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Thanks for this. I'm always wondering what to do with the leftovers. Year after year. You'd think I'd learn.
Commented Nov 14, 2011 on Turkey Hash for a Cold Morning at Ruth Reichl
Turkey Hash for a Cold Morning
Does anyone in your house eat the dark meat of the turkey? In my house, they don't. Most of it goes into the soup pot, along with the naked carcass, but I always keep some back to make this wonderful hash. This isn't really a recipe - just a thrown together breakfast that makes everyone reall...
Good stuff, apple crisp. Quick but stupendously satisfying! Haven't made any in a while, though, and my family would rise up and call me blessed if I did.
Commented Nov 4, 2011 on The Easiest Apple Crisp at Ruth Reichl
The Easiest Apple Crisp
Ashmead’s Kernel is an ugly apple - more brown than golden, with a thick skin. But I like the way it tastes, and it gives something as simple as an apple crisp real character. You could, of course, use any apple for this, but try it with one of the old heritage apples - Esopus Spitzenberg, Gold...
What an amazing four day weekend that must have been: filled with tastes, smells, and memories from 40 years ago. No wonder you got teary eyed. It must have felt like a "This is Your Life" kind of experience in many ways.
I'm so glad for you that you were able to touch those memories again, to be re-united with friends from days gone by, and to fully experience tasting that glorious grape.
Commented Aug 31, 2011 on Chez Panisse: Forty Years Later at Ruth Reichl
Chez Panisse: Forty Years Later
The museum in Berkeley has a particular smell, a combination of cool concrete and dry oil paint that always sends me right back to the seventies. On Friday night it was also filled with food, and for a moment I was back at The Swallow, the restaurant a group of us once ran downstairs, right by ...
This post makes me cry. I truly am praying for this nation, and for the rest of us, as well. A brave, heartening note.
Commented Mar 17, 2011 on From a Friend of a Friend in Japan at Ruth Reichl
From a Friend of a Friend in Japan
Yes, we're still in Tokyo. I understand that many countries have advised their citizens to evacuate Tokyo, or even Japan. It seems a little too overreacting to me, though. The nuclear threat is real, however, the readings are really really low. We're doing everything we can to stop the plant fro...
Thanks for this. I have been thinking all day about what we might do, and appreciate these very concrete suggestions.
Commented Mar 13, 2011 on A note from Elizabeth Andoh in Japan at Ruth Reichl
A note from Elizabeth Andoh in Japan
Personal update: When the first huge, terrifying quake hit on Friday afternoon, March 11, I was in Tokyo preparing for a class the following day. Having lived through several large quakes before (including one in which I was trapped in an elevator for hours before being rescued), I knew what to ...
Yes. Your last paragraph sums it up nicely. There ARE things we can do. But it's important to me to start with gratitude...and then, go out to do the things that must be done to take care of each other.
Commented Mar 11, 2011 on Why Food Matters, 1 at Ruth Reichl
Why Food Matters, 1
This from someone in response to my tweet this morning: What planet are you on? The one WITHOUT thousands dying from an earthquake? SO FINE?!?!?! I hadn’t yet read the news when I tweeted this morning – I get up early to write before making breakfast and reading the papers - but it made me s...
Dear Ruth,
I've left plenty of comments on your blog, because I am a LOYAL fan, but I've never left a link before.
Today, on my blog, I wrote a little review of one of your books that I just finished reading.
I'd be honored if you'd drop by my blog, and read it.
Here's a link: http://wildlifeinthewoods.blogspot.com/2011/02/garlic-and-sapphires-in-boonies.html
Commented Feb 25, 2011 on Vanishing America at Ruth Reichl
Vanishing America
Just had breakfast at Clifton’s Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles. With its timbered walls, waterfalls and stuffed fauna, Brookdale was a magical little bit of forest in the middle of the city when it was built in the thirties. Its founder, Clifford Clinton, was a man who believed in the golde...
I can never seem to find white sweet potatoes. Are they hard to find?
Commented Dec 11, 2010 on Things I Love 2 at Ruth Reichl
Things I Love 2
White sweet potatoes, with their fluffy flesh, have a nutty flavor that is unlike that of any other potato. Think chestnuts. Cooked until near melting, they turn into a flavor catalyst. Add a bit of butter and a splash of maple syrup, and they make a great impromptu “cake” for dessert. Spoon in ...
I think the detours (when you arrive at a delightful destination, at least) are invariably the most satisfying.
If your detour takes you to greasy dive, it's a little less...um...satisfying.
Commented Dec 11, 2010 on Recipes aren't roadmaps, they're just suggestions... at Ruth Reichl
Recipes aren't roadmaps, they're just suggestions...
Recipes aren't roadmaps, they're just suggestions of routes you might take when you find yourself in the kitchen. It's the detours that are most satisfying part of cooking, the paths that you find on your own. That's why this note, from a professor at the University of Toronto, made me smile so b...
Vindaloo paste: never had it, gotta try it.
sounds like a party in a word!
Commented Dec 11, 2010 on Fast, Easy, Satisfying: Indian Chicken at Ruth Reichl
Fast, Easy, Satisfying: Indian Chicken
This is one of my favorite fast dinners; the most time-consuming part is pulling the skin off the chicken legs, and you can do that in about a minute. The yogurt tenderizes the meat, making it incredibly silky, and the spices penetrate it, making it sing with flavor. The high-heat of the oven gi...
I don't know...
Slime works for me.
:-D
Commented Dec 6, 2010 on We need a better word for slime at Ruth Reichl
We need a better word for slime
Why are Americans so repelled by the texture of slime? Could it be because the word itself is so awful? What if we called it bounce instead? Would we like it better? Years ago, in Japan, I learned to love the clean taste and mysterious texture of grated yama imo - surely one of nature's slimiest...
Bears peering in the window....
Oh my.
Commented Dec 6, 2010 on From Today's New York Times at Ruth Reichl
From Today's New York Times
Sunday Routine | Ruth Reichl A Day for Food (Bears Not Invited) By ROBIN FINN For Ruth Reichl, the saving grace in losing her decade-long job as editor in chief of Gourmet when the magazine closed last year is being able to live, write and cook virtually full time at her glassy hilltop home in S...
Just printed this out. Saving it for my next batch o' blueberries.
Commented Dec 6, 2010 on Blueberry Muffins at Ruth Reichl
Blueberry Muffins
I found the most beautiful blueberries at the farm stand today, and they just called out to me. I had one of those instant visions - blueberry muffins! They're so easy, and so satisfying. I'm sorry to say that they were so delicious that we ate them all up, warm from the oven, before I remembered...
And tonight, I'm having the leftovers.
This is SO going into my "do over" recipe collection!!!
Kale is like the best thing in the world for us, nutritionally speaking!!!
Commented Dec 5, 2010 on Spiced Tuscan Kale at Ruth Reichl
Spiced Tuscan Kale
A friend came by yesterday with armfuls of Lacinato Kale from her garden. I'd already bought tiny new potatoes for dinner, and corn and tomatoes, and I had a pan of peppers, onions and green garlic on the stove, sending that spectacular fresh garlic aroma up into the air. But it seemed a shame no...
I have sweet memories of what your Mom MIGHT have considered "horse corn". Maybe. My mom would test the corn while it was raw, before she bought it, (to make sure it was sweet), at the Farmer's Market that was located underneath the Interstate bridge in Charleston, WV. This was in the early 1980's, before anything "Foodie"-ish had taken off in our neck of the woods.
My memories are of sweet corn, freshly brewed ice tea, and BLT sandwiches made from still warm home grown tomatoes from the Farmer's Market. At the time, I thought my Mom was hopelessly old fashioned.
Now, I think my Mom was a foodie, before her town was smart enough to know what a foodie was.
Commented Dec 5, 2010 on Corn Rules at Ruth Reichl
Corn Rules
On my way home from Berkshire Wordfest today, I passed a farmstand selling corn. Since I’d just been talking about my mother, I couldn’t help stopping to buy a few ears. Corn was Mom’s great culinary triumph; nobody made it better. This was because Mom had a farmer who knew exactly what she liked...
I have put this film on my Netflix queue. I hadn't heard of it, but look forward to watching it, and comparing my reaction to yours.
Thanks again!
You never fail to make me THINK.
Commented Dec 5, 2010 on Kings of Pastry at Ruth Reichl
Kings of Pastry
Been thinking about this film a lot, since seeing it yesterday. It’s an intimate view into a strange, macho world that seems so foreign, so old fashioned. Watching those men struggle to win the Meilleur Ouvrier de France pastry title is like watching Olympic athletes training; they give it their ...
I made it for our dinner tonight. It was wonderful.
Thanks, Ruth! :-D
Commented Dec 5, 2010 on Spiced Tuscan Kale at Ruth Reichl
Spiced Tuscan Kale
A friend came by yesterday with armfuls of Lacinato Kale from her garden. I'd already bought tiny new potatoes for dinner, and corn and tomatoes, and I had a pan of peppers, onions and green garlic on the stove, sending that spectacular fresh garlic aroma up into the air. But it seemed a shame no...
Oh, my gosh, I have a huge bag of kale in my fridge RIGHT NOW that I was wondering what to do with.
Now, I KNOW!
We're trimming the Christmas tree tonight! Not exactly a summer meal for us, but I think a big pot of pasta to go with, and we'll totally be in bidness!
Commented Dec 4, 2010 on Spiced Tuscan Kale at Ruth Reichl
Spiced Tuscan Kale
A friend came by yesterday with armfuls of Lacinato Kale from her garden. I'd already bought tiny new potatoes for dinner, and corn and tomatoes, and I had a pan of peppers, onions and green garlic on the stove, sending that spectacular fresh garlic aroma up into the air. But it seemed a shame no...
What a magical evening for you!!! I loved reading about it!
Commented Dec 4, 2010 on Going Local at Ruth Reichl
Going Local
Just as the evening ended I dropped my phone into the toilet, and the pictures I had been so careful to take fizzled and drowned. But how could the photographs possibly capture this magical day? I asked Jeremy Stanton to roast a pig for Michael’s birthday. I asked Cathy Grier to bring her blues b...
Beautiful!
Commented Dec 4, 2010 on Farmers market haul at Ruth Reichl
Farmers market haul
Sent from my iPhone
It is the generosity of cooking that brings to me the greatest joy! Nothing pleases me more than seeing the faces of people gathered around my table enjoying the gift that I have made for them. That's my paycheck.
Commented Dec 4, 2010 on On Cookbooks at Ruth Reichl
On Cookbooks
Rereading Adam Gopnik's New Yorker piece on cookbooks made me mad all over again. Because it seems to me that in all that overintellectualized hyperventilating he misses the main point. When he asks why we read cookbooks, he assumes that all cooks are like him. And that's just wrong. Before aski...
I make this. My family loves it. Thank you, Ruth.
Commented Dec 4, 2010 on Thai-like Noodles at Ruth Reichl
Thai-like Noodles
My Americanized version of Thai noodles 1/2 pound very thin rice noodles, preferably Thai rice sticks 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup fish sauce 1/4 cup white vinegar (or unseasoned rice vinegar) 2 tablespoons peanut oil 1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 pound groun...
Those were 78 well spent minutes of my life watching that video!!!
I loved hearing what each of you had to say.
I may go into mourning again, one more time, for what might have been, however.
I love the fact that you encouraged writers to pursue their passion as they wrote for you.
Commented Dec 4, 2010 on LA in the Rain at Ruth Reichl
LA in the Rain
The wind is rattling the palm trees outside my window, and I'm wondering if I'm going to make it out of town before the next storm hits this battered city. LA in the rain is more likable, somehow, less like Paradise, just another grubby American town. Yesterday, with the rain turning every stre...
"But in times of trouble - especially in times of trouble - it is important to celebrate life."
I couldn't agree more. I have a friend who is a doctor who has been helping in Haiti. She has been back in the States for a month or so, and celebrating Thanksgiving was very, very hard for her in light of the cholera epidemic. I admire her courage and hard work in Haiti, and support what she has been doing there as best I can.
But I think we must, we MUST look for the joy in life where we can. There is too much sorrow out there that seems like it's waiting to suck us down if we give it half a chance. Sometimes celebration needs to be defiant. After all, in the midst of death, we are in life.
Commented Dec 4, 2010 on Why I Write about Food at Ruth Reichl
Why I Write about Food
"Given the situation in Haiti," someone wrote me yesterday, "maybe you should stop writing about all the great food you're eating." I've been thinking about that, a lot. And it strikes me that it's a spurious argument, as dubious as the one that Flanagan woman is using to excoriate Alice ...
Magic from scrounging!!!
It's the vision for seeing the possibilities that I lack.
But, I won't say it won't come.
I can now come closer to cooking this way than I ever have in my life. It takes a certain amount of confidence and boldness, I think, and the longer I cook, the more I gain, even if it kinda goes against my nature to be a risk taker.
Commented Dec 4, 2010 on Scrounging for Dinner Again at Ruth Reichl
Scrounging for Dinner Again
The snow came down all day, the wind howled, the drifts mounted around the house. Three weather advisories warned us not to leave unless absolutely necessary. I stayed put. But a second day of scrounging through the refrigerator found it considerably barer. Happily I came upon a piece of flank...
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