From the monthly archives:

January 2010

Pasta Cooked Like Risotto

January 26, 2010
Pasta Cooked Like Risotto

This method for cooking pasta like risotto has travelled a few miles to get to my kitchen. My version was inspired by a recipe from Patricia Wells at Home in Provence, a favorite in my cookbook collection.  Ms. Wells’ recipe was in turn inspired by a dish she tasted at French chef Alain Ducasse’shotel-restaurant in the Provencal countryside.  [...]

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Please Help

January 19, 2010
Red Hibiscus

“Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does.”  William James.
I was going to write about bread today but I’ve been having trouble concentrating on the subject.  Bread is, as they say, the staff of life.  I can’t find the exact origins of the phrase but it sounds biblical to me.  As I watch a disaster of [...]

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No Resolutions

January 13, 2010
Caribbean pumpkin with lime

Healthy dinner

Just to be perfectly clear, I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions.  I mean, really.  Has anyone ever in the history of New Year’s Resolutions ever followed through on one?  Go to any exercise class at the beginning of January and it’s packed.  It annoys the regulars but they don’t worry overly much because they [...]

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Cool Cake

January 12, 2010
Cool Cake

This is why our kids should be in the kitchen.
Only an 11-year-old could create such a wild, wonderful, fantastic Sputnik of a cake.  I wish I had half Audrey’s imagination and fearlessness in the kitchen.  Though such fearlessness can have distinctly leaden consequences when baking. 

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Feast of the Seven Fishes

January 8, 2010
Spaghetti alle Vongole

I’ve been playing with the idea of preparing a Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve ever since I read artist Ed Giobbi’s description of his family’s feast in one of my favorite holiday cookbooks, Christmas Memories with Recipes.  Well, this was the year and what a feast it was.

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Pork Stuffed with Fennel

January 5, 2010
Pork Stuffed with Fennel

A husband with a sense of humor can be a mixed blessing, especially at dinnertime.  Bones, being much louder than I am, is usually charged with the tasks of calling our guests to dinner.  This means I’ve grown used to the cry of “OKAY everybody…dead pig’s ready!  Come and get it!”  And so have our friends.

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