Sometimes, the weekends call for a nice salad for lunch. This tends to happen on Sundays, particularly when I know that I’m making something extra-hearty or indulgent (e.g. fried chicken). I’m woefully behind on my magazine reading; I finally got around to the April 2015 issue of Food & Wine,... Read More

This is not a typical Cooking From the Book post for a bunch of reasons (the recipe’s not from a book; I absolutely did not even try to follow the procedure exactly as written) but because I thought it deserved a very thorough walk-through, I’m calling it a (Sort Of)... Read More

So, a while back, it seemed like “no-churn ice cream” was popping up all over my Pinterest feed. And then, Food52 did a post on making an ice cream cake with a meringue crust. And THEN it just kept getting hotter and hotter. So I did it. I made a no-churn... Read More

I’m not ashamed to say it: I love dessert drinks. They’re often made with über-sweet artificially flavored vodkas, though. And while I won’t deny (OK, with some modicum of shame) that I enjoy some of them, the world is suffering from a plague of flavored vodka. This drink is a... Read More

I’m not a really big wine fan, so I have to admit that one of my preferred uses for it is to make sangria. (I can hear all you oenophiles booing me. That’s quite enough, thank you.) Sangria’s a great easy drink for parties. Everyone loves it, it’s easy to... Read More

I just love the smell of lemon verbena. The leaves release a lemony scent when crushed, with distinct floral notes. It’s sort of like a lemon version of kaffir lime! That elusive flowery-but-not-soapy quality. The leaves have a weird texture, though, rough and scratchy, which makes me feel like I... Read More

When you have a “Best Neighbor Ever” like @Melissa808, you get to come home and find awesome stuff like a bag full of kaffir limes hanging on your door. Last month, when we went to the Maui AgFest, Melissa bought a whole bunch of kaffir limes and was kind enough... Read More

During our recent “cold snap” (I got to wear the lovely, heavy coat Shake got me for Christmas several years ago for a full week!) I made a lot of soups and stews for dinner. I find there’s nothing so satisfying as a hot bowl of flavorful soup when it’s... Read More