Easter by far has the greatest confections. Cadbury’s Creme Eggs with sugary sweet fondant center– love them! Peeps, I gladly gobble up, the more stale the better. And Reese’s peanut butter eggs– bring them on, I am an equal opportunity sweet treat fanatic. Why is it that ordinary candy tastes all the more sweet when […]

My mother lived for the first part of her life in South Dakota. Eventually, the disparity in the weather– summers that were sweltering, and winters that were frost-bitingly cold– became too much for my grandparents to put up with, and they moved with their four little girls to sunny California. Of course the weather did […]

Borscht, that often cold, Eastern European, potato-laden, crimson soup– it’s not one of my favorites. I love soup, and I love potatoes, and beets are my BFF (best friends forever), but all simmered together, eehhh… However, looking through the SF paper last week, the food section of course, I saw a recipe for an altogether […]

I love Thai food. The interplay of unique flavors, the balance between salty and sweet, the clean palate, all make up entirely new taste combinations. I recently picked up Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s brilliant book, Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Trip Through Southeast Asia. This enormous book is filled with both tales of […]

Never did I think that words like limp and wilted would describe something so utterly delightful. These adjectives call to mind a soggy salad, vegetables left too long in the refrigerator, or even overcooked spaghetti noodles. But they also describe, quite aptly I might say, a simple, unadorned celebration of a new way to prepare […]

For any of my long time readers, perhaps you remember my late summer trip to LA. Bagels were eaten, stars were spotted, and I even took a trip through the greater LA area, in search of programmatic architecture. Fun was had by all (well, maybe just me). This morning while doing a bit of research […]

There is just something about homemade yeast bread. The earthy, slightly sweet smell eminating from a lump of dough, as it gradually warms and rises on your kitchen counter, there is nothing homier. For all of my waxing poetic about the miraculous discoveries of yeast products, let me put out the disclaimer that I am […]

Beans can be perfectly bourgie! I was so entranced by my earlier bean discovery, I decided that beans were it for me, and that more of this perfect legume should be incorporated into my diet. So, flipping through Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, I stumbled upon a recipe for Mashed Fava Beans and Greens, that […]

In my youth, I always avoided garbanzo beans. Clammy and peaked, resting in some avocado colored, melmac bowl, next to the pickled beets, and the rosy kidney beans at salad bar, they were always so slippery and unappealing. But I have grown, and my tastes have changed. While I can’t say that I now love […]

Jasmine, basmati, brown, California long grain– I love them all. The staple of so many diets around the world, rice is a wonderful side dish alternative. But if you are anything like me, you always make a bit to much of the grain to suffice one meal, so into the refrigerator it goes. Sure the […]