What’s Cooking?
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A Month Of Soups, Part 3: Tomato
I am not a fan of canned tomato soup, one of those remnants of my picky-eater childhood. Not even grilled cheese sandwiches could persuade me otherwise. So it’s a source of private amusement to me that this soup is one of my favorites. It’s rich, creamy, deeply satisfying and an absolutely fabulous first course for
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A Month of Soups, Part 2: Mushroom
This week’s soup is one that Joe salivates for. I’ve been making it for years, from a recipe developed by Margaret Fox at the sadly departed Café Beaujolais in the storybook town of Mendocino, CA. This, too, can be made with vegetable broth, although I use whatever I have in the freezer or even canned
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A Month of Soups, Part 1: Lentil
You’ve heard the phrase "a month of Sundays"? Well, this is the soup season, and I think a month of soups is a good idea. After all, with Christmas bills, New Year’s diets and dark, cold nights, it’s the right time for something that’s warm, filling and inexpensive. Once upon a time, I described this
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Queen of California Cake
Late last week, I got an email from a reader, ardath2, searching for the recipe for Queen of California cake. It originally came from Cocolat in Berkeley, CA, a product of Alice Medrich, a real queen of chocolate. I’ve been making this cake for probably around 20 years, thanks to a recipe I found in
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Spinach Casserole
No holiday stirs my gastronomic id as much as Thanksgiving, nor my curiosity, either. Probably the most vivid example of this occurred in a suburb of Dallas several years ago. Joe’s middle daughter is a rabid Black Friday shopper (that’s the day after Thanksgiving, for you non-shoppers) and has often persuaded me to go along
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Dressing A Salad
Green salad season is here at our house. Summer salads, especially when local tomatoes are peaking, are more exciting, but good greens are a staple in cooler weather. My usual choice is a mixture of romaine and Boston or Bibb lettuces, the one crisp, the other tender. Properly dressed, that’s often enough. But add-ins are
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Shrimp Dip/Spread (Your Choice)
Those of us who love to cook and to feed people know the Eatin’ Season is coming. From Thanksgiving through the Super Bowl, it’s show time for us. I’m going to kick things off with a new-to-me dish that began with a recipe from The Border Cookbook, by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison. The
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National Meatloaf Day
The website Serious Eats has proclaimed October 18 National Meatloaf Appreciation Day and because I was about to make one anyway, I decided to participate. For more on the whole meatloaf-blogging thing, you can look here . At our house, meatloaf is a standard. In fact, at times Joe is known around here as Mr.
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Books: My Bombay Kitchen
About a thousand years ago, the group of people known as Parsis emigrated from what is now Iran to India. None of their descendants have opened restaurants in St. Louis. To judge from My Bombay Kitchen, a new cookbook from Miloufer Ichaporia King, that’s a real shame. King lives in the Bay Area and has
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Thai Fried Rice
For some reason, I find myself making this on Saturday evenings. Maybe that’s because there are apt to be leftovers (like rice) from the week, and a trip to Bob’s seafood that morning. It’s very light and refreshing compared to the fried rice that comes tightly packed into one of those little handled carry-out containers.