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  • All-Cornmeal Skillet Cornbread

     This is a no wheat flour recipe. It is crumbly and a little crunchy rather than springy and custardy like some cornbreads made with a combination of corn and wheat. Easy to make, it is buttery tasting and perfect with a steaming bowl of chili on a cool evening. I use a combination of coarse- and ...
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  • What’s Cooking Today

     Here's what some other folks are featuring today:       NYT Cooking - Recipe of the Day         Epicurious - 47 Mother's Day Dinner Recipes for the Best Mom Ever         BBC good food - ...
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  • Knives

     A cook’s knives are his or her most basic and, I think, most important, kitchen tools. And yet, when I help out in the kitchens of friends and family, I am frequently amazed by what I see when I check out their knife collections and the condition of the knives therein. With a few exceptions, I ...
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  • Grilled Swordfish with Fennel and Lemon

     Swordfish steaks are easy to grill because they don't fall apart as they cook. The silky texture of the sautéd fennel contrasts well with the firm beefsteak-like fish. Lemons get sweeter when grilled. Squeeze a little juice over the fish and fennel, if you like, but try eating the lemon, rind ...
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  • Vegetarian Dinner on Monday

     We try to eat a vegetarian meal for dinner once or twice a week. We do this because we think it’s a healthful thing to do, and because, frankly, vegetarian meals are often cheap. We sometimes eat the sort-of “standard” vegetarian dishes such as beans and rice, or spinach ravioli with a simple ...
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  • Carrot and Lentil Stew with Middle Eastern Spices

     The recipe is based on the combination of two recipes by Martha Rose Shulman that I found on New York Times Cooking. The NYT recipes are here and here. I like the combination of  coriander, cardamon, and cumin with the lemon and mint. Be very careful not to overcook the lentils. They can go ...
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  • Baking Bread – Part 1

     There are some excellent breads available at the local farmers markets near us. We particularly enjoy the multigrain loaf from The Rustic Loaf, which we can get at the Laguna Beach Farmers Market. About nine or ten months ago, I started to wonder whether I could bake equally good bread at home, and ...
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  • Market Day…

     Yesterday was market day in Laguna Beach. Artichokes are in season, so they were plentiful and relatively cheap. Lemons are mostly done for now. Strawberries have picked up a bit, but not so much that the price has come down, yet. The weather has been cool, so leafy vegetables, lettuces, and peas ...
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  • Reducing Added Sugar in the Diet

     There was an interesting piece in the Smarter Living section of the NY Times this morning about how to reduce the amount of added sugar one consumes. It's a short piece with a link to a longer, more detailed guide by David Leonhardt. There seems to be a fair amount of good scientific evidence that ...
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  • Chocolate Oatmeal?

     Melissa Clark, in her "A Good Appetite" column in this morning's NY Times Food section, writes about making chocolate oatmeal for breakfast. Since I eat oatmeal for breakfast a few times a week, and since even for someone like me who actually likes his morning porridge it can be pretty boring, I ...
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