Uncategorized

A Salad Obsession: Me, Samin Nosrat and Via Carota’s Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

A Salad Obsession: Me, Samin Nosrat and Via Carota’s Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

This is a very good vinaigrette. Glorious, in fact. The hot new chef, Samin Nosrat, featured this salad dressing recipe in a recent New York Times Magazine food piece titled “Best Green Salad in the World.”  That kind of high praise made me think this…

Cheers! Penne Alla Vodka

Cheers! Penne Alla Vodka

Made this. Loved it. But why cook with alcohol? According to Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking, alcohol bonds with the fat and water molecules in your food and carries flavor and aroma. In other words, in a creamy tomato sauce like the one…

Orange Chocolate Cookies: That Little Black Cookie You Need in Your Repertoire

Orange Chocolate Cookies: That Little Black Cookie You Need in Your Repertoire

    How do you define elegance? Audrey Hepburn? That exquisite little black dress at Nordstrom’s? Dinner at The French Laundry? Camilla Parker Bowles? (OK. Just kidding about that last one.) It may be time to revisit your definition and add this delightful cookie to…

Wishing you and yours….

Wishing you and yours….

    a happy holiday, the best new year, and a little chocolate cake.   Chocolate Macaroon Cake Save Recipe Print Recipe My Recipes My Lists My Calendar IngredientsFor the cake1 C. virgin coconut oil (melted, cooled– plus more for the pan)1/4 C. unsweetened cocoa…

Apricots!

Apricots!

    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,…

Swiss Chard Pie with A Vodka Crust

Swiss Chard Pie with A Vodka Crust

    I was out of vodka. For years I’ve relied upon my neighbors to loan me a little of this and a little of that–a couple eggs or a cup of milk. But…it is an entirely different thing to call a neighbor and ask…

Nana, Spunk,  and Vinegar Chocolate Cake

Nana, Spunk, and Vinegar Chocolate Cake

Nana was my grandmother. When I was a little girl, I would spend long happy weekends at her house. She always had a stack of books for me to read–young reader mysteries, as I recall. Sometimes she would take me to the tiny beauty shop improbably…

A Mushroom-Spinach Soup With A Whole Lot of Character

A Mushroom-Spinach Soup With A Whole Lot of Character

      “When I was born I was so ugly the doctor slapped my mother.” –Rodney Dangerfield   Close your eyes and this soup is absolutely delicious. Stare at it in your bowl…not so much. How do you write about (let alone photograph) a…

Polenta with Mushroom Ragout

Polenta with Mushroom Ragout

Want to really tell somebody off? Call them a polentoni (a big polenta). You read that right–a big polenta.That’s the nasty insult that southern Italians lob at northern Italians, or, at least, they did back in the day. Why’s that? It seems to have a…

Greek Baked Beans (Fassolia Yiachni)

Greek Baked Beans (Fassolia Yiachni)

  Oxi! (or is it Nai! ?) I could never keep yes and no straight in Greek. (Could be a dangerous confusion in any language. I know.) These Greek Baked Beans are delicious. I just made another big (for me) Rancho Gordo bean buy and…