Adventures in Eclectic Home Cooking
This fall, I came down with pie fever. I started thinking about all the pies I could make for the holidays. And the list quickly grew out of hand. I ended up with a baker’s dozen of pies, savory and sweet, that could feed almost any crowd. Then I made my friends vote on which [...]
Posted in Recipes on Aug 8th, 2011
Sometimes you have to admit that, no matter how hard you try to prove otherwise, you are wrong. Right on the heels of my last post about how great dried beans are, I have to take it back – at least partially. Dried beans can be great. Just not if you’re as absent-minded as me. [...]
Posted in Recipes on Jun 6th, 2011
We were recently invited to a potluck lunch with an ingenious theme: “New Foods.” The host wanted guests to bring foods that would most likely be new to him, and hopefully the other guests. I gave the challenge a lot of thought. I eat a lot of weird things, so I had plenty of options. [...]
My thoughts have been drifting over to Paris quite a bit lately. I think it’s the travel bug that’s been itching in me all winter. This year also marks five years since I studied there. I spent a good part of this afternoon following Google street view around my old Paris haunts, amazed at how [...]
Posted in Food Features, Recipes on Mar 25th, 2011
I’ve clearly been on a bit of baking kick lately. I think it’s been because by the end of the week I’m out of fresh goods but I always have basic baking ingredients in my pantry. A lot of people bake bread to be frugal. And I’d like to say that I made these pita [...]
Posted in Food Features, Recipes on Feb 26th, 2011
I’ve always loved beets: their color, a magenta that still seems unnatural every time I see it; their texture, tender and meaty; their flavor, bright, earthy and fruity. As a beet fan, it doesn’t take much to convince me that something with roasted beets in it is going to be delicious. But because I enjoy [...]
Posted in Recipes on Feb 14th, 2011
After spending a weekend in a place even colder than New York, I really can’t help but dream of warmer places. Maybe it’s just me, but nothing warms me up like the deep seductive flavors of the Mediterranean. Thinking of food that even hints of places like Morocco seems to usher in a premature summer. [...]
Posted in Recipes on Jan 17th, 2011
Bundling up in this cold winter can only do so much to keep you warm. While I was studying in France, I remember seeing vending machines that dispensed steaming cups of potage, a smooth and thick peasant’s soup of winter vegetables, and thinking that the French had the right idea. Healthier than a cup of [...]
Posted in Recipes on Dec 19th, 2010
Between the CSA we joined this fall and all the great prices on squash at the markets, we ended up with a cache of winter squash to figure out what to do with this year. We ran through the basics pretty quickly, with pumpkin pie, butternut squash soup, and stuffed acorn squash; even a few [...]
Posted in Pondering, Recipes, Shopping, Technique on Nov 14th, 2010
If you’ve never bought a turkey before, it can be overwhelming to try to understand all the differences between them. There are plenty of guides, but there are so many of those too, it’s hard to know what will be best. In my family we have always chosen frozen kosher turkeys, but even if you [...]
