Please don’t misconstrue what I’m about to tell you. I do in fact think that sour pickles are great. I make them. I eat them. Like many of you out there, they were my introduction to fermented foods. And I even have a recipe for them here. But the thing is: cucumbers aren’t really the […]
There is a well-worn proverb — one that has been worn so well, in fact, that it has been ground into a fine pallid dust by the motivational / self-help industry: give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. […]
Risotto is a dish on which Sarah and I disagree. For her, the pinnacle of rice is a long-grain variety like basmati, cooked dry and fluffy, firm but done, with enough nutty flavor to be delicious alone, but better suited to be a substrate for curry, or stew, or coq au vin. Risotto is okay, […]
It’s been a few months since I’ve made a soapbox post — like this one about Kiva, or this one about Creative Commons. This post, I would say, falls somewhere between that, an impromptu pictorial, and free advertising for a Philadelphia business that I admire quite a bit, and that I patronize as often as […]
To all of you out there who are cooking or being cooked for — to all of you who are hosting or being hosted, this year — I’d like to wish you a safe, delicious, happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a great time with turkey, and family, and stuffing, and pie. I know […]
Call it a gobbler, a motherclucker, even Big Bird (if you’re a certain, recently-former presidential candidate). I’ll know what you mean. Turkey is the centerpiece of almost every Thanksgiving meal. And it’s the centerpiece of stress — believe me, I know — for more than a few holiday cooks. For first-time turkey-cookers, the problem is […]
It’s strangely appropriate, I thought as I was roasting pumpkins, that the making of this soup has required something borrowed (vegetable stock) and something blue (my good old trusty Dutch oven). After all, the reason why I am able to plan ahead this year — the reason why I am able to offer you some […]
Alright, folks. After some long weeks of travel, of stormy weather, of presidential elections, of blog posts that are decidedly not about food — I have this one for you. Today’s experiment is baked chicken — salt and pepper chicken — and I can’t actually take credit for it. A couple of years ago, I […]
Interestingly enough, today’s experiment is equally at home with tea and jam, or with fried chicken and greens. This, I suppose, is a product of my peculiar relationship with biscuits. Or maybe more accurately, my biscuits’ peculiar relationship with scones. As you read through this recipe, the most perceptive of you (dear readers!) will likely […]
All this fermentation business seems to be going to my head. It used to be, when I would triage our incoming CSA bundle, I would think to myself: What gets eaten raw? What am I going to cook? And what scraps are going to end up in the compost? Now, I think: What can I […]