Sally’s Salmon

As I mentioned before on this blog I once owned a microwave oven that had a Seafood button on it – and the simplicity of that combined with a divine bottled sauce from Trader Joe’s made cooking salmon simple and good. (Okay, so certain family members referred to it as “that microwaved fish Mom makes”…

Brooke’s Guacamole

My daughter Brooke made the best guacamole last night. I mean the best I’ve ever tasted and I’ve had a lot of guacamole over the years. Her recipe is below. This plus the beans and chips with a little melted cheese can make a whole meal as far as I’m concerned. Don’t even bother with…

Fourth of July Lasagna

  Fourth of July in Lake Arrowhead is a moveable feast. If you have a view of the fireworks from your deck, friends will come over with friends (in one case friends of friends with their friends) and this all works out because it’s a close knit neighborhood and I always like the friends of…

A Poet’s Recipe: Shrimp Barka

If you watched Obama’s first inauguration you saw the beautiful Elizabeth Alexander read her inauguration poem, “Praise Song for the Day”, a poem I love so much that I’ve been reading it to my students ever since. (Google it and see for yourself.)  Below is not a poem but a recipe from her memoir, The Light…

Friends & Potlucks

This website has gone silent for over a year, and I need to tell you why. The main character in the reports of my attempts at cooking is gone. My beloved and infinitely patient husband R. died in February.  For almost a year before his death I no longer cooked nor entertained. He had throat…

A Movable Feast: the gift of food

There have been no posts for awhile on this blog because R. is ill  so we’re not cooking for friends or going out to dinner. But the other night my friend Kara announced she was bringing a small dinner party to us to celebrate our friend Rob’s birthday.  She arrived with Rob and a complete…

Chef’s One Pot Chicken

  This dish, which is delicious and as last minute friendly as a recipe can get, appeared in an article about what chefs cook on their nights off by Sam Sifton in the New York Times Sunday magazine a few weeks ago. He adapted it from a recipe by Andrew and Rishia Zimmern who got it…

The Poets’ Party

You realize of course that I’m writing this cooking blog for me, forcing myself to create a bunch of menus that I can calmly choose from when I invite friends over and not go into my usual OMG what- will-I-cook mode. So when I offered my house for a reception, including something to eat, after a…

Not My Grandfather’s Sandwich

    It seems like everybody has memories of their grandmother’s cooking. I remember nothing about my grandmother in the kitchen except when I was six years old and she assured me that if I ate whole wheat bread my hair would turn brown. (I was unhappy with my white blond hair.) My grandfather on…