From Scratch

So one day, while Mr. Knife Skills was chopping veggies into a fine dice for bolognese sauce, he suggested I post about what he called “guy food.” I turned off the processor, which was chopping beef without my help, certain the noise had affected my hearing. “Guy food?” Without looking up he said, “Yes. Food for […]

From last night. Thank you! As the Brits would say, I’m gobsmacked.

Long before we became a nation of millions who can name the American Idol finalists but can not name their members of Congress, we had an image problem in much of the world. We still do. And deservedly so. It’s our own damn fault and I can’t begin to explain certain aspects of our culture. On […]

A military school Cadet, 21 years old and soon to become an Army Lieutenant, said after two former students from his school, Norwich Academy in Northfield VT, were killed in Iraq:
It’s kind of like Wow, there really is a war out there.
Wow indeed. The story is here.

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Pity the poor lemon. Linguistically, that is. When a car gives you trouble from day one, it’s a….? Look up “lemony” in the Encarta thesaurus and you find, not much except Antonym: sweet. And how many times have I read variations of “lemon” to describe a sourpuss? 
Well, I love lemons. I think they’re delicious and so […]

Yes, that’s Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd of CT getting a cut, not in a salon or a stylist’s chair, but in a plain old barber’s chair in Manchester, NH. Specifically, he was was at Dude’s Barber Shop where Francis “Spike” Smith ensured Dodd remained campaign-trail-ready. Message? Dodd might not have a snowball’s chance of winning the primary, but don’t […]

Imagine my surprise to learn From Scratch has been chosen for a Thinking Blogger Award. The honor comes from Breakdown in the Fast Lane, one of my favorites in the blogosphere, thought-provoking and funny. Thank you!
The award brings with it a “spread the joy” request to share, by tagging five other blogs — those which make […]

I love pressure cooking, but I used to be afraid of it. Like many Americans I grew up on stories, real or apocryphal, of beef stew a la ceiling. But the new-generation pressure cookers have three levels of progressive safety features (if you reach the third, the gasket will simply melt) and the programmable, electric […]

Carl Bernstein’s biography of Hillary Clinton will be published June 19. (edit: Pub date is now June 5, see here.) This is, in my opinion, an important book. His publisher, Knopf, says A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton will have an initial press run of 350,000 copies, an unusually high number, indicating expectations […]

When I was a kid, there was a great commercial for a cat food, maybe Fancy Feast, that featured a matriarchal woman who said, in all her snooty glory, “Dogs are dogs and birds are birds, but cats are people.” I think they all are, and if your family includes fur or feather babies, you probably […]

Columbia University announced the Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, with the Editorial Cartooning award going to Walt Handelsman of Newsday. It’s his second Pulitzer; he won the first in 1997 at the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Handelsman has embraced technology with his Walt Tunes, clever animated gems. You’ll find a collection of them here – my favorite is The Blame Game […]

Lent is long gone, but I don’t limit my meatless days to Lenten Fridays. I try for two meatless days each week, and fish is on the menu at least one of those days. Tonight I’m trying a new curried tuna recipe, but about twice a month I make this favorite. Not only is it meatless, […]

The store chain, with 158 supermarkets in five states, is believed to be the first grocery retailer to have developed such a comprehensive assessment program, and it is trying to have its food-rating algorithm patented.
The Hannaford supermarket chain made the front page of the New York Times New England edition last November in a story about […]

Republican John McCain is scheduled to make a formal announcement of his candidacy for the White House on April 25 during appearances in Portsmouth and Manchester, NH.

Love her, hate her or somewhere in between, if you’ve seen Rachael Ray, you know she speaks in her own language. It’s so extensive, some fun folks at a Website called slobak.com have put together a little drinking game that even some fans find funny. I’d be snockered by the first commercial.
Frankly, I can’t take seriously […]