It’s 6 pm and I’ve done nothing about dinner. My husband has a one-word answer: risotto. Twenty minutes later, dinner is served. Really. Risotto is our favorite fast-and-easy dinner. Sometimes we even serve it to guests, but it seems too simple.
What’s the best aspect of risotto? Creaminess. It’s so creamy that I have serve it in a soup […]

Dear Chef, 
I have been cooking for over 50 years and have never deveined my shrimp. Never saw the real need for it. I love cooking and ethnic foods. Friends and family never complained. A couple of friends my age are shocked that I don’t devein. Are there many people who don’t devein? How important is […]

Many traditional Italian cooks react in horror when they see anyone grate cheese on top of a pasta dish that contains fish or shellfish. It’s as though you just added a dollop of chocolate mousse on top of liver-and-onions. But what’s so wrong with fish and cheese; after all, the French do it all the […]

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

By this time in February, the larder is empty from the last harvest. We’ve eaten all of our home-grown white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green peas (which we shelled and froze). We still have some garlic left, but the cloves are soft and sprouting. What should we eat on these dreary days?
Spaghetti Carbonara, of course! […]

fresh homemade pasta

the versatility of choux paste

Today we dug up our potatoes. Cut a freshly-dug potato and they crackle and snap like a crisp apple. The taste of a fresh potato will spoil your taste buds against the commercial potatoes held in storage for months. Fresh potatoes, boiled until tender, are so creamy they hardly need butter, but, of course, I […]

The spring freeze and prolonged cold weather interrupted our spring planting. Our cherry blossoms all froze. The ground was too wet to plant, but after several days of warm, dry weather, we are finally back in the dirt.
Yesterday, we planted four varieties of potatoes. To me, a home-grown, freshly-dug potato (like home-grown tomatoes) tastes dramatically […]

Just in time for Thanksgiving, the recipe for garlic mashed potatoes