susan-cooks! (teaches, reads cookbooks)

Jam-making, for me, is an unalloyed pleasure. Start with fruit, add sugar, ginger (often in many forms), the occasional chili and lemon or l...

Everyone has opinions about brownies -- cakey, squishy, dense, studded with random stuff. There are dozens of books with "brownie"...

May 31, 2007 marked “599 days to go” for the Bush Presidency. In the spirit of an administration that has always ignored generic wisdom, co...

The FoodFamilies of France as observed in Paris and Caen in March 2007 The Bagette Family , whose major constituents are big and small ...

http://susan-cooks.blogspot.com/2007/04/food-families-of-france-march-2007.html One of the signs of spring in my kitchen is "Cooking Cl...

Pimento Cheese is a Southern food, and in grocery stores south of the Mason Dixon Line, you can buy it in great tubs from competing purveyo...

When you've clipped a recipe and made it enough that it is tattered, a sensible cook find a more permanent place. For more than a decad...

Favorite cookbooks open automatically to favorite recipes, and my copy of Judith Olney's The Joy of Chocolate (1982, Barron's Edu...

It took a while for me to embrace spicy food for dinner -- my Mother's first attempt at Chicken Creole in the early 1960s called for 1/...

I've had Spinach Balls in my freezer for about 35 years. Why? Because they're easy to make in double and triple batches and becau...

Happy New Year! I have had French Toast three times in the last 20 years and, not coincidentally, all three were in the last three weeks. ...

Really really hybridized corn - a very early nanoscape ...I promise not to give up painting to explore plant genetics... If, however, you a...

If you give the gift of five pounds of candy, the recipient will be sick for a week. However , if you give the gift of a C andy Thermom...

My friend Kimm Walton (author of Guerilla Tactics for Getting the Legal Job of Your Dreams ), "introduced" me to Ann Hodgman sev...

Scallion Pancake Week ( May 1-5, 2006) Adapted from three wonderful cookbooks: The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking (Barbara Tropp) China M...

If you have an hour to spare and are looking for something that will inspire "Did You MAKE these??", try "$100 Almonds" ...

During the summer of 2006 I discovered watercolors, and I will, occasionally, post a painting. This was one of two very early food-related ...

On November 8, 2006, Mark Bittman’s NYTimes column struck fear and terror into the hearts of bread machine manufacturers, and brought joy t...

Fresh winter Roma tomatoes taste like the spawn of cardboard and cotton , and not in the vaguely good way you might remember the cotton cand...

August 1, 2006...With nearly 200 other lucky folks, I heard Leon Panetta speak at Graves 601 today. He gave a great speech, but that's ...