My mother was not an adventurous cook or eater. She liked the familiar. I didn’t taste broccoli, cauliflower or Brussels sprouts until I was an adult living on my own. That’s when I discovered frozen vegetables. My mother never bought frozen vegetables. I was so excited when I tried Brussels sprouts for the first time. Despite the fact that they were covered in cheese (Bird’s Eye Frozen) I thought they … Continue reading →
I love chestnuts! For me, the perfect holiday moment is wandering through a Christmas market with a paper sack of warm chestnuts. When we lived in Andorra I had a cleaning lady. She cleaned my entire house every week for the equivalent of $25.00. She and her husband had a plan. They were from Portugal but they could make more money in Andorra. Their plan was to work as much … Continue reading →
The recipes in my Chinese cook books suggest that, if there is a vegetable in fried rice, it should be peas. They also include the addition of an egg. I do know how to make more traditional (I think) version… sort of. I added snow peas to this Fried Rice. But I made this in winter, not spring and I had Brussels sprouts in the fridge, not peas (or snow … Continue reading →
In one of my few deviations from winter squash I bought Brussels sprouts. The original purpose was for the Brussels Sprouts Salad. For some reason only known to The Powers That Be, Brussels sprouts are one of two vegetables sold pre-packaged in my supermarket. (The other is cooked, red beets sold sous-vide.) I had some left after making the salad. Naturally, I thought of risotto. Since I had removed the … Continue reading →
Since harvesting our bumper crop of winter squashes I didn’t really feel like I should be buying other vegetables. Then I found the perfect solution….. We could have other vegetables as a first course. We always have a first course on the weekends – no particular reason, just long-standing habit. Having a green (or any color other than orange) vegetable for a first course works for two reasons: we get … Continue reading →
We had Ham for Christmas dinner – with Mustard Sauce, of course. To continue with my family traditions we had baked sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce as well. One break in tradition came with Pan-Seared Foie Gras as a first course. Neither my parents nor my siblings would have touched it. The other break was having fresh Brussels sprouts rather than the ‘canned green bean / canned cream of mushroom … Continue reading →
As usual I arrived at this recipe in a rather convoluted way. I had seen a Moroccan pie on one of the cooking shows that looked fantastic, easy and it used phyllo. Admittedly, I pay less than a dollar for a package of 12 sheets of phyllo but I still hate to waste any of it. And 12 sheets is a lot of phyllo. Back to the recipe…. Then I … Continue reading →
