Thanksgiving in a non-cooker’s kitchen Once I found myself making Thanksgiving dinner in the kitchen of someone who didn’t cook. I’d ask for salt, or a pie pan, or oregano, and she’d look around and say dubiously, “I must have some somewhere around here….” It gave me a new appreciation for people who are just …
Monthly Archives: September 2019
Sweet potato fries
You need a sharp knife No, really, a sharp knife. Otherwise making sweet potato fries is no fun. But besides that, most cooking is more fun with a really sharp knife. You need sharp knives to slice apples for baked apples, or to slice onions or carrots. It’s one of the core problems of my life. I can’t seem …
Spicy corn
A simplified recipe This was originally an incredibly complex recipe from the New York Times that involved simmering the corncobs and then removing them, and both butter and bacon. This is a simpler, healthier version for everyday. It’s also a great splash of bright color for your Thanksgiving table. How to make spicy corn: Boil …
Sautéed spinach
Bagged spinach or bunch spinach? Sometimes I do buy the bagged spinach, because it’s so much easier. But bunch spinach is better, really. It’s a little bit cheaper, but mainly it’s better because fewer people handle it, and so it is less likely to have nasty germs than the bagged spinach is. Also, if you …
Sautéed chard
Delicious no-salt chard I recently ate this chard at a friend’s house, and he was bragging about how it didn’t have any salt in it. It was delicious, and I asked for the recipe. “Oh, you just saute it in olive oil,” he said. “Liar,” I said. In the end, he admitted there was more …
Roasted vegetables
How to make roast vegetables: Preheat oven to 350 F. Peel and cut up a potato, a sweet potato, two parsnips, and two carrots. Cut them into pieces about two bites big. Pour 1/8 cup of olive oil into a deep oven-proof casserole and add the cut up vegetables. Bake about 40 minutes or until …
Potato chips
Why buy potato chips when you can bake them? Potato chips, as you can see from the ingredients list on the bag, are just potatoes sliced thin and fried with oil. You can do that at home, and have much better potato chips for a small fraction of the cost of store-bought ones. How to …
Jamaican stuffing
So my partner’s Sephardic… His family went from Spain, when the Jews were thrown out in 1492, to the Netherlands, and from there to England, and from there to Jamaica, and they brought this recipe with them from Jamaica to New Orleans to New York City when they got to New York about 1920. If …
Haroset (and haroset pie!)
What is haroset? Haroset is a mixture of chopped apples and nuts that plays a part in the traditional Jewish seder meal at Passover. By March, it’s hard to get the kids excited about more apples, but they love making and eating haroset. Ashkenazi or Sephardic? Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe, like my Lithuanian ancestors, …
Grated carrots
I miss the charcuterie In Paris, when you want a take-out dinner, the easiest choice is the neighborhood charcuterie, where you can get all kinds of ready-cooked meals, but also appetizers and side dishes. Grated carrots is one of the most common appetizers in all Paris charcuteries – healthy, simple, cheap! How to make grated carrots: …