There are over 40 different types of dry-cured ham in the display case at my supermarket: Prosciutto from Italy, Serrano from Spain, Westphalian from Germany, Bayonne from France and a few dozen more better and lesser known varieties from all over Europe. There are around a dozen types of wet-cured hams, in big, perfect, long ovals. All of the hams are typically sliced anywhere from very thin to paper thin … Continue reading →
Driving in a foreign country can be a puzzling challenge when you’re visiting. As a resident, one may come to expect some of the strange behavior…. but one may still be a long way from actually understanding it. Take the cacahuète, for example. The peanut…. The nickname for a tiny little caricature of a car, but a car, nonetheless. The first time one sees a cacahuète on the road one … Continue reading →
It’s that time of year again…. The holidays are creeping ever closer Season’s Eatings! Should we do it again? It’s a world-wide holiday gift exchange. If you would like to join the fun, leave a comment. I’ll collect real names and addresses later, by e-mail. Here are the details: Season’s Eating’s is a spicy/herby/foodie gift exchange to celebrate the Holiday Season. Like Secret Santa….I put all the names into a … Continue reading →
Fall is here. One can find big baskets of wild mushrooms In the supermarkets as well as small baskets offered for sale by the side of the road. The crack of gun-fire announces the dawn as the hunters are out in droves, searching for deer, boar, birds and bunnies. And there are dead animals in the meat cases at the supermarket. Not butchered animals; whole animals in all their mortal … Continue reading →
We plant; we water; we weed; we hoe. We wonder if it's all going to be worth it…. We wonder why the tomatoes don't set; why the beans don't grow, why we're the only one without zucchini blossoms. Then, one morning we wake up and everything is ripe and ready for picking. NOW! Today I have to pick green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, chard and sweet corn. I'll be picking … Continue reading →
How do you eat? When eating in restaurants in the US I’m usually asked: ‘Would you like an appetizer?’. The question always makes me think of Potato Skins or Cheese Curds or something similar…. Something to nibble on while deciding on dinner. The dinner which will consist of a first course, a main course and a dessert. I always decline the appetizer, then order a first and main course (and … Continue reading →
The thing about gardens is….. You plant….. And wait. You water….. And wait. You hoe, weed, check for disease, check for bugs…. And wait. And than, overnight, everything is ready…. All at once. Even when you carefully stagger plantings, as I try to do, Mother Nature manages to manipulate the weather so that one day you're wondering if anything will ever produce edible food and the next day you're frantically … Continue reading →
