I was at the heath food store recently, perusing through the many bags of Bob’s Red Mill products when I spotted a bag of graham flour. Graham flour? Graham crackers, I thought. So, I grabbed a bag and went home.
Some may think of graham crackers as a childish food. And I suppose they are. I remember sitting around diminutive work tables in elementary school, with a Dixie cup full of apple juice and a teacher’s assistant placing graham crackers on the paper napkin in front of me. I loved the snack then, and I love the snack now. Graham crackers are still one of my go-to snacks when nothing else sounds good. Slathered with peanut butter, they can’t be beat. And I only could imagine that they would be superlative when homemade.
I went home, and did a quick Google search for [...]

I was in California visiting family for a bit. When I got back, I promptly got a cold. Isn’t that always the way? It’s funny to go back to California; it is not my home anymore. And it finally has stopped feeling home– at least my home anyways. But I lived there for so long that it definitely doesn’t not feel like home. Dizzying, I know.
Because of this almost-home feeling, there is no pressure to do things, see stuff, wake up early and hit the tourist destinations. But I came back to Connecticut with California booty just the same. They weren’t snow globes with the Golden Gate Bridge in them, or a UC Berkeley hoodie, they were even better. Here is what California means to me in food.
Blue Bottle Coffee- The single-best roaster that I have found. They used to [...]

In elementary school, did you ever start an avocado plant from the pit? I did. I remember waiting for weeks, as the stone steeped in tepid water, for the roots to burgeon, and a spindly plant to sprout. But I don’t really remember much past that point. I don’t remember planting the pit in soil, or watering it, or most of all, an avocado tree actually growing. Maybe that’s because this takes 15-20 years. Yep, you read that right. 20 long years!
As daunting as that figure seems, and as unfortunately black as my thumb is, I have not been deterred from forcing my very own pits. I have always felt rather moderately about avocados. I could take them or leave them. But did you know that California grows 90% of all the avocados that we eat in this country. That [...]

In September of ‘09 there was legislation passed in New Haven making it legal for residents to own chickens. Bring on the urban farms, and the fresh eggs! I recently wrote an article for The New Haven Advocate, our free weekly, arts and entertainment paper, all about it. So I can now tell about coop construction, buying chicks, etc. I also met some really interesting ladies with some hens of their own. Now these women can really tell you anything you want to know about raising chicks.
You can read the article here.
from Nosheteria

Would you like to see a little bit of my kitchen? I am always curious to catch a glimpse of other people’s homes. The New Haven Register did a piece on me and the book, complete with a photograph of yours truly kicking it in the kitchen. (And yes, that’s an electric stove!)
The article is related to the reading I will be giving this Wednesday, September 9, at 6 PM at the New Haven Public Library. If you are nearby, come down; I would love to meet you!
from Nosheteria

Hello Everyone,
I will be spending a few weeks in California this summer; I can already feel the (dry) sun on my back! While there, I will be giving two readings. On Thursday, July 30, I will be reading at Village Books in the Pacific Palisades, at 7:30 pm, and the following week I will be reading on Thursday, August 6, at Book Passage in the Ferry Building of San Francisco at 6:00 pm. I would love to meet any and all of my California readers. Come on down!
Hope you’re having a wonderful summer,Adrienne
from Nosheteria

Muddle is just one of those perfect words. It’s almost onomatopoeic– like smooch, or mushy. In fact, I think that I abuse this little double syllable. Phrases like “muddle through it” seem to so aptly describe my life at times, when I’m just at a loss, when every little thing seems completely insurmountable. Yes, it is times like those that I just seem to muddle through, and then I muddle right home, and make myself a cocktail– a wine cocktail.
Now, I’m not much of a boozer. I guess you would call me a lightweight. One martini and I’m a bit woozy. But give me a wine cocktail, a warm evening with the sun casting a pink light on the horizon, and I am a happy girl! I know, I know, a wine cocktail? You might be saying, “Who am I reading [...]

Well, it was time to do a little spring cleaning, or windy, snowy January cleaning as it may be. In its older iteration, this blog served me well, as a place to post what I have been cooking in the kitchen– and it still is. But I thought that it could use a bit of face-lifting, donning a new outfit to get the year off to a good start. You know how it is, sometimes you need a brand new dress to wear in order to face all of the exciting tasks at hand.
So I hope that you enjoy the newer, slicker, more streamlined version of Nosheteria. Have a wonderful New Year, here is to a fabulous 2009!
from Nosheteria

I always buy all of the November food magazines. I like to see what menus the editors have planned for the gluttonous holiday, Thanksgiving. Sometimes I find a recipe for yams that looks tempting, or a new way to shred my brussels sprouts, but usually I stick to the tried and true standbys that I love to make each fall. What can I say? I am a traditionalist. But the magazines stay dog-eared, pages crumpled beside my bedside table for the whole month of November.
But this November was different. Amongst the recipes for Fennel, Red Onion and Focaccia Stuffing, which I won’t be making, I saw a recipe for homemade ricotta cheese in Food and Wine magazine. Well, I love a good project. And if that project involves a mess of milk, a bit of cream, and not a whole lot else, well– [...]

Have you ever had one of those moments, maybe you were cleaning out your closet, and discovered that old blue sweater in the back recesses that you never really wore when you bought, but trying it on now, years later, it fits beautifully, and is warm and soft– precisely what you have been looking for. Or maybe you have finally found the ideal ball point pen, just narrow enough to make a serious stroke yet fluid enough so that it has a bit of caché. Well that’s sort of how I feel about my latest discovery.
Branston Pickle Relish is hardly a new product to any Brit out there. But for me, an American with more of a, shall we say, austere palate– it was a revelation. It all started a few months ago, as I was getting ready to leave New York. I had dinner in [...]