Beef and Pork

  Just as some people marvel at flour, water, and yeast becoming bread, I never cease to be amazed at the transformation that occurs when cabbage, some sort of pork product, and fat encounter a pot, low heat, and time. This decidedly dour vegetable softens into tenderness, its fumes turn…

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Pot Au Feu revisited

January 5, 2021

Pot-au-feu is one of the big classics. As such, it never goes out of style. I’ve yet to hear of attempts to veganize it, keto it, or substitute cauliflower for the meats and call it “clean” (this is not a suggestion. Food is not dirty unless you drop it on…

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Stuffed Cabbage

November 23, 2020

Stuffed cabbage exists in numerous cuisines, but the French have turned this abstemious dish into a delicacy. Recipes for chou farci range from the simple pork-wrapped parcels in Lulu’s Provencal Table to Goose Fat And Garlic’s outrageously rich recipe calling for ham, heavy cream, and cheese. Then there are miques:…

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As the world grows increasingly disorderly, I find myself seeking refuge in the past. By “the past,” I mean cookbooks. I don’t have a time machine. Let us turn to Britain between the wars. Built during World War II, but not in Britain. Shot several years ago. — It is…

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So, yeah, it’s been entirely too long. I have committed the blogger’s cardinal sin of not posting. I could give all the reasons, but you read the news, don’t you? And the news, it’s very bad. Read it enough, and you will become depressed. Seriously depressed. And if you are…

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Social media is awash in titles like the above. They’re decidedly grim, but no sense messing around, is there? Unrelated pretty picture. I’m sorry if you’re sick of these kinds of posts. Who could blame you? By now you’re probably sick of just about everything. You long to go outside….

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We’re very fond of oxtail at the IK. Evidently lots of other people are, too, because when I made it a few weeks ago, and did the instagram thing, the post got lots of likes. Which is extremely important these days, right? Well, not really, what with Australia in flames…

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Cabbage Soup

December 30, 2019

Pity the poor cabbage. It gets a bad rap. Too many people are scarred by bad cabbage experiences: boiled beyond recognition….or the cabbage soup diet. Lacking illustrative photos of overboiled cabbage or the soup diet, I give you San Francisco’s Union Square. More accurately, a street near Union Square. Handled…

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It’s October. The season of pumpkin spice is upon us.  Everywhere you go, pumpkin spice: pies, cakes, cookies. Pumpkin spice candles, therapeutic oils, scented sprays. Okay, maybe not everywhere. My local office supply store has no pumpkin spice in sight. They’re closing October 18th to make way for a high-rise…

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Well, there’s a mouthful of a recipe title after a silent summer. And what a summer it’s been. Your hostess has spent her summer–nay, all year–contending with crippling back pain. Said pain makes standing for long peroids challenging. Meaning blogging–recipe testing, photographing, cooking–is also challenging. Many were the false starts,…

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