It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? In recovery from California, and one too many meals eaten out, this is what I made– tabbouleh-esque salad. Bulgar wheat, an English cucumber, shaved red onion, and a mess of parsley tossed with some nut oil and a good squeeze of lime juice. Delightfully boring and perfectly delicious.

from Nosheteria

I don’t think I have ever moved in Winter. My moves have always been marked by the school calendar– a flurry of finals, rapidly moving, and then, enjoying a bit of summer vacation. And I guess that since I have married an academic, this is the way that our moves will always be. It works out fine, we managed this move with only a few bruises from bumping into boxes of books, and more than a few towels have been used to mop our sweaty brows.
The hardest thing for me to move is, of course, the kitchen. There are pots and pans, bake ware, popsicle molds, utensils, my fondue pot, to name just a few from the laundry list of items. Naturally, those all get packed up. (You never know just when that fondue pot will come in handy!) But then there are [...]

It has been a dizzying few weeks for me, how ’bout you? This is how my weeks went: climb over mountainous piles of moving boxes to get to my computer, sit there for hours, the time punctuated by the occasional beeping of a car horn by some impatient Connecticut driver, and pour through pages and pages of my manuscript edited thoughtfully (and thoroughly) by my editor. Yes, my computer became my best friend, the only other thing/person that I interacted with was my husband…and even that was minimal.
It was difficult having an entirely new state to explore and trying to be good, trying to stick to a deadline, so I knew that this exploration would have to wait. But summer stretches out before me, bringing with it soft serve ice cream cones, baskets full of cherries, and buttery lobster rolls. I can’t wait! Now, with [...]

Sometimes you just make those salads that sound so good. With summery ingredients like juicy tomatoes and crisp cucumbers, bits of torn, aromatic basil, and my favorite, slithery, salty anchovies, it should be great. You follow the recipe almost to the T, and you know what? It just falls flat– not on its face but skidding ever so gently on its bum.
When I saw this recipe for what seemed like a delectably simple farro salad in The Zuni Cafe Cookbook my mind began to reel with all of the pithy titles I would name this post. So Near, So Farro. Farro Too Good. Or maybe, Once Upon a Time, In a Land Farro Way. (Yes, I know that none of these titles make a lick of sense.) But then I made this salad, and I’m sorry to say, for the sake of [...]

What do you do when all of sudden it’s September, and you just feel fall coming? It’s dark now by 7:30, there are no more cherries in the market, nor apricots, and there is actually a chill in the air when the sun goes down. Yes, fall is a-comin’. And I think I am ready for it. I actually love autumn, the change from the sweltering days of summer, to the frosty days of winter. Those nubby sweaters packed away in my closet are looking more and more tempting.
But every summer I feel a little sorrow. As much as I love those hearty autumn squash, and root veg in all its many incarnations, it is tough to say so long to my beloved berries and stone fruit. It throws me into a bit of a panic. And when I get thrown into this [...]

With all of the different types of cucumbers at the market these days, you never know what you are truly getting. Watery and insipid, or crunchy and crisp, the adjectives vary as much as the cucumbers themselves. But I do like a good cucumber, and watery as they may be, they also taste of summer: light, refreshing, and cool.
You have your regular, garden variety sort, with the tough green skin almost pimply, and overflowing with seeds waiting to be discarded before consumed. Then there is the English cucumber, virtually seedless with a tender, edible skin. A pickling cucumber that is diminutive, and just yearning to be brought home and soaked in some briny solution, is next on the list. And finally, you have the slightly more difficult to find, Persian or Japanese cucumber. This is the baby of them all, no larger than your hand, virtually seedless, supple skin, and [...]