Food, Photography and Bon Mots
Today’s plat du jour on my table is ratatouille, a classic French vegetable stew that is a specialty of cooks in Provence and Nice. Apparently, a lot of other Mediterranean countries claim some version of this dish, too, so you may have encountered ratatouille under…
This healthy Middle Eastern soup is wonderful. It’s spicy–flavored with a robust harissa paste. It’s full of flavorful and protein-rich Rancho Gordo Marcella white beans. It’s filled with good-for-you greens. It’s just what you need to warm your soul–whether you are caught in…
I’m late to the party. (What’s new? I know.) To be honest, I didn’t even know I liked soft polenta, but it is pretty wonderful, particularly mixed with generous amounts of butter and grated asiago (or parmesan) cheese. In this dish, the polenta is topped…
“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…
Raise your hands if you don’t like baked beans. Nobody? I thought so. This baked bean recipe has it all. It shines with the best beans you can buy but it is also great with plain Jane canned beans. (I used Rancho Gordo…
I’m enjoying a fair amount of Middle Eastern/North African cooking of late. I love the bold flavors and the high-intensity colors of the dishes from that region. Brings back good memories, too. When the world was a gentler place, my husband and I did a…
Mark Twain wrote that “A cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.” Funny. Think about it. Cauliflower: B.A., M.A., Ph.D.–and that is just one of those plain vanilla white cauliflowers. Who even knows how many degrees one of those splendid romanesco cauliflowers…
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…
This week’s farmers’ market had the most beautiful grape tomatoes in the history of the world. Impulsively, I bought three baskets. Whoa! What does one person (and a small sweet dog) do with three baskets of ripe tomatoes? So, this morning I bucked myself up…
Everyone loves potato salad. Right? Add a dash of Irish heritage and you move right past love to a near obsession. That would be me. True. I haven’t taken the Ancestry.com DNA test. (I’m waiting for that proverbial Irish bargain sale.) Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure…
