Since it looks like I won’t be sitting in a pub quaffing Guinness anytime soon, I decided to dig out a few of my British cookbooks and think of England. Thinking of England, especially if you’re a food-crazed blogger with a penchant for the past, means recalling food writer Elizabeth David, and of course, Alan … More Remembering Jane Grigson, a British Food Writer Gone Too Soon*
I walk in my neighborhood every day, twice a day. After breakfast, which for me usually takes place around 6:30 a.m. And after dinner, so I am out on the road when most people will be fixing dinner, close to 12 hours after my breakfast time. Dogs bark, cats scurry under beauty-berry bushes, people wave … More Do You Smell Anything Cooking?
Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be food. ~Hippocrates Food and medicine, always intertwined in the human imagination. Because – obviously – the earliest English settlers brought their food habits and medicinal beliefs with them to what is now the United States, I relish books that provide background to the English way … More Lessons from Medieval England: The Relationship Between the Sick Room and the Kitchen
In my forthcoming book – with illustrations by Courtney Nzeribe – I discuss Hannah Glasse’s cookbook. (And much more, of course!) Poor Hannah Glasse. Literally. Except for Martha Stewart, she may be the only cookery book writer who did hard time for financial woes. Author of The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, … More The Eels of Hannah, Or, Hannah Glasse’s Lenten Recipes
Just an example of the type of recipes you will be able to recreate with the help of my upcoming book, A Hastiness of Cooks. Recipe reconstructed and recreated from archaic language. An example of what’s in my upcoming book, “A Hastiness of Cooks.” Chicken in a saffron-infused sauce, flavored with Poudre Forte, or “Strong Powder.” … More Capouns In Councys, from The Forme of Cury (1390)
I stood in front of her, the dim buzzing of children’s voices fading behind me. Her glowing face stared out at me, a wisp of a smile on her perfect lips, a vast verdant landscape stretching out behind her. Leaning close to the tiny sign to the right of the painting, I read “Mrs. Davies … More The Threads of Time, or, Who is that Woman in the Painting?
I binge watch cooking shows. Instead of reading intellect-stimulating tomes such as Homer’s The Iliad (who amongst you can say that you have???), lately I’ve been spending my precious time on earth transfixed by Paul Hollywood’s piercing blue eyes, calmed by Mary Berry’s soothing voice, cheering on the indomitable bakers of “The Great British Bake … More Lessons from “The Great British Bake Off”
