The story behind Olia Hercules’ A Case for Eating Herbs as if They Were Vegetables in the New Yorker is well worth reading. But the title conveys the vital message. A platter of herbs offered alongside other dishes in a meal is an invitation for guests to enjoy herbs primal and fragrant with abandon.
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Entertaining these days often means being challenged with feeding a mix of carnivores, vegetarians, vegans, and people with specific prohibitions who can not eat something or other. Then I fall back on a strategy I devised years ago to feed a crowd.
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My super easy turkey-roasting method is one of the many tried-and-true recipes larding Improvised Life’s vast archive, from cocktails to desserts. You’ll find an array of recipe ideas, strategies for making grand make-shift tables and settings, even toasts, poems and blessings… Not to mention these Thanksgiving favorites.
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When I hear the word “radical” used in the context of personal change —whether a book, a course, a workshop — I generally pass it by. It’s so overused and overblown, I’ve come to mistrust it. But in the past few months, I’d heard a number of smart, curious, level-headed people mention Tara Brach’s book, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. Among the trove of very wise and helpful ideas, I especially love this passage about saying yes, perfection, self-comparison and….biscuits.
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Recently, a gift of two green tomatoes sparked a deep hankering: for fried green tomatoes and their elemental deliciousness, and their evocations of deep summer visits to the South long ago. So I cooked up a batch using the simplest method I know. I was startled by how intensely they made me feel the summer day. Here’s the method, and a few things to do with them, and a movie to watch while you eat them.
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One of the best down-and-dirty cooking lessons I’ve seen is pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz’s vast Instagram Story about “soup mother”. And some wonderful writing about deep joys of daily impromptu cooking is woven through her instagram posts. So here are excepts from both: the very liberating wisdom of an inspired, busy, passionate cook.
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Improvised Life has published A LOT of recipes in its long life, many geared to the holidays. We’re figuring that for many people, this year’s holidays are still going to be improvised and untraditional. Here are a few ideas for whatever form your fete takes. There are lots of ways to celebrate.
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In late September, as cool weather creeps in, I become aware that the waning moments of summer tomatoes are imminent. I hunger for a last bit of lusciousness that only food in its season can convey. I pick out some “real” tomatoes at the farmer’s market to savor the perfect, simple way I learned from my friend Anthony Giglio, and to preserve for winter enjoyment. And I read Pablo Neruda’s ode.
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We’re seeing apples everywhere and FEELING the yearly hunger for warm apple desserts…so we pulled out our most potent recipes…
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I mark the day I started making great tomato sauce when I spent an afternoon in Lucia Lo Presti’s kitchen. The secret she taught me is simple and yields an astonishingly rich, silky sauce. With it came a glimpse of a unique way of life —Sicily in New Jersey— that her wine writer son-in-law Anthony Giglio first introduced me to…
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When I am feeling low, I often make NYC chef Sandro Fioriti’s lovely Pasta al Limone, It take no time or odd ingredients to make and is both comforting and divine.
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Diane Ackerman’s poem “The Consolation of Apricots” gives a sense of just how far an apricot can launch you into reverie. It also gives instructions for how to eat one. I’ve added my own two-cents about how to find great apricots, and what to do if you can’t, along with a recipe for the effect of summer apricots all year long.
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At a dinner party New Yorker food critic Hannah Goldfield attended last summer, one of the hosts served ice cream that had the mind-blowing effect of a magic trick. Here’s how, with a recipe.
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These tumultuous days, my hunger is for starchy things with deep savor that don’t take much work. And by necessity, simple ingredients. I turn frequently to a transformative formula.
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Wondering how could I quickly create the effect of great key lime (or lemon) pie without actually making a whole pie, I devised this delectable stripped-down hand pie, made of a few readily-available ingredients. Fast comfort for desperate times.
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Years ago, I learned a simple recipe for boosting my immune system from a legendary homeopathic doctor. He swore by it, and I’ve come to too. I’ve been drinking it twice daily since the fierce virus scare started and each time, feel its strengthening effect.
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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.
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All over town we’re seeing signs of people felled by the stunning heat wave, sleeping on benches under shady trees, lounging lethargically on the grass in parks. We’ve compiled some unexpectedly refreshing ways to cope…
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Being a truly wild food that seems to defy cultivation of any scale, ramps are truly delicious and root me in the season. I especially love them braised in olive oil with bucatini or spaghetti and Parmigiano Reggiano, THE pasta dish for spring.
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In her famous cookbook, Alice B.Toklas called Madame Loubet’s Asparagus Tips “a gastronomic feast. And a thing of beauty.” They are. Here’s how to make them.
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