May isn’t just a great month for flowers, it’s a great month for graduation parties and weddings and holiday weekend grilling. And no matter which bash you’re hitting up, you’d probably like to take a dish along with you. But what can you take that will taste great, be fresh and satisfying at the same [...]
Continue reading about What to Bring to Your Next Summer Party
One of the many wonderful things about the world of food — perhaps the most wonderful — is that the stuff that tastes the best is also the stuff that’s the best quality and the most sustainable. I’m talking grass-fed beef, eggs from pastured hens, well- managed wild seafood, etc. People who think about the [...]
It’s not just the grass and tulips that are in full bloom: the chives are growing like gangbusters, too. Seeing all of those tall-but-still-tender chives put me in a pesto kind of mood. (Green + herb = pesto in my mind.) It’s still a bit too chilly for basil, though, so I opted to use [...]
Continue reading about From a Garden Bed to a Plate of Pesto
While attending the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) annual conference in NYC earlier this month, I had the pleasure of taking a cooking class from one of my favorite cookbook authors. Not only is Pierre Thiam an innovative cook, he’s an incredibly genuine and enthusiastic gentleman. He hails from Senegal, a country on the [...]
Continue reading about Culinary Inspiration from Africa’s West Coast
If pizza had originated in Morocco rather than Italy, I have a sneaking suspicion that lamb would have been the meat of choice, not pepperoni. (Or perhaps pepperoni made with lamb. Hint, hint… I can only hope the American Lamb Board is reading this!) And perhaps the sauce would have been been made the way [...]
What do strawberries and pickles have in common? More than you’d think! In honor of spring shading (sunning?) into summer, I thought I’d try making a seasonal sweet-and-sour salad by tossing together strawberries and pickles. Roasted asparagus and Romaine lettuce provided the backdrop, and a creamy Dijon dressing tied it all together. It’s simple and [...]
Sometimes all you need to make a quick and tasty meal is two top-quality ingredients, eight minutes, and a pan. (And sometimes all you need to come up with such a simple idea is not having many ingredients in your fridge. If necessity is the mother of invention, then needing to make a trip to [...]
You might not know what an allium is, but you’ve already enjoyed eating one. Or three or four. The allium family includes two of the world’s most popular ingredients: garlic and onions. Plenty of other beloved veggies are members of the allium family: leeks, green onions (often called scallions), chives, shallots, and ramps (i.e., wild [...]
Continue reading about Making Your Favorite Savory Ingredients into a Triple Play
Just about everyone agrees that crab cakes are sublime. Just about everyone likes shrimp, too. So why not make shrimp-crab cakes? The tiny and amazingly cute wild rock shrimp that come in cans are ideal for making cakes since they’re already so small, plus they can hang out in your pantry right next to the [...]
Want to get more efficient in the kitchen? Make multiple-pot meals. Heck, you’ve got four burners, so why not have them all in motion? If you simmer two ingredients while you sautée a third (and chop a fourth), your prep time will be only as long as the longest-cooking item of the bunch. For this [...]
Continue reading about Some of the Best Dinners Have Just Four Ingredients
