at our pizza world with creations from us AND members. Add your own too!
Visit the
PIZZA PAGE!

Recipe Of The Week: ONION SOUP


FOLLOW THIS LINK TO THE COOKING INSTRUCTIONS AND PUT SOME HAIR ON YOUR CHEST

This Is The Home of the Famous "Pane di Napoleone"!

This is the home of "Pane di Napoleone" the new, refined version of the no-knead bread dough. Requires no fancy expensive cookware. An unbeatable basic recipe for classic Italian bread, pizza, and almost any other bread that requires a yeast bread dough.

WITH JUST A LITTLE MODIFICATION YOU CAN MAKE SOME FARMHOUSE BREADWOW!
Check out the Pane di Napoleone Bread Collection from members

What's our damn book about?

Respect your food. Play with it too

How many recipes do you have on your kitchen shelf, if you add up all your cookbooks? Ten thousand? Probably more! You like to cook, but searching for a recipe that matches your mood and your pantry has become a chore. It’s time to leave rote instructions behind and unleash the confidence to improvise, and discover a style all your own.

Brothers Patrick and John Barrows want you to think more about your food, but not to stress over it. Taking cues from the peasant cuisines of the North of Italy and the South of France, their approach is fresh, simple and honest. Local in-season vegetables, the kind of meat that’s handed over the counter by an expert in an apron instead of shrink-wrapped, fresh eggs for hand-made pasta-- these home cooks show that the more you embrace a palette of basic high-quality ingredients, the more you and your family will enjoy what you’re putting in your mouths, and realize that convenience foods aren’t saving you time or money, and might be sapping your soul.

“How I Taught My Brother To Cook” is part family memoir, part cookbook and part raucous sibling rivalry. Most of all it’s a story of two men’s journey: to embrace their family roots in rural Italy and upstate New York, put good food on their family’s tables, and avoid the anxiety over diet fad and fashion that afflicts most Americans. Weaving a dialogue in recipes and techniques, the brothers take a “lowfalutin’” approach, though they rarely agree on whose approach is the more unpretentious. Bring your own opinion to the countertop conversation, and your memories of what your own grandparents and parents and favorite aunt fed you, and renew your joy in food.”

 
 

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Latest Activity

Usually I finish this soup in individual serving bowls by ladling the soup in, covering with croutons and cheese and broiling. This time I put the croutons and cheese in the cooking pot and baked in a very hot oven to get a "pizza effect" on the s...
11 hours ago
John Barrows added a photo
11 hours ago
The best pizza in Paris!!!!!
11 hours ago
Great advice! And the shows with the best cleavage are especially noteworthy.
11 hours ago
Patrick added a blog post
There are a multitude of cooking shows out there and they are, in general, all alike. Sure, some are better than others in certain respects but they all follow the same format and that is, "here is what I am going to make and here is how you do it...
14 hours ago
There is probably a similar French type. It is basically pounded thin meat stuffed with "whatever", rolled up, tied with string and slowly cooked.
20 hours ago
Are these like "brownies"?
20 hours ago
Very good! Better than a pizzeria.
21 hours ago
Here, after coocked :
on Saturday
Laura added 3 photos
on Saturday
yes, Italian.
on Friday
now we're TALKIN'!
on Friday
The French have a million great ways to prepare potatoes. Like the Italians with pasta.
on Friday
I don't know this italian ? dish ...
on Friday
Old as the hills, damn it and proud of it.
on Wednesday
Whataya mean, "whats the white"? Its mozzarella and ricotta. What the hell is wrong with you, you stupid bastard!
on Wednesday
Good looking stuff. I have not made bracciole in a while. Jeanette always asks for it. Maybe during the winter I will. I usually put prosciutto, hard boiled egg, provolone, blah, blah, blah inside.
on Wednesday
Obviously Nancy was not home when you made this. You forgot the Worcestershire sauce you dope!
on Wednesday
John Barrows added 2 photos
on Wednesday
OLD father .... yup
on Wednesday

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