Over the transom came a recipe which I just had to try…because the first ingredient was a pound of butter. Reading further, the recipe instructs cooking the mushrooms for 6-8 hours in the said pound of butter. Wow. I did it and these mushrooms are indescribable. They are no mere fungi, but caramelized and intensely flavored. Want […]

I am not fickle over fickles; I absolutely love my new-found treat: a pickled fig. The fig season is just ending, but run to make these delectables. Why? Fickles are delicious on a roasted beet-poached egg salad or as a condiment with lamb, pork, or chicken or with any gooey cheese. I’m sure they would be fabulous […]

In honor of Norman Drey

Well, yes, because I accidentally did the experiment today. I made chocolate sauce and didn’t have quite enough of my favorite Valrhona chocolate. So I added a bar of supermarket-quality chocolate that I found in the cupboard. The result? The inferior chocolate never melted! Since real chocolate melts at body temperature, I shudder to think […]

ketchup recipe

More rain and now we have had twice the amount of rain as in a typical year. What does all this rain mean? Nothing has been planted this spring in our field of mud. The spring flowers look lush and marvelous, but the steady rain washes out the nectar in the flowers. The flowers need […]

smoked pork tenderloin, pear marmalade, spaetzle, angel food cake

caramel sauce recipe

how to make mayonnaise

On the last day of summer we ate the last of our tomatoes — and they didn’t taste as good as they did in July. They were a little crunchy and mealy and not as juicy, but we ate them (slathered in pesto sauce), because we knew our next tomato would be ten months from […]