Happy 100th Julia Child!

Happy 100th Birthday Julia Child!  This month, the culinary world is celebrating what would have been Julia’s 100th birthday. The occasion calls for sharing my own “Julia” memories.  As a novice food writer, I pitched a story on Julia to a local magazine a...

A HOT couscous soup for a cold night!

Joyeuses Fêtes and Happy Holidays! (to paraphrase a Moroccan proverb)   To each of you, I send a box filled with sesame seeds.   Each seed representing one hundred wishes for peace, health, and happiness in 2012   Bonne Année, Bon Appétit and...

The Kasbah Chronicles/Tagine of Quince

  October 2011   Nothing surprised me more two or three years ago, than to learn from one of my “foodie” cousins in Paris, that “Alloween” (with silent “h”, sic) had taken root in France. Dozens of sites initiated novices to la soirée...

Encore fava beans!

A New Way to Cook with Fava Beans! Leaves included! Some of you may know of my taste for fresh fava beans, that most underrated bean, at least among US cooks.   Fava beans always come to mind at this time of the year, especially around Easter and Passover....

It’s raining limes! (Again)

 I feel so sorry for my citrus trees. The weather has been so mercurial that they can’t tell if it’s summer, Fall, or spring. We have had several heat waves at the oddest times, which has spurred fruit to ripen prematurely perhaps, and in doing so,...