Cuisine. Culture. Commentary.
Finally! The weather has changed and that means there is new produce in season. Asparagus is a great veggie to use right now. You’ll probably see it everywhere this month from soups to pastas. I find that when something is in season, it requires very little fuss to turn it into a great dish. In this…
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I recently wrote about making pasta with crème fraîche, just like I learned in France. If you read that post, you may recall that my first crème fraîche pasta experience was when my French Mom served it with smoked salmon. This time, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful Spring weather we had on…
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I had been snacking on my latest cheese purchase, a goat cheese rolled in smoked paprika (I think) but decided I wanted to do something more with it than put it on crackers. The paprika gave it such a unique smoky flavor (one I don’t associate with the tang of goat cheese) that I thought…
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One of my New Years Resolutions is to start a new monthly feature on the blog (and, again, I resolve to revive the last monthly feature I started, Inspiration Station). Cooking with ingredients of the season just feels…genuine. Each month I’ll select one or two ingredients that are in season and highlight them in a…
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It’s rare that I make breakfast on the weekends. I usually either use the weekend as an excuse to grab a bagel or breakfast sandwich from around the corner or to sleep in, lounge around, and make lunch my first meal. But this Sunday I convinced Albert to come over for a proper weekend brunch.…
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The first time I had crème fraîche was while I was living in France. Actually, that’s the only time I have ever had it because they don’t really make it here in the US. Sure, restaurants dollop some cream over berries and say it’s crème fraîche, but it’s not the same. In France, the texture…
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I love stuffed peppers but plenty of people seem to think tomatoes are totally interchangeable when it comes to a meal of filled vegetables. There are about as many stuffed tomato recipes as there are stuffed pepper recipes so there must be something good there. I didn’t want to use the same recipe I usually…
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Here’s a quick fix side dish idea for ya. Cook up some Israeli couscous and while you’re doing that, start sautéing chopped zucchini in a pan with a little butter. When the zucchini is about halfway done, add one clove of chopped garlic and a bunch of fresh spinach. I also added some fresh thyme…
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Sweet peas…sweet ham. These two things often seem to come together so I figured I would throw them into a pasta dish for a quick supper. But sweet on sweet in something that’s not a dessert just ain’t my style so I wanted to create a simple recipe to make those sweet freaks happy without…
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My plan for book club was to make one of my Mom’s pies. I got the recipe and was all ready to go…until I couldn’t find the main ingredient in the grocery store. So there I was, standing in D’Ag at 8:45 PM the night before, no idea what I was going to make. I…
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Peaches to Apples 