I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
Asparagus, a perennial that returns year after year if properly cared for, is one of my most cherished crops. Last year in late spring, when the harvest was over and the plants were maturing, sending their frilly leaves out to collect sunlight to transport food …
Small Plates Saturday Night has become a tradition in our household, even more so since the pandemic has made dining out a gamble we do not feel is worth the risk. I cook three, four, five, six small dishes, while relaxing and pushing the pressures …
Every weekday it’s the same. I go to work and eat breakfast while I’m getting organized for the day. My meal is unchanged; varying only a few times over the course of my career. It almost always starts with a banana. Years ago, that was …
January is a bleak month in the garden. There is little growth, and so by leaps and bounds the most exciting activities are perusing catalogues to order seeds for the coming year and planting cabbage, kale, and leek seeds under lights in the basement to …
I love food stuffed inside food. I’m not talking turducken (a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey) or anything extreme like that, but rather smaller bites. Neat little packages with a morsel or two inside a wrapper, providing layers of flavor. The …
New Year’s Eve is a time for celebration. It is a time for a party, for joy and excess, especially as 2020 fades into 2021. This New Year’s Eve should be no exception. More than ever, we need an excuse to have a party, albeit …
I am fascinated by the way a food item appears in varying forms in different cultures. Take dumplings, for example. Every culture has a dumpling. Boiled, baked, or fried. Stuffed with a filling or not. It is especially interesting when you see a continuum of …
I love small plates, tapas, dim sum, hors d’oeuvres, appetizers, mezze, finger food, in any form, whatever you want to call them. At a formal event, these are almost always the best, most exciting part of the meal. I would rather a formal occasion with …
Long Island is the land of clams. From the original native peoples to the multicultural residents of Long Island today, clams have always been a tasty part of the culinary repertoire. Surrounded by salt water on all sides, with sandy and muddy habitats aplenty, there …
I read a lot of cooking magazines, so I see the waxing and waning of trends and fads in restaurants and kitchens. Mostly I ignore them. In one ear, out the other, although maybe they leave a tiny impression in a far off corner of …
