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Feast at Redwall Abbey
My kids and I listen to a lot of books on tape. One series we are currently captivated by is Brian Jacques’s Redwall series. I suspect we’ll be captivated for quite some time as Jacques has written 22 novels, the last one published posthumously in 2011. In the books, Redwall is an abbey populated by animal folk like mice, otters and badgers who ( Read more... ) -
Great Curries - Poor Editing
When I started reviewing all my cookbooks my main goal was to cull my huge collection and get to a manageable number of books that would fit on my kitchen shelves. A huge, and unexpected, bonus has been the interest my children have taken in helping with this project. My son, in particular, is always excited to pick a book, thumb through the ( Read more... ) -
Preaching Frugality
Do you remember Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet? The "Frug," as he called himself, hailed on PBS throughout the 1980s and 1990s and wrote at least a dozen cookbooks. His attitude was to be frugal when eating, select only the best food and avoid the rest ( Read more... ) -
1997 -- A Very Good Year
Back in the 90's I had a subscription to Food & Wine magazine. I loved the magazine, but I hate keeping the old copies around, and it's impossible to every find a recipe again once you own one or two years worth. Many magazines solve this problem for you. They sell a bound compilation book which you can purchase at the end of the year for the ( Read more... ) -
Fondue, NOT
Fondue: Fabulous Food, Easy Entertaining by Becky Johnson ( Read more... ) -
Italy Today and Tomorrow, at least at the Dinner Table
Italy Today, the Beautiful Cookbook by Lorenza di Medici
The Beautiful Cookbooks were popular in the 1990s, and were true to their name. They are large, truly beautiful cookbooks. Each book focused on a different country or region and was written by a different author. Three Beautiful cookbooks were dedicated to Italy: Italy, Tuscany, and ( Read more... ) -
Passover and the Supreme Court
This week has two things uppermost in my mind: Passover and the Supreme Court.
By the end of the week I will have attended three seders, and at each one we will tell the story of the Exodus, the story of Jewish freedom. We remember when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, and how God set them free. We tell our children the story so it is never ( Read more... ) -
Ten Years, Three Restaurants and One Love to Bind Them
This coming Saturday will mark 10 years of marriage for Cris and me. We celebrated last weekend by shipping our children off for a double-overnight with friends while we ate our way around Boston, the city of our nuptials.
We began our culinary journey on Saturday night at a wonderful little restaurant called The Beacon Hill Hotel and Bistro. We'd ( Read more... ) -
Aphrodite, A Memoir of the Senses
I love the writing of Isabel Allende. In 1998 when she published Aphrodite, A Memoir of the Senses, a book that combines artful storytelling and food, I couldn’t resist. As the book jacket describes, Allende takes “a highly personal a charmingly idiosyncratic look at the intertwined sensual arts of food and love.” In the introduction, Allende ( Read more... ) -
From New England to Kokomo
The Complete Caribbean Cookbook ( Read more... )