[I]t was long ago when I first ran across a recipe for “Welsh rarebit†or “Welsh rabbit,†as it is sometimes called. As a girl who studied cookbooks, I couldn’t have been that old, but I was certainly intrigued and excited by a melty cheese sauce dish that was named […]
[I] baked bread today. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is. Some of you did way more, I’m sure, and I commend you. But my country loaf was a commitment of four hours of work (and wait) or more, begun before it was light. You have to resign to […]
[I]’ll admit, I’m a little too attached to instructions. My sister and I kid each other about this difference between us — she is more of a “freestyle†cook who invents and improvises (sans measuring spoons and cups), while I refer strictly to a recipe, allowing myself a few adaptations. […]
[I] won’t say I was anticipating a Dutch baby almost as much as a real one because that wouldn’t be true. First off, I have no anticipation for a real one; second off, as excited as I was to make a Dutch baby, I’m sure the thrill level would fall […]
[B]eyond some of her work and her unforgettable image — dark-haired, piercing-eyed, flower-crowned — I didn’t know enough about the Mexican artist and icon Frida Kahlo until the 2002 biopic “Frida,†starring Salma Sayek, in a stirring performance examining her life. That movie, for me, ignited an admiration for the […]
[T]hroughout my childhood, I was treated to a tale of candy. The imagination can almost act as the proverbial “candy store,†and I was the kid who went there, as my parents recounted a magical place. Next to a local movie theater, there existed a candy store where the proprietor […]
“To eat good food,†says Italian chef Primo in the 1996 film, “Big Night,†“is to be close to God.†[A]nd truthfully, over the 20 years since I first saw this movie, I have said, again and again, that my idea of heaven was the kitchen where Primo, played by […]
[I] have always been able to make sense out of things (somewhat) by writing about them. Even still, lately, I have had trouble writing. It made no sense and yet perfect sense that on a rainy November evening, while I received the news of a loss of life as close […]
[S]ometimes I think my fun is done. I know that sounds fatalistic. I know I have joys and things to enjoy ahead. But as far as true, hilarious, tickle-me, laugh-out-loud pleasure — like the fun of childhood — I at times feel I’ve entered into a phase of adulthood where […]
[I] don’t need much urging to head for the soup pot, whether the weather is cold…or if it’s hot! Rhyming aside, soups, to me, are the perfect food. A good soup is filling and satisfying and if the right components make up the soup, everything a body needs is in […]