I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
There are lots of factors that influence and inspire me when I cook and develop a recipe, but it’s rarely a name. Maybe I enjoyed a dish in a restaurant that I want to re-create at home. Or perhaps I saw a picture in a …
In the early 1990s, when my wife and I first moved in together, we rented the second floor of a big, old Victorian house painted white with brown trim, with creaky steps and uneven floors. Our landlord, Carmine, lived next door and our kitchen window …
My wife and I are very compatible in general. Things that other couples fight about are not usually issues for us. For example, we share the same political point of view, which removes a tension found in many relationships. We have a similar sense of …
My father’s friends Art and John had very different personalities. Art was a mild-mannered middle school math teacher and John was an ornery, drinking Quaker. Despite their differences in personality, they were the best of friends. Art feared death. He hated flying and was very …
What’s so difficult about Greek salad? It’s a salad with feta cheese. Right? Well, yes, but there’s more to it. I find there are a few simple tricks to go from a perfectly acceptable salad with feta cheese to a truly delicious Greek salad. First …
We haven’t had lettuce for salad in about a month. We’ve made other kinds of salads, with red cabbage and white cabbage, endive and radicchio, and cut vegetables, but we miss lettuce. We finally got some romaine the other day, and the salad I wanted …
About once a month on Friday afternoons after work and school in the 1970s, my parents would put my brothers and I in the back seat of the car – no seat belts required in the back seat – and drive to a cabin they …
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 …
It’s the end of August, I’m feeling lazy, and it’s too hot for serious cooking in the kitchen. As tomato season is in full swing, we will not suffer. That means we’re eating lots of delicious, healthy tomato salads. They are quick and easy to …
