Off Season With Brian Connors

created 12/20/2000
last updated 5 May 2003

DEDICATION: Most everyone in my family is an excellent cook, but I think it was my grandfather who really inspired me to learn to cook myself. I think his interest in cooking came from the heart attack that he had when I was a baby, and after my grandmother died and he moved in with us he and I would cook together quite a lot. Messes were made, arguments were had, and magic came out of the kitchen. I still like to cook, but it was never the same after he died. This page is posted, six years later, in his honor.

I love cooking. I've enjoyed it ever since I was a small child, and over the years I've heard "you should open a restaurant" quite a number of times. I don't really want one, though -- I like doing it for fun and don't necessarily want to go into business doing it. What I do want to do is write a cookbook some day; this is the beginning of it.

What's on this page are some of my favorite recipes, created and collected over the years. These are things I like to cook, both simple and exotic (not that the two are mutually exclusive, as you'll see). My cooking style is unapologetically eclectic; I collect cookbooks like crazy (haven't counted them for years), so if there's a recipe you need there's a good possibility that I have it. I like to read interesting cookbooks -- well-written ethnic cookbooks and general references (especially those by Julia Child, Claudia Roden, and Jeff Smith (yes, that Jeff Smith)); I feel very strongly that a cookbook isn't worth much if it's only a list of recipes. It has to tell the stories of the people that cook and eat the food it describes, and it has to be willing to teach technique when necessary. There is a place for books like Larousse Gastronomique, but they're really encyclopedias, not cookbooks per se.

So that is what I want this cookbook page to be -- a personal map of what I enjoy cooking and eating. I hope it appeals to you as well. You'll find a lot of interesting recipes in here from many different cultures, and a few from no culture in particular (only an Ugly American(tm) would mix balsamic vinegar and miso in the same sauce...). Sorry, no submissions at this point -- these are my recipes, and if you want me to mention them tell me to start a links page.

Incidentally, this site is best viewed with Mozilla, not because of any oddities in the HTML code, but because the cjb.net redirect mentioned below will drown you in popups. Substitute your favorite popup blocker if you don't use Mozilla.

Update 12/24/02 This website is also available at offseasontv.cjb.net, just to give it an easier URL. Go to the links page to find out about what cjb.net brings to the party.

Off Season schwag is available at cafepress.com; go pick up a t-shirt or so and help me make this a better show.

I will be starting a cooking show Real Soon Now on Cape Cod Community Television, tentatively titled Off Season; this page contains show ideas I'm considering as well as information on how to subscribe to offseason_c3tv, the show's official mailing list. You can find information about my "production company" Washashore Productions here as well.

I've moved the recipes off the main page to make organizing the site easier, and to clean up the main page a bit.

• My recipe page
• Episode guide, where you'll find all the recipes from the show.