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
Why is it that picnic food, i.e. summer food, in this country is so often drowning in a quagmire of mayo? Two mainstays of these white-washed foods are coleslaw, and potato salad, two delicious foods in their own right. Who doesn’t love a potato, and how can you object to mounds of feathery chopped cabbage? But whenever I spot these down-home delicacies at a picnic, they are baking in the sun, getting that lovely yellowish, leathery skin on top. Aesthetically it leaves a bit to be desired, and immediately gets me thinking about airborne bacteria. E-coli anyone?
I found a way around this problem by making a German-style potato salad, tossed in a Dijon vinaigrette with crumbled bacon; but coleslaw remained intractable. It had been years since I had enjoyed more than a bite or two of the stuff, and all of the mayonnaise alternatives seemed [...]
As you probably can guess, from being a food blog writer, I also read a lot of food blogs. And if there is one common thread that is sewn amongst my fellow bloggers each February and early March it is that spring cannot come soon enough. So I feel that it is safe to speak for a few and say: we are tired of soup, and braised dishes are lovely and rib-sticking, but—bring on the grill and we are all dying for a peach!
But speaking from 30 years of experience, let me say, as the wind whistles round us, we have some time to wait before Spring’s arrival. So why not enjoy it? Dust off that soup pot for just a while longer, braise yet another interesting cut of meat, and discover the wonders of citrus fruit. To me, nothing invokes warm weather fare like [...]
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 [...]
Oh, it’s getting good around here. Since I have been back from California, I have been to the Union Square Greenmarket quite a few times, and each week, it gets a bit better. At first there were the ramps, beautifully spindly. Then came the green garlic, mild in flavor and hinting of spring, and the baby kale was soft and budding, soon to be replaced by bagfuls of gorgeous gem lettuces.
But I am a creature of habit. When the produce is this good, there is not an awful lot I want to do to it. (Except run home and eat it!) Yes, I buy the same goods week after week. The vendors recognize me by face, and I love this. In a city so large, teeming with both tourists and locals, it is nice to know that the potato man recognizes you. [...]
I’m back. Humor me please. My kitchen in New York is bare. The only things that sit in my refrigerator are a jar of baby cornichons floating in murky brine, and a half-used jar of Dijon mustard. Now I like vinegar as much as the next person, but cornichons dipped in mustard is a treat I will save for another day. So yes, I have to go the market.
I like where I live, but there are times when I just do not want to pay $3.00 for one measly avocado. I become sick and tired of the strawberries looking beautiful but tasting insipid, because well… they are all coming from California. So what do I do? Haul my cookies to California to see the family and lay on the hammock in the backyard of my parents house under the welcoming shade created [...]
My grandma loved the color purple (and no, I am not speaking about the book). She had several pairs of purple slacks, quite a few lavendar tops, dish towels, pot holders, you name it. It seemed that as she got older, her love for the color only increased. But she was not alone in her affection. She had many a friend who was ga-ga for the hue as well. Whenever I pass a group of older women, dressed in their finest or even donning casual kick-around clothes, I see an inordinate amount of purple. It is as if they are creating a flurry of springtime activity in their brightly colored outfits.
But for as much as my grandmother adored the color, I had a dance teacher when I was growing up who detested the color. So much animus was heaped onto the color purple, [...]
Dear readers, I’m sure you are getting ready, as am I, for a holiday full of turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. But let’s not forget about Thanksgiving’s most maligned side dish, the jello salad. Probably not eaten at Plymouth Rock, but neither were those bubbling casseroles of yams topped with marshmallows, the jello salad is worthy of inclusion in this festive meal. Here’s a post from 2005, detailing one unique variety of the dish. Happy Thanksgiving!
I am a Thanksgiving traditionalist. I don’t like anything fantastical at my feasts, and I come from a long line of traditionalists. Parsnip-Potato Puree may be scrumptious any other day of the year, but on Turkey Day it has to be pure– Russet Potatoes mashed with milk and butter and slathered in homemade turkey gravy. For me a ginger-lime rub on the turkey would be sacrilege, I’ll take butter anyday, and I’m getting racy if [...]
At the market last week, I just about stopped dead in my tracks. There each one was, assembled in such close proximity that I almost couldn’t bear it. Check out the loveliness of the following: Fuyu persimmons, Satsuma mandarins, and Belgian endive.
If I were Martha Stewart, hostess extraordinaire, queen of all good things, CEO of a multi-billion dollar empire, and owner of several palatial estates along the East Coast, I know what I would have done. I would have bought a basket full of these stunning edibles, arranged them beautifully on one of my 12 foot long, maple dining tables, careful to hide all of their bruises and imperfections, and had a stunning centerpiece to enjoy for the few days that the produce remained rosy.
But let’s get real. Martha may be great, but she can also be a tad, well… unrealistic. I live in New [...]
Farewell dear, sweet corn. Goodbye bright melon salads, see you next year. And don’t think I have forgotten about you smooth, seedy summer squash. I’ll pick you all up next June, when the weather’s warm, and tank tops beckon my shoulders out into the sunshine. For now, there are new foods churning their way into my psyche. I mean, it is October for heaven’s sake!
The weakening sun hides behind the ever-burgeoning clouds, and it’s warm one moment, cool the next. I leave the apartment with a light jacket and scarf-mina (one part scarf, the other part pashmina) firmly affixed round my neck one moment, only to remove the jacket, and blot the perspiration from my brow with said scarf-mina, the next. This of course, translates into stomach confusion for my appetite– a salad…no, a stew…no, a salad.Well, what about a hearty salad, how does [...]
