On Canning
A few words on safe canning practices might be useful as we move into spring. Today’s post is an overview, as a comprehensive lesson would be overwhelmingly long. As it is, this post is already too long. Sorry for that. But I had a post on cherry jam all ready to go,…
Criques de Gramat: French Potato Pancakes
This post began innocently enough: what could be bad about potato pancakes with ham and cheese, via Southwest France? Then, being me, I began poking around in my cookbooks for a little historical background, only to have the entire enormous subject known as “Southwest France And The Potato” nearly engulf me….
Vietnamese Chicken Curry
Discuss kitchen equipment with passionate cooks and witness attachment to the most unlikely objects. Laurie Colwin had her cracked Meissen plate, which held any number of solo eggplant concoctions (see “Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant”, Home Cooking). Amanda Hesser has her bone-handled forks. (Cooking for Mr. Latte, The Best Food Writing,…
Soups Without Recipes
There is nothing like soup. It is by its nature eccentric: no two are ever alike, unless of course you get your soup from cans. Laurie Colwin, “Soup”, Home Cooking Even we are exhorted to hoard every leftover scrap of food to craft innovative meals in a thrifty cycle of…
Lemon Cake With Crackly Lemon Sugar Topping
The great thing about this cake are all things you don’t need to make it: fancy equipment, fancy ingredients, baking ability. All that, plus it’s delicious and keeps really well, provided you don’t wolf it down in one sitting. This recipe comes courtesy of Diana Henry’s Plenty, written in 2010, well…
Sinkless Salad (Dinner Chicken Salad)
The Insufficient Kitchen’s 70th post is occasioned by increasing insufficiency after the sink quit late Tuesday afternoon. Our plumber promised to appear Thursday morning. Alas, he called needing to postpone until Friday morning. Confident of my amateur plumbing skills, he talked me under the sink, coaching in the art of garbage disposal maintainance: “Just crank…
Roast Chicken with Radishes and Parsley Sauce
Yesterday I, along with hundreds of others, learned details of my identity and bank account were hacked courtesy of my former employer’s antiquated computer system. They have retained an identity theft protection agency, ostensibly to rescue me–and everyone else–when somebody in Russia or China or wherever this happened tries buying a…
Tortilla Pizzas
In the past month I’ve spent so much time in doctor’s offices that I considered renting a hospital room. Why not cut my commute, save gas, spend maximum time in my favorite staycation destination? Granted, there were drawbacks. Hospitals are amazingly crowded places. It’s kind of like going to a…
Yogurt Flatbread
Back in November, before seeing Nigella Lawson at San Francisco’s Omnivore Books, I ate dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant. The server asked if I wanted rice with my meal. Yes, I did. Astonished, he repeated the question. Yes, I repeated, I’d like rice with my meal. The entree arrived…
Pork Belly With Beans
Over at Gluten Free Girl And The Chef, Shauna James Ahern admits it’s been difficult getting into the holiday spirit. I couldn’t agree more. The past week has seen me writing and discarding countless drafts to that effect. All sounded too whiny, too negative, too miserable. But recent months have seen…