As my cooking gets simpler and simpler, I rely on easily-created hits of flavor to dazzle. A favorite of late is roasted lemons, which I often throw into the oven as I’m making the rest of the meal. They liven up ANYTHING. They are totally addictive.
Read More
Wine writer Anthony Giglio was the first to really consider what wines to drink with the junk food so many secretly love. So we compiled a list of “the best of” his solid pairings, and the illuminating thinking behind them.
Read More
It’s exciting to open mystery wines that promised to be great once but have languished so long, it’s impossible to know if there’s something delicious inside. When one proves to be lovely, it’s like a little miracles has arrived.
Read More
My go-to strategy for salmon, to make or to teach, is to slow-roast it accompanied by a simple sauce that I can make ahead. I’m thriled that Food52 considers it Genius…
Read More
The most perfect tomato salad I’ve ever had was made by wine writer Anthony Giglio following the formula of Lucia Lo Presti, his Sicilian mama-on-law. Here’s her formula.
Read More
Our clever friend Fran Black’s brilliant innovation of the traditional pot-luck dinner party model where guests are asked to bring a dish to forge an entire meal, yielded a to-die-for party that felt like Sicily.
Read More
About the simplest and best cake recipe I learned in my long cooking career is “lightning cake”: eggy, tender and fragrant with a fine texture that belies its ease. Recently a reader shouted out: “Hey Sally, why don’t you post the Brown Sugar Lightening Cake on Improvised Life?”, so here it is.
Read More
One of the simplest, hottest tips for holiday entertaining can be done with what you’ve got on hand and will cut down on busy work and stress.
Read More
Fran Black, known in Australia as Dr. Fran, for her wise counsel on health matters, is an unusually outside-the-box thinker on everyday matters. Recently, she shared her revelation about the dessert she’d made for guests who were coming to dinner, and her breaking of a social taboo.
Read More
If you’re still wrapping your head around pulling Thanksgiving dinner together, here is our toolkit of Improvised Life’s best ideas from Thanksgivings past.
Read More
As is, roasted pears are wonderful with whipped cream, creme fraiche, or a custard sauce/creme anglaise*. But they can be the inspiration for all manner of desserts.
Read More
While traveling in Mexico, I learned a handful of sauces whose flavors I yearn for but seem unable to find in restaurants here. Pumpkin Seed Sauce is one. It has a delicate yet earthy flavor that is delicious on just about anything.
Read More
Recently, I was challenged with cooking for a mix of Paleos, vegetarians, and a person who could not eat beans or wheat. Sigh. I fell back on a wildly successful strategy I devised years ago to feed a crowd…
Read More
The Blueberries, Feta and Mint recipe I love from Mindy Fox’s Salads: Beyond the Bowl is a play on a classic pairing of watermelon with feta. The possibilities for improvising on it are endless when you’re shopping summer markets. Here are some ideas.
Read More
Asparagus season, usually a fleeting few weeks in Spring, is peaking now. I recommend REVELING in them while you can. New asparagus has an extraordinary pea-like flavor that you can unlock by simply steaming them until crisp-tender. Add butter, or a fried egg and Parmigiano.
Read More
When I want a dessert for a dinner party, I often turn to this recipe for delectable, melt-in-your-mouth cookies fragrant with butter and the caramel flavors of light brown sugar and Earl Gray tea, with its citrusy-floral scent.
Read More
Years ago, I learned an easy-to-make vegetarian broth from chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten that tastes remarkably like veal stock. The main ingredient: ordinary button or cremini mushrooms in league with a few other ingredients you probably already have on hand.
Read More
My latest iteration of mac-and-cheese is a fast, ultra-simple formula that I can tailor as needed without using a recipe, with utterly delicious results. Win-win-win.
Read More
For the many people I know who feel that they are living in a sea of relentless anxiety, I offer two of my best chocolate cookie recipes: thin, chewy disks of intense chocolate AND fist-size hunks of chewy/moist chocolate cake loaded with chocolate chips, nuts and whatever else you can think of.
Read More
I’d been disillusioned by sesame oils for some time, finding most that I tried with a harsh, over-toasted flavor. La Tourganelle’s delicious Roasted Sesame Oil was a joy to discover, and has inspired all sorts of culinary improvisations.
Read More