Dirty Fingers

When was the last time you encountered a finger bowl at a restaurant? You know what I’m talking about, right?
A finger bowl is a tiny little bowl, filled with water, for the purpose of rinsing your fingers between courses, especially if said courses involve eating with your hands.
Many cultures still eat with their hands (I’m [...]

Curious Cook

Memory can just happen — and then you are at the mercy of how your brain is wired — or you can work to remember. People ask me how I can pick out certain flavors in dishes. They think I’m a supertaster.
I’m not a supertaster, and in fact, people who are supertasters are at a [...]

French Butter Pears

There they sit on the window sill, wondering what’s to become of them. The middle one is leaning toward the left, as if straining to hear the other one.
They are French Butter pears, and I found them at Whole Foods Market. The sticker says they’re from California. Since I’m in Utah at the moment, they [...]

Season Straddling

I love the shoulder seasons — the transitional time between one season and the next. In terms of traveling, it’s when hotels and restaurants discount their rates because traffic is slower.
In the food world, it means you can combine the last of one season’s gifts with the next season’s emerging bounty.
That’s why you see a [...]

Natural Instinct

They’ll eat anything, these two. Even if it makes them sick. I’m amazed at what they’ll  put in their mouths. A rotting apple core on the side of the road. A discarded Q-Tip (eeewwwh!) And grasshoppers–fresh grasshoppers.
I guess the grasshopper delicacy shouldn’t surprise me. And for Chloe (on the right), it was an acquired taste. [...]

Cookie Monster…

I’ve turned into a cookie monster since we’ve been in the high country. At sea level, I could pass up a cookie in a heart beat (unless said cookie is one of Eugenia’s French macarons). I don’t even think about cookies at altitudes less than 2,000 feet.
It started with just one simple cookie out of [...]

Nacho Usual Snack

My first nacho was a simple little thing. Just a triangle tortilla chip (probably Doritos), covered with a square of cheddar cheese, topped with a pickled jalapeno slice from a jar, and broiled until the cheese was just melted.
That’s how my Dad made them back in the late ’60’s as a game day snack, and [...]

Sweet Bites…

I can live without dessert, but I don’t want to. It’s a bad habit to fall into–having dessert after every meal. I had broken the habit for a while, but it’s back. I’m blaming my job (reviewing restaurants) for the return of the sweet curse, but the reality is that I simply love to end [...]

Crabby

I have nothing against imitation crab (sometimes called krab or surimi) but sushi made with real crab just plain tastes better. It just plain costs more, too. I recently read a story about the nutritional difference between the two, and crab clearly trumps krab.
Both crab and krab are low in fat, therefore neither is a [...]

Waffling

I almost missed it! This is National Waffle Week, and I nearly let the week slip by without a waffle. Can’t let that happen, so just in time, here is a recipe from one of my cookbooks for a cornmeal waffle. The recipe comes from The Great Ranch Cookbook. From Vista Verde Guest Ranch near [...]