A St. Patrick's Day Salad
If you think food that celebrates St. Patrick's Day means corned beef and cabbage with boiled potatoes, it's time to update your thinking about Irish cooking.
New Irish Cooking
On St. Patrick's Day, the air will be rich with the aromas of cabbage, corned beef, crusty Irish soda bread and perhaps a stew studded with potatoes and carrots. These traditional Irish dishes, nostalgically enjoyed by Irish-Americans and other Americans feeling Irish for the day, are a far cry from what is on many Irish tables today.
Bake Your Valentine a Surprise
For Valentine's Day, I have moved from producing elaborate candlelight dinners to sharing simpler culinary seductions. This year, honoring the tradition of red for romance, I am making a less-traditional fruit-based dish.
Catfish Makes a Winning Dinner
This colorful dinner combines contrasting textures and bold flavors that are comforting and healthy.
Sicilian Cod: A Mediterranean Experience
This lean, flaky fish is a mainstay of the New England fishing industry. With a mild, sweet flavor, cod is perfectly suited for the bold Mediterranean flavors it is paired with in this recipe.
Learning the Tricks of the Trade
At least sixty percent of us learn kinesthetically, that is, by doing. In addition, performing meaningful tasks, especially unfamiliar ones that a novice cook is likely to encounter in the kitchen, builds confidence. Lack of confidence is a barrier that keeps many people out of the kitchen in the first place.
Making Ratatouille a Main Dish
Offering a final burst of colorful life, farmers' markets and home gardens are currently overflowing with deep purple eggplant, red and green bell peppers, heaps of summer squash, juicy tomatoes and basil in bunches as big as bushes. Which, of course, can only mean one thing: It's time to make ratatouille.
Gazpacho Meets Bloody Mary
Spanish cooks who endured hot Mediterranean summers combined bread, vinegar, oil and garlic to create a refreshing dish to help cool off. I was inspired to add horseradish, giving this version of Gazpacho the zesty kick of a bloody Mary.
What Makes the Best Food Choices
We are bombarded on a daily basis with news about the latest "Super foods" and the remarkable health benefits of the Diet du Jour. But when it comes to my health, I prefer sticking to tried and true research-based advice from respected health organizations.
A Grill, a Green Salad, a Great Dish
One of my all-time favorite dishes illustrates how, using the right combination of ingredients, simple dishes can be outstanding. It is a dish I discovered while traveling in Italy and it is made using just four ingredients.
Dip into Beans and Molé
Most Americans are unfamiliar with authentic Mexican molé sauce. While some may recognize it as "that sauce with chocolate in it," only aficionados of true Mexican cooking know the subtleties of a great molé.
A Brief History of Meatloaf
Food history is full of surprises. The history of an American staple, for example - meatloaf - offers more than a trip down culinary lane. I was intrigued to discover that my grandmother's hand-cranked grinder, the kind that attaches to the edge of a table, was key to meatloaf becoming an everyday dish.
Give Vegetable Soup a Spanish Accent
Traditionally cooked in an iron or heavy earthenware pot called an olla, there are many versions of this dish. While many include some form of pork, others are meatless, like this one.
Celebrate Another New Year
This year, look to the rat to make the dragon dance as we welcome in the Chinese New Year on February 7th. While you're at it, try this recipe for Fish with Ginger Scallion Sauce.
