I grew up with the edition of the Joy of Cooking that was bound in turquoise fabric and was first released sometime in the early 1960’s. It was a staple reference tome in my house, especially in the years before the internet made it easy to find 12 different recipes for the same cake in [...]
The turkey is rinsed, defrosted and ready to be stuffed. A big bowl of roasted sweet potato puree with vanilla bean and orange zest is ready to be reheated (I had a moment of panic when it appeared that I had killed my mom’s Vitamix in the process of pureeing. Thankfully, I had [...]
The first time I made cranberry bread, I was 8 years old. My mom helped me toast the walnuts and chop the cranberries in her Vitamix, but left the rest of the measuring and stirring up to me. We took it with us to my grandma Bunny’s house, and I walked around with [...]
Three nights ago, in the space between awareness and sleep, I found myself designing a recipe. I don’t feel like it came from me so much as I plucked it from the misty shared creative space to which we all have access. Anyway, what I imagined was a white bean and ground turkey chili, but [...]
Saturday afternoon Seth picked me up behind my building. Once I was seated and belted in, he turned to me and said, “Okay, so where we going?” I told him Linvilla Orchards and pointed him in the direction of 95 South. Less than half an hour later, we pulled into a row [...]
One of my favorite things about not having a job is being home for lunch. Yesterday I made braised swiss chard and quinoa. Today I made a huge bowl salad with Boston lettuce, feta, turkey bacon, avocado, tomato and red onion. It was really good.
I met up with some friends during the [...]
Walking through the produce section of the Rittenhouse Market, I was stopped by a woman holding her hand up like a traffic cop and waving it at me slightly. She looked to be in her early 60’s, had stylishly short dark hair and wore a black suit that would have impressed my fashionable grandmother.
“When a [...]
Fall will officially be here on Saturday, but the scents and senses of fall have been in the air for a couple of weeks now. I always find myself longing to make a big pot of soup as soon as I feel the change in seasons start to occur, and one of my favorites [...]
I have always been a sucker for a picnic, packed neatly into a basket, with sliverware neatly slotted into elastic holders attached to the lid, cloth napkins tucked carefully around the cheese and sausage. Not that I’ve really ever had any picnics like that, but still. When I was a kid, I so romanticized the [...]
I made peach sauce twice last night. I bought eight peaches yesterday afternoon, with the intention to cook four and have four for eating later. I cut up half, put them in a pot with a little water, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice/zest and let them do their thing. Only their thing included burning, leaving [...]
