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Wok’s Not to Like: Easy, Fast, Nutritious Stir-Fries
I admit to being partial to stir-fries. Not only are they fast and convenient one-pan meals; stir frying is a way to add a variety of vegetables to a main dish. This Chinese cooking technique is done in a wok,…
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Fire Up the Grill for a Light Summer Meal
The last weekend in May marks the start of the summer grilling season – at least technically. Our current cool, damp weather here in New England would deny that schedule. But just the same, we should start thinking about what…
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How to Stretch a Chicken
“Rubber chicken” – that’s the irreverent term for the food served at business dinners and wherever else people are fed in large numbers. But maybe there’s something else to it. After all, can you think of any other type of…
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Finding Inspiration in 20th-Century History
Thinking about the combination of tariffs, inflation, and climate impacts on our food supply inspired me to explore what meals looked like during the Great Depression of the 1930s. I won’t dwell on chipped beef on toast or the dish…
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Celebrating Spring with Vegetables
Spring’s finally here! Let’s celebrate with some creative spring vegetable meals. If you’re a forager, that’s all the better – as my daughter pointed out to me when she spotted some wild garlic and wild greens in my yard. It’s…
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Understanding Some of the Pressures on the Food Chain
Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to be all atwitter about the price of eggs? But our food system is, indeed, a mess. And we need to understand where the pressures are coming from. There are extreme weather…
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Learning to Love What You Don’t Like
On a recent restaurant visit for a plate of sushi, a discussion arose about why pickled okra was acceptable to our palates, but other forms of cooked okra were not. Our server responded with a discussion about his picky-eater niece.…
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Vietnamese Food – 55 Years Later
Fifty-five years ago this month, I left the U.S. on a tour. Courtesy of Uncle Sam, I got a free plane trip to the Central Highlands of Vietnam. If you’d told me then that I would one day be extolling…
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Cocido: The Spanish Way to Cook Seasonal Stew
What to eat this time of year? It’s too warm for winter comfort food, but spring vegetables are not yet available in the farmers’ markets. A loyal reader suggested that I write about cocido, a classic Spanish dish. Claudia Roden,…
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Lenten Season in NOLA, the Big Easy
Lent is one period in which it’s OK to be a quitter – as in, giving something up. When I was young, it was something most people in my community adhered to during this 46-day period from Ash Wednesday to…
