foodperson.com

I remember reading an interview with Ruth Reichl in which she expressed shock that people changed recipes that they got from Gourmet magazine, seeing as Gourmet personnel had tested and revised their recipes until they were the best they could be.
I was shocked that she was shocked. (And Ruth, if it wasn’t you, I apologize.) [...]

[Read more →]

Good news! More people are eating home-cooked meals. Bad news! It isn’t what I’d call cooking. Good news! It’s a start, and it could maybe get people thinking about real cooking again. At least I hope so.
The food-spending update
Several reports from the last few weeks suggest more people are eating at home, largely due to [...]

[Read more →]

If it’s early August, its salsa time in Kansas, and the Lawrence Farmers Market put salsa and its makers on display Saturday.
Ambitious market coordinator Mercedes Taylor-Puckett organized not only salsa-making presentations by three Lawrence chefs, but also a competition open to market patrons. And she did it on what turned out to be the most [...]

[Read more →]

Remember the papalo? Today I ran into the farmer who grew mine, which reminded me I needed to update you.
I guess we Anglos don’t immediately take to the stuff, as evidenced by one writer’s referring to it as the wet dog herb and another saying it smells like gasoline. I can’t say that either of [...]

[Read more →]

This post is for the edification of wannabe canners and for the amusement of those of you who have been pickling, canning and generally “putting up” for years.
No, I am not a canner. I am, however, foolish. Despite my awareness of the endless rules that accompany canning, I nevertheless subconsciously bought into the many professions [...]

[Read more →]

Home canning has enough rules to fill a peck of pickled peppers, which is probably why:

Most canning seems to be done by people who learned it from their elders.
Most canners break the rules.

I arrived at those conclusions after years of interviewing home cooks, including some [...]

[Read more →]