Archive for the 'Cookery' Category

On Sauerkraut and Other Fermented Food

I had never eaten homemade sauerkraut until I started to make it last year.
I can’t say that I really like the store-bought canned stuff - but I really like a Reuben sandwich, and you do need sauerkraut for that.

In my quest for more local homegrown or homemade food and in learning new (to me) [...]

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There is More to Turkey Than Roasting it for Thanksgiving

I have to confess that I do not have the proper respect for Thanksgiving.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that food-centric holiday. It’s just that - not having grown with it - I am not enough imbued with its traditions, and I am trying to make it… well… gasp! too… French. You see, many of [...]

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On Beeing A Cicada (or: Food Preservation)

La Cigale, ayant chanté
Tout l’été,
Se trouva fort dépourvue
Quand la bise fut venue. *

Jean de LA FONTAINE (La Cigale et La Fourmi)

While I don’t think you have to toil the entire summer to put some food by, this [...]

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Summer Lunch

Summer has been cooler here than in prior years. So while tomatoes are really just starting to ripen and yield - finally!!!! - for real (a good 2 weeks past my usual tomato target date though), cabbage, kale (kale!!! in July! edible!) and lettuce greens are doing just well. On the other hand, the [...]

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it’s summer, you eat … WHAT???!!!

Purslane: I call it a nutritious easy to grow crunchy little green (now officially renamed par moi a “super gourmet green” !). Add it to green salads, or - my favorite - to potato salad. Other people like it too: El - of course! (go to this post for a picture … if you need [...]

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Elder Blossom Lemonade

A plant of our hedgerows and abandoned fields that are being reconquered by the forest, the elder favors the sides of ditches and embankments - especially those with a bit of shade. Oh, it grows well enough in full sun, but it seems to appreciate the extra moisture that accumulates in ditches.
Elder is a plant [...]

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Butter Cookies From Brittany

That’s “Brittany” as in “French Brittany” the westernmost maritime province of France.

Following my recent post on making Petits Pots de Yogurt With Strawberry Compote, Paula and Mary both asked about the golden cookie pictured next to the yogurt, and would I please provide the recipe?
Glad you ask.
The cookie is called Galette Bretonne in French and [...]

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Petits Pots Of Yogurt And Strawberry Compote

Yogurt is for dessert too.

After a 15+ year hiatus, I am again making yogurt. Easy, tasty, low-tech. Did I say easy? Since I much prefer eating yogurt to drinking milk, I have been making at least two quarts of yogurt a week. Love it! As was explained here: heat the milk (if the milk [...]

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The Art of Picnicing

Serve good food. Serve fresh food.
Use real silverware and a real cloth napkin. Make it pretty.
Be imaginative in your use of containers - avoid plastic.
Print a menu and tuck it in the box.
Have fun.

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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 had an intense lemon tart with coffee for dessert).
This meal [...]

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