So I think this is going to be a quick one today. Why? You might be asking. Well, Brian and I are moving again, just across town, but still, we are on the move again. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, moving is a royal pain. It’s like a blister that just popped on your heel when you still have a mile to walk. (That’s how much I like it!) This year I can blame all of the difficulties on James Beard and Craig Claiborne. Let me make that statement a bit more explicit, I blame it on their books.
In Niantic, Connecticut there is a funky, used book store, in a ramshackle house and several out-houses, called The Book Barn. It may not be the best book store ever, but it is one of the most charming. I [...]

What does one head of roasted garlic, a chopped hard-cooked egg, and a few crushed, flash-sauteed anchovies get you? The most delicious, albiet peculiarly stinky side dish I have made to date. Now I don’t suppose the average Jane would find this rather rustic dish pleasing. But let me assure you that the smell dissipates, and what you are left with is a wintry assemblage of hearty ingredients ready for the eating.
The combination of cauliflower and egg may be familiar to some, it certainly was to me. This duo was often made by my mom; then, it was just an altogether different dish. She would steam a batch of snowy-white florets, mix them with a bit of melted butter, season with salt and pepper, and then plunk a sieved hard-boiled egg on top. A very hard-boiled egg. With a bluish cast to [...]

When I was young there were two sandwiches which I absolutely could not stand– egg salad and tuna fish. Although their lumpy appearances definitely did not appeal, it was above all their lingering odors that were so detestable to the sensitivity of my young nose.
I would head out to the kitchen, teeth brushed, shoelaces tied, and shirt tucked in (because yes, I was one of those never-play-in-the-mud, proper children), to pour myself a bowl of cereal. Before I even arrived in the kitchen, the sulfuric smell of my mother mashing a half dozen eggs, mixed with coarsely chopped dill pickles for her egg salad, would hit me like a ton of bricks . A proper, though never meek child, I would fuss about the smell making me gag first thing in the morning. Pleasant.
Then there was school lunchtime. I would pull out my peanut butter and [...]