Vegetables

I know, I know, the nineties called. They want their recipe back. Stay with me. We all remember–at least, those of us old enough to recall such things–the classic cheese/butter/sour cream/bacon versions of the stuffed baked potato. Delicious they are. But the world, to quote Stephen King out of context,…

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It is difficult to read a recipe title like “skirt steak with tequila, peppers, onion, and lime” and not think “fajitas.” It’s also not hard to think “this is one loong recipe title.” Let’s get the obvious out of the way, shall we? Skirt steak with tequila and friends is…

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Summer Squash Gratin

August 27, 2024

This morning a friend emailed. So, she said, you haven’t updated the blog for a while. Um, yeah. I know. Believe me when I say it wasn’t for lack of effort. Anyway, here we are. And here is a post. — Okay, so summer squash, which for today’s purposes encompasses…

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Fish poached in tomato water sounds pretentiously cheffy. Then again, it’s accurate. If I called it “fish poached in tomato juice” you might envision fish cooked in bloody mary mix, or worse. So fish poached in tomato water it is. Tomato water entered my culinary life via canning. Tomatoes are…

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Hot weather foods

June 25, 2024

As I write, much of the Eastern United States is smothering beneath what climate experts call a “heat dome.” Rather than go into technicalities, know that heat dome basically means it’s extremely hot, with little relief in sight. Atop this, wildfires are burning in New Mexico and parts of California….

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Pasta with chicken, greens, and chickpeas is a mouthful, literally and figuratively. It’s also lacking in originality. But pasta with chicken, greens, and chickpeas compensates for its unwieldy name and creative lack with flavor and lots of fiber, our new best friend chez IK. The ingredients for pasta with chicken…

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Artichoke Risotto

April 7, 2024

  In Chez Panisse Cooking, Paul Bertolli prepares artichokes by boiling them whole, then separating the hearts from the leaves. He-or, more likely, a sous chef–then scrapes the “meat” from each individual artichoke leaf, mixing it with chopped shallot, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. The resulting artichoke mush may…

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Spinach and Potato Tian

March 16, 2024

Elizabeth David, writing in Is There A Nutmeg In The House, describes a tian as “an open earthenware casserole or gratin dish called in the Provencal language a tian….” David goes on to say there is no fixed recipe for a tian beyond using “a certain proportion of freshly cooked…

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Apologies for not posting. Acute tendinitis has limited my ability to work on the computer. — I love feta cheese, but I forget about it. I’ll buy some, wonder why I don’t use it more in my cooking, then forget it for another six months. Here, then, is my latest…

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Chard bundles with chicken and pomegranate molasses hereby join the enormous culinary family known as stuffed vegetables. Anyone inclined to create a family tree of stuffed veg would be well advised to park chard bundles on the cabbage side, near the second cousins. You think I sound nuts? Have you…

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