If we cannot agree on politics, we can agree on something, and that something is blueberries. Young people like blueberries, old people like blueberries. Big-city people like blueberries and small-town country people like blueberries. Incidentally, bears like blueberries and, according…
I’m already planning ahead for January. The tough thing about January when the holidays are over, is that we don’t leave the house much. Why, though? Yes, it’s cold, that’s one reason. Yes, the snow, that’s another reason. But the…
In 1893, Oscar Tschirky, a Swiss immigrant and maitre d’hotel for the newly built Waldorf Hotel in New York City, created this simple apple-celery-mayonnaise salad for the hotel’s premier charity event honoring St. Mary’s Hospital for Children. Oscar Tschirky wrote…
During 2020—(Remember that year??)—we all learned to make sourdough bread. We cultivated our starter. We hoarded our flour when we could, given the shortages. We weighed or measured our recipe ingredients. We mixed and waited and folded and covered our…
I used to think of gardening as an exact science, including a right way and a wrong way of doing things. Now that I’m older, I realize every gardener has a style. Some are neat, some are messy. Some are…
My 25-year-old daughter turns to me for answers to questions about cooking, gardening and decorating. I turn to her when I have questions about physics, mathematics and coding, which is hardly ever. (I’m not even sure where to begin.) I…
Since the pandemic began, I appreciate a well-stocked pantry more than I ever did. A full pantry allows flexibility and variety in what to make for dinner. Maybe one night it’s rice and beans. Maybe one night, pasta and sauce.…
I heard the expression “salad days” before. I had a vague sense of its meaning. I thought if somebody said, “These are my salad days,” it meant, these were the days of abundance and youth, almost like the word…
The rutabaga is new to me. It’s one of those vegetables I walk on past when I’m shopping at the market. Maybe it’s the funny looks. Maybe it’s the silly name. I don’t know. The closest I ever came is…
