Cherry Soup

It’s that time of year.
Farmer’s Markets are exploding with great spring fruits and vegetables. My favorite among them is cherries. If this were prime time television, the cherry would be a superstar, hosting its own variety show in the best time slot possible. Like a Saturday night bookended by very special episodes of The Love [...]

Valrhona: Serious about chocolate.

Yesterday, Valrhona Chocolate hosted a Single Origin Chocolate dessert tasting and demonstration at 350 Rhode Island Street– otherwise known as the new home of the California Culinary Academy. The joy I was experiencing in anticipation of having superior-quality chocolate waved in front of my face for the next few hours was only slightly dampened [...]

Urban Chickens: Do it yourself hen-party

Until recently, my knowledge of chickens– live ones, at least– was very limited. When I thought of poultry egg production, my mind turned to clucking, gossipy hens who, upon hearing the seductive croon of an emaciated rooster resembling a young Frank Sinatra with feathers, fainted dead away on the small mountain of eggs that just [...]

You Say Tomato: A Very British Grocery

There’s more to urban hunting and gathering than visiting one’s local supermarket. Grocery shopping need not be limited to the likes of Safeway, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s. They’re just so… corporate, and this shopper is a bit bored with the over-marketing of, well, markets. Small, individually-owned stores might not provide their customers with all [...]

Elbow’s Room

A couple of weeks ago, I met up with my oldest friend in the world to mind her three-year-old while she had her hair cut and dyed. As a reward, she said, she would buy me chocolate. Fine, I thought. I’m not a chocolate freak, so she’d be getting off rather cheaply, in terms of [...]

Kate Smith’s Favorite Recipes

Well, God Bless America, it’s Kate Smith! I’ve recently been given a book of her favorite recipes called, of all things, Kate Smith’s Favorite Recipes.
If you know anything at all about me, or even care to, you know that I am fascinated with celebrities. Not the new ones so much– I prefer the dead [...]

May is Coffee Cake Month

A couple of years ago, when my friend Thrasso came to visit me from Canada, he mentioned that May had been officially designated as Coffee Cake Month. When I asked how he came by such an important nugget of information, he told me that it was, at least, Coffee Cake Month in his world. He finds [...]

The Mint Julep

In honor of the 134th annual Kentucky Derby, which just happens to be happening tomorrow, I am making mint juleps. How could I not? Since I am neither a Southerner, nor have I ever been to Churchill Downs, I very easily could not. But I have lots of Southern friends and often like to pretend [...]