Pretty Pictures
I don’t know about you, but if I read the word “comforting” one more time in a culinary context, I may throw a daubiere. At the moment the very idea of stew, maraconi and cheese, polenta, or any other thick, hot dish of food makes me ill. I suspect many…
Apple Cider Muffins
Last year I was reading a cookbook that gave a recipe for baked apple cider doughnuts. Not fried, leaving you with gallons of used lard to somehow unload. Have you ever read a cookbook that told you what to do with used cooking oil? Me either. Anyway. My husband, he…
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…
Pork Hand Pies with mismatched pictures
So, yeah, it’s been entirely too long. I have committed the blogger’s cardinal sin of not posting. I could give all the reasons, but you read the news, don’t you? And the news, it’s very bad. Read it enough, and you will become depressed. Seriously depressed. And if you are…
Mexicanish Chicken
The New York Times is covering California’s fires, heat wave, and pandemic under the headline “California’s ‘Horrible’ Month.” That sounds about right. Friends are under threat of evacuation. The air is filled with smoke and ash. We were warned our power would be shut off in rolling blackouts between…
Hummus
A month of silence, and your hostess returns with a recipe that’s simultaneously controversial and lacking in originality. Like you’ve never made hummus before. Seriously, recent events have left me speechless. What was I going to do? Hop online, write a few trite sentences about Black Lives Matter, and start…
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…
Pistachio Garlic Sauce
I’ve been racking my brains to for a recipe that isn’t pasta. That this took the better part of two weeks bespeaks a profound lack of creativity on my part. A pandemic will do that to a person. The news changes hourly; now we’re told we should wear masks. My…
Potato Knishes
So, hi. Here we are on day whatever, depending on where you live. I haven’t kept count, myself. I’ve been out exactly once in the past ten days. I tried shopping at the local market–a corner shop that stocks vegetables, wine, and some dry goods. The shelves were literally bare….
Pandemic Cooking with Pantry Items
Social media is awash in titles like the above. They’re decidedly grim, but no sense messing around, is there? Unrelated pretty picture. I’m sorry if you’re sick of these kinds of posts. Who could blame you? By now you’re probably sick of just about everything. You long to go outside….