Popular for decades, this restaurant packs them in every night.  More [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130611/BLOGS/306119971/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:16:04 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130611/BLOGS/306119971/-1/blogs01  

What the heck do Parisians do with all that extra bread?  Eat anywhere in Paris, a bistro, a brasserie, a fine restaurant, a cafe, or a private home, and a basket of thickly sliced baguette is as important to the table setting as cutlery.   Not a skimpy 3 or 4 slices, but piled high.  No butter. No olive oil.  The bread is so good it stands alone.  No bread plates, either.  A few eateries run by the cool new chefs whose cutting edge menus use the classics as a jumping off [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130607/BLOGS/306079991/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Fri, 7 Jun 2013 11:13:55 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130607/BLOGS/306079991/-1/blogs01 Parisian women don’t wear jewelry.  They wear scarves.  They wear them with panache.  Over dresses, with sweaters, under raincoats.  The luxurious swathes of cloth might be cotton or silk or wool.  Age is never a factor: toddlers barely out of the stroller through elderly women in wheelchairs proudly sport them.  And everyone can tie a chic knot or toss carefully enough to appear careless.  At Hermes, the gold standard of scarves, customers take lessons in elegant drapery, the better [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130605/BLOGS/306059991/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Wed, 5 Jun 2013 11:13:47 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130605/BLOGS/306059991/-1/blogs01 I love the idea of ratatouille.  Romantic darling of restaurants in summertime, especially those with outdoor patios or sidewalk tables.  Easy way to use very ripe, seasonal veggies.

What I don’t like  – aside from the fact that so many kids think that Ratatouille is a cartoon rodent – is zucchini.  I hate zucchini.  Except when seeded, cut into strips, treated to standard breading procedure – seasoned flour, egg wash, flavored bread crumbs – and pan- [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130524/BLOGS/305249962/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Fri, 24 May 2013 17:19:30 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130524/BLOGS/305249962/-1/blogs01 In some parts of the country,  every food gets a turn in the deep fryer.  From Oreos to butter.  It all seems more delicious with a batter and a crisp coating. Love it!  Not every day.  But for special occasions.

In other parts of the country, every food gets a turn on the grill.  Over the last few years I’ve experimented with sweet potatoes, pineapple, avocado and several other things.  Just like the deep fried, not every day.  This season, I understand the grill is gonna [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130523/BLOGS/305239969/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 23 May 2013 22:16:19 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130523/BLOGS/305239969/-1/blogs01 “Wish I had time for one more bowl of chili.”

Legend has it that those were the last words of rough and tumble cowboy Kit Carson.  Some bucket list!

I’ve never made a bucket list.  If asked what might be on mine, I can list only going to an opera.  The Met.  I grew up I hating opera – too stagey, too overblown, too much.  I’d heard enough with an Italian grandpa in the house, urging the family to watch an opera on PBS or listen to a recording. [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130517/BLOGS/305179990/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Fri, 17 May 2013 16:13:30 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130517/BLOGS/305179990/-1/blogs01 “My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple … where the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odors carry meaning … from the past and bridges to the future.” – Pearl Bailey

My kitchen, the room where I spend so many happy family hours.  The place where I re-create my grandmother’s food and present it to my kids so that they know their heritage and carry it forward.  Then, there are the dinners that have been inspired by [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130513/BLOGS/305139956/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Mon, 13 May 2013 17:15:17 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130513/BLOGS/305139956/-1/blogs01 In my print column this week, I described my recent “Daisy Buchanan moment.”  Looking at the Gatsby-inspired collection of shirts in the window of Brooks Brothers, I found myself gasping, “Look at all those beautiful shirts!”  I’m still astonished at my reaction, except that I really had never seen so many beautiful shirts in one place, and suddenly, although I had never liked the character since I first read the book in high school, I now understood Daisy.  Or [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130510/BLOGS/305109929/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Fri, 10 May 2013 9:23:57 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130510/BLOGS/305109929/-1/blogs01

I rarely bake brownies from scratch; I use a mix then add a personal touch. Chocolate or peanut butter chips, walnuts, pecans, M&M’s, or mini-marshmallows, shredded coconut, liqueurs (orange-flavored is my favorite) stirred into the batter.

This week, one of my food history students chose “chocolate cake” as her research project submitted a batch of brownies for her [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130506/BLOGS/305069990/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Mon, 6 May 2013 11:31:03 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130506/BLOGS/305069990/-1/blogs01 Driving to a wedding in the New England countryside a few hours from the airport, I was treated to its startling springtime skies.  While much of the country is already warm and leafy (I know some areas are still deep in snow) New England is barely rubbing the winter sleep from its eyes.  The blue of the sky is not as sapphire as summertime, instead a slightly dusky version of it, as if expecting the sun to suddenly set.  It could be because of the cerise, peach, and lavender flowering trees [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130429/BLOGS/304299991/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:19:32 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130429/BLOGS/304299991/-1/blogs01 There are only two laws in the universe:  The Law of Gravity and Everybody Loves Italian Food.

I don’t know where that quote originated.  I found it and copied it and kept it.  I ran across it last week and thought about how true it is – at least in my life.  I grew up on Italian food.  With an Italian grandmother living nearby, if my mother ever dared feed her children something like a hamburger, I knew that a nice bowl of pasta or a thick square of pizza (never a [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130425/BLOGS/304259943/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 25 Apr 2013 0:01:00 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130425/BLOGS/304259943/-1/blogs01

This post has nothing to do with cooking.  It might embarrass me.  It might make my son angry.   It’s about emotions of motherhood.  The thoughts may not be written eloquently, but here it is.

I’ve loved few men with enduring love.  In order of age: Dad, or Gramps as he was called toward the end of his life. An uncle, a World War II hero. My brother. My husband. My son.

http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130415/BLOGS/304159955/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:20:55 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130415/BLOGS/304159955/-1/blogs01

 Maybe I’ve been watching too much PBS.  I’m getting irritated with characters with British accents buttering toast.  In really old black-and-white movies and on popular series like Downton Abbey, characters make a show of furiously buttering their toast.  I don’t know the reason [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130403/BLOGS/304039944/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Wed, 3 Apr 2013 2:23:30 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130403/BLOGS/304039944/-1/blogs01 Opening Day should be a national holiday.  Baseball’s opening day.   Slate wiped clean, not matter how good or bad the team did last season.  The first day of school was never that clean.  Some teacher always remembers the trouble you caused last year.

Other sports.  Forgotten.  Yeah, I know, college basketball, Final Four.  Blah, blah, blah.  March is gone.  Basketball should be over.  In fact, all other sports should cease and desist for baseball season.   Proof of my [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130401/BLOGS/304019994/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:21:47 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130401/BLOGS/304019994/-1/blogs01 Nothing like it!  Day after Easter.  Eggs, eggs, everywhere.  Beautifully colored shells, having spent a little time in a bowl or basket.  (In my house, I’m always mindful of the 2 hours at room temp before spoilage time limit.)

And now what do I do with all these hard-boiled wonders?  Sure, I’ve spent years making “Easter eggs sandwiches” for the kids, something that works or doesn’t depending on the kid, the mood, or whether they will eat leftovers.  [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130328/BLOGS/303289987/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:21:27 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130328/BLOGS/303289987/-1/blogs01 Fridays in my grandmother’s kitchen.  Try as she would to keep the customs of her home country, we grandkids spent every waking minute dragging her into the present.  But she had us beat on Fridays.  Her customary fare was meatless.  And long before pizza became the ubiquitous American offering, we had our own take-out right at her kitchen door.  Who could resist?

She’d start the dough from scratch in the morning, its aroma as it rose perfuming the air.  By the time we [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130326/BLOGS/303269944/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Tue, 26 Mar 2013 0:01:00 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130326/BLOGS/303269944/-1/blogs01 A few years ago, a family member, living in Moscow, mentioned that the Easter holiday coming up made her homesick.  Not for the festivities or ham or colored eggs or baskets of tulips, but as for Peeps.   So I went to my local CVS and picked up a few packages of the little yellow marshallow chicks.  I packaged them up with a few other Easter goodies to send off to her.  The cost of sending even a small package to the former Soviet Union was more than 30 times what I paid for them. [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130325/BLOGS/303259991/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:21:19 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130325/BLOGS/303259991/-1/blogs01 Looking forward to brunch this Sunday.  Especially because I am not cooking the whole thing.  It’s nice to watch the little ones hunt for eggs.  And get chocolate all over themselves.  And open the little gifts provided by aunts and uncles.  Kites.  Bubble kits.  Then watch the kids as they gaze into the sky for their treasures.  I’m wishing for one of those days when the sky is all sapphire and strewn with fluffy linen clouds.

It will remind  me of lemon ricotta [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130322/BLOGS/303229995/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:15:40 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130322/BLOGS/303229995/-1/blogs01 I don’t know if The Groundhog was suffering from a migraine or the bad case of the flu when he made his prediction of an early spring, but the little rat was wrong, wrong, wrong.  At least in the Northeast, Midwest, and a few other regions of the country.

I’m totally burned out with building yet another stew, stirring yet another pot of soup.  In fact, I’ve heard a cook or two mention that they might consider The Groundhog as an ingredient.  I guess he’d be [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130306/BLOGS/303069999/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Wed, 6 Mar 2013 5:02:05 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130306/BLOGS/303069999/-1/blogs01 Someone sent me an uplifting quotation when I was going through a particularly bad time recently.  I tucked it away for future reference in a file, but found that I turn to it, just like I do with a favorite recipe.  Sometimes one sentence stands out more than the others, like the artichoke hearts in the classic dip.   Other times, I accept the whole phrase, as if I were about to put it on the table, hot and bubbling, with a basket of freshly toasted pita chips.  Still others, I like to [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130224/BLOGS/302249988/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Sun, 24 Feb 2013 17:05:37 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130224/BLOGS/302249988/-1/blogs01 Waited all weekend for another blizzard.  The quarter-inch of snow that fell, spitting and halting over two days, didn’t even cover the old gray stuff piled up curbside.  I would have welcomed a blizzard, one wild and deep enough to give me a day’s respite from driving to work with a bad cold.  I’ve spent the weekend cuddled under blankets, fireplace lit, cups of hot tea and lemon, with little relief.  Finally, I decided I needed to cook something healing.

So [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130222/BLOGS/302229958/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Fri, 22 Feb 2013 21:23:25 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130222/BLOGS/302229958/-1/blogs01 Most people are kind enough to grant their neighbors privacy.  This is true whether in stacked up big cities, or squeezed together small towns.  Recently, in a building I never noticed in my neighborhood, some curtains were flung open and shades rolled up.  And a huge flat screen appeared, in a large window overlooking the street.  And the owners are sports fanatics.  At any hour of the night or day, a passer-by looking up will see the flat screen tuned to one of the various sports networks. [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130218/BLOGS/302189966/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:19:57 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130218/BLOGS/302189966/-1/blogs01 First Lady Michelle Obama works hard to make the country aware of healthy food and good nutrition.  She even grows vegetables outside the White House back door.  But the Obamas aren’t the first presidential family to make food history.  For at least for the last hundred years, the presidential palate has been public record.

Thomas Jefferson, our third president, brought pasta to this country after seeing this street food on a trip to Italy.  He also brought tomato seeds to [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130215/BLOGS/302159973/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:06:15 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130215/BLOGS/302159973/-1/blogs01 Well, after yesterday’s somewhat melancholy post, I thought I needed something uplifting.  I pulled out some frozen salmon fillets I’d bought on special a few weeks ago.  Planning to broil them, I thought they might look pretty naked on the plate.  And I didn’t want to go the regular dill route, especially cause the family hates the cucumber dill sauce that I love.  So it was time for a little change.

Instead I whipped up a roasted pepper sauce.  No suffering over [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130214/BLOGS/302149956/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:05:54 +0000 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20130214/BLOGS/302149956/-1/blogs01 Restaurants open, have their run, then close.  New restaurants open.  And close eventually.  Some stay.  For generations. Of those, some live on their laurels, their food going hopelessly out of fashion, or poorer in quality.  The few truly great ones hang around maintaining standards set long ago.  Some even improve.  New staffs come and go.  But you can always count on the menu.  And the quality.  These are the rare ones.  The ones where families celebrate big events.  Graduations.  [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121201/BLOGS/312019981/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Mon, 3 Dec 2012 16:25:45 lindabcooks http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121201/BLOGS/312019981/-1/blogs01 The snow falls softly, in soft vertical lines, outside my window.  That is a rarity for coastal New England where snow hardly ever falls gently, landing quietly on the grass and covering the bare spots in the garden.  Instead, snow is likely to blow in wild, horizontally gusts, piling up in drifts, leaving some spots in the garden stark naked, bending and snapping the leafless lilacs.  Sometimes, it finds tiny cracks in the attic, rattles the windows, and whips up the ocean into fierce waves. [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121120/BLOGS/311209947/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Tue, 27 Nov 2012 8:27:37 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121120/BLOGS/311209947/-1/blogs01 “I can’t cook and iron napkins at the same time!”  I heard myself say this a few days ago in a pre-holiday tizzy, and thought it kind of funny.

The next day, as I toured the college dining room where my students practice their culinary skills on a band of lucky clients each day, I heard something that made that quote sound downright stupid.  I asked one of our “regulars” about her [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121108/BLOGS/311089899/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Fri, 9 Nov 2012 14:34:15 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121108/BLOGS/311089899/-1/blogs01 I recently found that the movie theater in the next town offers discount tickets one a week.  It’s a quiet midweek night, and so there are few people in the theater.  All the better, since  movies are so expensive these days.  Besides, I hate being crowded elbow to elbow with a coughing, sneezing audience smelling loudly of perfume.  I like a little space and the smell of fresh, buttered popcorn.

Last week, the audience was [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121103/BLOGS/311039994/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Wed, 7 Nov 2012 15:45:35 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121103/BLOGS/311039994/-1/blogs01 I have to admit that I miss half the content when I watch a political debate.  If I catch a grammatical error, on the part of a candidate or the moderator, I go off on a rant.  Then, I miss the point – and the next question.  I’m talking about regional races here, not presidential debates, where grammar and content are perfectly crafted by highly intelligent, exceptionally well-spoken candidates and their teams.

I [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121101/BLOGS/311019991/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Fri, 2 Nov 2012 10:57:54 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121101/BLOGS/311019991/-1/blogs01  

My Grandmother didn’t get along with potatoes.  (An Italian immigrant, her carbohydrate of choice was pasta, preferably made from scratch in her kitchen.)   She saved her worst scorn for mashed potatoes.  One exception:  potatoes, boiled and mashed, made great potato patties, or croquettes. Unlike her neighbors who made potato croquettes from leftovers, often hiding peas and other green vegetables within in, Nonna made the mashed potatoes fresh, specifically for this [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121020/BLOGS/310209999/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:09:10 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121020/BLOGS/310209999/-1/blogs01 Usually bloggers, especially cooks, document their successes.  But I need to get this big blooper off my conscience.  Tuna casserole.  Not the old-fashioned, classic back-of-the-can recipe that some Moms were famous for.  Something else.  An experiment, a riff on the original, gone wrong. Not as bad as Frankenstein’s monster, although that might be debatable.

I’ll blame my grandmother.  She considered anything that she didn’t can herself  an atrocity – with [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121017/BLOGS/310179988/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:42:31 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121017/BLOGS/310179988/-1/blogs01 I wonder why, when maple sap is the first sign of spring, we like the resulting maple syrup best in autumn?  Maybe because it goes best with pumpkin and apples and pork and pancakes and waffles.  And so many of the other goodies that are not in season or we consider too heavy for summer.  And autumn is the next best thing to spring.  After all, pancakes are best when the weather is slightly cool.

Last week, I grabbed up a few bottles of the liquid gold.  After drizzling it over hot [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121008/BLOGS/310089993/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:42:31 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121008/BLOGS/310089993/-1/blogs01  

Last week, a colleague asked for a dessert recipe for her book club.  Reading a book about World War II, she needed something from that period in history.  I love the idea of matching the food to the book.  It kind of centers the discussion.

How I envy that!  I’ve belonged to two book clubs in my life.  The first started out with a bang.  We read “Under the Tuscan Sun” and everyone brought a recipe from the book.  We set up outdoors, set the table [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121005/BLOGS/310059998/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:42:31 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20121005/BLOGS/310059998/-1/blogs01 CABBAGE AND APPLES

Autumn is the season for apple picking.  Lesser acknowledged, it’s the season for cabbage.  No one really thinks about cabbage, except maybe in March as a go-along with corned beef.  But it can add color and crunch to just about anything. It loves all pork products, like bacon and roasts. It loves all types of treatments – hredded and used without cooking, braised, hollowed and used as a [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120920/BLOGS/309209998/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:42:31 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120920/BLOGS/309209998/-1/blogs01 I don’t often rant.  But when I find my favorite kitchen equipment “downgraded” I get grumpy.  For years I have used a certain company’s natural sponges and luxurious cloth dishtowels.  When I wanted to economize, these were two items that could not be compromised.  I continued to use them even when the company raised their prices.  Nothing seemed as good as a really absorbent dish towel.  Or a fine sea sponge, especially the small ones that fit well in my hand. [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120919/BLOGS/309199999/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:42:30 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120919/BLOGS/309199999/-1/blogs01 An old student just strutted into my kitchen last week.  In the five years since getting his associate’s degree, he has managed a nearly globe-spanning career.  Yesterday, he returned to show current students his portfolio.  Photos of him in various kitchens from small independent restaurants & large hotel banquet facilities in this country and around Asia. Indonesia.  The Phillipines.  Bankok.  Vietnam.  And the new food he is cooking in this country using influences from these [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120904/BLOGS/309049999/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:42:30 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120904/BLOGS/309049999/-1/blogs01 By tomorrow, kids all over the country will be back in school.  Those languid late sunsets and easy suppers on the porch give way to family dinners wedged between after-school activities and homework.  Last night, just as the sun dipped into the horizon, we jumped in the car for one last summer ice cream cone.  Standing in front of the marquee, we took our time picking out flavors, trying to decide whether to try one more new flavor or stick with a favorite.  All too soon, the cones had been [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120830/BLOGS/308309999/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:42:30 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120830/BLOGS/308309999/-1/blogs01 Somehow the weather knows that school bells are about to ring. Daytime breezes shift and cool off, nights turn starrier, and in its confusion, the skies pelt rain.  I don’t want to think that another Labor Day weekend is here.  But I do look forward to my classes.  I met with new students at orientation this week.  Another bright shiny bunch eager to hit the kitchens – even the mid-careers!

On the home front, Uncle Phil & Aunt Jodi hosted the good-bye-summer/back-to- [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120823/BLOGS/308239998/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:42:30 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120823/BLOGS/308239998/-1/blogs01 Early morning is fading.  Cicadas sing in the trees as the pair of cardinals feed just outside the window.  My kitchen brightens as the sun clears the treetops and lights the pillows with chickens printed on the fabric.

My enduring love affair with chickens began as a small girl when my Dad brought home a batch of fuzzy little chicks.  They quickly outgrew their home behind a stove that kept them warm, escaped their barriers, and started running around the room.  When my mother [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120822/BLOGS/308229999/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:42:29 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120822/BLOGS/308229999/-1/blogs01 How I long for a BLT.  And not just any BLT but one stuffed with thick slabs of Virginia black pepper bacon.

For two reasons, I’m going in a different direction.  First, health.  I could eat bacon for two meals a day, every day.  Not so good.  Second, fresh vegetables!  ‘Tis the season!  Why give up all that fresh goodness when summer is so fleeting.

So, instead, I’m taking a page from my grandmother’s book, and making an ELT.  The “E” [...]]]> http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120815/BLOGS/308159997/-1/blogs01?rssfeed=true Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:42:29 http://www.ardmoreite.com/article/20120815/BLOGS/308159997/-1/blogs01 She was born 100 years ago today, served her country, got a late start on her career, and left a huge imprint.  Julia Child.  Today cooks around the US recall their personal memories or inspiration.

Because I teach culinary students, my thoughts today revolve around the new generation of cooks who are just starting out in the industry. They know old clips of her TV series, the Dan Ackroyd take-off from Saturday Night live, and her books.  But they will never know her in present [...]]]>