I first ate nasi goreng in the late seventies, when I worked as a research assistant at a Washington think tank. I had been befriended by one of the secretaries, a wonderful Dutch lady who had lived an exotic and harrowing life: raised in Indonesia before World War II, she spent her teenage years in a Japanese internment camp in unimaginably horrible circumstances. Later, as an adult, she lived in Saudi Arabia with her husband and children, where one afternoon […]
There’s nothing like a 250-year old recipe to be really…disappointing. Our ideas about great food change with time. We have so many more food choices today, ingredient options that the founding fathers and mothers wouldn’t have had, and such a varied range of cuisines that have altered and opened the American palate that finding a historic recipe and making it work for modern tastes requires some adaptation. This recipe for Martha Washington’s crab soup would have been considered an elegant […]
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” – Charles M. Schulz You might expect the creator of Charlie Brown and the lovestruck Lucy to say something so sensible: enjoy the love, but don’t forget the chocolate. Here’s a recipe that satisfies both needs, and it’s about as easy as any candy you can make: bark is just a layering of delicious ingredients in a sheet pan, which needs a little time to cool […]
There’s never a more welcome time to enjoy a lush arrangement of flowers than in the dead of winter, and with Valentine’s Day around the corner, why not indulge yourself? I’ve been loving the evolution of flower arranging in the last couple of years – flower arrangements are looser, with old-fashioned and exotic blooms (or more prosaic and therefore unexpected), and things are joyously natural and free flowing. This arrangement has many different types of flowers, but only a few […]
The Search for Delicious is not just a great book by Natalie Babbitt; it’s a lifetime quest, seeking food that satisfies our heads and hearts, as well as our stomachs. Before you dig in, remember that what you’re about to eat is going to become a part of you. You deserve to be healthy, so give yourself permission to eat what will keep you strong and well. Here are two delicious breakfast foods to warm up the cold winter mornings. […]
