This is a big week for me. I am moving into my new home! It’s kind of hard to believe the day is here at last, especially as the place is still crawling with painters and cabinet makers, but Caine says it will be done when the movers arrive and he is always good for his word. So I hope you will excuse me if this week’s offering is not one of my recipes but that of Yotam Ottolenghi, an Israeli-British chef, whose stated mission is “the idea of celebrating vegetables or pulses without making them taste like meat, or as complements to meat, but to be what they are.” Ottolenghi brings ...
Snacks & Nibbles
WATERMELON PUDDING
Somewhere, somehow, while I was living overseas, the watermelon of my childhood disappeared. You remember the one? It was red and juicy and sweet like today’s watermelons but the seeds were big and black and part of the fun (as a child) of eating the melon was spitting the seeds out, best to do it to the ground or a plate but on occasion at each other! The other thing about those watermelons? They were big, very big. So big that you could buy one whole or you could buy a portion of sliced melon at the store. I come from a large family so chances were the melon would get eaten, ...
CORN, TOMATO AND ZUCCHINI MUFFINS, DON’T FORGET THE CHEESE!
A friend recently asked me why I grow vegetables and get a CSA share from my local market. It’s a fair question. But for me the two things serve completely different functions. My CSA share stretches me. Left to myself I would spend the whole summer eating my holy trinity of vegetables: tomatoes, corn and zucchini. I would, and do, walk happily by the produce shelves loaded with greens, root vegetables, and other less favored foods straight to my go-to’s. I can’t do that with my CSA. The dang things are in my home! In my refrigerator right now are Japanese eggplants, radishes ...
COOKING WITH FRIENDS: BAKED GOAT CHEESE ROLLS WITH HONEY AND THYME
High on a mountainside about ten minutes from downtown Asheville is a stately Southern mansion, with sweeping porches, endless views and carefully tended grounds. It is a beautiful spot. But it wasn’t always this way. Ten years ago The Reynolds Mansion was falling apart. Time and neglect had brought this once beautiful house to its knees. And that is when my friend, Billy, saw it. Billy loved the house and the house needed love and that was what it took. Today, The Reynolds Mansion, once home to Senator Reynolds and the Hope Diamond, is considered to be one of the finest Bed & ...
COOKING WITH FRIENDS: WHISKEY SOUR, SHAKEN NOT STIRRED
Meet Tom, mild mannered computer programmer by day and impresario of the cocktail at night. I spent an evening with him and his wife, Emily, in Chicago recently where he showed me how easy it is to make a showstopper cocktail to impress your friends. ( Before I go any farther with this here is a disclaimer: Tom is my son-in-law and he is British. We forgive him for both.) I don’t know if Tom discovered whiskey (and specifically Bourbon) in the United States or not, but he has developed a love for it which endears him to friends and family as he uses his expertise to our advantage. I ...
CAROLINA PIMENTO CHEESE: REALLY GOOD PIMENTO CHEESE
You write a cookbook and you spend over a year making sure every recipe is clearly written and presented. You work with a book designer and an excellent photographer to make everything looks enticing and delicious. You read it and re-read it and re-read it to make sure there are no errors and then you send it off to the printer. And when it arrives, it looks great. It really, really does. And then you realize you somehow left out one of your best recipes. One of the recipes people ask for over and over again. This is that recipe. Pimento Cheese is a Southern treat which has ...
COOKING WITH FRIENDS: OLD-SCHOOL CHEESE STRAWS
This is the first in a new series: Cooking with Friends. So much of cooking is about sharing the love. Travel with me to the kitchens of my friends and explore the food they love and love to share. Today I am in the spacious, sunlit kitchen of Rick Bell and Tom Watson, owners of Engadine Inn and Cabins, located just north of Asheville in the mountains near Candler, NC. The ingredients are lined up on the counter and the ovens are pre-heated. But before we start, Rick takes a moment to show me one of his prized possessions. It doesn’t look like much. Just a pile of clippings, ...
Last Days, First Days: Spicy Pickled Radish Crostini
Honestly, I didn’t think this day would ever really get here. Our inn in Asheville, The Carolina Bed & Breakfast has been my 24/7 job for almost 9 years. As if it was our child, food had to be put on the table at specified times and we had be on-call day and night to help if needed. No being late, no being absent. Finally in September of 2016 we put it on the market. After some initial slow going, we finally accepted an offer in November 2017. Selling a bed & breakfast is never simple and this one was a rollercoaster of a ride but here it is March 24, 2018 and I will be cooking my ...
