In the end it will be the cheese that kills me. Not the red meat. Not the gin. Well, maybe the gin, a little, but mostly the cheese: hard or […]
Recipe Box
FROM SCRATCH
While Short Ribs Simmer, a Kitchen Memoir Takes Shape
A soup to accompany a writer’s weird limbo
There’s a marked difference between the menace of blizzard snow, icy and gravelly against the window, and what’s happening here today. Today, the sun is just barely shining through the […]
COOK’S KITCHEN
Nun’s Farts Are Dunkers to Sigh For
A donut devotee makes heavenly fritters for Fat Tuesday
Mardi Gras, a.k.a. Fat Tuesday, is next week — the last hurrah before the 40 days of fasting and self-reflection of Lent begin, for those who observe it. Besides prompting […]
THE ESSENTIALS
Two Cooks in the Kitchen
When love means ‘That’s Italian!’
It’s not always easy for two cooks to coexist peacefully in one kitchen. A neighbor of mine, a well-regarded French chef, lets his partner’s Thai cooking rule at home. In […]
THE BREAKFAST BEAT
Good Morning, Shakshuka
Starting the day right with garlic, tomatoes, spices, and eggs
Starting my day with pancakes always put me in a moody, sugar-laden stupor. And I never could get behind a bowl of cold cereal for breakfast. Even when I was […]
COOK’S KITCHEN
A Dumpling to Keep You Cozy Through a Long Winter’s Night
Practice makes for perfect, pillowy potato gnocchi
January’s sun sets smack down in the center of Blackfish Creek tinting the clouds beyond my back window a cotton-candy pastel. It’s stop-in-your-tracks gorgeous Cape Cod light. And every bit […]
THE ESSENTIALS
One Chicken, Three Dinners for Two
Rice and greens transform broth into a fine Italian soup
I remember my grandmother — all four-feet-eight of her — standing tall before the grocer, as he rang up her order. “No, sir! I will not pay 59 cents a […]
FROM THE LARDER
Congee’s Good for Anything That Ails You
A silky rice porridge is a palette for color, crunch, and heat
As the Outer Cape’s long trek to spring begins, Christopher and I are grateful for the reprieves we’ve had this year from winter’s cold grip. A good number of magically […]
COOK’S KITCHEN
Gougères Are the Little Black Dress of Hors d’Oeuvres
Simple and elegant crisp-tender cheese puffs are the ideal bites with bubbly
Of all the dips, spreads, noshes, and nibbles I have served, there is one that I make for holiday parties year after year: gougères. They always get raves. Gougères are […]
FORAGING
A Restorative Sip for the New Year
White pine needle tea is ‘like drinking the forest in winter’
My friend Ingrid Bratberg knows all the best places to find stinging nettles, wild onions, blackberries, and elderflowers. Ingrid’s a professional baker by day — her shortbread is legendary — […]
KITCHEN CULTURE
There Is Soup and There Is Borscht
A Ukrainian Christmas tradition takes on new significance
Yuliia Svieshnikova has always prepared borscht, one of the 12 traditional Christmas dishes of her native Ukraine, on Jan. 6. That is Christmas Eve on the Julian calendar, which Ukrainians […]
FAMILY RECIPE
Biscotti With Love From a Grandma’s Kitchen in Yonkers
A cookie for the holidays and for always
It’s a terrible thing to say about one’s grandmother — especially one’s Italian-American grandmother — but mine was not a great cook. Her specialty was a swamp-like egg drop soup […]
TASTE MEMORIES
The Joy of Cookbooks
Vintage favorites are the ones cooks most want to give
Cookbooks aren’t always for cooking by. That’s what we heard when we asked a few dedicated local cooks about their favorites. These kitchen volumes are for bringing back taste memories […]
FROM THE LARDER
Baking Brings Out the Beauty of a Knobbly Fruit
A dessert-inspired resolve to bring back the homely but fragrant quince
Before we came to Truro, we lived in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, where I grew salad greens and root vegetables in a community garden plot. That’s where I […]
VANCOUVER DISPATCH
A Spicy Curry Soup to Come Home To
A light, aromatic bowl is an antidote for travels and turkey dinners
Now that travel is a thing again, Christopher and I decided to revive our tradition of getting out of town for a bit just before Thanksgiving. We’d been missing the […]
