Friends, hello! A few weeks ago, after I shared my struggles with this cornmeal galette dough recipe, a few of you, incredibly, made it anyway and shared your experience in the comments and via email. Inspired by your positive notes, I revisited the recipe, and after a few trials, I found the solution ultimately to be simple: decrease the cornmeal and mix the dough slightly more aggressively. I made a video, which I think is the best teacher for these sorts of recipes, and I updated the post:...
7 days agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Friends, hi, how are you? Thank you for your kind notes after last week's letter. On Sunday, I drove 9 hours from Pittsburgh back to Ella's school. We spent the night in a hotel, and in the morning we parted again. No tears! Progress. In the spirit of goodbyes and first days of school, a few of you sent me this WSJ editorial. It's beautifully written and made me weep. Can't recommend it enough π€£ This week, I baked this sourdough sandwich bread using the same technique several of you have...
14 days agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Oh Friends, where to begin? On Monday, we dropped our oldest, Ella, off at boarding school. Even though I knew I would be picking her up two days later for a hockey tournament, those two days felt interminable. For the past 6 months, as the prospect of her leaving became more real, I've often found myself thinking, "It's going to be great!" And I truly believe this. But I bumped into a friend at our little co-op on Tuesday, and she asked me how I was, and I said: "Great! Everything is great."...
21 days agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Friends, good morning. Earlier this week, needing to put one lone, large eggplant to use, I "oven-fried" it, using a favorite old recipe from America's Test Kitchen. The beauty of the recipe is that the breaded eggplant rounds bake on a preheated baking sheet with a very small amount of oil β there is no standing at the stovetop, frying batch after batch. The oven-fried eggplant rounds ultimately get smothered in sauce and cheese if you make ATK's full recipe for eggplant parmesan, which I...
28 days agoΒ β’Β 1 min read
Good Morning, Friends. A few weeks ago, after I shared here that I had made zucchini Scarpaccia and was dissatisfied with its texture, my friend Caroline texted me: "I'm obsessed with Scarpaccia. Such a good use of all the zucchini. I make a double batch every weekend and snack on it all week. One of my favorite summer recipes." She sent me a photo... ... and a link to the recipe she uses, noting her changes: she omits the breadcrumbs, uses a sheetpan (as opposed to a 9x13), and bakes it for...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 1 min read
The above site means one and only one thing: It's ratatouille time! There are many ways to make excellent ratatouille, but I think roasting it is the least fussy (and best) way to do it. The recipe I use calls for roasting with both olive oil and balsamic vinegar, which gives the finished ratatouille a subtle bite, a flavor that evokes eggplant caponata, though the sharpness is more mellow. It is irresistible. Letβs review: Gather all of your ratatouille vegetables: tomatoes, eggplant,...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Friends, hello. Earlier this week, my friend Serena Wolf's third book, You Do You, made its way into the world, and I have been poring through it ever since. Serena, if you are unfamiliar, writes the blog Domesticate Me, but in recent years, her focus has been on her virtual cooking club, which she started during the pandemic and continues to run today. Serena's gift as a teacher shines in the pages of this book. As I flipped through it for the first time, I bookmarked so many recipes not...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
Good Morning, Friends. Nearly every week, I receive an email or a comment from someone lamenting that the bottom of their sourdough loaf is too tough. They love the crumb and the flavor, but, as one reader sweetly wrote recently, sometimes "the crust is a bit too crispy for my weak teeth." I get it! And I have a solution, but first, let's quickly review the process. For Dutch oven baked loaves, the loaf bakes covered for roughly 30 minutes, then uncovered for another 15 minutes. Forty-five...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 1 min read
Good Morning, Friends. Last weekend, when my sister arrived with her children, she emerged from her car holding a small brown paper bag. I squealed at the sight, knowing/hoping what might be inside: dozens of dirt-shrouded heads of her husband Tim's homegrown garlic. If you grow your own garlic or are lucky enough to be on the receiving end of someone else's, or if you buy it at the farmer's market, you know it is a far cry from what most of us can get for much of the year. It is gold....
2 months agoΒ β’Β 3 min read