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Photoshop is certainly at the top of my list. Illustrator follows closely, and Dreamweaver in a not-so-distant third place.

I ate some Lucky Charms for breakfast. Magically delicious!™

English Breakfast. :)

(I’m not a tea aficionado by any means)

CHIPOTLE DIP

The recipe calls for chipotle chiles, which are actually dried, smoked jalapeños. They can be bought packed in adobo, a sauce made from ground chiles, herbs, tomatoes, and vinegar. Serve the dip with bell pepper strips, chips, or crackers.

Servings: Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Ingredients:

2 scallions (green onions) 2 to 3 small canned chipotle chiles in adobo plus 1/4 teaspoon adobo sauce 1 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation:

Finely chop scallions. Wearing protective gloves, mince enough chipotles to a paste to measure 1 1/2 tablespoons. In a bowl whisk together all ingredients with salt to taste. Dip can be kept in the fridge (covered) for 3 days.

Hello, my name is Chris Perry.

My alias (“pixelchef”) is an amalgamation of my love for digital art and my passion for food and wine. I’m a Graphic Designer with a firm background in traditional visual arts. I have both a design degree from Durham College, and an illustration degree from Sheridan College. For the past number of years I’ve been working freelance as a digital matte painter (realistic background paintings for film/television) and concept artist (characters, environments, vehicles, etc. for all manners of entertainment). I’ve also done a lot of corporate identity development (logos, business cards, websites, promotional media, etc.) and taught private art lessons in my free time. As I hope you can tell, art is quite literally my life.

With my spare time I enjoy fine dining and collecting wine (I most definitely can be considered a “foodie”), downhill skiing, basketball, golfing, tennis, traveling, reading, learning, technology and of course, dating. :)

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing John since high school, and it was pretty apparent he was going on to do big and wonderful things. His mother (Mrs. Green to me) was my English teacher for most of my high school life, and remains the best educator I’ve ever had the benefit of learning from (primary, secondary AND post-secondary included in that assessment).

I’m happy to be here. It’s pretty incredible.

It’s no secret that I’m still very much a novice when it comes to wine (and many other things). Last weekend I was fortunate enough to attend a dinner at friends of my grandparent’s place. He is an avid collector, and decided that on this night we’d check out how the 89 vintage of CdP was doing. Lucky me!

He opened 3 bottles from 89 which I’ll list below, along with my elementary thoughts of the wine. This vintage has a reputation for being rather stellar, so I feel somewhat unqualified writing notes about it. However, practice makes perfect! I’d love to be able to “practice” drinking 1989 CdP far more often, though.

Domaine Vieux Lazarets Les Couversets Chateauneuf du Pape

This was my least favourite of the three. On the nose, it seemed incredibly acidic and what I perceived to be a little high on the alcohol content. It surprised me though, as it was quite soft with alcohol. I got a lot of spicy oak on the palate, which seemed to soften with time in the glass and made way for some ripe fruit flavours. Then a rather dominant liccorice aroma became a little too agressive for this taster.

Domaine Durieu Chateauneuf du Pape

I liked this much more. The nose was pumped full or luscious, ripe fruit. Very dark and deep in colour. The palate is very spicy and tannic, which made for a really lively journey down the gullet. Medium body, elegant finish. I liked it.

Chateau Fortia Chateauneuf du Pape

This was also very dark in colour. Mysterious, even. I got a lot of bitter coffee notes on the nose, and leather as well. A very different aroma profile than the other two tasted. I found it really quite surprising. Really well-rounded in the mouth. I tasted a lot of toasty caramel or toffee flavours. Very smooth finish. A pleasure!

I’m something of a Riesling whore, so most of my favourites revolve around that bias.

Vineland Estates Semi-Dry Riesling (Ontario) – $14
Angels Gate Riesling (Ontario) – $14
Cave Spring Off-Dry Riesling (Ontario) – $14
Chateau des Charmes Viognier (Ontario) – $19
Pelee Island Pinot Gris (Ontario) – $12
Lingenfelder Riesling Spatlese (Germany) – $22
Chateau des Charmes Vidal Icewine (Ontario) – $23
Domaine de Salices Syrah (France) – $15
Inniskillin Cab Franc Reserve (Ontario) – $19

My pleasure, gtimm! Glad to be of service. :)

A quick safety tip to keep in mind when cooking with alcohol is to first pour the booze into a separate vessel before adding it to the heat. If you pour straight from the bottle, there is a risk that the flame might climb the stream of liquor back into the bottle itself, and leave you holding a virtual grenade. This applies only if you’re cooking over high heat. Otherwise, you’ll likely have to ignite the alcohol yourself after it hits the pan.

Generally speaking, it isn’t often that I add spirits to my cooking. I much more frequently cook with wine (red, white, and sparkling). Fortified wines like Port also make it into my cooking on occasion.

Tender herbs are categorized as parsley, cilantro, basil, dill and tarragon (generally – obviously there are others). Store by trimming stem ends (skip this step if roots are still attached) and placing the unwashed herbs, stem side down in a tall container with enough water to cover the stems. Cover loosely with a plastic bag and store in the warmest part of the refrigerator (usually the top shelf). The herbs stored this way typically last about 5 days.

Hardy herbs are categorized as thyme, rosemary and sage (generally – obviously, there are others in this category as well). Store these herbs by wrapping them in a damp paper towel, placing them in plastic storage bags and refrigerating. This should keep the herbs for about 2 weeks.

For fresh basil, store at room temperature because the cold will cause the leaves to turn black.

Once your fresh herbs are on their last legs (the more delicate ones), a great way to have them not go to waste is to use them in an herb pesto. The flavour payoff is enormous with pesto. I mean, fresh herbs, olive oil, tons of parmesan cheese, an acid (lemon, vinegar, whatever) and possibly some type of nut (pine, walnut, pistachio) – how could that NOT be delicious?

**Faye: wonderful lesson!

Donna Hay’s books are great. Actually, I believe I’ve got them all!

My favourite cookbook is a toss-up between The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller, and Mario Batali’s Babbo Cookbook. TFL Cookbook is extremely advanced, so I don’t actually cook FROM it very often, but being that I’m so visually-driven, I really enjoy just leafing through the pages and staring at the gorgeous photography. The Babbo Cookbook on the other hand, is becoming mangled and disheveled due to the frequent flyer miles I afford it.

I’ve got about 200 cookbooks.

I’ve done digital matte painting for feature films, illustration (children’s books, comics, etc.), web design implementation, corporate identity development/promotion, advertising, covers (DVD, CD, Magazine, book) and probably some other junk that has slipped my mind.

I work primarily in Photoshop and Illustrator for visuals, Dreamweaver for web, and sometimes 3D Studio MAX for basic geometry and lighting setups for mattes.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of brand development (logo design, business cards, web, advertising, custom typography, etc…) but am still doing some concept work / digital painting for film via freelance request(s). Art is quite literally my life. :)