Category Archives: Test Kitchen Adventures

everything is perfectly normal…

…um, no it’s not – not even close. Sunday night nearly ended with another dinner disaster due in part to my own ambition and in part to the limitations thereof. Basically, the lazy perfectionist strikes again. I took the báhn cuốn bait set out by my NYT Cooking newsletter and everything was peachy until theContinue reading “everything is perfectly normal…”

highs & lows…

…savor the wins and take the hits. The last few weeks need to be presented as a giant hamburger. There’s a popular management exercise where you intentionally position negative feedback between two positives – the sandwich approach or the hamburger method. This is supposed to cushion the blow so constructive criticism can be better received.Continue reading “highs & lows…”

time well spent…

…in the company of three dead women. On Sunday I spent the better part of four hours coaxing a simple Bolognese sauce into the realm of the culinary sublime. While the recipe required time and patience, always in short supply, it mostly demanded concentration which I willingly surrendered. I was so intent on losing myselfContinue reading “time well spent…”

too near the sun…

…the party’s over, for now. In grade school I fell in love with a book that I swear I must have checked out once a month – d’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Mythology. The descriptions of the gods and their escapades were fantastically romantic, but it was the follies of demi-gods and mortals that I foundContinue reading “too near the sun…”

spiny chayotes and fancy pork butt…

…nothing is really ever what it seems. This wicked little grenade conceals a very pleasant and refreshing cucumber-like squash, but I almost walked past it at the farmers’ market out of fear and perhaps a little disgust. I was searching for ideas for Mother’s birthday luncheon in Savannah – I wanted a new cultural challengeContinue reading “spiny chayotes and fancy pork butt…”

a time to embrace simplicity, patience & restraint…

…well, maybe simplicity. Turns out, very little I do is ever simple and yes, that could use some tweaking. My impatience is legendary and the very notion of restraint is wholly antithetical to my disposition. This combination has became lethally unproductive and frustrating this summer. To make matters worse, the dog days of July spawnedContinue reading “a time to embrace simplicity, patience & restraint…”

everybody needs a cooking kitty…

My trick to combat loneliness was turning my kitchen into a miniature social network with a conscripted feline audience, a soundtrack of melodic voices and a collection of inanimate “friends” complete with names and personalities.