I learned to cook in England, but the methods I learned were French.

I was a vegetarian at the time.  I had several vegetarian cookbooks by Martha Rose Schulman (whom I consider greatly underappreciated.)  Though I didn't know it at the time, her early cooking was greatly inspired by Beck, Bertholle, and Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking ( Read more... )

Hi, all,

First, thanks for your responses to my attack of the blues yesterday.  *Big hugs*

I felt much better this morning, and got all the rest of the baking done.  And the wrapping!  And the packing!

I have listened to Corelli's Christmas Concerto and re-assembled my peace of mind.  Re-combobulated, as a friend would say ( Read more... )

Making lunch. It started with a casserole recipe titled (probably inaccurately) "Chilaquiles", and has morphed. It now includes chopped red and yellow bell peppers and tofu as well as the grated zucchini, chopped onion, ground cumin, diced tomatoes, frozen corn kernels, and cooked black beans ( Read more... )

Or, I went out to buy a second-hand bookcase, and three thrift stores later had two CDs and a Cuisinart dual-canister ice cream maker ( Read more... )

I have recently developed an addiction to Popcorn, Indiana's kettle corn.  Enough of one that I decided to try making it.

And lo, it worked out very well. This recipe, made with canola oil, yellow popcorn, and organic sugar (evaporated cane juice) is almost exactly like the $4.99-a-bag brand.  You have to add salt, of course ( Read more... )

... and in a good mood.  It's a lovely sunny day outside and they say it will be up to 61F.  That's Spring-like, at least/at last.

I think I may well be in love with the singer/songwriter Dan Bern, just from his music.  I've had song after song from Breathe in my head over the past few days.  

Feel pretty good, emotionally.  F. and I are back on good terms (or, rather, have clarified that neither of us intended to be on bad terms with the other).  My job has been kind of pleasant, and I am continuing to work on what will eventually be an open source project.

I can recommend this recipe: Vegan Lemon Cupcakes.  I made it with white whole ( Read more... )

I got through a meeting I was a little afraid of, yesterday.  And it turned out that when they moved our "war room" they moved all our stuff, including my box of teabags and the power cable for my work laptop.  (In case you're wondering, I plug into a docking station at my desk ( Read more... )

I'm glad that I did work on my resume today.  It was a real struggle getting as far with it as I did, because I hate doing that kind of thing.

I also made dal makhani. The recipe called for 100g of butter for six people. That's a whole stick of butter.  I think a quarter of that would have been plenty.  But it's pretty good ( Read more... )

You've heard of black bean brownies? Here's another take on the same idea: Cannellini (white kidney bean) gingerbread.

This recipe is based on the one for black bean brownies from the South Beach Diet Super Quick Cookbook, adapted and modified after a study of gingerbread recipes. Nutritionally, I think they're comparable: the only questionable ( Read more... )