I started this website over a decade with this concept in mind, “You have to eat, so why not learn to cook and eat well?”

I have really lived by that ever since, so when the wonderful people from LG contacted me about their “Taste of Something Better” cooking competition, where they celebrate top notch home cooks, it was right up my alley.

The three US finalists competed in New York, NY on September 28, for a trip to Bangkok, Thailand to compete in LG’s Global “Life Tastes Good” Cooking Competition.  As far as I know, there were no ingredient restrictions as there are with other cooking competitions (having to use/not use certain brands or ingredients).  This competition was strictly about making the most mouth-watering, judge-pleasing dishes using LG major kitchen appliances, nameley the LG radiant cooktop, wall oven and over-the-range microwave with warming lamp technology.

The three finalists had only thirty minutes to perfect their recipes using the LG equipment.  And each of the dishes definitely sounded worthy of winning.  Up for the grand prize were a Caesar bacon brie burger, a blood orange jerk chicken dish served with spiced rice (which the contestant named “Hakuna Matata rice,” in a nod to The Lion King) and Caribbean Cream, and the eventual winner, a mahi mahi and shrimp dish flavored with soy, lime and cilantro.  I don’t know about you, but I would love to get my hands on those recipes and am working on it!

As with other prominent cooking competitions, the LG Taste of Something Better competition was judged by the only female Iron Chef, Cat Cora, who is also the executive chef of Bon Appetit Magazine.  Chef de Cuisine of Bon Appetit Magazine, Jonathan Lindenauer, and Top Chef, Season 4 runner up and chef/owner of Flip Burger Boutique, Richard Blais, rounded out the judging panel.

For her winning Mahi Mahi recipe, Kristine Snyder of Maui, HI won a trip for two to Bangkok for the Global Life Tastes Good Cooking Competition, a complete kitchen makeover including top of the line LG products and $1,000 spending money while in New York.  The runners up also won great prizes. Jamie Miller from Napa, CA, who came in second won an LG four-door French door refrigerator, double wall oven and gas cooktop as well as $1,000 spending money.  Third place finisher, Lindsey Weiss of Kasas City, KS, won an LG double wall oven and $1,000 spending money.

All in all, it sounds like it was a great competition.  I can’t wait to see who wins the global competition November 10-12 in Bangkok.  LG plans to make this an annual event with a different theme every year, so if you think you have what it takes, check out LG’s Life Tastes Good for news and entry information.

Formaggio La Tur -  A Trio of Milks

I love goat cheese but I also enjoy cow and sheep’s milk cheese and now I can have them all in this meritage of cheese called La Tur. This Italian cheese from the Piedmont area was suggested to me by from my friend Jack who owns the cheese market at our local farmer’s market.

Looking for something spreadable on a French baguette for breakfast but a little stinky, Jack offered up this buttery, bloomy rind little cupcake of a cheese and it was everything I was looking for. It has a creamy consistency with a little bit of tang. You must let this cheese warm up to room temperature before consuming or you will loose all the flavor.

In Short

Type:  Equal parts cow, goat and sheep milk
Origin:  Alta Langa, Piedmont, Italy
Process:  Barely ripened (10 days to two weeks)
Texture:  soft and runny near the rind, almost fluffy/mousse like towards the center
Shape:  Short cylinder—3”x1½”
Weight: 8 ounces
Color:  pale cream to straw-colored
Rind:  Thin and white, wrinkling as it ages.  It can have a thin coat of white mold.
Flavor:  well-rounded, mellow, grassy with a hint of mushroom

The Rest of the Story

One of the most important decisions the cheese makers made regarding La Tur was to pasteurize the milk at the lowest possible temperature allowed by Italian law.  This means that the enzymes present in the milk are not all killed off during the pasteurization process, and it’s the enzymes that contribute to the final flavor profile of the cheese.  While many young, soft cheeses are very mild in flavor, La Tur tends to be pretty complex, definitely something cheese connoisseurs appreciate.

The three milks—cow, goat and sheep—are mixed in equal parts, and the resulting mixed curds are packed into small molds and then allowed to age for ten days.  No one flavor profile dominates.  You can taste the buttery richness from the cow milk, the tang of the goat milk and the mellow nuttiness of the sheep milk.  The three milks complement each other nicely, and this is another reason that La Tur has a relatively complex flavor for a young, soft cheese.

Due to the light mold that grows on the rind of the cheese, it ripens from the outside in.  In a cheese ten days old, the cheese is creamy inside the rind and fluffy towards the center.  As the cheese ages, the outside layer becomes runnier and more pungent while the center becomes creamy.  Eventually, the cheese is runny throughout.  To experience the progression for yourself, buy three small, fresh wheels (they’re cute—they come in pleated doilies that look like cupcake papers).  Enjoy one immediately.  Save one for two or three weeks later, and then eat the last one a few weeks afterwards.

As with most cheese, La Tur is best served at cool room temperature to appreciate the flavor.  You can certainly serve it with a nice un-oaked red from the Piedmont region of Italy, although the tang of the cheese is nicely set off by sweeter dessert wines as well.  Simply spread the cheese on some crusty bread, or if you want to gild the lily, serve with some clover honey, roasted pears or quince jam.

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If you’re like most people, you spend plenty of time in your kitchen making meals for you and your family. And in most of my friend’s kitchens, including my own, there is a counter TV or access to a television in the attached family room. Yes, they are great for watching ballgames or keeping up with your favorite soap while whipping up a batch of tomato sauce, but there are also a number of other benefits to having a large flat screen television right in your very own kitchen.

Kitchens come in different sizes and shapes, and there’s never enough counter space for all of the things you need to have on hand. You’ve got pots and pans, recipe cards, canisters, and of course, some crazy and colorful cookies jar taking up entirely too much space.

At the same time, many kitchens also have too much wall space to decorate easily. It’s hard enough to come up with ways to liven up your living spaces, but a theme for your kitchen can become overdone in a hurry. You could find another picture of a rooster or a cartoon chef to paint on the wall, but now there’s a better option.

Instead of more would-be art, why not add some entertainment to the space with a flat screen television? They come in so many sizes that your only limit is the amount of space you have on your wall.

Technology in the Kitchen

A flat screen TV on your wall may seem like an indulgence, but really, it has so many uses. You can cook along with television chefs as you create meals and desserts in your own kitchen. Add a DVR or DVD player, and you can record, pause, and re-watch as many times as you need to master all of their tricks.

Not only that, but with a large screen you’ll be able to see their moves and recreate their tips so much more easily than with a bulky counter top television. You can bring Bobbly Flay or Ina Garten right into your kitchen big as life.

If you still have one of those under-the-counter sets alongside of your AM/FM radio and electric can opener, now is the time to upgrade and give your cabinets the respect they deserve. A flat screen television will have better quality, be easier to see, and add some panache to your cooking space.

Technology now also lets people hook up their computers to televisions. Imagine finding fabulous new recipes online, saving them to your computer, and pulling up the recipe in living color right on your flat screen television. You’ll be able to read the print with ease, and won’t have to hunt for pesky reading glasses that will only be steamed up over the pots on the stove, anyhow. Plus, you’ll have the added incentive of being able to examine photos of the completed dish that you can measure your success against, morsel by morsel.

Wireless Technology Built Right In

Some of the new television models are building WiFi right into the sets. New technology available through LG Electronics offers you access to streaming movies, cooking videos, and other entertainment right through the Internet and onto the screen.

By tapping into their NetCast Entertainment Access, which offers access to the Internet without the need for additional equipment, you won’t have to find the show playing on a cable channel or rent a video - it will be available at your whim, right in the comfort of your kitchen. You can find cooking videos from YouTube or The Reluctant Gourmet that show you the intricate details of deboning a fish or mastering soufflés without forcing you to squint to make sense of the images on a tiny, outdated screen or cookbook.

Having Fun in the Kitchen

If you are already familiar with your recipes or techniques, you may not need to display instructions or videos on the flat screen television. Instead, you can use the TV to catch up on the news or your favorite shows—or, if you tap into LG’s technology, you can get movies streamed instantly from Netflix.

Time is that precious thing almost no one seems to have enough of, which is why “multitasking” in the kitchen is one of the hottest new ways to stay current with your television needs while attending to things of a more culinary matter.

Keep up with national and world news while prepping for dinner. Watch and listen to classic rock bands, don’t miss a minute of the Phillies or your favorite team in the playoffs. For years I used to run to the kitchen during breaks in the game to make myself a sandwich. Now I can cook a whole meal and not miss an at bat or touchdown drive.

There are so many reasons to have a flat screen TV in your kitchen that it’s becoming more mainstream to see everything from screens built into the refrigerator to large flat screens mounted on a convenient patch of wall space. From cooking help and training to keeping up with your favorite shows, it’s easy to upgrade your kitchen with exciting new options in entertainment and technology.

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