We’ve spent all week cooking: 25 hours of cooking class down, the last day — five hours — still to go on Friday. What a ride! For the classtakers, the highlights were the foods they thought they didn’t like (because they had eaten bad versions) — but now can’t wait to make at home: creamy polenta with […]

On her birthday, I served her favorite dessert, blueberry pie. A month later, friends were still clamoring for a chocolate birthday cake. Is it really a birthday if you can’t have your cake and eat it too? So we celebrated again. I first made this cake for a party I catered 15 years ago. One of the guests liked […]

The New York Times has a front-page article in this morning’s newspaper sneering at Julia Child: her cookbooks actually use butter, pork fat, and gelatin! Instead of admiring her beautifully written recipes, the author of the article showcases a novice cook who makes beef bourguignon by opening soup cans. No, I have not cooked all of the recipes in […]

Ketchup is a simple sauce made of fruit, sugar, vinegar, and spices. But the fruit does not have to be tomatoes. Pick cherries to make a delicious ketchup! My favorite ketchup is made with cherries, specifically the tart Montmorency cherries. This year (unlike the last two years) is a fabulous year for cherries. Here is […]

Our first potatoes from our garden! We grow Yukon gold and red Pontiac potatoes. I like the red Pontiac best and my husband prefers the Yukon gold. (A mixed marriage!) We steamed them, then tossed with roasted fresh garlic (yes, still available at Kitchen Conservatory), plus olive oil and salt. No other dinner was needed. […]

A perfectly fried food features a crispy, crunchy, yet delicately light coating. It is never soggy. It is never heavy. It is even good when it is a cold leftover. It begs you to eat more. It is possible? Yes. Battering up foods for the deep-fryer usually follow certain pattern. A wet batter of flour, […]

We finished digging up the garlic today, despite the heavy heat. Here I am moving the bundles of garlic to a shed so that they can dry. (The chicken coop is in the background.) Yes, it is fun to drive a tractor! We are eating garlic every day, so all of the vampires have left the premises. Here […]

What a great year for garlic! The heads are large and healthy. Here’s a picture of some of the garlic harvest, which we’ve tied in bundles. “How long will the garlic last?” asked a customer yesterday. Garlic is a once-a-year crop, so I want to be able to store and eat the garlic until next year’s […]

Two years ago, we planted 12 red currant bushes and 12 black currant bushes. Currants are not a well-known berry in the United States because they were banned from commercial cultivation for most of the 20th century. They are legal now and I was eager to have some because I had enjoyed the taste of […]

In a participation cooking class recently, a student asked, “Is a tablespoon a large spoon or a small spoon?” The chef answered, “a large spoon.” The student then used a large serving spoon (about the size of 4 tablespoons) to measure the ingredients. Oops; we had to start over. At a cooking tutorial recently, the student […]