For my father, it was a ding dong. Vegan and fancified with a swoosh of mulberry coulis, it was actually far beyond your packaged ding dong but it was deeply chocolate cake with a creamy center and a vivid, Proustian reminder of the pleasure of childhood. It was a gift of sorts, for eating…
Of Cabbages and Kings
“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of Shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax — Of Cabbages — and kings — And why the sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings.” Lewis Carroll — “The Walrus and the Carpenter” We may get to the winged pigs,…
Guided by Voices
Joan of Arc heard voices instructing her to save France. My voices say, Go the shoe store. Bake a cake. Less noble commands, perhaps, but easier to accomplish and less likely to result in getting burned at the stake. I don’t usually hear let alone obey disembodied voices, but when the call came on Saturday,…
The Zucchini Song
Behold this 14-inch zucchini, a gift of nature in my community farm share box. What to do with a sizable squash? Um, make zucchini bread?
Thai Confetti with Basil and Mint
We were in the weeds, a kitchen term meaning we’d fallen woefully behind. All the Common Threads kids had. Their bus was leaving in 10 minutes, they hadn’t finished making the spring roll filling and were closing in on panic. It was then we sustained our first injury. Rudy II in my group (there are…
Songs of Innocence and Experience
Michelle Bernstein, James Beard Award-winning chef and foodie darling, moves in the kitchen like the ballet dancer she once was. This cannot be said of my guys Rudy, Robert, Stefan and Yvan, or indeed any of the kids participating in Common Threads. A national nonprofit program begun in 2003 by Oprah chef Art Smith,…
Calla Lilies, Almond Cookies and the Cycle of Life
All right everyone, your best Katherine Hepburn impersonations, please, as we say together, “The calla lilies are in bloom again. Such a strange flower, suitable to any occasion. I carried them on my wedding day and now I place them here in memory of something that has died.”* The cycle of life and death…
Starving Artists
This is not ANOTHER recently discovered Shakespeare portrait, this is fab Frenchman Francois de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680), who said, “To eat is a necessity but to eat intelligently is an art.” Art is not always easy to pull off, especially when you’re hungry. That’s because your stomach has its own brain. The technical term…
It’s Great American Meatout — Kiss a Cow
French-kissing cows are the logo for Les Halles, the Franco-American steakhouse in New York, Washington DC and Miami. If you go tomorrow night, I can recommend the petatou, a warm goat cheese and potato salad, the lovely salade d’Auvergene, with arugula, apples, walnuts and blue cheese, a very decadent macaroni and cheese or the healthier…
Chaos, Conspiracy, Carrots
I comfort myself by believing in chaos theory, that seemingly unrelated events are linked. A garden in Milwaukee can have consequences for a girl in Miami. There is a great shiny matrix of connection, something that binds us all. You just have to be open to the signs. There’s the rub. But I’ve been seeing…
