Tonight, I hung up my apron in the kitchen at Paraclete Academy, the South Boston after-school program where I have cooked dinner for 25 kids and teachers every Tuesday night since Dec. 2. The Last Supper, as Linda, the secretary, called it, was bittersweet. Not literally though. The dinner program at Paraclete ends this week. And […]
I’m mathphobic. Numbers make me completely nuts, especially when I have to scale up or down a recipe. “Who left this long division on the bench,” asked Flour baker Keith Brooks, waving a paper towel with calculations written on it. I ‘fessed up. Sheepishly. “What? I’m impressed. It’s so old school. Everyone else here uses […]
I spent what little time I had in New York last Sunday morning scoping out — and sampling the offerings — at various Big Apple bakeries. Because that’s just what I do. It’s really not my fault. My husband is still peeved that our family spent most of our time in Lisbon at Casa Pasteis […]
I thought I was done. Not only with the 3-feet-plus of snow piled up on my lawn, but with my kitchen. After yet another weekend hunkered down in the house where I baked, seared, sautéed, slow-cooked and fired up my dishwasher every 2 hours, I couldn’t bear to re-enter the kitchen today. Besides, I think […]
I got a kick out of Thrillist.com’s “22 Things You’ve Definitely Eaten If You Grew Up In New England” post the other day. All the usual suspects were there – Fluffernutters, NECCO Wafers, Hoodsie Cups… But I learned something, too. Apparently, American Chop Suey is a New England thing. I was shocked. Just shocked, I […]
It hit me when I walked in the door of the kitchen: the smell of eggs boiling on the stove. My stomach flipped. If this was how I was to begin my Tuesday cooking stint at Paraclete Academy, I was in for quite a ride. As readers of this blog are well aware, eggs are […]
I don’t have a vegetable garden, but this summer I found myself with an overabundance of tomatoes — tri-color cherry tomatoes, beefy beefsteaks and hearty heirlooms. I bought a plethora of pints at local farmers’ markets. And recently, one of Colleen‘s organic farm friends off-loaded a crate of cherry tomatoes amongst other veggies at Goat […]
I’m dying for a salad. Any kind of salad – Greek, Caesar, Cobb (sans egg), spinach, mesclun… At this point I’d attack a wedge of iceberg like it was an apple and I was a starving rabbit. True confession: I actually mewled when I passed by the salad bar at Whole Foods the other day. […]
1. She thinks because she didn’t go to college she’s not as smart as some people. Truth be told, she’s smarter. 2. Mom’s the best judge of character. 3. She doesn’t hesitate to pinch me under the table when she thinks I should shut up. 4. Kids at family gatherings surround Auntie Camilla like she’s […]
CHESTNUT HILL — It started with parking attendants directing cars like they do at Gillette Stadium, and then moved onto a scrum at the Asian hot take-away bar. There was incessant choo-chooing of an overhead train by the dairy case that drew screams from a overexcited tot named Adam. Maybe it was the mosh pit […]