I recently made a cheesecake for a B-themed party for my friend Bingham. Guests brought burgundy, beer, green beans, salad with bleu cheese; I made cheesecake with blueberry topping, rather like the picture. Naturally, for these august occasions, one doesn’t…
Blog Archives
Mysteries of mozzarella di bufala
This weekend, an experiment in mozzarella making at our house produced a product which looked like mozzarella and tasted rather like the dry and rubbery balls one buys here in the supermarket. In the hierarchy of mozzarella, our homely balls…
Turkish delights
In the brief time we were in Istanbul last month and not in hospitals (see earlier blog post “Cat in an Istanbul ER”) I did take some pictures of wonderful Turkish food I didn’t get to eat. So, in a…
Why cooks didn’t burn
A couple weeks ago, I was visiting my high school friend Monique for a book reading at her fabulous library in Franklin (see blog “Writing Your Ancestors in Franklin, MA”) We went to Old Sturbridge Village , a restored colonial…
8 Tomato Truths
In Chapter 1, Irma’s father speaks scornfully of Americans’ habit of eating tomatoes. In fact, the tomato’s sanctified place on our tables came through a long trail of conquest, mis-information and tax shenanigans. I’ve gleaned some facts of that journey.…
Feasting on chaucroute garnie
This Sunday afternoon I had the wonderful experience of speaking by phone with the “Eat, Drink, Laugh, and of course READ!!!!” book club of Connecticut which had read When We Were Strangers. As the organizer Shanon explained, the club typically…
Beyond Torta Caprese
The Irma of my novel lived a half-century before the probable dawn of Torta Caprese, the dense and delicious flourless chocolate cake whose link with the island of Capri is more gastro-hype than real. Most likely Irma never tasted chocolate…
Irma’s big city
My protagonist Irma speaks of Pescasseroli, the biggest city she knows, just visible from her own village. Her mother has never been to its far edge. Pescasseroli is bigger now than it was in the 1880s, still small, but you’ll…
Making limoncello
At the home of our friend Anamaria outside Naples, my husband Maurizio sharpens the knife to cut off the lemon peel of a mound of lemons for our 2010 batch of limoncello. We begin our batches each year when we…
November soup
Growing up in New Jersey, I noticed that November was not people’s favorite month. Being an anthropomorphizing sort, I felt sorry for November and thought I’d make it my favorite. And it had a certain excitement. There was the smell…
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