A New Cookbook Icon: “Twelve Recipes” by Cal Peternell
As I was reading “Twelve Recipes” by Cal Peternell, chef at Alice Waters’ famed Chez Panisse, lacking a father figure became an even more perceptible limp in my upbringing. Here was a father who was packing up kitchen gear for his son before he went away to college, useful items such as a knife, cutting […]
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2014: My Year in Food
With another year ending, I get a little reflective over 2014 and of my eating. Mulling it over in my head, I chronicled my year with food, cooking and eating as spurring me forward. I still marvel at my ever changing tastebuds. Now that I’m firmly planted in middle age with no way of going back, […]
Read MoreNo Cook Thanksgiving But If I Were…..
I stopped cooking Thanksgiving meals about 5 years ago. I know, I know. It’s one of the big days that all caliber of cooks want to shine showcasing their adeptness in the kitchen, commercial or home. If you know anything about me, cooking is one my favorite of the things. Therefore, you would think that […]
Read MoreAnd The Beet Goes On…
Sadly, I didn’t have a good food childhood. Once my parents divorced, it was mostly canned stuff my mother (or I) prepared, since the only one who cooked was my father. My mother would make the occasional meatloaf, with packaged breadcrumbs and Heinz ketchup. That was pretty much it except for the holidays when all […]
Read MoreHow to NOT Make a Cabbage Patch Dull
My friend Mark is a homecook like me but he loves to make complicated Moroccan food. The dishes that are thirteen thousand ingredients and counting. I do not. I want my food and cooking. It’s not that I don’t think that dishes with a lot of ingredients aren’t tasty; on the contrary, I find them […]
Read MoreThe Humble “Crumble” or Just a “Crisp”
I have written many times that my mother wasn’t really a cook. She was a working, single mother and it wasn’t really in her repertoire to cook. Occasionally, she would make a meatloaf or the requisite holiday dinner but normally it was a sandwich, doughnuts, Kraft Mac & Cheese, possibly a can of Campbell’s Pork […]
Read MoreLos Angeles Surprises & Garden Fresh Gazpacho
Los Angeles is not known for trains or gardens. Normally, the Land of Pretty People is thought of as a place of vast asphalt and traffic jams. Where a minor fender-bender can result in a manslaughter charge. Tonight though, Lulu, Don and I were going to high-tail it on three trains to get to Highland Park, […]
Read MoreFarmers Market Haul and Lulu’s Gardening Class
Let’s begin with lovely Lulu’s gardening class before we get to Farmers Market Haul. Shelley, Lauren, one of Lulu’s co-workers and Lauren’s husband, Chris, along with me, were students in Lulu’s backyard for her first-ever gardening class. Lu has been gardening since she was a child back in her homestate of Pennsylvania. It was always […]
Read More…at Shelley’s: Bean and Swiss Chard Soup
Shelley is, without a doubt, one of my best friends. She’s always there for me. Recently, she took care of Holly, my beautiful pitbull. “Big Girl”, as I call her lovingly, is best friends with Carlos, Shelley’s 85 pound Golden Retriever (aka “Big Boy). While I drove my mother back to the Inland Empire after […]
Read MoreFarmers Market Haul and Mother’s Day Frittata
You know its the beginning of summer with berries, stone fruit and tomatoes at almost every stall in the market. I went to my favorites ABC Rhubarb, Windsor Farms, McGrath, Drakes’ Family Farm for goat cheese, and St. Mortiz Bakery for a crusty French baguette that was a perfect size. I also purchased some asparagus […]
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