Loretta has been through a thing or two. Even though she doesn’t live with the other chickens, she has stories to tell. After she was beaten up a few times by Buster, she had to start living closer to people, so that we could keep an eye on her and so the Rhode Island reds wouldn’t beat her up on the playground. But as a result, she gets to see […]
This is my French friend Robert. Doesn’t he look like Ernest Hemingway? For many weeks we spent Saturdays together at the french farmers market where he tended to his pot of rice. The rice was his priority, second only to the box of wine he carefully unloaded from the truck along with a portable refrigerator used just to keep the wine cool. In France, it is important to have wine […]
As you know, I like changing people’s minds. It makes me fuzzy inside. Most people don’t like brussels sprouts. It’s the black sheep of vegetables… “eeew brussels sprouts,” is the default way to use it in a sentence. But they really are lovely little things, if you cook them to the edges of crispiness rather than the edges of mushiness. And they’re so fun to snap off of the tall […]
I am a tad obsessed with apple picking. I have spent many minutes rallying people to go with me on an apple picking adventure. Those that always resist are male… something in their nature doesn’t desire a day of frolicking in an orchard with a basket and a long pole, and eating apples until your stomach hurts. Everything in my nature does. The sweet and tang of a Fall apple is unmatched the rest of the year…
If you haven’t heard already, Lucy had a big day a few weeks ago. And then she had a really big day. She laid this: Look at it compared to a regular egg, it’s a giant! But it gets better… It’s not one giant egg… It’s twins! A double yolked egg. Can you believe it? Two for the price of one. Yum. Subscribe to my free YouTube series for more tips […]
Such a noble food. The cranberry beans are tender and ready. So tender you can pop them out of their shells and eat them raw. Or if you’re not feeling so adventurous, you can cook them til they are stewy and delicious. Here’s how: Print Recipe “Cranberry Beans, Georgia-Style” Four ingredient cooking. My favorite kind. Prep Time5 minsCook Time45 minsTotal Time50 mins Servings: 2 servings Ingredients1 cup of cranberry beans2 […]
Changing People’s Minds: A Step by Step Guide: One particularly fine friend recently said he didn’t like eggplant. So I made eggplant for dinner. When someone tells me they don’t like a particular food, I don’t hear them. I go conveniently deaf. Then I’m suddenly possessed by the overwhelming urge to make that particular food. Annoying? Probably… but I like to take the more highbrow view — it is a […]
Today, we make this: One fruit, so many possibilities. Quince granita, quince pâté de fruits, quince soup, poached quince, quince jelly, quince sauce, quince fritters…oh wait… They are one of my favorite fruits. Look how nice and pink they become when you cook them, a soothing glamorous pink. But they start off this color. Green with a hint of yellow. Hard as a rock. And a strange fuzz on them. It’s the pectin […]
I wish to spread this time of year out, to add little portions of it to other months. There’s so much food, too much food, much picking and tending and tugging to be done. My least favorite thing to pick is green beans. There are always too many, and they camouflage themselves superbly. When I miss some I feel defeated. My favorite thing to harvest is carrots. I love the sensation […]
Lucy arrived one morning in the arms of Carmen, the beloved housekeeper who removes all the bird droppings off the kitchen floor after the roving fowl view the open door as an invitation, and decide to stop in for a visit. She was rather scrawny at first, Carmen didn’t really explain where she’d gotten her from. She just arrived with a chicken in her arms and plopped her down and left her […]
