Into the Woods

Good-bye garden stir fry with fried barley For the longest time, I had been planning to see if fried barley can compete with fried rice. Yes it can. The chewy texture of barley makes great fried rice. The grains are sturdy and are not at risk of turning to mush when thrown around in the […]

Pimento cheese made from fresh roasted green peppers, served with my homemade borscht I was reflecting today on the history of pimento cheese, which, since my earliest childhood, has been a Southern American favorite. It seemed oddly Mediterranean, because nobody around here has ever grown pimiento peppers, nor does anybody can peppers, as far as […]

⬆︎ Pork roll with Yorkshire pudding, Royal Hotel, Stornaway Traditional Scottish cooking is strangely difficult to find. Many eateries — especially in places that cater to tourists — offer what I call “international tourist cuisine,” which is mostly Mediterranean and is pretty much the same wherever you go. On this year’s trip to Scotland I […]

Fried oysters, French fries, and hushpuppies. The hushpuppies are barely visible, underneath the oysters. If you can’t find any good escape fiction, then how about some escape food instead? Fried oysters should do the trick. I had to make a miserable trip out yesterday afternoon in 95-degree heat. I could have just gone to a […]

It’s a miracle of nature that the best summer drink of all — homemade lemonade — also is some of the best medicine you can get. If you do some Googling and reading on the virtues of lemons, you’ll find plenty of people who swear that lemons can cure arthritis. Surely that’s too good to […]