Alice Waters is everywhere these days, shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket, cooking lunch for New York Times reporter Kim Severson, advocating for fresh and locally-grown food in Gourment Magazine, publishing a manifesto on the American food supply, changing the way we look at what we eat. I must admit, I had never thought much about locally-grown produce. I'd heard the rumors, and I'd
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A Conversation over “Mystery Cake” in 1950
Ruth pushed back the gingham curtains, looked through the kitchen window and surveyed her rose garden. She smoothed back a lock of steel gray hair from her forehead.On the counter was a well-used cookbook that she’d ordered through the mail – “Easy Ways to Good Meals.” She had collected the required number of labels and sent them in to the company to get the free book. The cake recipe on page 36
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Kitchen Fun: A Cook Book for Children (1932)
My stash of cookbooks has overtaken the house. I’ve lost count and I’m considering running a classified advertisement seeking a part time cookbook librarian. My tastes run from the classic to the historic to the curious. Some cookbooks – one or two a month, maybe – are purchased on an impulse. I do wonder what kind of dinner party will inspire me to cook from Mountain Makin’s in the Smokies and
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Long Island Wine
It is one of those iridescent blue-sky September mornings. The clouds dance across the horizon like soft white cowlicks.I head east in my faithful cobalt-blue 1999 Toyota Corolla and soon I am on the North Fork in Long Island wine country. It has been for years, an annual pilgrimage. Finally past the outlet mall, the Riverhead Home Depot and the brand-spanking-new Target, I am now surrounded by
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Crunchy
Breakfast. They say it is the most important meal of the day. Some people love it. Some people loathe it. Some people even have breakfast for dinner. I have distinct memories of breakfast growing up on suburban Long Island. Of course, the Barritt Boys all craved sugary cereals on weekdays. It was the 1960s, after all. One of our favorites, “Sugar Pops,” has now been reformed and renamed “
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Prize Winning Triple Seed Cake From 1954
The package that arrives in the mail from Phil T. contains several aging recipe pamphlets. The colors are fading, but the booklets are in mint condition.The attached handwritten note says: “I came across the enclosed two booklets I want you to have. They both reminded me of your cake stories.”I knew it would happen eventually. Several months and eight dozen pounds of butter and flour later, and
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Torta di Zucca – Pumpkin Cake
I’m feeling wistful for Italy. Exactly one year ago, I was starting an eight week sabbatical, journeying to Italy to drink in the cuisine…and the wine. It was harvest season in Tuscany, after all. I consumed a lot of wine. One wisecracking travel agent described it as, “Italy on three bottles a day.” I did managed to learn a thing or two about the food, in spite of myself. Things are
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