Summer is coming to an end, but basil plants are still pushing on determinedly. What to do with that bunch of basil going slowly limp in your crisper? It’s more obvious than obvious, of course, but a pesto whirred together in your food processor is a quick way to preserve some of that summer aroma…

Oh boy, I’m "it". Cath, from A Blithe Palate, tagged me for my very first meme. This food-blogging community is quite a friendly and active one! I am supposed to go through my posts until I stumble on the 23rd one, then seek out the 5th line, post it here along with some insights into…

Searching for an authentic version of panzanella – that Italian salad made up basically of stale bread and fresh tomatoes – proved more difficult than I expected. Many recipes online and in cookbooks included fennel, raw garlic, tuna, chickpeas, Parmigiano, boiled eggs, and other such out-of-place ingredients that didn’t really fulfill my ideas of one…

Blini are those smallish Russian pancakes made from buckwheat flour, often topped off with a cap of sour cream and a spoonful of caviar. In a recent article in the L.A. Times about corn, Russ Parsons fiddled with a recipe from Jeremiah Tower for cornmeal blini, adding fresh corn and jalapeno peppers. They were to…

What do you do when the gloriously perfumed stone fruit that you so carefully selected from large bins at the market one day, transitions too quickly from the promise of juicy, pliant flesh to an almost decadent state of over-ripeness? Slice away the offending areas, douse in an acidic slosh of citrus juice and booze,…

Dear readers, I have been humbled. After being somewhat scornful of the roasted peppers I made last night, I had some cooled to room temperature for lunch. And what had seemed bland and a bit forgettable yesterday was concentrated and delicious today. It's not exactly rocket science that leftovers (when not chilled to tooth-aching temperatures)…

Since I so often mention my CSA basket, I thought that I might also dedicate a post to it. Community Supported Agriculture is a program that has city folk support a farmer by buying shares of his harvest in advance, and thereby giving him the money he (or she!) needs to tend the farm, buy…

This morning, I'm feeling dejected. Yet another L.A. Times recipe that kind of stank. It had so much promise! Delectable vegetables, freshly grated cheese, crispy breadcrumbs to bind it all together before a toasty roll in hot oil. What came out, though, were odd little balls that were too garlicky (I promise, there is such…

My mother was in Venice this past weekend. On her walks around the city, she came across this sign at a fish market. Most likely dating back to the 18th century, it stipulates the minimum length allowed for sale, in centimeters, for each type of fish. Then the sign lists the fish in Venetian dialect.…

    This upside-down cake, from Barefoot in Paris, was not a success, but I only partially blame the recipe. As some of you might know from The Food Network or her best-selling cookbooks, Ina Garten started a catering shop called Barefoot Contessa in the Hamptons 20 years ago. A few years back, she got…