Fast Food My Way (Tongue it is!)

We eat plenty of fast food here – especially for lunch. Don’t believe me? well… take a look at the picture of one of our not unusual lunches. Green salad from the garden (Pick early in the morning, wash, dry, refrigerate, ready to go in 

Oxtail Soup

A dish of oxtail soup is a thing to share with those you love. Or not. (depends how much you love them) What’s not to like about oxtail? It’s traditional farm fare, a simple country dish with robust complex favors – many parts of the 

A Mess of Oysters

I love fresh oysters. When we lived in the city, we used to go to the wharf for Christmas and New Year, get fresh oysters in their shell, mud from the Chesapeake bay still clinging to them. Later that day, Keith would scrub them clean, 

He Likes Duck Fat

Potatoes fried in duck fat, with garlic & parsley, a very fresh green salad (with not a leaf of lettuce in sight) topped with a little bit of duck breast – a perfect lunch for this blessedly rainy Sunday. Obviously, he thought so too (and 

Presto Garden Buckwheat Noodles

I don’t know about you, but when I am home working and need a quick lunch, I want it QUICK. It’s often throwing together a green salad & omelet, or fajitas (or quesadillas), or – in winter – reheating some soup and making a sandwich 

Goodbye My Sweets!

I love ginger. Is there anybody who does not? I grew it one year and got the most amazingly tender and delicate roots where the skin was so thin that it was nonexistent. I had incredible ginger shoots and pickled ginger that year (note to 

Chicken Soup With A Twist

It’s been really cold here. We have seen the minuses (Fahrenheit, that is!). Oh, I know, there are areas of the country where winter is routinely at -20 F… but not here in the Northern Piedmont… and without snow cover at that! I don’t dare 

True Coq au Vin

For those who don’t know, “coq” means “rooster” in French. Therefore, “Coq au Vin” means “Rooster cooked in wine”. The dish is a staple of French provincial cooking, a dish originally made by using extra roosters culled from the chicken yard or an old chicken 

Chayote by Any Other Name

I know. It’s not in season. But I am dreaming of it, because of a post from Elise on Simply Recipes. Chayote shoot is a taste of my childhood. Around the holidays, don’t we reminisce about good memories? At some point I’ll post more info 

Simple Pleasures from the Quasi-Winter Garden

The lettuce beds are looking lush and fluff – if you lift the agricultural fabric swaddled over them, that is – providing huge bowls of greens, but, with the temperature regularly dropping below freezing (at night only for now, thankfully), I am hungering for soup.