Plum Galette
From Dictionary.com Goat Rodeo: a slang term for something going totally, unbelievably, disastrously wrong, and there’s nothing left to do but to sit back and watch the trainwreck. — Plum galette came about the way most of my recipes do: by accident. I had a glut of pluots…
Pork Chops with Italian Butter Beans
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…
Bagels
[Editor’s note, 11/24/21: This post was written before Boichik Bagels came to town. It is now possible to procure a decent bagel in Northern California. Corned beef? Not so much. But we no longer need to make bagels at home.] I know what you’re thinking. Bagels? At home? What for?…
Brown Sugar Chicken Thighs with Herbed Pasta
According to my kitchen notebook, I recently prepared a version of Diana Henry’s Israeli Chicken with Mograbieh, Harissa-Grilled peaches, and Mint. I write “recently” because the entry is undated. There is a helpful note: “winner! adding lemon after cooking a yes!” The lemon was added afterward because, um, I’d forgotten…
Stir-fried chicken livers
It is a sad fact that many people dislike chicken livers. One of those people is my husband, leaving me to consume these morsels alone. There is no photo of me doing this. Instead, here’s downtown Berkeley, taken last week. Granted, unrelated to chicken livers, but much nicer looking. On…
Flank Steak with tamarind, honey, garlic and red wine
2/6/25 Recipe edited to fix errors in measurements. Better late than never. — 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…
Cooking ahead
Last month, while waiting to get a corticosteroid shot in my spine, I went on a major cooking/baking/freezing jag, much of it between three and six am. Cooking was a way of maintaining some control, however tenuous. The recipes below offered succor both before the injection and afterward, when your…
Seafood Rillettes
Sometimes a recipe comes to you numerous times before you think to make it. Such was the case with seafood rillettes. As a nervous fish cook and somebody whose relationship to canned fish began and ended with tuna, seafood rillettes weren’t on my radar. Aiming for the casual indoor picnic…
Thai-Style Stuffed Cucumbers
Thai cookbooks abound in recipes for geng jeut mara yord sai, or pork-stuffed bitter melon soups. “Soups,” plural, as this recipe has countless variations. Some cooks stuff cucumber instead of bitter melon; others abandon the vegetable container in favor of squid. Yet another variation of geng jeut mara yord sai abandons…
Thai Shrimp Paste
Today’s recipe, for Thai Shrimp Paste, flouts a Major Food Blog Rule: Thou Shalt Not Post a Recipe Of Unknown Outcome. The thing is, shrimp paste is a summer project, requiring protracted periods of heat and warmth. Meaning now–May–is the time to get shrimp pasting. (Never mind that I write on…
