I love gnocchi. I have actually made it, but since I am now lazy and the stuff in the store is pretty good, I buy it. A few years ago I discovered skillet gnocchi. It doesn’t need to be boiled first, and, as I normally sauté it anyway, I switched. A few weeks ago the store was out of the skillet gnocchi, so I bought my old favorite, traditional gnocchi. … Continue reading →
I had a discussion recently, with a Canadian friend, who was amazed that we don’t have collard greens in France. We don’t have mustard greens either. The French eat the chard stems, which are very wide on the variety grown here, and discard the leaves. I can buy Old El Paso taco kits here but I rarely see what is called ‘white cabbage’ here and just plain ‘cabbage’ in the … Continue reading →
Mon mari loves sage….. A lot of sage. His favorite dish is spaghetti with olive oil, Parmesan, and a big handful of fresh sage. It’s the only herb I dry in the summer as the poor excuse for sale in stores is not acceptable. I also freeze some. My mother always made sage dressing at Thanksgiving. I remember her debating whether a 1/2 teaspoon would be enough or maybe she … Continue reading →
First off, I confess that I did this the easy way. I can buy cooked shrimp that are still in the shells, forcing mon mari to peel them, cooked shrimp that are already peeled, or frozen, raw shrimp. I buy the cooked, peeled shrimp. We like fried gnocchi. I can buy gnocchi that has to be boiled before it’s fried or I can buy gnocchi that goes right into the … Continue reading →
There was a time, long ago, when smoked salmon was a rare, decadent, treat. I used to order it from Williams Sonoma, back when it was still only a catalog company (at least in Minneapolis). I would place my order in late November for a Christmas delivery and it would arrive, from Scotland, packed in dry ice, just in time for the holidays. It was wonderful. When we lived in … Continue reading →
Even though mon mari professes to hate fish we still have it at least once every week. As long as it doesn’t have bones he’s happy…. sort of. He’s always happy when he can cook it on the barbecue in the summer. In the winter, cooking it in the kitchen requires more creativity. Thankfully, he loves capers almost as much as grilling. I add capers – he’s happy. Or, at … Continue reading →
I’ve been into lemons lately. I think it has to do with the weather warming and the daffodils blooming and me craving fresh tastes. Nothing says fresh quite like lemon. Like all citrus, there are piles of them in the markets and they are just screaming at me to take them home and do something. My mother would make a Lemon Meringue Pie. I make Shrimp with Lemon Basmati. And … Continue reading →
