I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
I am not a baker. It’s not that I have disdain for baked goods; in fact, I rather like them. It’s the precision of baking with which I have trouble. Exact measuring is not my style of cooking. Perhaps that’s why after receiving my Master’s …
Years ago in graduate school the department in which I was studying held all kinds of student-organized events so we could socialize and get to know each other. There was a Friday afternoon happy hour. We had an international dinner, when everyone brought food from …
My wife Marci loves eggs. She always has. She talks about eating a soft boiled egg every morning when she was young. When she was pregnant with our son, she couldn’t get enough eggs. One wonders if that played a role in why he is …
When I was a little kid, before the era of ready-to-eat “baby” carrots, my parents would peel three carrots and place them on a plate for my brothers and me to eat before dinner while we set the table (and fought). They tricked us into …
Growing up, my family was all about leftovers. As a matter of fact, sometimes it seemed like we didn’t eat the meal fresh, it was just put in the refrigerator with the express purpose of being served as leftovers – for what seemed like two …
I come from a family of Chinese food snobs. We would never be caught at a strip mall take-out joint or a restaurant with hanging lanterns. In college, I would announce to friends with great authority that it was impossible to find truly authentic Chinese …
Cooking for a crowd is harder than ever before, what with allergies and special diets and food preferences. Yes, options exist; they require that I put a little more time and effort into planning a menu that everyone can enjoy. And it requires some creativity. …
When I was in sixth grade going to school in downtown Philadelphia, they needed kids as extras for a scene in the movie Rocky II. Somehow I found out about it, and went with a handful of friends. There we were with dozens of other …
There are lots of famous pairs: Ella and Louis, Abbott and Costello, Fred and Ginger, Simon and Garfunkel. There are also famous pairs in the garden and kitchen, which I find often grow well together and mature or ripen at the same time. Think tomato …
Tomatillos (sometimes called Mexican green tomatoes) are a funny fruit. Not particularly well-known or used in the US, they are a distant relative of tomatoes. They come encased in a papery husk that must be removed before they can be used. As a kid, we …
