April 13th, 2012 / Comments
Another ancient vegetable, fava beans have been a part of the Mediterranean diet since 6000 BC.
After the fava beans are removed from the pod, each bean is then husked to remove it’s thick outer cover before it is steamed.
Fava beans can be grilled whole, over an open fire, until the pod is soft and charred a bit. Splashed with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with coarse sea salt, diners shell their own beans.
Just as when I eat artichokes or corn on the cob, there seems to be more on my plate when I have finished eating fava beans than when I started.
April 11th, 2012 / comments
Romanesco is in the market.
Some call it broccoli, others call it cauliflower and there are those who call it broccoflower.
I call it gorgeous.
Individual curds, that’s what the florets are called, are smaller versions of the whole. Each curds is composed of even smaller versions of itself. In mathematical terms, it is a logarithmic spiral or recursive helical arrangement of cones.
I steamed this tasty, mathematical delight until it was tender and then seasoned it with a splash of extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Tonight we are having pasta with Romanesco and garlic. Wish you were here.
January 17th, 2012 / comments
It’s been a long time coming but snow has arrived. The garden is white, the branches of the trees are accented with white. Winter has arrived and, in my mind, winter is soup season. I think a meal should have a balance of colors as well as a balance of flavors. Purple-red borscht topped with a scoop of sour cream and a sprinkle of dill leaves has that balance of color and flavor as does green split pea soup with sunny carrot dice cubes and pink cubes of ham. But, the snow reminded me of a Saturday lunch we shared last winter and I made a white dinner and to celebrate the arrival of the snow.
Last January, after our friends Kathy and Rick had spent weeks packing, snow shoveling, ice dam cursing, moving and unpacking, they invited us to lunch. We sat around the granite island in their new kitchen and savored, steamy bowls of cauliflower cheese soup. … read more
January 11th, 2012 / Comments
It’s not to late to make a New Year’s resolution. Rather than resolving to go to the gym three times a week, or to sort out the extra clothes at the back of my closet, or to re-read at least one classic before the daffodils appear; I have resolved to have an empty fridge when it’s time to travel to Italy in March.
Rainbow Carrots
(I wanted to share my most recent painting, Rainbow Carrots, even though carrots have nothing to do with this post. )
The first step is to dispose of all of the half-filled jars of mystery sauces that have accumulated since we returned from Italy last spring. The second, and perhaps more difficult part is resisting the jars of exotic sauces at the market. I will make do with only three jars of sauce, mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise. The mustard is grainy Dijon mustard, the ketchup is what remains of the homemade ketchup I made as a Christmas gift for Charles, and I will make mayo as we need it. … read more
December 14th, 2011 / comments
When I was a child, one of my jobs was to refill the large, red plastic tomato with ketchup. My sister and I squeezed that tomato to squirt ketchup on French fried potatoes, grilled American cheese sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs and scrambled eggs. When I moved to Washington, DC, I wanted to be sophisticated and cosmopolitan. I listened to classical music, read the articles as well as the cartoons in the New Yorker and banished ketchup from my kitchen.
… read more
November 10th, 2011 / Comments
