Brined 
Canned 
Confit 
fermented 
Infused 
Pickled Pickled Grapes
As the holidays ramp up, so does the production of foods falling under the capacious, vague, generally alarming category of edibles labeled “great with a cheese platter.” Let’s not even discuss those foods that are “terrific with charcuterie!” Coming soon to a holiday table near you. Even the most cheese-loving…
Canned Tomatoes
This is a long post. I know some people dislike reading long posts, but this one discusses how to safely can tomatoes. If you will never can a tomato in your lifetime, feel free to look at the photographs. If you want to can tomatoes but find my blow-by-blow…
Omelet with Chinese pickled vegetable
Soaring fuel prices are forcing many people, myself included, to reconsider everything we were taught about “good cooking.” Especially now, when we would normally be starting to prepare stews, bone-in roasts, and soups, dishes demanding hours of slow cooking. Gourds. Official harbinger of Fall. Well, these and pumpkin-spiced coffee drinks,…
Niloufer’s Tomato Chutney
Chutney was the result of feeling in a cooking rut and wanting to make something different. Granted, this isn’t (fill in complicated recipe here), but it’s new to me. Yes, they need replacing. The original recipe comes from Niloufer Ichaporia King’s My Bombay Kitchen, a book that’s accessible even to…
Stir-fried bok-choy with seitan/stir-fried Chinese pickles with seitan
As promised, recipes incorporating seitan. The first, bok-choy with seitan, calls for widely available ingredients. The second recipe calls for Chinese pickled vegetable, which I’ve never seen sold outside an Asian market. I am fortunate to live near Asian megamarket 99Ranch. Others may not be so lucky. I posted these…
Roast Peppers Preserved Under Oil
I began writing this post two weeks ago. The world was a completely different place then. Here is a link to agencies assisting Afghan refugees, from the New York Times. Here is a link to help those impacted by the earthquake in Haiti, from National Public Radio. — It’s late…
Pickled Onions
Once again your hostess would like to apologize for being such a laggardly poster. It’s not lack of interest in the blog, or in you, my readers. The truth is the same dull reason it’s always been: my health. More precisely, my back. Last week I had yet another cortisone…
Dorothy Allhusen’s Potted Beef
As the world grows increasingly disorderly, I find myself seeking refuge in the past. By “the past,” I mean cookbooks. I don’t have a time machine. Let us turn to Britain between the wars. Built during World War II, but not in Britain. Shot several years ago. — It is…
Green Beans With Fresh and Preserved Lemon
Let me tell you about blogging during a pandemic. It’s very challenging. There’s the question of tone. When people are dying left and right, one doesn’t want to appear flip. Then again, gloom isn’t good, either. People visiting your site want to be entertained. Then there’s the food question. Thank…
Cabbage Soup
Pity the poor cabbage. It gets a bad rap. Too many people are scarred by bad cabbage experiences: boiled beyond recognition….or the cabbage soup diet. Lacking illustrative photos of overboiled cabbage or the soup diet, I give you San Francisco’s Union Square. More accurately, a street near Union Square. Handled…