Cooking. Eating. Stories. What more could you want?
Cookpot Quote of the Week: Happiness at the table
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In general, I think, human beings are happiest at table when they are very young, very much in love or very alone.
- M.F.K. Fisher, An Alphabet for Gourmets
I don't know about you but I have a real cookbook problem. I have more than I will ever use. I keep acquiring them. I read many cover to cover, often never cook anything from them (hence The Cookbook Project) and they take up space on my shelves. I have maybe half a dozen I use regularly and the rest I look at then think I should pass them on but somehow I just can't make myself. I Know How To Cook by Ginette Mathiot (trans. Clothilde Dusoulier of Chocolate and Zucchini ) is one of those cookbooks I've tried to give away several times but just couldn't. If you haven't heard of it, this book is often called The Joy of Cooking for the French. It's not necessarily the most elaborate cookbook you might find, but it is full of recipes and clear instructions that make it accessible for less-experienced cooks. First published in 1932, it was intended to be a resource for young home makers, to help them feed their families easily and well. Since I am not experienc...
I don't know about you, but my life has been so busy lately that I've had little time to really think about the meals I've been cooking. Most are made simply and in haste. Okay, I have chicken breasts and a bottle of salsa. Great, that goes in the oven, chop up a salad and yup! dinner and leftovers for lunch. Whew! While this is tasty and generally healthy (I'm trying to not eat like an idiot) I miss the time and attention cooking can take. The step-by-step nature of it. The linear acts that lead to completion. It's a comforting kind of ritual that binds me to patience, to time, to doing one thing at a time. We connect to ritual time in many ways (prayer, meditation, doing the same thing every day as get ready for work). I find it through cooking. I had a chance to engage in this careful kind of cooking recently in honor of Passover. For those of you who may not know, the Passover Seder requires several ritual foods that are eaten in a specific order and that ha...
It's been a while, huh. Since last I posted I've moved to Minnesota, remarried, bought a house, acquired a dog, and more. And, oh year, there's a pandemic still going on. How are you? Part of living in Minnesota means dealing with a long, dark, cold winter. Soup has always been a good friend, and now it's even more vital. When it's 20 below zero without windchill, you need something warm and filling, and you need it now. Enter the big pot of soup. I make lots of different soups, most recently one of my favorites, Split Pea. I know, it's not pretty and it's hard to avoid that scene from The Exorcist, but if you can get past that, it's worth every minute and every single thick, delicious sip. As always, this recipe is flexible. Substitutions and tweaks are noted. You will need: A big pot A bag/about two cups/about a pound of green split peas. I suppose you could make it with yellow split peas, though I never have Olive oil or bacon fat Onion Garlic Water ...
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