Vegetable Explosion
Our friend Amy came over last night and we constructed — “made” seems too tame a verb — a Vegetable Explosion. It was very good, though we would add more goat cheese next time and lose the citrus salsa, which tended to overpower the subtle flavors of the vegetables. It is a fairly process intensive [...]
Lunch (VN Diary No. 18)
I had lunch yesterday with my friends Giang and Long at the publishing house where I worked when I was here on a Fulbright in 2000 – 2001. We ate in the rooftop cafeteria at their office, where the food is wonderful, though quite unlike what you would find in a restaurant. More like home [...]
Vietnam Diary 4 (Nhat Ky 4)
I’ve been very calm up to now, but leaving tomorrow for VN after eight years away has me in what a nineteenth century novel might call “a state ofnervous excietment.” I can’t say I’m looking forward to the flight, which involves around 18 hours in the air, with a couple of longish layovers that stretch [...]
Protected: Pizza for Twenty
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
BMC
Writing from my secret internet connection at the Blue Mtn. Center — which I have because I’m teaching the last weeks of an online course. It is a fantastically quiet & beautiful place. I’ve been sleeping well — did I mention it was quiet? — and have begun getting my work organized: an essay and [...]
Cutting Board
I wanted to mention our new cutting board, custom-made by Matt Christie. Matt has his own blog, Pas Au-Delà & is also a contributor to Long Sunday. I found out about his woodworking skills because Scott McLemee, my favorite cultural critic, mentioned Matt on his blog, Quick Study. Confused? Doesn’t matter, just look at this [...]
Indian Dinner, Kashmiri Style
I don’t know much about Indian food other than that I like to eat it; I’ve had a couple of Indian cookbooks for a while, but only this year began really trying to cook from them. Saturday night, I made Kashmiri style lamb kabobs in curry, potato raita (which I had never heard of until [...]
Southeast Asian Dinner
My pal Amy found this book on a remainder table at Borders & bought me a copy. The Complete Vietnamese Cookbook appears to be out of print, but I’d recommend it. Even though my tastes run to northern cuisine & this cookbook focuses on the south, I’ve already found its extensive & well-illustrated discussion of [...]
Xmas-Eve Meatball Sandwiches
I had some leftover spaghetti sauce & some left over turkey sausage, so I made meatball sandwiches last night. For the meatballs, take about a cup of mild sausage, mix in three cloves of finely minced garlic, salt & pepper, some oregano, roughly 1/2 to 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs, & one egg yolk. Mix with [...]
Pasta Dough
Pasta Dough
I’ve been meaning to post a picture of the pasta extravaganza from a couple of weeks ago. Amy came over & we started from scratch, making the dough, three fillings, and two sauces. I’ll need to practice more rolling out the dough & handling it, especially making ravioli. Surprisingly, very few of [...]
