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Category Archives: Food

Good timing, Burger King

Saturday, April 6, 2019

About a month ago, when the Green New Deal was at the top of everyone’s news feeds, right-wingers market-tested a new 2020 theme for scaring the deplorables: Liberals are coming to take away your hamburgers! As reported by the Washington Post: “They want to take your pickup truck. They want to rebuild your home. They […]

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Grilled pumpkin

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

The smallest of my little pumpkins — too small to make a pie or even a pot of pumpkin bisque — grill beautifully. You could grill any winter squash, of course. A Japanese winter squash, kabocha, has an edible skin, I believe. I grilled this pumpkin in the skin and cut off the skin at […]

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Pumpkin lasagna

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Pumpkin lasagna was an all-day job, and I can’t say that it was a great success. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t roll homemade pasta thin enough. And the pumpkin, which was already soft from baking, lacked texture in the lasagna. Still, I’m not going to give up on figuring out ways […]

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Parched peanuts

Friday, March 29, 2019

Did our lean grandparents and great-grandparents eat snacks? I believe they did. What those snacks were, no doubt, varied from region to region. Popcorn, I suspect, is an old commodity. Here in the American South, parched peanuts were a common snack. I have a clear memory from the age of 6 or 7. I was […]

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Rethinking cookware: Back to the Iron Age

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

A vintage copper saucepan, circa 1970, that I recently bought on eBay. It was originally sold by Williams Sonoma and is stamped “Made in France.” It probably was made by Mauviel. I believe the French would call it a “sauteuse evasée,” or flared sauté pan. Last month, I wrote about buying a Lodge cast-iron wok. […]

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2019 Garden: Here we go

Sunday, March 24, 2019

The first garden chore of the year is to clear, and then to burn, last year’s dead weeds. That got done today. The next garden chore of the year is the first tilling. That will get done tomorrow, ahead of a light rain that is due to start about 5 p.m. After that, the next […]

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Eat more mushrooms

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

A stir-fry of Quorn, green pepper, mushrooms, and broccoil Several articles have appeared recently about the benefits of eating mushrooms at least twice a week. Something in the mushrooms apparently wards off cognitive impairment in older people. Here are two of the articles: Science Daily: Eating mushrooms may reduce the risk of cognitive decline New […]

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Improvising Asian sauces

Thursday, March 7, 2019

That’s miso broth in the cup, and fermented black beans in the jar. I have encountered two big challenges in trying to improve my competence with Chinese cuisine: wok cooking and the sauces. Recipes for Chinese dishes may call for one or more of an array of Chinese sauces that some of us have never […]

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Proper stir-fries at home: Is it even possible?

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Tofu, fried rice, and mixed vegetables Stir-frying is such a good way to make low-carb suppers that, for months now, I’ve been having stir-fries for supper three and even four days a week. I had been using a large nonstick skillet, with heat much lower than professional Asian cooks use. I’ve gotten very good at […]

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Buckwheat

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Buckwheat hotcakes with blueberries (from frozen) and maple syrup The blackness of buckwheat hotcakes is so shocking that you’d think they couldn’t possibly be good. Yet the flavor is mild — almost delicate — and nutty. Buckwheat is not a relative of wheat. In fact, according to the Wikipedia article, it’s not even a grain, […]

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