Archive for 'people + places'
OCTOBER’S FRESH SHELL BEANS
Like almost any expat southerner, I am besotted with the shell beans of summer. The native American legumes, often referred to as peas, have pods that must be removed before the moist, tender beans (ie., seeds) can be cooked. Black-eyed peas, pink-eyes, lady peas, cream peas, purple-hulls, and the small, pale butter beans called sieva, […]
Posted: October 8th, 2013 under autumn, people + places, recipes, Union Square Greenmarket.
Comments: 1
VIVA MARCELLA!
On Sunday, Marcella Hazan, Italy’s greatest gift to home cooks everywhere, died at the age of 89. The world is diminished. And I know I’m not alone in paying tribute in a way she would have appreciated: by cooking. There’s an armload of basil in the refrigerator, just waiting to be transformed into pesto, what she called […]
Posted: October 1st, 2013 under cookbooks, people + places.
Comments: 2
BLUEBERRY TIME
I never developed a true appreciation for blueberries until about 20 years ago, when I spent summer weekends knocking around the New England coast. It was there I had my first taste of the small, intensely flavored wild ones, and soon carried a small plastic pail tied to my knapsack as a matter of course. […]
Posted: August 6th, 2013 under cooking, people + places, recipes, summer.
Comments: none
DESTINATION: BISCUITVILLE
A biscuit is one of the world’s great road-trip foods. It’s fast to make and eat, portable, good hot or cold, and can swing savory or sweet. You can use it for a sandwich or to round out a bowl of chili or piece of chicken. Which is why it’s so difficult to understand why […]
Posted: July 23rd, 2013 under baking, people + places, restaurants.
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NOTES FROM AN ARMCHAIR FARMER
Good cookbooks are soothing and aspirational all at once. They fall squarely in the “I can dream can’t I?” department, which must be why many people like to read them before they go to bed. I used to be one of them. A few years ago, though, I branched out with an evocative, beautifully illustrated […]
Posted: June 25th, 2013 under cooking, favorite books, people + places, Union Square Greenmarket.
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SOME PIG, SOME PARTY: BIG APPLE BARBECUE
I may live in New York City, but I don’t much care for crowds, which is why you will never find me at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, the Belmont Stakes, or any concert any time in Central Park. That’s what television is for. But I […]
Posted: June 11th, 2013 under barbecue, people + places, restaurants, summer.
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GARLIC CHIVES: A MARKET STORY
I cantered around the Union Square market on Saturday like I was warming up for the Preakness. I came to a screeching halt, though, at the tented tables staffed by Lani’s Farm, from south Jersey. Something smelled really, really good. Sure enough, I found Eugena Yoo (who manages the farm with her brother, Steve Yoo) behind […]
Posted: May 21st, 2013 under cooking, Market Stories, people + places, recipes, spring, Union Square Greenmarket.
Comments: 2
FINALLY, ASPARAGUS: A MARKET STORY
I busted loose at the Union Square market this week. Lilacs. Crabapple blossoms. Buttercups, one of the world’s most joyful flowers. And the first local asparagus, which was mesmerizing. The California stuff I picked up at Easter was perfectly fine, but not in the same league at all. James Beard wrote about the first stalks […]
Posted: May 7th, 2013 under cookbooks, Market Stories, people + places, spring.
Comments: 2
WATERCRESS FOR SPRING
Every April, my mother and I would spend hours in the woods, wading in bone-chilling mountain streams to pick watercress before it flowered and disappeared until the following spring. Somewhere, my mother had picked up the knowledge that the plant had been used as both food and medicine in ancient times, and each year, I’d […]
Posted: April 16th, 2013 under cooking, people + places, spring.
Comments: none
ASPARAGUS MIMOSA
The trick to pulling off a dinner party on the fly is the first course: Nail that, and you have everyone at the table in the palm of your hand. This year, my thank-you-Jesus starter (especially appropriate at Easter) has been asparagus mimosa. It is, as my great friend Rick Ellis says, “classic, classic, classic.” […]
Posted: April 2nd, 2013 under cooking, early spring, Gourmet magazine, people + places, recipes.
Comments: 3