It may not be obvious from the multi-day layer cakes and precisely-scaled candy projects, but most days, I am a lazy cook. Like most people with full lives, cooking doesn’t always make it to the top of my priority list. There are plenty of days when the question “what’s for dinner?” gets answered by ordering …
Gluten free
This ginger syrup is a favorite for me. It makes the best ginger ale. It’s sweet and spicy and complex. I used to imagine ginger ale was one of those mysterious beverages that required a lab or a factory or complicated equipment to produce. (I used to feel the same way about tonic.) It turns …
Orgeat is a funny word. I remember seeing it for the first time in a row of bottles of flavored syrups available to add to lattes and cappuccinos and Italian sodas at an independent coffee shop in the 90s, the kind of place that had lumpy couches and open-mic nights and a patina of patchouli-scented dinge. …
When I get overwhelmed by things beyond my control, I distract myself by turning my attention to the simple and the routine. Exercising, walking the dog around the neighborhood, cooking the kind of nourishing meals that I know so well I can make them without thinking. Which brings me to this cabbage. Cabbage. It’s such …
I recently watched the first episode of the new season of Netflix’s excellent documentary series Chef’s Table. It focused on Grant Achatz, the highly acclaimed chef behind Chicago’s own Alinea, Next, The Aviary, and Roister. It was a compelling episode, in part because it is so satisfying to watch a person doing what he so clearly should be …
I don’t take the time to make fresh-squeezed lemonade that often, which is a pity because it actually takes very little effort and is pretty much the best thing to drink on a sunny summer day. But what might be even better is lemonade with puckery rhubarb added to turn it a deep, blushing pink. …