From Scratch

From grunts to galettes and turnovers to tartlettes, the good folks at Fine Cooking have put together a special feature called Summer Berry Desserts, with a dozen seasonal recipes to enjoy. They had people like me in mind when they wrote, “It’s a truism that berries at the height of their season are best served […]

The origin of hummus can be told in three words: lost to antiquity. It’s been around for thousands of years, in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and parts of India. While the word “hummus” is Arabic for chick pea, the primary ingredient, most of us use the word for the popular dip and spread, which […]

Someone who is just beginning to cook emailed me and asked, rather shyly, if I have a “real” recipe for pork chops, not just a mention of pork brined in a few ingredients, as in yesterday’s rice timbales post. I replied with this recipe, which produces moist and flavorful chops, as long as they’re not overcooked.
Since […]

This is a summer favorite. It’s chilled, it’s lemony-refreshing, it’s pasta and it’s a snap to make. Technically it’s a side dish, but I’ve also eaten it as a main course, adding veggies or protein to it or having it with greens or fruit salad.
When this recipe ran in The New York Times — I believe it […]

Mark Bittman, aka The Minimalist, offers 101 ideas for quick, simple meals in the food section of today’s New York Times. They’re intended to get us in and out the kitchen in about ten minutes, with main courses that often use summer’s bounty and are better than takeout.
Some are expected, such as #12: boil a […]

One of the best surprises is finding an interesting recipe while I’m already at the market. When it turns out to be good enough for the regular rotation and fast enough for any weeknight, I’m thrilled. This delicious, refreshing recipe goes together so quickly the first thing I did was put the water on for the […]

Something about food blogging should have been obvious from the start, but wasn’t: I think about food more than I used to and probably a lot more than you do. So while I was at dinner at an Indian restaurant recently, enjoying my raita, I thought about the no mayo deviled eggs I was working on […]

I enjoy a challenge so when my friend and fellow blogger, linshaolin, (see Breakdown in the Fast Lane in the blogroll) requested some deviled eggs recipes I was happy to give it a try, even though I hate mayonnaise, as I’ve mentioned more than once.
I had two goals: to come up with tasty and satisfying […]

When fresh, sweet corn is available, locally-grown or from warmer states, I make this wonderful side dish over and over. It takes little more time than the five minutes needed for the couscous, a pasta not a grain, to steep. In winter I use frozen corn and it’s almost as good. And when I haven’t got fresh chives, like […]

I love this quote from Julia Child, in Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom:
The perfect vinaigrette is so easy to make that I see no reason whatsoever for bottled dressing.
Neither do I. Not only does home-made vinaigrette taste so much better, it eliminates the chemicals and high fructose corn syrup in most bottled dressings. (Corn syrup is so […]

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 […]

Note: The url in the photo is my old url. I did not swipe the photo. I plastered the url on it because someone did steal it. Sad, really, when you consider it’s not such a good photo. Oh, well..on with the recipe! They taste better than I can make them look in a picture.
Let’s […]