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No Place But Home for the Holidays?
The holidays are approaching, but they won’t be the same this year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has just released its Thanksgiving 2020 safety guidelines, and the only low-risk approach is a small dinner with other members of the…
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Cinnamon: Think Outside the Bakery
Cinnamon has always been my favorite spice. In my youth, toast with sugar and cinnamon was a breakfast treat. And on occasion, there were cinnamon rolls. When my mother made pies, she’d roll out the leftover pie dough, spread it…
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Revisiting the Ever-Adaptable Eggplant
Are you one of those who doesn’t like eggplant? Or who doesn’t know how to prepare it? Or, if you think of the poor eggplant at all, maybe you associate it with one of those gooey, cheese-laden preparations – or…
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Get on a Roll Designing Your Own Sandwich
Something about a sandwich makes us smile, and under our current conditions, that’s not a bad thing. Think about your favorite sandwich: it’s portable, you can eat it with your hands, it’s an interesting combination of ingredients, and you can…
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Pumpkins – The Oldest Sister
I have a warm spot in my heart for pumpkins. They are, after all, the oldest of the Native American “Three Sisters” – corn, beans, and pumpkins. The squash category of vegetables was likely first cultivated in Central America over…
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Welcome to Comfort Food Season
Tis the season for something substantial. The cool temps at night means that most diners are not in the mood for a salad. Nature agrees. The summer birds have headed south, and the leaves are beginning to turn. One advantage…
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Pass the Gravy, Please!
When I asked my friend Tom about his favorite childhood food memory, the reply was swift and certain: bread and gravy. His mother was a master cook, he said, with 200 cookbooks and three linear feet of 4-by-6-inch recipe cards.…
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How Do You Like Them Apples?
It’s apple season – time for apple-picking. Sure, the pandemic has upset the applecart, and there are some restrictions, but you can still get a small group of family together for a trip to the local orchard. You probably can’t…
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Capturing Grandma’s Recipes
My Grandmother Dodge – my mother’s mother – served a taste sensation that I have been trying to recreate. It was a pie unlike anything I’ve seen or tasted since: A flaky one-crust pie with a thin layer of a…
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Making Do in the New Normal
The supermarket shelves are slowly getting back to normal. At least in the supermarket I frequent, flour, yeast, and of course TP are generally on the shelves. Still, some items I need are persistently out of stock: plain gelatin powder,…
