Author Archives: Susan Ericson

REFINING AND DEFINING: CULINARY REVELATIONS

I’m writing this with the tune of David Bowie’s “ch-ch-ch-ch changes. Turn and face the strange,” running through my brain. This past year has been nothing but changes. Changes in what we’re cooking in the kitchen, changes in what kitchen we’re cooking in, changes in where we are working, and changes made to our lifestyle in general. If you’d told me a year ago — yesterday — that this is where we’d be now, I would have laughed my head off. If you’d told me that we would be happier, and better off for turning our lives upside down, I would not have believed you.

Continue reading

BREEDING HERITAGE PIGS IN NEW JERSEY: JESSICA ISBRECHT AT GREEN DUCHESS FARM

How does a thirty five year old Jersey Girl with a degree in biology become a sustainable farmer? Jessica Isbrecht, a self proclaimed anomaly, is raising heritage pigs, chickens, goats, and a handful of turkeys, rabbits and geese on 30 acres of the 2,740 acre tract of land left to the state of New Jersey by heiress, socialite, and philanthropist, Doris Duke.

Continue reading

BEER, BOURBON, BBQ YEAR OF THE CHICKEN: AN EPICUREAN ADVENTURE

Annual events have a tendency to become stale and in time mundane. An exception is the happily titled Beer, Bourbon, BBQ, Year of the Chicken, a suburban, backyard food and drink extravaganza that sprang from the minds of Sissy and Rick Norman. That spark of an idea would become an epic conflagration — with the help of Dave Mayhew and his wife Jen — into the 2017 celebration of professional chefs, bartenders, beer brewers, and entertainers seen in the pictures below.

Continue reading

A SAINTED SEND-OFF

Sweet and minty, these brownies were made with creme de menthe by Linda Vanderslice, a former neighbor and friend on the street we just moved away from. They represent years of experience in baking and if what they say about food equating to love is true, then the cocoon of a cul de sac that we lived on was a truly blessed place.

Continue reading

JOE’S LEGACY: EXQUISITE FLAVORS FOR A CAUSE

032817josef1Paté spread courtesy of Sickles Market in Little Silver.

It was a foggy Monday night when guests, chefs, and culinary students converged on the Navesink Country Club for the annual Jocef, Joe Romanowski Culinary Fund Raiser. A veritable who’s who in the local food scene, Flavor Chronicles brings you pictures of some of the most beautiful creations you’ve ever seen.

Continue reading