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

John Barrows

Portobello is the New Black

Posted by John Barrows on July 5, 2009 at 10:52am

John Barrows

Patrick gets in touch with his inner femme

Posted by John Barrows on July 2, 2009 at 4:09pm — 3 Comments

Patrick

Queer Food

Posted by Patrick on June 28, 2009 at 10:01am

John Barrows

Somethin' fishy goin' on here!

Posted by John Barrows on June 14, 2009 at 4:46pm — 4 Comments

Laura

LES FROMAGES DE FRANCE

Posted by Laura on June 10, 2009 at 9:30am — 57 Comments

John Barrows

Kids are the future of food

Posted by John Barrows on June 7, 2009 at 11:56am — 1 Comment

victoria marie eastus

Bridgeport Banner June 4th

Posted by victoria marie eastus on June 4, 2009 at 9:37am — 4 Comments

John Barrows

A poppy on Memorial Day

Posted by John Barrows on May 25, 2009 at 8:10am

John Barrows

Mothers' Day Pig Roast '09

Posted by John Barrows on May 11, 2009 at 2:00pm — 2 Comments

Patrick

The Pane di Napoleone Bread Collection

Posted by Patrick on May 5, 2009 at 7:49am

 

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

RECIPE OF THE WEEK: Roasted Beef Marrows Bones with Crouton, Parsley and Shallot

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.

Get the recipe with detailed photos.

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

John Barrows added 2 blog posts9 hours ago
John Barrows added a photo9 hours ago
Beef marrows bones are sawed about 2" think and roasted (then slightly browned under the broiler). Don't cook them too long or they'll totally liquify. With a small spoon or knife, scoop our the marrow, spread on a toast point and sprinkle with ch...
John Barrows commented on Laura's photo 'Smoothie'10 hours ago
and some tequilla, right?
actually, white wine with fish is bad generalization that too many follow. Your choice of red to go with salmon is much, much better. Salmon has a very distinctive taste (and I'm glad that you didn't dress it up with some kind of sauce) and the St...
John Barrows commented on Laura's photo 'hoummous'10 hours ago
yes, this could be the most flavorful, healthful food one can eat!!! And so simple. Proves our point at How I Taught My Brother to Cook.
yeah, and he's got an attitude, too!
Laura added 3 photos12 hours ago
Laura commented on Laura's photo 'hoummous'16 hours ago
All you need : chick peas, garlic, parsley, lemon + lemon juice and olive oil ! Eat it with chips.
Laura commented on Laura's photo '10.30 PM dinner !'17 hours ago
Simple and delicious ...
Laura commented on Laura's photo '10.30 PM dinner !'17 hours ago
We had fun !
Laura commented on Laura's photo '10.30 PM dinner !'17 hours ago
White wine is better with fish ... but we chose a Red one : Château Branda Puisseguin-St-Emilion !
Ah Ah ! Your crepe is amazing ! so is your french ............ LOL !
I think when I emailed the picture of this to Nancy, Google mail f*cked with the pic and shrunk it. Google is the new "Evil Empire"
they probably didn't have ricotta at "foods of the world" in Adams Center or Watertaywn
As noted in my description, regular bread crumbs were originally used. I don't recall a "foods of the world" section at Acme, P&C, A&P or Fassett's, so no Panko crumbs were used back then. This brings to mind her use of cottage cheese instead of r...
Are you sure you didn't mean to grab the cherry tomatoes instead of the strawberries?
Nancy Barrows added 2 photosyesterday
Looks like Johnny is off his medication again.

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