Category Archives: Country

An Italian Villa and Tuscan-style Cavatappi with Spring Vegetables

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Villa Entrance

Tuscany, as most everyone knows, is a magical and unspoiled place.  Although many areas can be crowded with tourists, with just a bit of effort, one can still find beautiful  slices of traditional Tuscan life.  When asked by friends to join them in a stay at one such unspoiled gem, we agreed without hesitation.   They had found a villa to rent at a family-run winery in the Chianti Classico region of the Black Rooster (Gallo Nero) between Sienna and Florence. The villa’s resident caretaker, Marianne, would provide home-cooked traditional Italian meals for us on selected evenings.  How could we possibly resist? Continue reading →

The Quintessential English Farm Shop and Purple Sprouting Broccoli

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Traveling throughout the United Kingdom, I struggle to understand how such a densely populated country can have so much green space and agricultural land.  The population density of the United Kingdom is a staggering 650 people per square mile — compared to 84 people per square mile in the United States.   One of the ways they achieve this “greenness” is by densely packing the cities, villages and hamlets (a village without a church) — leaving large expanses of green space for agricultural use.

Outskirts of Inkberrow Village

Continue reading →

Mongolian Beef and a Chinatown Cooking Competition

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I retired as a scientist at age 50 to pursue my culinary passion and culinary school. This meant, of course, that my fellow culinary students were younger than my children — as were many of the faculty. Yet, it all came together. The older students looked to the culinary juniors for energy and encouragement. The younger set looked to the few “oldsters” for a bit of academic counsel and faculty-management strategy. Continue reading →

Ya Ya’s Pastitsio

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Pastitsio  (παστίτσιο)

I grew up in New Jersey, a stone’s throw from New York City.  So, I was accustomed to bilingual households.  As in our home, it was the norm among my friends to have grandparents and/or parents born outside the U.S.A.  America is a melting pot of cultures, and this was, and still is, particularly true in the New York City metropolitan area.  In part, this was due to the area’s proximity to Ellis Island*, the main immigrant conduit in the first half of the 20th century.   Greater than one third of the U.S. population (this includes me) can trace at least a portion of their ancestry to the 12 million people who landed here between the late 1800s and 1954. Continue reading →

Chicago’s Love Affair with the Hotdog

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Chicago River - Wrigley and Chicago Tribune Buildings (Distance)

It made me smile, when living outside the US, to hear impressions of Chicago.  Some envisioned gangsters on most street corners and wind so fierce it would blow you off your feet. Continue reading →

Do-Ahead Dinner for Eight — and a Tart Celebrating the Glorious Parsnip

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Dinner for Eight

When I host a sit-down dinner, most of my friends expect:  1) to be recruited to the kitchen to help with last-minute preparations or 2) to watch me tossing things to and fro in the kitchen while they eat and drink.  I think it is part of the joy of cooking — to make it a relaxing group experience. Continue reading →

дранікі (Draniki), Belarus and My Family

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Humble Potatoes - Waiting to become дранікі (Draniki)

Not long after the turn of the 20th century, my Grandfather left Belarus as a young man to come to the United States.  He didn’t like what the Bolsheviks were doing in Belarus and saw escape across the Atlantic.  Unfortunately for him, it meant an arduous journey, a struggle to survive as a new immigrant and not seeing his Belarus family again until he was in his 70s – more than 50 years later.   Fortunately for me, it meant growing up with my kind-hearted grandfather and living under the influence of my Belarusian ancestry, including the glorious  дранікі  (dra-ni-ki) — the Belarus version of the potato pancake. Continue reading →

Easy Mini-Tart Appetizers – Chard, Cheese and Smoked Bacon

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These appetizer tarts meet my criteria for an ideal dinner-party appetizer:

  • a bite of complex but strong flavors that will stand up to cocktails
  • easy to make
  • colorful
  • edible without plates and utensils;  just pop in your mouth
  • can be made ahead and reheated before serving (can also be served at room temperature)
  • are easy to transport if making for a friend

So, last night, when invited to a friend’s house for dinner, I chose this tart recipe. Continue reading →

Vinaigrette: The Whys and Wherefores of a Kitchen Basic

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Shrimp, Artichoke and Tomato Salad with Riesling Vinaigrette

Vinaigrette, as the word suggests, comes to us from the French.  According to famed French chef, Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935), who documented the essentials of French cooking for us,  this simple “cold sauce” should be used to accompany “calf’s head or feet”.   Auguste might be surprised to know that, while the vinaigrette has endured to grace our tables more than a century after his writings, his recommended application is no longer a common use.  I must admit that I prefer my vinaigrette on something other than calf’s feet. Continue reading →

My Friend Debbie and a Pot of Lamb and Black Bean Chili

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This post is about lamb chili and my friend Debbie.

Debbie is amazing.  She is an engineer, has an MBA from the University of Chicago, teaches, paints, writes and is a Mom and wife.  In addition, she is beautiful, personable and nice. Yet, as much as our green dragons might encourage us to hate her, we all love her. Continue reading →