I’ve been making this recipe for a long time. It’s a go-to staple for days, especially chilly ones, when I don’t have a lot of time and do have some hearty cooking greens in the crisper. I never called it Italian Wedding Soup, though. It didn’t really have a name; I’d just call it soup…
French Breakfast Radish Sandwich with Butter and Salt
For most of my life, I did not like radishes. I found them too harsh, almost acrid. I don’t know if my change of heart comes from grown-up taste buds or from access to better radishes, but I do know that it’s this simple recipe that changed my mind. A couple of years ago, I…
The Essence of Summer: Steamed Corn Custard
Driving home the other day I saw a lovely sight: a dusty red truck parked in an empty lot next to a gas station. The truck was swathed with a yellow cloth banner reading “Fresh Moriarty Sweet Corn.” I missed the turn for the lot, and confess that I made some rather foolish driving maneuvers…
Linguine with Eggplant Parmesan Sauce
For the food-obsessed, this is one of the most exciting times of year. After winter whittled our produce options down to hairy carrots, pale cabbages, and shriveled garlic, spring teased us with promise — but mostly provided an exhaustingly constant supply of greens and the here-and-gone quicksilver magic of fresh berries. But now we’re at…
Quick and Easy Refrigerator Pickles
After much dawdling trying to find the original, I have finally purchased a new power cord for my old digital camera. Though it’s ten years old and has fewer megapixels, this chunky old Sony has a beautiful Carl Zeiss lens and a lot more manual control than my newer, more portable Casio Exilim. I was…
Grilled Romaine Cobb Salad
I’ve been trying to recall where I first ate grilled romaine. I remember the salad itself, and my surprise and delight at the preparation. It was a Caesar salad, bright with lemon and smoky from the grill, a little shriveled and blackened on the ends. I think it was at the brilliant – and sadly…
Roasted Asparagus
For years, I always cooked asparagus the same way – steamed in a covered saute pan with a little water. It is delicious that way, very simple and pure tasting. But then I tried roasting it, and I haven’t looked back. It’s utterly simple and frees up space on the stovetop (which is always at…
Thai Tomato Soup
On Saturday I helped to host a meeting, one of a series that has been going on for a while. They’re quarterly, and long, so we decided to include lunch. It was a fantastic decision. People love to be fed – especially real, homemade food. To easily accommodate a varying number of participants, we usually…
Moo Shu Pork with Vegetables
Cravings often come on hard and fast. Sometimes you don’t even know where they came from. I know right where last week’s craving for mu shu pork came from, though; I opened my bag of extras from the Los Poblanos CSA and spotted the package of Leona’s tortillas from Chimayo, NM. Something about their nonuniform shape,…
Spanakopasta: Spaghetti with Spinach and Feta
Last week I bought the new, revised edition of How to Cook Everything. I had actually forgotten there was a revision until I ordered it – I just think that once your paperback copy of a book has fallen into three or more pieces, it’s time to invest in the hardcover. I was reading the…