August already. How did that happen? However it did, it sure happened quick. One minute it was spring, with each long, languid day offering the promise of infinitely more to come, and the next it’s late August, and each warm breeze feels like the closing act. Even if the temperature hasn’t dipped too much yet, the evenings are becoming noticeably shorter, and as early pumpkins and apples start appearing beside the peaches, corn and tomatoes, I know it’s just a matter of time before we’re digging out the parkas and extra socks. Of course it’s still a while before that happens, and when I stop ..read more

So, Sicily. As much as I loved Palermo, I have to say it paled in comparison to the the five days I spent with the most incredible group of bloggers at the Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School. If the name Anna Tasca Lanza rings a bell for you, there’s a good reason. In her day, she was the authority on Sicilian food—the Marcella Hazan of the south. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, before any kind of regional awareness had entered the Italian food lexicon in the US, she began writing about traditional Sicilian cooking for the American market. As people woke up to the bold, rustic flavors of the ..read more

Let me offer you a piece of advice. Should you ever find yourself, on a particularly dark winter day, opening your inbox to find an email inviting you to spend a week in Sicily in early spring, here’s a few things you shouldn’t do. Don’t stop to think about your schedule, or how any number of things might come up in your life between now and then to prevent you from going. Don’t start looking at your travel options yet, which on first glance always appear to be more convoluted and/or expensive than they will actually turn out to be. Don’t start wondering if your family will ever speak to you a ..read more

Soft-as-Silk Cauliflower with Crispy Garlic and Anchovy-Caper Mayonnaise I suspect today’s recipe is going to be a hard sell. It offers no exotic ingredients, unusual spices or trendy cooking methods à la sous vide. It contains no pasta, cheese or chocolate, and hasn’t been culled from the pages of the latest celebrity food tome. It’s not even very visually appealing, essentially consisting of various shades of beige. And it that weren’t bad enough, the things it does feature are firmly entrenched at the top of many people’s ‘most-detested’ lists: anchovies, mayonnaise, cauliflower, and a pot ..read more

I have a really fantastic new book to tell you about today. In fact, it’s one of the most beautiful books I’ve seen in a long time. Just look at it. Don’t you just want to grab a mug of something hot and curl up with it on the sofa? Chances are you’ve heard about this book already, particularly if you’re a dedicated reader of food blogs. That’s because the author is one of our own—the incredibly talented Béatrice Peltre, better known as La Tartine Gourmande. But Béa hardly needs any introduction from me. In the years she’s been blogging, her site has become one of the best-known (and loved) o ..read more

Green Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk and Warm Spices Europe, as you’ve no doubt heard, has been pretty cold lately. After a far-warmer-than-average November, December and January, February donned its icy gloves and sent an entire continent reeling with a left hook that nobody saw coming. In Germany, though, it’s been pretty much business as usual. People here are simply used to operating at much colder temperatures, and the strange thing is that even I feel myself slowly joining their ranks. Human adaptability is a remarkable thing, isn’t it? I remember as a kid experiencing a rare California ..read more

A few weeks ago I was sitting in what I sometimes describe (depending on my mood) as my favorite restaurant in the world: Ken’s Artisan Pizza in Portland, Oregon. It’s a tradition my dad, stepmom and I have every time I spend a few days in town; we go to Ken’s on my first night, or my last night, or sometimes both. Sometimes I secretly wish we could eat there all the nights in between too. I love the place that much. If you’ve ever been to Ken’s you surely know why. It’s comfortable and friendly, and everything they make—the vast majority of which comes out of their hulking wood-fired oven, w ..read more

Dear Friends, Hi! How are you? Staying warm, I hope, or cool if you’re reading this from the southern half of the globe. Things around here are fine—and so am I, despite what the long silence around here may have led you to believe. I know, I’m sorry—I feel terrible for vanishing without a trace like that. And as delicious as that butter chicken was, well, six months (oops, actually almost seven) is an awfully long time to be staring at it. The reason for my absence, alas, was not very glamorous or dramatic. There was no prolonged illness, family tragedy or madcap global adventure preventing m ..read more

  You’ve heard of Sanjeev Kapoor, right? You know, the author of more than three dozen cookbooks, host of Asia’s longest-running cooking show (actually, television program of any kind!), owner of multiple restaurants and brains behind the eponymous website that registers 25 million hits per month? No?! Well, to be honest, if you’re not Indian I’m not surprised, since despite his mammoth fame and fortune in his own country he’s all but unknown abroad. That’s all set to change, though, thanks to the release of his very first cookbook for the western market: How to Cook Indian (aka Masterin ..read more

Holy-Grail Chocolate Chip Cookies My dear husband celebrated a birthday recently, and like every year, I started steeling myself for the inevitable conversation several days in advance. Normally it goes something like this: Me: “What kind of cake do you want for your birthday?” Him: “Oh you don’t have to make me a cake.” Me: “But I want to, and besides it’s not a birthday without a cake. What kind would you like?” Him: “Oh I don’t care.” Me: “Come on, how about something with lots of chocolate? Him: “Nah.” Me: “Okay then, tiramisu again?” Him: “Just make whatever you feel like.” Me: “But it’s ..read more