There’s no doubt of this: New Orleans is a city which knows its beans. So when Camellia Beans, a well-respected and well-loved brand of dry beans based in that municipality approached me about using some of the lima bean recipes from my book Bean by Bean, of course I gladly said yes. They have just put up the post featuring three… Read More
It’s supposed to get up to to 92 degrees today. Time to make this soup again, and share it with new readers. I semi-vacation when Alpha Dude is up here in Vermont visiting (he lives in New York). So, I tend to work pedal-to-the-metal when solo. I eat more simply, too: I’m the one cooking, shopping and doing the dishes… Read More
I’m in New York at the moment, with my boyfriend. I woke up early, suddenly and fully this morning, filled with reasonless happiness. He was asleep, warm beside me. I started thinking about what to make for breakfast. Out of nowhere, in that funny discursive way memory has, biscuits and gravy came to mind. THE SUN KITCHEN I used to… Read More
FOREWORD: I wrote recently here about traveling to the awards ceremony for the International Association of Culinary Professionals,\ with one of the first-time nominees. Our conversation made me recall a post I’d written immediately after I had won an award for one of my books, Passionate Vegetarian, back in 2003. It was a book which had also been nominated for and lost… Read More
“Should I just throw these out?” I asked him. I was referring to 15 or 20 leftover muffins: carrot-pineapple-coconut muffins. We were doing that lovely post-party couple-dance of cleaning up, putting the house back to rights, discussing the event we had just co-created. He wrinkled his brow. The give-me-more-information look. He was drying the glasses, replacing them on the shelf. “”I mean,… Read More
All at once, the circle turns, the green world going gold, yellow, red. Instead of the zucchinis in an excess about which we loved to complain only a few weeks ago, we now coo over adorable gourds and minis-squashes, admire big honkin’ pumpkins and sweet bright creased or crook-necked winter squashes. They’re so pleasing aesthetically, sculptural and decorative, signal of the… Read More
Last week I was obsessing about birthday cake. One particular birthday cake … a cake worthy of two twins celebrating their shared 65th birthday, which I had tasked myself with making. After all, one twin was my beloved Alpha Male, and the other was his sister, who I’d never met, who was flying all the way in from Washington state to celebrate with… Read More
I’d had friends over last Friday, for dinner. A couple of the dishes I’d served them required a little fresh dill. Now, you can’t buy a little dill. You buy it by the bunch. That bunch is usually, especially this time of year, preposterously large. This is problematical. I live alone, except for when my boyfriend comes up from New York to spend a few… Read More
High noon, on the year’s clock. That’s what it is right now. I know technically, literally, that summer’s high noon would be the Solstice, towards June’s end. But subjectively, I place it about a month later. That’s when the overflowing, abundant generosity of my local farm-stand makes me swoon with possibilities, and it’s hard not to overbuy. All that produce!… Read More
Polenta: peasant food from the north of Italy. It’s texture-y cooked cornmeal, usually served as a bed for a savory stew of some kind or perhaps a fried egg, but also served on its own when doctored up with a little cheese (and/or mushrooms, or various aromatics). Polenta: occasionally served as a sweet breakfast cereal or even as dessert. When left… Read More
Contentment. Outside, the slope down from the house towards the pond, grass yellowing on it, like a Van Gogh painting. Inside, the flowers: wild black-eyed susans and yarrow, perennials and annuals from the garden, fireworks in a blue glass vase on the dining room table. #DinnerWithDragonwagon, just me and my boyfriend, with plenty of help from Walker Farm. The first… Read More
Here is what we had to eat tonight, a slightly chilly, rainy July night in Vermont, my Alpha Dude and I… it’s #DinnerWithDragon. Zucchini Fritters, with a Dab of Yogurt Pilaf of Quinoa & Millet, with a Mustard-Seed Scented Saute of Onions & Mushrooms Sliced Heirloom Tomatoes Sliced Romaine Lettuce with Scallions, Mustard-Garlic-Scape Vinaigrette Why, you ask, is wholewheat pasta… Read More
