When moving away from the staples in my limited repertoir, I am usually trying to replicate something I’ve had somewhere, something I’ve seen that I’ve not had but would like to try, or just a technique I’d like to perfect. Those backstories will be here, with the hope that you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing and sharing them.
When Siri suggests!
I think we all have suspicions in this digital age that we’re being watched and listened to most of the hours of days. When you become jaded to the extent you think this might not be true, invariably something pops up to reinforce the paranoia. Several days ago my daughter gave me some roasted beets…
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One potato,…
…two potato, three potato, four!!! Potatoes sit high on my list of comfort foods; no matter how you fix them, they’re just good. And usually quite easy to prepare. Recently, I ran across a recipe calling for leftover mashed potatoes. I didn’t have any, so made a small, fresh batch, and put them in the…
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Easy, cheesy!!!
Somewhat in contrast to the tart sweetness of the Nantucket Pie of a few days back is the warm comfort of another of my fall/winter favorites, cheese wafers. I say cheese wafers as if the plural applies only to the number of wafers made at any one time, but this recipe is so simple, and…
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Pie to die for!
As much as I like cranberries, and as much as I like pecans, I can’t believe that it took me until now to be introduced to Nantucket Pie. Thank you, Instagram!!! From all I can find, Nantucket Pie has been a thing in New England for ages. I had to research to learn that yes,…
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A side trip to Scotland!
I had every intention of continuing with my Sicilian culinary experiences and discoveries, but I sat down to watch the Great British Bake Off. My intention was to catch their 2025 New Years bake off, as those usually wrap in a single episode. Ever hear of Hogmanay? Well, neither had I. It’s the Scottish equivalent…
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Savoring Sicily
It’s no secret that The Chopping Block in Chicago is my favorite cooking school. A sponsored cultural and culinary adventure in Tuscany was swept aside by COVID; a similar opportunity in Sicily was a no-brainer, and something never to be forgotten. One of the things I like most about cooking is to challenge myself to…
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Bland in name only!
If journaling works, I’m getting ready to find out! After 16 days of travel to London, Sicily, and Cape Cod, I was looking forward to the joy of sharing culinary discovers, and the adventure of trying to replicate my favorites. Perhaps it was visiting ancient Greek and Roman amphitheaters that my plans were cursed by…
Keep readingWhat would you change about modern society? A return to civility. For too long, now, people have sought to define society by what they can do, and in the process have lost all concept of what they should do. Yes, you can drop f-bombs, but should you? Yes, you can champion your right to act…
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Texas on my table!
When a neighbor blesses you with a cantaloupe, fresh from Pecos, Texas, the floodgates of memory and possibility open wide. I’m guessing it was in the 1960’s that my wife’s grandparents educated me to the sterling character of Pecos cantaloupes. I’ve always liked cantaloupe, and knowing the source of some of the best just added…
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Kitchen Alchemy
This post is for everyone who ever had, or wanted, a chemistry set. It’s not about turning lead into gold, but it is about turning raspberries into caviar, and other ‘magical’ transformations. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice can move over!!! Caviar: To be honest, what we’re talking about here isn’t the fish roe that started it all.…
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Having your cake…
Every so often I get on a cake kick, and I had some sliced almonds I needed to use, so… Back in the day, one of the features of Neiman-Marcus’ flagship location in downtown Dallas was its bakeshop, located on Commerce Street and accessed from the street, not through the store. It’s hard to imagine…
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Memories!
It’s a rather safe assumption, I feel, that all of us have memories associated with food, whether because of a relation to the preparer (mother, grandmother, the family grill-master, etc), an introduction to something new (or something you didn’t like or that made you sick, for that matter), or the situation in which it was…
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Flat as a pancake!
While writing this, I’m guessing that all of us, at some point, have had a craving for pancakes, many times tied to a fond memory. For me they are pretty much at the top of the “sometimes you just gotta” list of comfort foods. And while pancakes themselves aren’t noted for a lot of regional…
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Orange you glad?
Citrus always seems abundant in the grocery store, and, with its bright colors and its bright taste, does its part to bring sunshine to winter days. Just the other day I saw a recipe for a flourless chocolate-orange cake, and as I find the combination of chocolate and orange among my favorites, had to try…
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Case study!
One of the pleasures of watching something like “The Great British Bake Off” is learning that in baking, as in Shakespeare, “a rose by any other name” is part of the learning process. The differences in nomenclature and pronunciation always add to the enjoyment. Aubergine is eggplant, corgette is zucchini, and over there it’s shal-LOT,…
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Wrap, and unwrap!
Something got into me after Thanksgiving, and, for whatever reason I started spending more time than just meal prep in the kitchen. Rather than do the more customary ‘year in review’, let me share with you how I wrapped up 2024, and unwrapped 2025. I’ve updated the recipes on “never 2 old to start cooking”,…
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When life hands you bananas,…
With four bananas on hand, starting to get those streaks in the peel that say “ripe and ready”, and with the prospects of an afternoon in which hanging around home is the agenda, well – banana nut bread!!! There’s just something warm and comforting about banana nut bread, not to mention that it’s easy to…
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Cremeux to the top!
Cutting through the somewhat theatrical nature of so many online cooking demonstrations, I am almost universally intrigued to learn new techniques and, being the reason something attracts me in the first place, new dishes or concoctions. Cremeux is an interesting combo of both a new (to me) technique, and learning the properties of its ingredients…
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Life’s certainties.
We’ve all heard it said that few things – taxes, etc. – are certain in life. To whatever list you might have, you can safely add that if a recipe says ‘butter pecan’, yours truly is going to take the bait and give it a try. When I saw a Butter Pecan Cookie recipe by…
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New, and then old!
Growing up in Mississippi, at least in our family, blueberries were not a thing. It was strawberries for strawberry shortcake, and cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and Christmas (who can forget the sound of Ocean Spray sliding out of the can onto the serving dish). Not long ago, and for sure in the present, I had…
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On a roll!!!
It’s not often that the stars align when you have the itch to try something new, but just the other day, with some lemons that needed to be put use staring at me, up popped what seemed to be a relatively do-able recipe for a lemon cream roll cake. I’ve wanted to try a jelly…
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If you like to cook,…
…you know that there are days when the joy of it just takes over. And when it’s hot outside, but cool inside, and Summer’s bounty is calling, well, it just doesn’t get any better. I follow a guy on Instagram who lives on a farm in Iowa; he’s in his grandmother’s house, and from the…
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“Shall I compare thee…
…to a summer’s day?” I sincerely doubt that Shakespeare had a blog post highlighting lemons as inspiration for his Sonnet 18. However, I can assure you that my inspiration for this post is how lemon allows us to capture the brightness of a summer’s day, even when “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines”.…
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Going coastal!!!
With family and friends spending a delightful weekend at the southern part of Cape Cod, and in particular exploring the work and wonders of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (see NOTES), the thought of coastal dining kept washing in. I’ve posted about crab cakes before (here), but that was a year ago, so as I…
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Put summer in its plate!
To my way of thinking, one of the best ways to enjoy summer, while avoiding the heat, is to bring the colors and produce of summer into the kitchen, using them to make dishes that don’t generate a lot of heat in the preparation. Salads come to mind most readily, and I was delighted to…
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never 2 old 2 start cooking 