How do I love this recipe? Let me count the ways: 1. It’s delicious. 2. The oats serve as a lovely foil to the fresh fruit you toss on top. 3. Cooked this way, steel-cut oats have a mostly creamy texture with a little pleasant chew. I’ve tried steel-cut oats cooked according to directions on…
Category: Food Philosophy
Apple Butter
I didn’t go to the Hillcrest Farmers’ Market this morning with the intention of buying apples to make apple butter. I was actually on a futile hunt for the elusive kouign amann pastry made by Mylo Coffee Company. (They sold out long before I got there.) But a trip to a farmers’ market, even in…
Stir-fried Chicken
Macy hopes gravity will prevail. ♦ ♦ ♦ You’re going to want to cook this on your next bad day. I did. I was glad this recipe was in my arsenal last week, because good food shared with loved ones can take the sting out of most bad days. This chicken dish is delicious and requires little thinking,…
Sausage Rolls
Regiments of Sausage Rolls, ready for the oven ♦ ♦ ♦ I don’t like surprises. I do like apple pies. My husband is an avowed, unrepentant, sour-face-making apple-hater, so, to avoid the calorie intake involved in eating an entire apple pie by myself, I satisfy my apple pie craving with a weekly purchase of the single-serving version…
Turkey Day Prep
This book is a great guide, especially if you read it before Thanksgiving. ♦ ♦ ♦ Some thoughts on Thanksgiving before I head to the grocery store with my massive shopping list two days before the U.S. Kitchen Olympics, along with all the other hordes of cooks who should’ve planned better. Do as I say, not as…
Jack o’ Lantern Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies are not just for Christmas, although this dough is my go-to during the ho-ho-holidays. Let’s let pumpkins steal a little sparkle from the yuletide for a change, shall we? Halloween deserves its own day. Yet, just getting to Halloween items in stores requires wading through acres of fake pine swags and elf statuary…
Clint’s Mustard
25-Across: I got that one right. Our ailing Lhasa Apso had a vet appointment on Friday morning. I slept poorly the night before, finally falling into a chasm of vivid dreams just before dawn. I awoke with only a little time to brush teeth and dress before Macy and I had to leave the house….
A Walk with Kai (or, How a Siberian Husky Depantsed Me in Front of the Plate Glass Windows at McDonald’s)
Like most bad ideas, this one seemed reasonable at first. Kai, a young, rambunctious husky, needed his daily walk. I, a middle-aged, sedentary human, needed to walk him, but I also needed some motivation. Frankly, an hour spent being catapulted between every mailbox, street sign, and hydrant in the neighborhood isn’t as much fun as…
Peach Jam
I’m on my hands and knees on the concrete floor of my garage with 17 peach pits and a hammer. I have already accidentally bludgeoned the whorled imprint of a peach pit into my favorite maple cutting board, which hacks me off and makes relocating this project from the kitchen a necessity. As I smash…
I have fava beans. I have Chianti. I just need an entree.
My favorite fancy food store stocked fresh fava beans this week. I’ve never tasted them, so, in the spirit of cooking adventure, I picked up a package, along with some other groceries. At the checkstand, the woman ringing up my order examined the curiously large and lumpy pods and commented about the movie that made…
Cookbook Wall 