CHESTNUTS AND POMEGRANATES

 "I've looked at love from both sides nowFrom give and take, and still somehowIt's love's illusions I recallI really don't know love at all."(Joni Mitchell)      The technique of roasting chestnuts is incubating in searing heat (scored and covered) and hatching them when fully...

Read more »

FOR GIVING

Giving, sharing, donating, volunteering, cooking… — these are all gestures of benevolence for someone. The fictional Sal Paradise (if you remember from my old post titled Soul Food)  came to town and brought with him “gifts” under my Christmas tree. (The material present even if it’s just one,...

Read more »

O PULP THE JAM

     My red kiwi and passion fruit (with multi-berries) homemade jam is now a week old and I think it’s ready to be taken out of the cupboard for a taste test. (I’m thrilled that during the process of “canning” or aging,” inspecting the cabinet for any evidence of oxidation or bubble...

Read more »

A COOK'S LESSONS

"I had been cooking all my life, but only as a way to please grownups; now I discovered that it had other virtues. I yearned for romance and dreamed of candlelight suppers. I started with the recipes I had learned, but I soon branched out. It never occurred to me that a recipe might be too hard. I understood...

Read more »