This recipe is like a southern housewife who just flew back from the Bahamas. There’s nothing that smells of home, sweet home like a fresh-baked pan of cornbread, but who wants to forget the intoxicating aromas of the tropics so soon? Heck, a compromise. And to return to reality from that little hyperbole, this dish was indeed a compromise when it was planned for the menu at the BBQ last night, hosted by Finger on the Pulse.
This could be one of my favorite things I didn’t know I was making. Not knowing I was making in the sense that I had no idea it would turn out like this. I didn’t predict the asparagus would cook so perfectly, still juicy and a little bit crisp, and the egg’s yolk would combine with the lemony bechamel to drown it in an even richer sauce. Nor that a few scattered slices of Swiss would find its way into … Read More
What do breakfast, lasagna, free pool tables and cheap pints of beer have to do with one another? Nothing. Except that they’re sloshing around inside of me as I write this (the free pool more figuratively, say an X-ray glimpse into my stomach with sound effects) a few short hours and not enough sleep after indulging in all. I trust that you could skip the last two items in that equation and have yourself a mighty fine meal out of … Read More
Naysayers and pastry purists, look out: this post may sound a little weird. Crispy, you say? (they say, that is). A thin, crunchy crust on a creamy quiche? What is this, a pizza? The agent provocateur in this quiche was the use of pre-packaged square wonton wrappers instead of small, conventional pastry crusts (a marriage of convenience, of course). Genetically speaking, these share the same DNA as fresh Italian pasta — flour and egg. And the thickness of a pre-packaged … Read More
Sometimes I just want to retreat to a vegetable paradise. Where I can, you know, peel potatoes in a grass skirt and roll around in fields of cornsilk to the tunes of Cat Stevens. I get this feeling especially after visiting a midsummer farmers’ market, soaking in the blissful variety and radiance of all the produce. It’s not so much a sensation of hunger that I get as it is of admiration and awe, similar to visiting a museum. That … Read More
‘ A homespun breakfast with all the merits of “a good start.” This weekend my neighborhood was once again bustling with brunching — the all-afternon affair elongated by the sluggish buzz of cool cocktails and the sun and sights of street dining. I never did feel especially healthy leaving one of these spring or summer brunches in the end, nor (strangely) very full. But they certainly were nice for a warm spring day like we just had, magnolia trees bursting … Read More
“Give a man a quiche and you satisfy his need for quiche for a day. Teach a man to make quiche, and you give him quiches for life.” –New Half-Chinese Proverb And teach him also that you don’t have to make it for breakfasts… No doubt quiche was given a bad rap in the eighties. I guess people still think of it as one of the more fussy, frilly and feminine of the brunch species; but what man, really, doesn’t … Read More
Ah, the good ol’ two-step. Like the dance, this one carries a myriad of variations. Then again, I never did learn the dance, in any style, and now I kind of wonder what happened to that swing and formal dance revival that took hold of the city several years ago. For that matter, what happened to any kind of dance craze? There has been a bit of a granola craze going on as far as I can tell — everywhere … Read More
The other day my co-workers and I polished this off so quickly that I didn’t even get to snag a picture of the thing. The problem was, I didn’t think to take a picture of it; it was unexpectedly good. So good. Good good good good good. And good for you. I had no such aspirations for it. I don’t recall ever trying to make banana bread before, and I have one highly underdeveloped sense of baking, as seen in … Read More
I’d like to think there’s an old Hawaiian tradition of serving Christmas ham with pineapple. I’d also like to think that I’m in Hawaii instead of New Jersey this Christmas as well. But unfortunately, neither are most likely true. But because ham is not on the menu for my family’s Christmas this year, or for our traditional night-before-Christmas elaborate Chinese feast (which will be posted and explained soon), or any time really this year, I thought I’d pay my respect … Read More