I desperately miss strawberries. Do you remember when they actually tasted like something other than slightly sweet cotton wool? Dear old strawberries. Like a pal who's undergone a facelift, strawberries these days--while absolutely gorgeous--make you long for the old one. Even with all their bumps, blemishes and imperfections, they were resolutely and authentically themselves andabsolutely irresistible.
Read moreBlueberry and Lemon Curd Pavlova
I feel that in the kitchen, as in life, opportunities present themselves and one must be ever vigilant to recognize them. My beloved pal Sarah came to stay the other day, and presented me with a hitherto unexplored ingredient--a carton of organic egg whites. They sat there until yesterday when I noticed that I'd better do something with them before they set about expiringand making me send them to a better place before they reached their full potential.
Read moreHay and Straw Pasta
I am reminded every time I make this for dinner, how much we all love it, and wonder why I don't make it more often. It's easy and so creamy and full of flavor that it's really just glamorous comfort food when you get right down to it. Actually, it's so easy to keep the ingredients on hand, that there's no reason for it not to become a good ol' pantry special--you know, one of those things to make when you haven't planned anything and it's suddenly dinnertime and your beloved family clearly expect that it's going to magically materialize. Actually, at times like this, when you hear the crunch on the driveway that signals your brood is home and you've been lazing about the hacienda doing lots of stuff that doesn't include making dinner, my first advice is to lay the table. That way, you can stall for time while you figure out what in the world you're going to do, and it lulls them into a false sense of security that you've got it together.
Read moreCowboy Chili Breakfast
Now in the good ole' days, when Jeff and I were young and fancy-free, one of our favorite weekend activities was going to the Texas-Wisconsin Border Cafeon Main Street for brunch. Everything was a flavorful delicacy in that legendary, now defunct, eatery--from the potato pancakes, to keilbasa to my all time favorite, the cowboy chili breakfast.
Once our brunch days were somewhat curtailed by our little companion, I took to weeklymaking brunch at home, which, for some reason, has dwindled into a mostly french toast making culinary sortie. That being said, last weekend I found some of my wonderful chili in the freezer on Saturday and thawed it overnight for a Sunday morning appearance of my beloved old breakfast companion.
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