Today’s confession: I have a major girl crush on Melissa Clark. The flame-haired culinista writes the “A Good Appetite” column in the New York Times‘ Dining section on Wednesday, but I’m such a groupie, I check out her column on my iPad days before the recipes appear in the Times. I skip right over Mark Bittman […]
The good news is I got another round of precious native strawberries in my CSA basket this week. The bad news? There was a berry glut in my refrigerator! No matter where I’ve shopped over the past two weeks – Whole Foods (needed, um, vitamins), Stop ‘n’ Shop (gas points) or Lees Market (Westport weekend) […]
My grandmother in Maine always talked a good game about the Down East tradition of serving salmon and peas on July 4. We never ate it, of course, because Grammie, who lived in Portland, would rather have hamburgers and Jordan hot dogs. And who could blame her? Like I said, she talked a good game. […]
We will celebrate Father’s Day and Dad‘s 76th birthday tomorrow, a rare feat of the calendar, so I felt the need to cook up a small tribute to my father, the consummate Foodsmith. After nearly 52 years with John Philip Raposa, his obsession with food, especially the baking business, has rubbed off on me. And, […]
We have had plenty of signs that summer is upon us, but for me, the first week of my Community Shared Agriculture program at R & C Farms in Scituate confirms it — despite the rainy week we’ve had! I picked up our full CSA share today, a crate stocked with three kinds of […]
…which set the tone for my first day of the week at Flour. Simply stated, I was a total spaz yesterday. Not only did I lack sleep, my routine was altered, and now I’m worried I’ve morphed into a perimenopausal cat. Working on maybe 5 hours of sleep, I drove — in a downpour — […]
Finally, these native beauties have returned to my local farm stand! Now, what to do with them…. Should I make ice cream? Or shortcakes? Or mix them with rhubarb for a pie? Perhaps spoon them into cereal or concoct a strawberry seltzer. I simply cannot make up my mind. Maybe I’ll just eat the first […]
The Second Act of my life began yesterday at 6:50 a.m. when I entered the doors at Flour Bakery + Café with a smile on my face and chef’s pants in my tote bag. I left 11 hours later with the same smile, dirty chefs pants and a sense of pride. Sadly, I could barely walk. […]
How much do I love lemons? If I have a choice of a sweet made with chocolate or lemon, the fruit wins every single time. If I’m cooking and I think the dish needs “a little something,” it’s usually lemon or lemon peel. And of all the people on TV, “30 Rock” funnygal Liz Lemon […]
There are some pizza joints that demand return visits. We vow a return to the place by the bus station in Rome, but closer to home, there’s Leo’s Casa Calamari in Brooklyn. The Casa never disappoints — except that one time in 2011 that it was closed after a fire broke out in the ventilation […]