Cheese – CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN

Carnevale Cometh: Ricotta and Fritters, Oh My Goodness!

February 27, 2022

Fritters and Carnevale, lumped together like ham and eggs, mashed potatoes and gravy, risi e bisi, rice and beans. Ricotta fritters, to be exact. True, most people associate ricotta fritters more with St. Joseph’s Day, March 19 in Italy. But those fritters lean toward the filled variety, sweetened, creamy ricotta delivering a tantalizing surprise with … More Carnevale Cometh: Ricotta and Fritters, Oh My Goodness!

Carnivale Cometh, Again: Sumptuous Lasagne di Carnevale

February 24, 2022

And now for the food of Carnival, as interpreted by cooks in what is now Italy. (See previous post on Carnival for more history.) Greasy, fatty, protein-rich, oozing with cheese or sugar, the dishes created for Martedi Grasso (Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday) served a higher purpose than merely feeding hungry stomachs: the severe Lenten proscriptions … More Carnivale Cometh, Again: Sumptuous Lasagne di Carnevale

The Magic of Ferdinand’s Bar

July 8, 2021

You can have strong emotional reactions when you eat a food that arouses those deep unconscious memories. ~ Susan Krauss Whitbourne Even if I stood on my tiptoes, I still couldn’t see over the counter at Ferdinand’s Bar. But I could smell the waffled sugar cones cooking in the waffle irons and hear the Washington … More The Magic of Ferdinand’s Bar

Cheese + Flour + Yeast + Salt + Eggs = The Ancient Mystery of Bread

March 22, 2013

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 … More Cheese + Flour + Yeast + Salt + Eggs = The Ancient Mystery of Bread

Weaving the Ties that Bind, One Bite at a Time

October 8, 2012

I stood by the wooden fence, peering over the barbed wire fringing it like a lace collar. For some reason, I couldn’t focus the camera lens clearly on the Holstein standing a few yards away. The cow gazed back at me, her jaws moving with the steady precision of a slow motor. When I stooped … More Weaving the Ties that Bind, One Bite at a Time

What the Eye Doesn’t See …

September 29, 2012

I decided to sign up for a photography class, because I wanted to move out of AUTO on my lovely Nikon D5100 camera. Below, you’ll see some of the food photos that I’ve been fussing with:

Food First, First Things

October 4, 2011

After a long day flying, and given the “food” served on the airplane, the first order of business when I arrived in Paris included real food. I needed to drop my bags in the apartment and seek sustenance. Quick. (Actually, after taking the RER from Charles DeGaulle airport to the center of Paris, through the … More Food First, First Things

At the Table of the Monks: Cheese, Of Course (Part V)

May 22, 2009

Smelling like something dead, washed-rind cheeses* with their soft non-acidic centers offered a taste of animal protein to medieval monks prohibited from eating meat for over 100 days in the average liturgical year. The fact that these cloistered souls liked the results of their odiferous labor ought to cause us to wonder something: what did … More At the Table of the Monks: Cheese, Of Course (Part V)