Cheese Biscuits
Laurie Colwin calls biscuits “the utility infielder of the culinary world.” As nobody knows less about sports than I do, I take this to mean their virtues are many: taste, simplicity, ease of preparation. You need neither specialty equipment nor fancy ingredients to bake these. You can make them savory, as…
Strawberry Brownie Bars
You know, I am not really very “dessert”. Lulu Peyraud, Lulu’s Provencal Table Twenty-one blog posts into this misadventure and only now am I offering a sweet recipe–clearly I’m not really very dessert, either. This wasn’t always so. As a bright young thing, I loved sweets. A life…
Jook
“You need to go to the ER,” John said. Last Thursday night my temperature soared from its normal 97 degrees to 100.7. “Let’s stay here.” I said through chattering teeth. John doesn’t drive anymore. Going to the ER would mean driving myself, an unthinkable effort. Swallowing aspirin, I wrapped myself…
Fancying up Fish
For years I avoided both cooking or eating fish, making exceptions for shellfish or sushi, and those only in restaurants. Then I acquired an extremely skinny, fish-loving boyfriend, only to go ahead and marry him. Marriage meant better glassware, matching plates, and legal status. It did nothing for my piscatory…
The IK Basic Burger
Restaurant menus offering hamburgers with overly fancy toppings or exotic fillings make me extremely nervous. No, I don’t want artisanal French cheese, hand-foraged field mushrooms, or Iberian ham atop my burger. Tapenade doesn’t belong inside a burger, though I once followed a misguided recipe calling for just such a combination. …
Japanese Rice Bowl
When I moved to California in 1985, it was rather like being dropped on Mars. Everything–the landscape, the weather, even the English people spoke–was different. I wandered around in a state of perpetual culture shock. The food was different, too. I’d never seen, much less tasted, authentic Chinese, Mexican, or Vietnamese…
Orzo Lunch for those who Labor
Spend the briefest amount of time amongst wheelchair users and listen as the conversation rapidly turns toward bathroom use. How, when, and where are all lively topics when you cannot walk into a restroom and use the facilities as architecturally intended. A close second to bathroom use is personal cleanliness…
Hot Pepper Sauce: A Ghost Recipe
All cooks save recipes. It can be a peculiar pastime. For every two dozen recipes stuffed into a folder or box or computerized whatnot, one might slide into regular rotation. And that recipe often ends up so altered over time–the onions becoming scallions, the tomato sauce morphing into paste, the…
Unbarbecued Pork Tenderloin
Originally this recipe was titled “Pork Tenderloin a la clueless Juive”–that is, pork tenderloin a la clueless Jew–but I worried about offending people, even if the clueless Jew in question is yours truly. When John and I took up housekeeping together, nay these many years ago, he humbly asked if…
A little Fall eye candy…
Short post today….fall, courtesy of flowers and fruits. Food, as in unbarbecued pork, to within the next couple days. Thank you for being here.
