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To Maximize Ramps, Make Ramp Butter

We’ll be heading to the wild ramp supper in West Virginia this weekend to celebrate one of the first wild foods of spring. On the way, we’re stopping to see a friend who may not be able to go to the supper. We’re packing a frozen block of ramp butter in our bag to leave with him in case. It’s one of the best ways we know to make the most of a small amount of ramps,

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canal house cooking vol 6: crax & butter for dinner!!!

One of the reasons that we so look forward to the latest issue of Canal House Cooking, the ongoing cookbook series by Christopher Hirsheimer  and Melissa Hamilton, is that the recipes resonate so deeply with the way we live. In other words, they completely cut the $#*!@, providing us with ideas and recipes that are of…

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food gifts: homemade chocolates for improvising (recipe)

Shards of chocolate embedded with surprising flavors and crunchy elements make terrific gifts for much less $ than pricey “artisan-made’ chocolates. Here’s an easy, step-by-step method – and a couple of tricks –  for making unfussy homemade chocolates: a thin sheet of fine chocolate into which you’ve embedded surprising and delicious elements, like chopped Marcona…

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Irish Brown Bread and Scones, in Quick Time

I love the pleasures of warm, just-out-of-the-oven breads but I don’t have much time to spend baking. My have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too strategy is to make a savory quick bread leavened without yeast and needing no rising time; I mix the batter in minutes and bake it immediately. Then I eat it warm, slathered with good butter. One of the…

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Ode to Eggs (Let Me Count the Ways…)

Although a lot of people complain about the price of eggs, we think they are a bargain. One or two can still make a mighty meal for under two bucks. And there are ENDLESS ways to cook treat them. To spark egg possibility-thinking, we reprise our edit of Renee Schettler Rossi’s “All Hail the Mighty Egg” that appeared in in Leite’s Culinaria some years ago: inspired ideas fueled by memory, passion and hunger.

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