I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
It may seem obvious, but we should eat the season. In other words, we should eat fruits and vegetables that are in season locally rather than eating produce that has travelled from halfway around the world or all the way across the country. Our food …
Every year we host Early Thanksgiving for our friends a few weeks before the traditional holiday. And every year the menu has a pattern. The main course is typical, as it is with most families, with few major variations from year to year. Turkey, gravy, …
In the fall of 1987, I was a junior in college when I got a call that my maternal grandmother, Jeanette, had had a heart attack. The prognosis was grim. I had to return to Philadelphia from school in Indiana, as did my brothers from …
As the angle of the sun dips on the horizon and the first golden hues shine from leaves that are nearing their end, the harvest from my garden changes from summer to fall crops. The shift is not sudden. Summer green beans, peppers, and tomatoes …
Many of the things we eat are variations on a theme; the same type of ingredient that gets spiced, sauced, or wrapped a little differently each time, but is still, if you break it down, a similar idea. There is a myriad of types of …
I didn’t have any relationship with scallops until I met them up close and personal. Scuba diving in shallow bays on the east end of Long Island, brushing aside blades of eelgrass, occasionally I would come across a bay scallop, laying on the estuary bottom, …
In September 1995 my wife Marci and I were starting our second year living on St. Thomas in the Caribbean. It was the heart of the Atlantic hurricane season and an extremely active year. This is part two of the letter I wrote to friends …
September 1995 was the beginning of our second year living on St. Thomas and I was about to start my second year teaching. I worked at a private K though 12 school attended by local children. It was the heart of the Atlantic hurricane season …
When I think of pickles, a variety of things come to mind, but “fresh” isn’t usually one of them. The synonym I’d more likely apply is “preserved.” Thoughts of pickles include big barrels on old sailing vessels; food made for long-term storage to be eaten …
In the spring of 1994, I became a student teacher in a suburban high school on Long Island. One of the first people I met would become my mentor. Tom was tall and lean. Very tall and very lean. He taught a marine science class, …
