I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
I have never been much of a fish eater, and for that I blame my mother. Odd for someone trained as a marine biologist. But then again, I also don’t love boats (I get seasick) and I can’t spend too much time on the beach …
The story of Jimmy Nardello’s peppers is an immigrant tale. Giuseppe and Angella Nardello arrived from southern Italy in the late 1800s, immigrating to Naugatuck, Connecticut. With them they brought seeds from their Italian garden, including a sweet frying pepper. They grew these peppers to …
Once, when my son was young, I went to pick him up at the Long Island Fall Festival, but on the periphery, so as not to get entangled with traffic. As I drove up, he was walking down the street with his friend Sam and …
It’s been a doozy of a summer. Unbearably hot and humid on Long Island, where I live, we have been forced to use the air conditioner much more than usual. A passing hurricane this week, which fortunately did not amount to much, made things even …
Sometimes in the heat of the summer you need a simple and quick side dish. You want to add more vegetables to the menu. Tired of raw vegetables and already had enough grilled, it’s time to move on to something different. Something fast, easy, and …
Growing up, dinners in our house were on a schedule that repeated weekly. Tuesday and Thursday, refried beans and tortillas. Wednesday, homemade pizza. Friday was almost always chicken, either at one of my grandmothers’ apartments or cooked by my father. I have no recollection what …
As the summer heats up, the cucumber vines in my garden lengthen, with yellow blossoms at their ends. There are male and female flowers, the females with tiny fruit just below the petals. Over a week or two, the fruit grows, enlarging into a full …
My father cooked all manner of food when I was growing up. His baba ganouj was garlicky and smooth, a perfect dip brought to many a party. We ate his brisket, fall apart tender, every Passover. He never purchased store-bought salad dressing; a jar of …
I’ve always been an adventurous eater. From a young age I helped my father cook all manner of Chinese food and we ate homemade refried beans with tortillas for dinner twice a week. But as a kid, I was not enamored with Indian food. I …
When my wife was pregnant with our children many years ago, there were foods she would eat and those she would not. The ones she ate, she ate all the time. The dishes she would not eat, I sometimes cooked anyway as she stood in …
