Green tomatoes, and some kind of pepper and onion are at the heart of this crisp, tart, easy-to-make traditional Burmese salad. Recipe below.
IT’S OCTOBER. THE DAYS ARE GETTING SHORTER, the nights crisp (well, sometimes). The bees are fewer in number and acting kind of drowsy. But the tomato plants, ever cheerful, are still optimistically generating loads of tomatoes. Continue reading “Simple, authentic, delicious: Burmese Green Tomato Salad (kayan chin thi thoke)”
Stone-ground grits are loaded with gruyere, butter and cream, and topped with roasted broccoli instead of shrimp. Recipe below.
I’VE BEEN ON A BROCCOLI TEAR LATELY, looking for new or at least newish ways to fix this old dependable. The other day, I happened to run across a recipe for pasta with a sauce loaded with gruyere, and with steamed broccoli mixed in at the last. As we say at our house, that was not without interest, but somehow the pasta side of this seemed overwhelming. That was when I opened the fridge door and saw the bag of Geechie Boy Mill white grits I’d ordered a little while back, just sitting on the door waiting patiently. Continue reading “A vegetarian spin on a Southern classic: Gruyere Grits with Roasted Broccoli”
Make a whole batch of these delicious buttermilk waffles and freeze some for homemade toaster waffles. Recipe below.
ON SATURDAY MORNINGS, IF WE ARE IN TOWN (and let’s face it, these days we still always are), we kind of laze out of bed whenever. We drift down to the kitchen and sit around the island and have boatloads of coffee (me) and tea (Terry). We look out the back door into the tiny backyard and comment on whatever birds are visiting the birdbath (lately, a pair of cardinals are bossing around all other comers). Eventually, one of us makes a late breakfast. Continue reading “A cozy breakfast for you and future you: Buttermilk Waffles”
You’ll want to add this hearty soup of red lentils, coconut and coconut milk, garam masala, spinach and tomatoes to your rotation. Recipe below.
BY MOST STANDARDS, WE COOK WITH LENTILS A LOT. But to us, every time we do, we lament that we don’t do so more often. Most recently, cooking this vegetarian soup with red lentils, coconut and coconut milk, spinach, and tomatoes had us thinking just that. Continue reading “Vegetarian (or vegan) and delicious: Red Lentil Soup”
A mix of baked and simmered potatoes gives this soup a satisfying texture and real baked potato flavor. Recipe below.
A LOT OF BAKED POTATO SOUP RECIPES DO NOT INVOLVE BAKED POTATOES. They are simply an excuse to load your regular potato soup with cheese, sour cream, bacon and whatever you personally would add to a loaded baked potato. Here, though, we wanted to go a little farther. We wanted to use actually baked potatoes. But we also wanted the smooth, healthy, satisfying foundation that you only get from simmered potatoes. Continue reading “Creamy and chunky, ready for whatever weather: Baked Potato Soup”
Lemon juice and zest in both the blondies and the glaze give these super easy treats an addictively bright flavor. Recipe below.
FEBRUARY IS NONSENSE. Outside, the 32 inches of snowfall around our house is melting in a depressing, half-assed way; our backyard and gangway are a hell of snow mounds and falling ice. But inside, we have this—this easy little jolt of sunshine. Continue reading “Simple, sunshiney Lemon Blondies”
Chunks of apples dot this simple, rustic apple cake. Recipe below.
THE STREETS KEEP FILLING UP WITH SNOW. And while our neighbors are really great about clearing their walks, there still is plenty of scary ice out there, and plenty of mounds and ramparts of snow at all the corners, and more snow is coming down as I write this, and the deep freeze is definitely here. Two days ago, we only went outside to finish excavating the car. (And yes, when we drove it out, we set out dibs to save our spot. We do live in Chicago.) Yesterday and today I didn’t go outside at all, except when a pal brought over our Girl Scout Cookie delivery (thanks again, Al!). Continue reading “Cinnamony, sweet (but not too), cozy Apple Cake”
Rye flour and caraway seeds create a craveable, sandwich-ready middle-European bread. Based on a classic recipe by James Beard. Recipe below.
JULIA CHILD CALLED JAMES BEARD “THE QUINTESSENTIAL AMERICAN COOK.” Beard was one of America’s modern culinary pioneers. He published his first cookbook in 1940; right after World War II, he hosted one of the first cooking shows, I Love to Eat; in 1955, he established The James Beard Cooking School, and, says the James Bead Foundation website, “He continued to teach cooking to men and women for the next thirty years, both at his own schools (in New York City and Seaside, Oregon), and around the country at women’s clubs, other cooking schools and civic groups. He was a tireless traveler, bringing his message of good food, honestly prepared with fresh, wholesome, American ingredients, to a country just becoming aware of its own culinary heritage.” Continue reading “Brown is the new Black Bread—our take on a James Beard classic”
A perfectly simple (really simple) classic chocolate cake gets more interesting with cayenne pepper, cinnamon and buttermilk. Recipe below.
YESTERDAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY AND TODAY I AM EATING A PIECE OF CAKE while I write about cake. Originally I intended to get fancy and order a cake—to have it delivered or pick it up somewhere. But in the interest of self-preservation, we are still not going into shops, and as I hunted around here in Chicago, I found that pretty much nobody offered contactless curbside pickup of cakes (and I can’t blame them, what with Christmas and all). And the delivery options scared the pants off me. $200 for a cake? For two people? EEEEEEEEEEEE Naw. Continue reading “Tinkering with a perfect, simple classic: the Perfectly Chocolate Cake”
Sweet potatoes give traditional potato gnocchi a naturally sweet twist. Here, they’re served with a kasha and shallot sauce. Two recipes below.
HERE COMES THANKSGIVING, AND THIS YEAR WE DON’T KNOW QUITE HOW THINGS WILL GO. Maybe, if everything goes well, the swabs the caution the distancing the results, we’ll have visitors, family! a full house, and a dinner table surrounded by loving faces. Or maybe it will be just us, for a while longer, with messages coming via email and text and a quiet, more reflective time, and brave personal portions, and the festivities conducted via cheerful Zooms. A lot of us, that is, still don’t know if we will be many or few, and the likeliest outcome will be: few. Continue reading “Add versatile Sweet Potato Gnocchi to your Thanksgiving menu”