When I was cooking in France, there was a pastry chef who was always running around frantic with all of the things he had to do. He was fairly sure that the executive chef was going to kill him. Sometimes I helped him because I wanted him to get through the night without panicking. Sometimes…
I get such a craving for Asian food sometimes. I’m not very good at cooking it myself, there’s something about the flavor combinations that aren’t intuitive to me while cooking, but are so delicious when put in front of me at a dinner table. In my recent piece for Tasty Kitchen, I featured one of…
Right now, I'm on a mini road trip from Little Rock, Arkansas to Austin, Texas. Don't worry, I'm not the one driving as I write this. I've been traveling as much as ever, without a kitchen most days, save for the times when friends and family let me take over theirs. As many people witnessed,…
I'm pickling a lot these days. That seems to be the way it goes with summer gardening. You hoe and weed and till and sow and water and worry and then it all comes pouring in at once, faster than you can eat it.When I have this problem, I pickle.Folks, get ready for a lot…
When I was in Arkansas I made a new friend. And one night, while we all were digesting our 237th feast, she told us about this recipe she'd dreamed up using shrimp she'd had. It was smothered in scallions and tomatoes and lots and lots of butter. She agreed to make it for us as…
I have a thing for purslane. I think I inherited it from my grandmother. She is just obsessed with it. Whenever I visit she says, "have you seen any purslane in the garden?" It is such an intriguing plant, purslane. For one, it is everywhere, in many countries, from the sidewalk cracks in the cities, to…
I have a pretty nutty week ahead. In the span of four hours I'm going to be transported from rural Arkansas where I have been hiding out and have had to take desperate measures for an internet connection....to the meatpacking district of New York City where the internet and just about everything else is fast.…
It begins with an Amish man. Like most of my stories do.Okay fine it doesn't begin with him, it begins with a 5 pound sack of potatoes that we purchased at a run down store in a vacant town across from this abandoned house that I really want to buy and fix up but am…
I had quite the 4th of July weekend. It began with a long road trip from Austin to Arkansas. I drove the entire span of Arkansas and I marveled at how different it is depending on where you are in the state. It was purty country.The weekend can best be described as Foodapalooza. There have…