I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
My 17 year-old daughter is obsessed with tacos. Like a serious teenager in love with a movie star, except it’s a taco infatuation. She searches them out at taquerias and divey Mexican restaurants wherever she goes. She’s in Brooklyn visiting friends. “What did you eat?” …
It’s early April, so it’s time to get the garden going. While there are only a handful of plants I can place in the ground now, I can start many of my summer crops inside from seed. Many gardeners prefer the ease of going to …
For me, matzo ball soup is comfort food; warm, soothing chicken soup with a big, steaming, ball of carbohydrate. When I was young, it was my grandmother – the one who wasn’t a particularly good cook – who taught me to make matzo balls. You …
As I came inside from shoveling a foot of heavy spring snow this morning, I noticed that the leaves are starting to emerge on my potted fig trees, which are still stored in the garage for winter protection. It seems everyone, including the plants, knows …
As spring approaches, the garlic that I planted in the garden last October is starting to poke up in rows from beneath its blanket of leaves. I look forward to using the abundance of garlic from my garden as I cook throughout the year. In …
I read with interest an article in the Food section of The New York Times a couple of weeks ago about a new seed company, Row 7 Seed Company, that in their words, is “built on chef-breeder collaboration.” Started by Dan Barber, chef at Blue Hill …
I didn’t always like mushrooms, especially when I was a kid. But things change in adulthood and one of them for me was falling in love with mushrooms. Several years ago I was searching for appetizers to make for a dinner and we had extra …
When my son Jacob was about 11 or 12, we were visiting friends in Connecticut. Our last stop was a small park where during low tide you could walk out on the rocks and view Long Island Sound as the boats drifted by. As we …
It’s so insanely popular and can be found everywhere, because it’s so insanely good and should be eaten everywhere. I was hungry and needed a snack. We had a ripe avocado. Toast. Smash. Drizzle. Sprinkle. Done. The version I just enjoyed was smashed avocado …
When I woke early this morning to take the dog out, it was unmistakably still winter. The air was cold and cloudy. Gloves were needed. The tips of my ears felt chilly. But there was something different in the air this morning. The birds sounded …
