Awhile back I bought this book. At the time, it just seemed like the right thing to do. I was at The Strand, which in my opinion, does not have 18 miles of books. It seems to me they might have 1 mile of books, and what makes up the other 17 miles are repeats […]

At the market last week, I just about stopped dead in my tracks. There each one was, assembled in such close proximity that I almost couldn’t bear it. Check out the loveliness of the following: Fuyu persimmons, Satsuma mandarins, and Belgian endive. If I were Martha Stewart, hostess extraordinaire, queen of all good things, CEO […]

Farewell dear, sweet corn. Goodbye bright melon salads, see you next year. And don’t think I have forgotten about you smooth, seedy summer squash. I’ll pick you all up next June, when the weather’s warm, and tank tops beckon my shoulders out into the sunshine. For now, there are new foods churning their way into […]

Ho-hum and La-dee-dah… I have been uninspired lately. Hey, it happens to the best of us (at least that is what I keep telling myself). Maybe it has been this unseasonably warm weather. This August-like heat and humidity in October (yes, October!) has me all confused. Do I grill a piece of fish and just […]

I’m usually not the biggest pepper fan, roasted they can become too slick and flimsy, and raw sometimes they are simply too pungent. But when I spotted these little peppers, sold for $1 a bag on a street near work, I grew nostalgic. So humor me while I take you on a journey through Nosheteria […]

Hello?Hello, is anyone out there?Oh, there you are, tanned shoulders, sun-kissed locks, glaring right back at me through your monitor screen.I know.I have been remiss.But you know how it is dear reader; sometimes life just gets in the way.But I am back. Well, after returning from my second wedding in California this summer, I think […]

And then there was buttermilk. But this wasn’t the staunchly tangy stuff that you buy in a carton for making waffles, and then sits in the recesses of your refrigerator, separating, growing more sour, until the carton begins to emit a peculiar odor. No, this buttermilk was pleasingly watery, ever so mild, with just a […]

Sometimes you just make those salads that sound so good. With summery ingredients like juicy tomatoes and crisp cucumbers, bits of torn, aromatic basil, and my favorite, slithery, salty anchovies, it should be great. You follow the recipe almost to the T, and you know what? It just falls flat– not on its face but […]

I have a lot of cookbooks, not more than I should, but enough that each box made Brian curse my not-so-little collection as we moved into our fourth floor walk-up last summer. Some of the books are well-loved, splattered with a sauce from page 84, a gooey drip of batter from page 128, and a […]

Well, I’m back from California. But I suppose that I should have told you that I was going upon leaving. The first of two trips back this summer, aaahh, it is wedding season! Bring on the bouquets; bring on the bridesmaids; and bring on the catered food. Northern California was actually cold when we arrived, […]