Love is a glorious thing, but chocolate is my favorite part of Valentine’s Day. Public displays of romance are awkward. And chocolate is much less complicated. South of the border, Valentine’s Day goes by the name El Dia del Amor y Amistad, which translates to “The Day of Love and Friendship.” I find this holiday a lot…
Hot Chocolate: Heat Up Valentine’s Day With a Savory, Spicy Mexican Mole Sauce
This Simple but Glorious Winter Greens Salad Is Reason Enough to Venture to the Winter Farmers Market
The farmers market used to be more of a summertime thing. When the landscape turns brown and white, our thoughts don’t rush off to the next farmers market. But don’t sleep on—or through—the winter market. The colors of fresh veggies seem all the more vibrant against the grim backdrop of winter, and the flavors are…
Squash Your Breakfast
I would have been OK with it if they were stealing our squash to feed their families, but that wasn’t the case. One of the thieves had a Buttercup squash and the other what looked like a Sunshine squash, both of the $4 size. With no time to hide the squash as we drove up,…
The Perfect BLT: The 1 Game-Changing Technique You Need to Know
A properly put together BLT is the Bruce Lee of sandwiches. It’s lean and light and full of fight. Just a few strips of bacon is all the meat there is on the bones of this black-belt combination of tomato, onion, mayo, bacon, bread, and lettuce. By using finesse and precision instead of brute force,…
Don’t Make These Stir-fry Mistakes
“It has to be done, so it might as well be done by me,” I told myself as I dumped the thawed package of supermarket potstickers into the vegetable stir-fry. I may be crazy, but it’s a lock that my kids will like it. So how crazy could that be? Trying to make a stir-fry…
Farmstand Fresh: Corn Crepes for a Late Summer Meal
Roadside farmstands are making a comeback. They have been around forever, more common in some places than in others. Growing up in New England, I saw a lot of self-serve apple stands, but they never provided anything close to one-stop shopping. Today, some of the farmstands where I live are getting pretty close. From a…
The Season of (Getting Rid of) Zucchini
If you’ve been here long enough, you know the routine. Winter gives way to spring, finally, which is followed gently by summer, which glides gently into the season of getting rid of zucchini. During those tense few weeks, neighbors and even strangers are afraid to make eye contact, lest a zucchini gets tossed, like some…
Chamoy Is the Sweet, Sour, Salty, Spicy Mexican Condiment You Need to Know
As Mexican condiments go, salsa and guacamole get most of the attention. But chamoy, lesser-known in the north, might be more important. This fruit-based sauce is sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and muy picante, all at once, a complete flavor that goes with everything. It embodies a certain boldness that’s common in Mexican food. Guided by tradition…
An Abnormally Delicious Summer Pasta
There’s nothing normal about alla Norma, a Sicilian way of serving pasta smothered in an eggplant tomato sauce. If you enjoy ratatouille, imam bayildi, eggplant Parmesan, or any other eggplant-and-tomato dish, you probably understand that they form a special combination. Although the resemblance may not be obvious at first, the two fruits are close relatives,…
The Morels Have Stories
At the farmers markets of the West, it’s common to find morel mushrooms for sale in little baskets. They look gnomish, with honeycomb-like caps atop stubby stalks, each individual with a slightly different shape and posture. Wild to the core, this stubborn species of fungus has refused all efforts at domestication and only grows where it…
-
Recent Posts
-
Archives
- May 2025
- April 2025
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- September 2013
- July 2013
- March 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- December 1
-
Meta