Recipe Log

Every year I feel like I should keep a log of the average daily temperature. As soon as I blink, the weather goes from so cold I’d freeze without wearing a coat to so warm I have to turn on the air conditioning....

The weather finally decided to change into something truly springlike in the middle of April. While they weren’t exactly in season, I had a real hankering for haricots verts. It was a great opportunity to make a batch of garlic-forward toum....

Spring has arrived in its usual noncommittal way over the last few weeks. It’s been cold and wet, and sometimes difficult to motivate myself in food as in other areas....

Longtime readers may recall that the genesis for this whole project was the weekly newsletter that I started in early 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 confinements. I used a service called TinyLetter to write and mail that out, and, much to my chagrin, they’ve decided to shut TinyLetter down....

After a bit of a wacky month, I’m trying to get this back on schedule, so this month’s notes will be a little sparer than usual. It hasn’t been that long!...

The last month has been dominated by the usual festive madness with all its ups and downs. And some other developments got in the way of getting this issue out at the usual cadence....

Short days make me want food that’s warming, even as we’ve had unusually warm late November and early December weather. I love doing a batch of warmly-spiced red lentils with basmati rice....

Moving into the deep fall and closer to winter, I find myself both celebrating the excuse to switch up my menus even as I miss summer produce. Looking only at the photos, everything is much more beige and monochrome than it has been....

It’s been an interesting month. Beginning most obviously with the couple weeks that I spent in Scandinavia (Denmark and Sweden) the second half of September. Copenhagen is now one of my favorite places....

The last of summer was in many ways more of the same. I continue to be a big fan of the pan bagnat. After doing a bit more research, a lot of people suggested adding a lot of fresh basil, which I thought was a great concept....