We’re all Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, so let’s all celebrate one of Ireland’s true culinary treasures — soda bread, a traditional loaf made with flour, baking soda, salt, butter and buttermilk. Simple, right? But it tastes greater than the sum of its parts, with an almost Zenlike complexity. There’s the delicate tang from the…
Going to Seed (in a Good Way)
“Seeds are where it all begins,” as I write in Feeding the Hungry Ghost. “They’re superconcentrated sources of energy.” Are they ever. Incredible how something so tiny, smaller than a grain of rice, has the power to push up through the soil, emerge in daylight, and sprout. The basil, kale, mint, arugula, sorrel, peppers…
Better on a Biscuit
Put the carb phobia aside and put a dreamy smile on your face. Think biscuits. Something about fresh, flaky biscuits, golden brown outside, tender inside and still hot from the oven, so the vegan butter melts right into them, pleases and comforts like nothing else. That’s why I always make them for Thanksgiving. With…
Beautiful Bread
Fancied-up focaccia — flatbread decorated to look like a bouquet or a garden — has been a thing on Instagram, but focaccia has been around long before social media. It’s a simple, satisfying flatbread, like a slightly puffy pizza, and like pizza, it’s a gift from Italy. This Thursday, I take this bread which goes…
Summer Blueberry Loaf for a Sweet and Endless Summer
Eating seasonally has its rewards. Fresh blueberries are at their summer peak, so stock up and make a loaf of blueberry quick bread. Muffins are wonderful, but a quick bread loaf bursting with blueberries means you can cut the slices as skinny — or as generous — as you like. I make fruit-packed quick bread…
Panzanella — Bread, Tomatoes and Summer Romance
Ripe-to-bursting tomatoes meet bread that’s seen better days, and you have a recipe for summer romance. Actually, you have a recipe for panzanella, Italy’s classic bread salad. Across the Middle East, they make a tomato-bread salad using old pita and call it fattoush. In Tunisia, they call it blankit. In fact, traditional cuisines of all…
Olives, Oranges and Food for Thought | Jamie Schler
Ramadan Mubarek — wishing you a blessed Ramadan. Whatever your faith, or even lack of faith, spring is the time for renewal, reflection, rededication to who we want to be. All over the world, Muslims fast each day of Ramadan. That means a daily fast for 30 days. Fasting wigs my husband out, but I…
Banana Bread
Everyone has a banana bread recipe. But they’re not my grandmother’s recipe. Hers was the first banana bread I ever tasted, and it spoiled me for any other. It was tender, moist, banana-intense, racy with vanilla, homey, and comforting. As a child, it did not occur to me banana bread could be otherwise. But as…
Rising Up — The World in a Crust of Bread
“The world is all messed up,” observed Martin Luther King Jr. on April 1968, the night before he was assassinated. It’s still messed up. It’s impossible to undo the pain caused by a single act of violence, let alone the waves of terrorism across the globe. But as we honor King on his birthday, we…
Cornbread
This is my go-to cornbread recipe, whether I’m feeding 30 for Thanksgiving, or just my husband and me on a rainy Tuesday night. It’s quick and easy to make, crusty on the top, fluffy inside, buttery-tasting through and through, and vegan, of course. How are you celebrating Thanksgiving? Are you celebrating? Covid has stolen…
