Term: lefse (food) Definition: thin, unleavened bread of Norwegian origin, traditionally made of a potato-based dough and baked on a griddle [Source: Dictionary of American Regional English] Thanksgiving is a day when Americans recall the myths of their founding, usually associated with the English Pilgrims of Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1620, ignoring the Jamestown settlers who arrived…
Category: Techniques
Cookbooks for the Season: Preserving is the Hot Topic These Days
At this time of the year, cookbooks flow like rivers out of publishing houses. The usual stabs at global cuisine are always there, covering everything cooking-related from Vietnam to Persia to Cuba, with the usual obsequious curtsies to France and Italy. Gluten-free and farm fresh crop up, too. But the most interesting trend in…
A Reality Checklist about Romanticizing Kitchens Past
Every year during the holiday season, many media sources provide lists of cookbooks, primarily to jump-start the gift-giving proclivities of their readers. This year I’m getting a head start. Only thing is, my list is different. Most of the books I’m suggesting are free – they’re all vintage. And not as “vintage” seems to be defined nowadays, as…
Eating Dessert at the White House + A Word about Dallas, November 22, 1963*
Bill Yosses, the current White House pastry chef says pie is the all-time favorite in the Obama White House, but adds that “The dessert that was the biggest hit last year was a sugar cookie in the shape of the First Family’s dog, Bo. This year we have a black and yellow bumblebee to celebrate…
Preserved Mushrooms: Choice Gems from a Few Examples of Historic Cuisine
I grew up thinking that mushrooms came out of a small flat can or a squat glass bottle, both usually adorned with a picture of a bald-headed guy dressed in a tight white T-shirt. Or maybe that was another brand? Given that most people did not dare eat the mushrooms they saw popping up after…
Cheese + Flour + Yeast + Salt + Eggs = The Ancient Mystery of Bread
To contemplate bread even more, please go my previous post, Panis Gravis, or, Bread, Endless Nurturer. I’ve baked bread for years and years. In fact, except for the odd hamburger bun, my family never eats “boughten bread,” as my mother-in-law called it. In a time when “carbohydrate” evokes images reminiscent of horror films, singing the…
Another Holy Trinity of the Kitchen: The Magic of Milk, Eggs, and White Flour
Every time I pour crêpe batter into my 8-inch Teflon*-lined crêpe pan, I see deep scratches, the ones that Habiba made with the fork she used while cooking a three-egg cheese-and-herb omelet one wintry Moroccan morning. The scratches don’t affect the pan’s performance, just as wounds and scars don’t fundamentally change who we are and…
And a Cake Fit for Three Kings: Galette/Gateau des Rois
Bonne Année! Happy New Year! I first ate Galette des Rois in Paris, on a cold, rainy January day. The smell of the almond-paste filling seemed to reach right out through the door of the nameless little patisserie near the Rue Monge and grab me by the lapels of my too-thin coat. I couldn’t wait to…
