Food, Photography and Bon Mots
Trust me. It’s tough photographing frozen yogurt. The stuff melts. There you are setting up the shot–just the right lighting…just the right angle– and bam! By the time you are ready to release the shutter, your subject has melted and those pretty little chunks of…
“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… the people who give you their food give you their heart.” -Cesar Chavez I get a lot of pleasure from sharing food. There is something wonderful about watching…
Three hundred and seventy-three blueberries. That’s how many berries Juliet and I had to pick up off the floor. I had reached into the refrigerator, gotten distracted as I grabbed a jar of marmalade and, in one fraught moment, managed to dislodge the two-pound box…
Yes. This is exactly as delicious as it looks, and as elegant, too. To be very honest, it is one of the best plum desserts that I’ve baked this season, and I’ve baked (and happily eaten) my share. The Austrians call this…
Egyptian pharaohs, European kings (and queens!) and Cornish miners all ate them. Beggars ate the crusts. Now, they are hot on the culinary scene again and they are delicious. Hand pies! Hand pies originated when some smart cook realized that there was a workaround for…
Apricots evoke strong emotions. For poet John Ruskin, they conjured up a visual and tactile beauty. He described them as “shining in a sweet brightness of golden velvet.” For Chilean novelist Isabel Allende, theirs was a melancholy comfort. She wrote: “At the most difficult moments…
Banana cake. Cream cheese frosting. Chopped pecans. This is a great banana cake. You may even want to eat the frosting by the spoonful. I did. OK. That’s a fair criticism. I have posted a number of banana cake and bread recipes on…
JOIN ME FOR THE WAVE! IT’S STONE FRUIT SEASON, PEOPLE! In my mind, it doesn’t get better than stone fruit season–ripe as it is with the promise of baking and aromas and pleasurable eating, but, alas,…
Brilliant red strawberries picked at the peak of their ripeness floating on a bed of creamy mascarpone and suspended over a crisp rye flour crust… You need this tart. We are on the cusp of strawberry season here in California and this easy-peasy (and indulgent)…
I gave a birthday party recently for two of my friends, one of whom had mentioned that she particularly enjoyed flan. So, there was no question that flan would be our party dessert. The history of flan is interesting. Flan has been enjoyed for…
