[I]f you’ve never seen the movie “Ratatouille,†you should. And if you’ve never made the vegetable dish that, in part, inspired the film’s name, you should go there, too. Both exemplify the best of what I love about art, cooking and creativity and the hope inspired in one’s passions. Both […]
[I] wrote a column recently for Kansas Country Living magazine about summers from my childhood that were virtually a real-life version of the “attack of the killer tomatoes.†In essence, there was an overabundance of these juicy red fruits, to put it mildly. Dozens of tomato plants were cultivated in […]
[T]he first time I made “bread salad†or panzanella, as it’s commonly called, the recipe had me soaking cubes of very stale, sturdy bread in water, wringing those cubes out and mixing them with tomatoes, onions, cucumber, basil and vinaigrette for what turned out to actually be a very delicious […]
[M]y heart sinks a little every spring. Sounds odd and somewhat off, but when you consider California’s rains conclude in late spring, maybe you’ll understand. There is so little weather here, and the change in seasons is merely by light and feel and temperature, so our winter and spring rain […]
[T]he tomatoes have been long-coming this year. It’s typical in this climate, which tends to be cooler than tomatoes would like. Still, we want our tomatoes. We plant them and wait, and long months later, we begin to see red. With anticipation comes longing. As I waited out my slow-growing […]