Vegetables

Beautiful Indulgent Cauliflower Soup

Beautiful Indulgent Cauliflower Soup

Comfort food. This cauliflower soup is flavorful and oh-so-creamy. Topping it with big buttery bread crumbs elevates it from excellent to exceptional. It’s the perfect comfort food for these difficult times. By the way, did you know that cauliflower is 92% water? How interesting is…

WOW!  Chinese Stir-Fried Tomatoes and Eggs

WOW! Chinese Stir-Fried Tomatoes and Eggs

  For a foodie like me, one of the great joys in life is finding an exceptional recipe. Bonus points if the recipe is spot on in recreating a fond food memory. You know that kind of recipe, I’m sure. You make it. You taste…

Eggplant, Tomato and Chickpea Bake: Musaqa’a

Eggplant, Tomato and Chickpea Bake: Musaqa’a

Musaqa’a. Musaqa’a is a Palestinian eggplant, chickpea and tomato bake with inspired spicing–somewhat reminiscent of Greek moussaka. The recipe I’m using here is adapted from Chef Sami Tamimi’s and Irish food writer Tara Wigley’s new cookbook, Falastin. The recipes are Tamimi’s and the writing is…

Pasta Salad With Feta and Herbs

Pasta Salad With Feta and Herbs

When I was twenty-two and had my own kitchen for the first time, I knew absolutely nothing about cooking. Nothing. So…I bought my first cookbook–a used copy of the 1963 edition of The New Good Housekeeping Cookbook. The book’s provenance is interesting. The name Sugar Bardy…

A Promethean Fennel Gratin

A Promethean Fennel Gratin

  Cooks should have a whole lot of respect for fennel.  According to Greek mythology, Prometheus used a large stalk of fennel to carry fire from Mount Olympus to earth. But, alas, while fennel is a popular ingredient in Italian and Indian cuisines, it is…

Anxiety Eating Antidote: Spicy Cauliflower and Potato Soup

Anxiety Eating Antidote: Spicy Cauliflower and Potato Soup

I bought a cauliflower recently with good intentions. I’ve been doing a little a lot of anxiety eating lately as I sit here in California in Covid19 lockdown. My scale tells me I need to up my nutrition game. I know cruciferous vegetables are super foods.…

Gadget Madness: Spiralized Vietnamese Cucumber Salad

Gadget Madness: Spiralized Vietnamese Cucumber Salad

I’m a gadget girl. I have drawers and drawers (and drawers!) of cooking tools–some whose function I no longer remember. So, like most of the rest of the cooks in America right now, I’ve been doing some pandemic kitchen cleaning and organizing. I’ve put off…

I’ll have a cup of vodka with that! Pasta alla Vecchia Bettola

I’ll have a cup of vodka with that! Pasta alla Vecchia Bettola

“I’d much rather eat pasta and drink wine than be a size zero.”                                            —Sophia Loren   I’m with Sophia. Why not start your pasta…

It’s a pizza!

It’s a pizza!

This, quite deservedly, is King Arthur Flour’s recipe of the year. It is a wonderful puffy deep-dish pizza you can make in your cast-iron skillet. Easy-peasy, by the way. Here is the recipe.     It’s a pizza! Save Recipe Print Recipe My Recipes My…

Carpe Diem and Pass the Chiles: Spicy Spinach, Bean and Pasta Soup

Carpe Diem and Pass the Chiles: Spicy Spinach, Bean and Pasta Soup

  “Ask not (’tis forbidden knowledge), what our destined term of years, Mine and yours; nor scan the tables of your Babylonish seers. Better far to bear the future, my Leuconoe, like the past, Whether Jove has many winters yet to give, or this our…