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Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life

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Artist palette film grain rs

A Bare Table is Like an Artist’s Canvas

May 16, 2013 by Cynthia Bertelsen

There’s something about tables, big, little, or bare – and those bare ones  in particular – that make me want to festoon them with food I’ve cooked, like floral garlands at a grand wedding. I feel an urge, too, to seat people on the equally vacant chairs, saying, “Come on now, sit down a spell, and let your worries fade away like the mist on a hot summer morning.” Well, maybe I wouldn’t say it exactly that way, but the […]

Categories: Art, Beans, Cassava, Chile Peppers, Corn, Latin America, Photography, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Tomatoes, United States, Virginia • Tags: Beans, Cassava, Chiles, Corn, Photography, Potatoes, Squash, Tomatillos

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Pole beans

Are Pole Beans Like Cows? A Crashing Tale

February 17, 2013 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Pole beans are sort of like cows. If you keep milking a cow, she produces milk. Likewise, if you keep picking pole beans, the plant keeps producing. Pole beans are not like bush beans, which render up a crop and then die back. I call them pole beans, but some people call them flat beans down here. That’s fine. I intended to write about pole beans from a practical angle. You know, to grow them, you need eight-foot poles for […]

Categories: Beans, Food Columns, Food writing, Southern Food • Tags: Pole beans, Southern cooking, Southern Food

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garbure-gersoise

If on a Winter’s Night, a Bowl of Garbure …

January 14, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Nights spent huddled by fires snapping  and popping and providing respite from the howling winds and wolves, when you think of the dark and the cold and the danger, don’t you — all snuggled up in your down comforter or quilt passed down from your great-grandmother — feel a slight shiver? Of déjà vu? Not the cold. Maybe that’s why you long for a hearty pot of vegetable soup laced with salted fatty meat when winter slithers through the pines and […]

Categories: Beans, Cabbage, Carrots, France, French Cooking, Pork • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Garbure, Gascony, Jambon, Pork, Saucisses, Soup, Soupe

Idylls of Cuisine, #87

November 7, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Beans, Cooking, Europe, France, French Cooking, Photography • Tags: Food Photography, French Cooking, Lentilles du Puy, Lentils

Pumkpin frost

Winter’s Leafy Greens: A Romantic History à la Française

November 4, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A few mornings ago, the pumpkins sprawling on my front porch sparkled with frost. And you know what that means. It’s time for some serious rustic cooking. (And I’d like to include a recording right here of someone yelling “Yippee!”) It’s time to turn to the hardy greens of winter, something that French cooks* use instead of the more delicate summer greens like butterhead lettuce or red oak. Somehow, and this might just be me, after September cold salad just […]

Categories: Beans, Cooking, France, French Cooking, Greens, Pork, Soup • Tags: Cooking, Cooking White Beans, Greens, La Varenne, Le Cuisinier François, Recipes, Soup, The French Cook

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Mushrooms Andy Warhol cream-of-mushroom-1968

From Velouté to Casserole: A Question of Green Beans, Amandine, and Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup

November 1, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I didn’t mean to write about Campbell’s soup. You see, I started out pondering a super French soup recipe, Velouté aux Champignons. Somehow I ended up contemplating Campbell’s canned Cream of Mushroom Soup, definitely not one of Antonin Carême’s sauces mères or Mother Sauces (velouté, espagnole, allemande, béchamel)! Though you could argue that Campbell’s soups play the role of sauces in retro American cooking. If you’ve ever eaten soup from those little red-and-white cans, you’re really taking in one of […]

Categories: American Cooking, Beans, Cooking, French Cooking, Mushrooms, Recipes, Soup • Tags: Campbell Soup Company, Cook with Campbell's, Cream of Mushroom, France, John Dorrance, Joseph A. Campbell, Mother Sauces, Mushroom Soup

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Eat a Meal of Solidarity: Haiti’s Sos Pwa Rouj

January 17, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

As in a nightmare wrought by Quentin Tarantino, I watched the horrors unfolding in Haiti after the earthquake. Hands tied, unable to help in any major way, I turned to my pantry, memories of the lovely Haitian women who cooked for us stepping into my mind, smiling, images of hope for Haiti’s future. Here’s a dish that soothes and nourishes. To Haiti … in hopes that all will be fed. Sos Pwa Rouj (Red Beans in Sauce) Serves 8 2 […]

Categories: Beans, Cooking, Haiti, Recipes • Tags: Beans, Beans in Sauce, Haiti, Haitian Cooking, Sos Pwa Rouj

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Red Bean Fishies

Idylls of Cuisine #20

July 5, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Beans, China, Photography • Tags: Chinese Food, Fish, Food Photography, Red Bean Paste

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Photo credit: Judy Baxter

Counting Beans: A Soupçon of History

June 26, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Not too long ago, I looked at the messy pile of one-pound bags of beans in my pantry and knew I needed to start using them up. But how? For some reason, the night before, I’d cooked chicken-and-sausage gumbo and maybe I could just make red beans to go with the leftover rice. Yes, that would be it. Never having made red beans and rice in the style of New Orleans, I could feel that little frisson of excitement that […]

Categories: Africa, African Cooking, American Cooking, Beans, Haiti, Recipes, Southern Food • Tags: Bean Soup, Bean Stew, Beans, Haiti, New Orleans, Southern cooking, West Africa

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(Painting by Francisco de Zurburan)

At the Tables of the Monks: Daily Fare (Part III)

May 20, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Fermentation provided a number of foods on the tables of medieval monks. Beer, cheese, wine, sausages all result from fermentation processes. While it is true that medieval monks invented none of these foods originally — the Romans made cheese, wine, and sausages and Norsemen enjoyed beer — the monks, after the fall of Rome, guarded the production processes in monastery kitchens and vineyards and smokehouses. And in doing so they improved upon the old tastes and created entirely new foods. […]

Categories: Beans, Bread, French Cooking, Recipes • Tags: Bread, Cluny, English Monastic Life, F. A. Gasquet, Fava Beans, Francisco de Zurburán, Monasteries, Refectory

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platter-of-figs

The Washington Post on Best Cookbooks (Gifts) of 2008

December 22, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

An interesting and REAL list (for the most part) of cookbooks for serious and not-so-serious home cooks. Some of the 18 titles anointed and blessed  by The Post include: A Platter of Figs, by David Tanis (So popular right now that it can’t be had from any of the big online — or local — stores.) Summer on a Plate, by Anna Pump and Gen LeRoy (The Hamptons, yeah, Loaves & Fishes shop food) Outstanding in the Field: A Farm […]

Categories: Beans, Book Reviews, Cookbooks, Recipes, Soup • Tags: Beans, Book Reviews, Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Soup

George Washington, by Gilbert Stuart

Election-Day Menu: Food from Our Greatest Presidents

November 3, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Hands down, my vote for the greatest presidents we’ve seen in this country goes to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. John Kennedy might have been a truly great president, but he died before he could prove his mettle, though his stand against the USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis counts as something commendable, I guess. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to get in the mood for Election Day by cooking up food served […]

Categories: American Cooking, Beans, Beef, Desserts, Pork, Recipes, Soup • Tags: Cooking, Food, Recipes, White House

Chili con Beans (Photo credit: Janice Waltzer)

BARACK OBAMA’S CHILI AND JOHN McCAIN’S RIBS

October 25, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Barack Obama’s reply to a reporter who asked him in March 2008 what was his favorite dish to take a potluck: Chili. He said that, “I’ve been using this chili recipe since college and would bring it to any potluck. I can’t reveal all the secrets, but if you make it right, it’s just got the right amount of bite, the right amount of oomph in it and it will clear your sinuses.” (See my post on chili, “Chili Days […]

Categories: Beans, Beef, Pork, Recipes • Tags: Barack Obama, Barbecue, Chili, Cooking, Food

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Home Cooking, A Communal Effort (Used with permission.)

Home Cooking, More Necessary Than Ever

October 11, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

When I got home from the grocery store the other day and turned on the computer to read my Google Reader news feeds, several “food-is-getting-expensive” articles popped up: Web wire with “Rising Food Prices—Gather Your Family Back Around The Dinner Table,” about Martha’s Vineyard restaurateur Carol McManus’s new cookbook, Table Talk: Food. Family. Love. A Cookbook.  And a Las Vegas chef offers Greek mezze, small plates of food cheaper than full plates, apparently good for both one’s health and one’s […]

Categories: Beans, Recipes, Rice • Tags: Cooking, Food, Home Cooking, Recipes

Growing, growing, growing (Used with permission.)

Yin-Yang Beans

October 7, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Yin-yang beans, also called Calypso or orca or black calypso beans (Phaseolus Vulgaris), resemble nothing more than the ancient Asian symbol of “yin-yang,” even to the point (no pun intended) of the eternal black dot. The beans take 70-90 days to produce “fruit.” According to gardening catalogs, these hyrbids grow to be fifteen inches high. Each bean pod contains four to five seeds or beans. Wait until 90 days after planting to harvest for dry use, but you can cook […]

Categories: Beans, Photography • Tags: Beans, Calypso bean, Cooking, Food, Food Photography, Yin-yang beans

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White Beans (Used with permission.)

White Beans with Cream, Prosciutto, and Parmesan

September 14, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Autumn teases you, you know, with its chilly mid-September mornings, urging you to dream of sitting outside on cool evenings, wrapped lightly in woolen shawls, a bowl of hot bean soup nestled in your hands, a glass of Pinot Grigio resting on the small table next to you. Dreaming of a stone cottage in Italy’s Piedmont or a small crowded house in Rome, the smoke from the fireplace coating the walls, the whitewash of centuries peeping through. Listening, as it […]

Categories: Beans, Italian Cooking, Pork, Recipes, Soup • Tags: Beans, Cooking, Food, Italian Cooking, Recipes, Soup

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Chili (Used with permission.)

CHILI DAYS ARE A’COMIN’: AN ODE, OF A SORTS

September 10, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

“Open some cans of chili – mighty good.” -Toots Shor’s recipe for chili- Chili, the stuff of tall tales, legends, grudges, and just plain cussedness. If you earned a buck for every chili recipe ever cooked, fantasized about, or pirated, you’d probably beat Bill Gates at the money game. Not much appeals more to American individualism than that wonderful, spicy concoction, “Chili con Carne.”  For the perfect winter night’s supper, chili con carne knows no rival. More recipes exist for […]

Categories: Beans, Beef, Recipes • Tags: Chiles, Chili, Chili con carne, Cooking, Dama de Azul, Food

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Food forms the very essence of life, from the fruit fly to the elephant, with humans in between. So much of what we do revolves around cooking, eating, and the finding of food. Here you'll discover stories, meditations, and photographs celebrating the places that we call home. And, of course, the food that garnishes it all.

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What’s Cookin’ Here

  • A Bare Table is Like an Artist’s Canvas
  • “Stew’s so comforting on a rainy day.” *
  • Singkong, Manioc, Mandioca, Mandió, Tapioca, Yuca: Singing the Praises of Manihot esculenta (Cassava)
  • The Promise of Apple Blossoms

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