Baked Ricotta
My husband plays a sport called power soccer. This is soccer for those in power wheelchairs: a metal object called a guard, resembling the grille on a Toyota Landrover, is screwed to the front the wheelchair. Players use the guard to hit a regulation power soccer ball either head-on or…
Italian Meat Loaf
What makes this meat loaf Italian? I honestly haven’t a clue. But the recipe, which comes from Tamasin Day-Lewis’s Supper For A Song, is one I’ve made countless times. By its nature variable, this is a kitchen-sink meatloaf: in the recipe headnote, Day-Lewis says one should “inspect your fridge for…
Paula Wolfert’s Autumn Squash Soup
You’d think we Californians would have little call for soup. Enter fog. When not suffering unseasonable ninety-degree heat, Northern California often shelters beneath thick layers of the stuff. Said fog is often accompanied by a uniquely bone-chilling damp. While not precisely cold, neither is it warm. And indeed, as the…
Duck Confit
Given the hugely happy response to cheese biscuits (thank you!), it’s tempting to skip writing about duck. I’m not sure why duck makes people nervous, but it does. Tell people you make confit at home and get funny looks. Here is your intrepid author, reflected in her kitchen window at 7am this…
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…
