As we usher in the season of more cooking and eating and gathering (in small, socially distant groups, of course), I bring you cookbooks. Here are a few favorites for everyday or special cooking. And welcome gifts for your holiday host/hostess—or yourself! The Well Plated Cookbook by Erin Clarke With her cookbook’s beautiful and warm recipe commentary, Erin comes across as a girlfriend. The friend who wants us to succeed
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“I lost my wife a few months ago,” said the polite, older gentleman. “She always made the Thanksgiving turkey, and I want to cook a nice dinner this year. As a gift to my kids, in memory of their mom and my wife. But I need some help.” While the caller took notes, Bill Nolan walked the man through the fine points of cooking a perfect Thanksgiving turkey. Step by
Colorful trees, crunchy leaves, pretty mums on doorsteps… When the calendar flips to October, I turn to all-things pumpkin. I love the cozy and delicious smells of cinnamon and nutmeg and vanilla warming up our home. Even if it is still 80 degrees outside! Here are five of my favorites. Pumpkin treats from recipe developers who come up with wonderful food combinations again and again. Enjoy – and I’d love
At the height of the pandemic, when grocery staples were in short supply, my husband returned home from the market. He plopped three packages of chicken wings on the kitchen counter. “They were out of breasts and thighs. It was wings or nothing,” my husband said. But how do you make chicken wings into…. dinner? Ashlea Carver Adams, and her foodie site – All the Healthy Things – to the
In my hunt for entertaining shows to stream, I stumbled upon a gem. V is For Vino features an affable host, unpretentious wine speak, lush vineyards, and a glimpse inside the kitchen of a local chef. Available on Amazon, the trio of first-season episodes gives me the urge to pack a bag and head west to California. The lead vocalist for a rock band, Vince Anter landed in Los Angeles
A man smiled and handed a crisp $100 bill to the young woman doling out maple and blueberry and key lime doughnuts to the early morning risers. Nodding at the long line of folks behind him, he wanted to buy breakfast for all of them. “My eight-year-old son recently passed away,” he said quietly, “and this was his favorite place to go at the beach.” Surrounded by beautiful white homes
Whether exploring a new city or tracking down a coffee shop in my own town, I prefer to park my car and set out on foot. When I meander through a neighborhood, I notice flowers and window displays and people I don’t see from the backseat of an Uber or behind the steering wheel of my car. And – even more fun still? – wandering through a community while devouring
Thomas Persinger’s love affair with Alaska – its glaciers, volcanoes, captivating wildlife – began a dozen years ago. Celebrating his dad’s 50th birthday, the family travelled to Anchorage and Seward and Port Alsworth, a tiny fishing village in the Alaskan bush. What was not to love? “We ate breakfast, hopped in a float plane, and caught fish all day,” Thomas remembers. And he was determined to return. Studying at Auburn
Feeling like old friends, Mark Bilbrey greeted me with a big smile, a warm hug, and invited me behind the cheese case at Porter Road Butcher in East Nashville. We spent the next two hours laughing and talking and comparing varieties of cheddars and goudas. Tragically, 3 months later, on November 6, 2018, Mark lost his life in a one-vehicle auto accident on rain-soaked streets. For his family, friends, colleagues,
Strolling into the Rayback Collective on a bright, sunny morning, I spot an eclectic array of food trucks, bikers sipping coffee around a fire pit, folks clicking laptops at community work tables, and a vegan ice cream cart. Combined with a lounge, live music, and an adjacent multi-use trail, this place may be too cool for me…..
According to Matt Russo, “a gambling stick is an old Appalachian name for a stick used to hang a pig from the limb of a tree. Threaded through the heels of the pig, the stick supports its weight while the animal is harvested.” The gamble, and hope, is the stick can handle the pig’s weight, and the animal will not come tumbling down. In a parking lot in trendy East
As we chatted with the baker at an upscale Italian bakery in a trendy section of Brooklyn, my son and I explained what we wanted. The gentleman, who had been baking panettone and cannoli and biscotti in this neighborhood long before it turned hip and cool, looked at us with a slight amount of distaste— and a whole lot of surprise. “You want two cakes at this wedding?” he said.
I became of age in a Heineken, Budweiser, Michelob world – and Coors, brewed with “Rocky Mountain spring water,” was something a little more special. Admittedly, ordering a beer used to be a simple task. Nowadays, deciphering choices in the craft beer world can be complicated and overwhelming. Lager, ale, IPA, hops, barley, amber, abv, malt, mash – I just want something I actually like to drink. In a city
We sit in her backyard on this lovely, balmy September day in Dallas, Texas. As I eagerly devour her beautifully presented creation that is my lunch, we talk about how much The Defined Dish has grown since it began, basically, at the start of this year. Alex Snodgrass is the perfect example of finding what you love to do and turning it into a livelihood. With a huge smile, she
Concord grape ice cream, topped with a homemade and torched cinnamon marshmallow sauce, nestled between two homemade, and very special, graham crackers
Sweet corn ice cream, spread with a black currant jam, on savory jalapeño corn meal cookies
Fresh mint ice cream, covered with a velvety mixture of white chocolate and crunchy wasabi peas, sandwiched between two extraordinary sugar cookies
I hesitate, wondering if I am headed in the right direction. Following my instructions, I turn down a deserted alley, made more gloomy and lonely by the heavy San Francisco rain and gray January morning. The alley consists of back doors and fire escapes and garbage dumpsters and Chinese signs. I come upon one tiny English sign and smile – I am in the right place. The Golden Gate Fortune
