If you read last week’s post, you might think a good cook can correct any dish that hasn’t turned out right. Add a little bit of this, a little of that and voila, the meal is saved. Sorry. Sometimes when culinary explorations don’t work out the only recourse is to start over. That’s what happened […]
Making soup is like playing matchmaker. You try to pair ingredients into a lively but sustainable relationship. Sometimes things go together. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes opposites attract. Sometimes like attracts like. There isn’t a consistent formula. Not that I’m an expert, I’m a guy. Even worse, I’m a husband. All I know about relationships is […]
The cucumber is soft-spoken. It’s flavor is neither strong nor brash. As a result it’s a vegetable that often doesn’t get a lot of respect. You might even say it’s the Rodney Dangerfield* of vegetables. At best the cucumber is a supporting player adding texture and crunch to other ingredients that hog the spotlight. In […]
I don’t really know what butterscotch is. I’ve eaten it for years in those old-timey hard candies wrapped in yellow cellophane. I put it on ice cream sundaes when I was a kid back in the days when I actually put syrups and sauces on my ice cream (potential future posting?). I’ve even had butterscotch […]
When it comes to citrus, I’m a proud Californian. I don’t have anything against Florida personally, but I’ll take one of my home state’s Washington navels or juicy Valencias any day over the stuff they peddle from the panhandle. Whenever we stayed over at my grandparents’ house (the same one with all the orchards, see […]
You might say that this week’s ice cream is very exotic or very French and you’d be right. But the best way to describe it is very Meryl Streep. I don’t know precisely how long I’ve been following Streep’s career, but I do remember watching her in a TV version of Wendy Wasserstein’s first play […]
I’m going to out my mother here. You may not know this, but my mom has a long and well-deserved reputation for scratch baking. Everything she makes, from pecan tarts and coffee cloud sponge cake to divinity fudge and Winnie the Pooh birthday cakes is made from a host of raw materials that she blends […]
I am totally embarrassed. I should have known better. I do know better. Yet there I was last week, making strawberry ice cream in the middle of winter. (We’ll ignore the foolishness of continuing to make any kind of ice cream long after the end of summer.) Call me stupid. Call me obsessive. Call me […]
My children are growing up. Not exactly breaking news, I know, but these developments surprise you sometimes. The other night as the girls were watching a video with their mother, a kissing scene came on. The younger daughter covered her eyes and groaned about how inappropriate it was, but the elder one did not complain. […]
