Last summer at the Hobin family reunion in East Greenwich, RI, we watched a New England Irish-Italian family really work out the food. The array of side dishes and platters of salads and seafood and very not-Nashville delights was stunning. As you might expect from a clan of well-heeled partiers, the Hobins had reunion operations [...]
Oven Peppas
July 19, 2010
July 13, 2010
My college buddy Philip and I have been cooking together and talking about cooking for 30 years. He’s an inventive cook, always open to new ingredients and techniques, but with one foot firmly planted in his native Boones Mills, VA, soil. He never was an ingredient snob. Ever since I’ve known him, Philip has been [...]
June 29, 2010
What are you doing with your local fresh eggs? We’re serving them over all kinds of vegetables.
May 1, 2010
Now that our patios are officially open for business, we’ve been busy tidying up the grill area. (Scroll down the page a bit for R.B.’s handy check-list so you can get your summer grill season going.) The big spring clean up is key for clearing the cold weather recipes out of our heads and making [...]
April 7, 2010
Read this New York Times Loser Lettuce story by Mark Bittman. I hope it makes you think twice about branding an ingredient as cool or not. Isn’t that a little too junior high? Food professional Mark Bittman turns out to be a trend follower, not a leader, after all. He confesses to having snubbed iceberg [...]
March 28, 2010
Twice-baked potatoes are my rediscovered favorite old side dish. Here’s why. I’ve just made the connection that twice-baked potatoes are the vegetable version of deviled eggs. Cook the potatoes, scoop out the insides, and mix with cheese, butter, sour cream, buttermilk, whatever. Now spoon the goop back into the potatoes and bake. For convenient servings [...]
February 1, 2010
After a bountiful year of farmers’ market and CSA fruit and vegetable mother lodes, what’s a salad-craving, vegetable-loving low-carbon footprint locavore to do in February? Stick your head in the supermarket freezer and say hey to Clarence Birdseye, that’s what. And let Frozen Freshness Month begin. More than just a brand name, the real Mr. [...]
January 14, 2010
I wondered what my daughter Elsa and I would crave once home from our recent school trip through China. Over there we shied away from the raw salads because of the “don’t drink the water” issue. Though I sneaked a few bites of some delicious pickle-y, cabbagy greens and couldn’t resist the sliced cucumber. [...]
October 24, 2009
Nuke Braising–The Cheater Chef technical term for quickly cooking vegetables in the microwave in a little water or broth. The microwave is the home cook’s best friend for cooking vegetables. Give it a fancy name and it’s as cool as sous-vide. Leeks, underused in most American homes, are perfect for nuke-braising. We especially like these [...]
September 23, 2009
It may be impossible to explore the entire world of eggplant during one’s lifetime. We’re trying. This time it’s back to the basics with a deconstructed look at Eggplant Parmesan. Here are the Eggplant Parmesan irritants egging me on for a round of problem-solving. 1. Frying, Breading? Should I bread and fry the eggplant [...]
Get tips for making perfect skillet cornbread. It's the only bread to serve with summer fresh vegetable suppers. 
