This bowl of cold-weather comfort revealed quite a secret. This hearty Tuscan bean soup is a perfect combination of smooth, silky soup topped with crispy, crunchy croutons.  It also fulfills our promise to put more plant-based meals together this year. And we’re not alone.  Americans…

A remarkably creamy-rich soup with a secret. There’s not a drop of cream in it. Bon Appetit Editor Sarah Jampel developed this recipe for the magazine’s “Basically” series. “Basically” focuses on beginner home cooks. Do not be put off by the length of the recipe.…

Ina Garten’s Winter Minestrone is remarkably simple to make.  Trust Ina Garten to give us a recipe so dead easy, that you could decide to make it an hour before dinner.  It’s from Ina’s 2012 cookbook “Foolproof” (Clarkson-Potter). I looked at the ingredient list and…

A No Recipe Recipe yields a Chowder so good, I had to share the recipe I made with it. Once a week, Sam Sifton of the New York Times publishes what he calls a “No Recipe Recipe”. There is no set of ingredients or steps…

A comforting bowl of soup you can get on the table in under 30 minutes Isn’t it time for you to take a break?  If you’re like millions of us, you never cooked so many meals in your life.  And it’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner.…

Is there anything better than a bowl of Tomato Soup? Why yes! When you serve it with a great Grilled Cheese Sandwich.             I can never make soup without thinking of my Mother. She was simply incredulous that anyone would go to the trouble when,…

The Astonishing Allure of Thai Cooking Combined with the Irresistibly-priced Costco Rotisserie Chicken I cannot seem to pass up Costco’s Rotisserie Chicken.  At $4.99, I marvel at how it’s actually priced lower than its raw counterpart a few yards away in the store.  But regardless…

One of the Greatest Trips of My Life yields a Recipe for a Soup I’ll never forget For someone who loves to travel and does so every chance I get, there are some trips that live on in memory long after I’ve come home.  Onto…

When Andrew and I were in Portugal last month, we went on a wonderful picnic.  It was part of an optional shore excursion offered by Viking on our 10-day Douro River Cruise.  We left the ship and traveled high up into the hills to the…

Cinco de Mayo came one day late this year. We celebrated Seis de Mayo with this wonderful soup. It’s one of those soups that makes a meal. Rich, satisfying, and truly filled with the goodness of vegetables and spices for a depth of flavor we…

Ah, Ribollita…the Tuscan soup that’s a perfect antidote to winter.  Hearty and robust, it’s packed with vegetables and day-old bread making it far more a stew than a soup.  Its origins are precise.  Its roots are in the peasant foods of Tuscany particularly in the…

If you live in the East, you’re experiencing an arctic blast of obscenely low temperatures. We’re so bundled up against the cold, not even the runners are out these mornings.  There is a cure for the cold. And that of course, is a bowl of…

In all honesty, I don’t know what possessed me to make this.  Let’s face it, it’s not exactly a Gourmet discovery.  And even if its genesis was a recipe I saw in Food and Wine Magazine, it’s a long way from their usual offerings.  Nevertheless,…

When you live in a food town like New York, you discover places all over the city that are worth a detour anytime you’re close to them.  A recent doctor’s visit put me within two long blocks of the Sullivan Street Bakery.  I am so…