ONE OF SPAIN’S MOST FAMOUS TAPAS, PAN CON TOMATE IS EASY TO MAKE After our ten-day trip through Portugal in July, it seemed a shame to be just an hour and a half by air from Barcelona and not go there—especially since Andrew had only…
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…
The thrill of being invited to participate in a three-day adventure at the Culinary Institute of America, Napa Valley, California branch is about as good as it gets. Especially if you’re a self-taught home cook. And the experience exceeded every imaginable expectation I had. How…
Asparagus season is coming and here’s a great way to celebrate its arrival. While a frittata sounds rather fancy, it’s a very easy dish to make. Far simpler than flipping an omelette, it’s wildly versatile too. For this version, I added shallots and cremini mushrooms…
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…
This recipe landed in my inbox in a collection of the 10 Most-Popular recipes in The New York Times. Turns out the Times runs posts of its Most Popular recipes so frequently, that I cannot tell you what time frame they’re referring to. However, the…
In keeping with our vow to eat less meat and experiment with a more plant-based diet, I was delighted to have found the bones of this recipe in Food and Wine. It’s pure vegetarian, a wonderful balance of textures and flavors with just a shot…
Meatless Mondays have been missing from our house. It was not intentional but I had trouble finding recipes that appealed to the palate and to the eyes. But on one of the daily e-mailings from Healthy-ish, Bon Appetit’s latest venture, I spied this recipe. It…
The season is upon us in the East. The Fried Green Tomatoes are here. They’re one of the foods I eagerly look for in the market. And last weekend at the Farm Stand I found them. Firm, unripened and very green. Steady readers of this…
After I published this post, I shared it on Jonell Galloway’s Facebook page “Culinary Travel by Jonell Galloway, The Rambling Epicure”. One of Jonell’s readers got involved when I mentioned the multiple spellings of “biryani” and Jonell asked whether it was the English spelling of…
I won’t go into the dreary details of two nights spent in Frankfurt Airport where a freak storm stranded over 7000 passengers except to say that if a contest were held First Prize would be one night in Frankfurt Airport and Second Prize would be…
When it comes to Buttermilk, I can come up with three recipes that require it: Waffles, Fried Chicken and Biscuits. Buttermilk comes in quarts. The only recipe of the three that requires that much Buttermilk is perhaps the chicken marinade which is used to tenderize…
A couple of weeks ago, I returned from “A Cheddar Odyssey”, an offering from Cheese Journeys, who, as their name implies, runs tours that combine Culture, Exploration and Cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. It’s one of those trips that beguiles you long after you’ve…
Food Trends are an annual pursuit for everyone from Bon Appetit to the BBC. The list that intrigued me most, however, came from Pinterest, the on-line picture sharing site where anyone, anywhere can post any image at all that interests them. “Food” makes up…
PONANT EXPLORES THE GLOBE WITH A DECIDEDLY FRENCH ACCENT.
