I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
We woke with a start at 6:00 a.m. It was not a loud noise or rapid movement, but something more subtle. We sensed that someone was watching us. Through the fog of sleep, we saw him. Seven-year-old Dan, my wife Marci’s nephew, staring at us, …
When I spent my summers as a kid and teenager at Camp Onas in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we ate all our meals in a huge, screened in dining hall. It held about 150 of us at 18 rectangular tables surrounded by simple …
This is a lesson in flexibility, a term that would rarely be used to describe me. I don’t mean being able to bend my body, although there’s not too much of that going on, but rather being able to react when things go badly and …
I thought this was going to be a good year in the garden. It started off with so much promise – for the first time I had perfectly plump cabbages that did not get eaten by cabbage worms. But it was mostly downhill from there. …
In the fall of 2023, my wife Marci and I were lucky enough to take a trip to Scotland. It was a wonderful vacation. Because of the weather, traveling to Scotland in early November is a gamble. But for us it paid off. The week …
My brother and I were at Grendel’s Lair, a club off South Street in Philadelphia, to see a local band. We sidled up to the bar and took a seat. We ordered and waited for the bartender to mix our drinks…two Shirley Temples. It was …
I must have been about 7 years old when my father brought home a big bag of blue crabs from the Italian Market. A trip to the open-air fruit and vegetable stands, cheese and spice stores, fish mongers, butchers, and live animal stalls lining 9th …
Growing up, every Tuesday and Thursday we ate Bert’s Beans for dinner. Refried beans that my father actually re-fried in a skillet with probably too much oil, we would wrap them in homemade tortillas and slather on hot sauce. As the refrying process neared its …
Gardening can be incredibly rewarding, but also unbelievably frustrating. Some crops are reliable, always a success from year to year. Green beans, for example, are one of the easiest vegetables to grow. I get a large harvest every summer, often more than I can use. …
It’s been two years since I retired from teaching and one year since I started my personal chef business. I am happy to say this second career has exceeded my expectations. I didn’t know what to expect when I opened my figurative doors last June. …
