Category: Musings

Bite-Size Trip Down Memory Lane

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I was digging through some old pieces I’d written a lifetime ago and I came across this bit from 2009 – which I think I still rather like:

“Street food is more than just a tasty morsel eaten on the run. It’s great food plus the thrill of the hunt. It’s the absolute bliss of realizing you’ve reached the corner of Broadway and 17th just as the Wafels & Dinges truck has pulled up. If you think ‘bliss’ is laying it on a bit thick, this is because you have not had a dessert waffle from Wafels & Dinges.”

Musing on Great American Pies Month

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February is, apparently, Great American Pies Month. It may or may not surprise you to know that it appears to have been the brainchild of Crisco brand shortening.

But ignoring the brand behind the idea, the idea of a Great American Pie got me thinking. A ‘great’ pie would be a well-made, delicious pie no matter what the cultural origins. So what makes a pie an American Pie (movie notwithstanding).

Continue reading “Musing on Great American Pies Month” →

On The Cookbooks We Create

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Jay Rayner has been doing a weekly column on notable cookbooks – notable to him, to cooking, to cultural moments. I happen to love Rayner’s writing style and always read him anyway but these columns, every Sunday for the last few months, I have especially enjoyed. This week is the last one and it touches on the ‘cookbooks’ we create for ourselves, often not books at all but folders full of clippings, binders full of notes, etc.

It reminded me of my mother’s ‘cookbook’ which encompassed both folders full of clippings, spirals full of her absurdly neat handwriting. No, seriously you have no idea – she may drive me nuts but there is NO DENYING the woman has the best handwriting on earth. Don’t even start me on her colour-coded note taking. But I digress… Continue reading “On The Cookbooks We Create” →

When We Say ‘Barbecue’, Do We All Mean the Same Thing?

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As we just had lovely weather this weekend (and it looks like we might have more happening more frequently over the next couple of weeks, grill covers are being removed and Brits are starting to talk of BBQ.

Here’s the thing though. When they say BBQ – they mean grilling. They don’t mean BBQ in the sense that many Americans means BBQ (the cooking of meat for long periods of time at low temperatures with smoke from a wood fire).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of grilling. But it isn’t BBQ just because you use the grill. BBQ is a multi-faceted, often-debated, regionally varied thing in the States.  Of course, it will necessarily follow that laying out my views on what each style is and means, others will have differing views and won’t hesitate to share them.

That’s fine. It’s a big broad, barbecue-y world – and I did mention ‘often-debated.’ Continue reading “When We Say ‘Barbecue’, Do We All Mean the Same Thing?” →

Fabulous Foodie’s Summer Holiday Approach to Cooking

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I have previously mentioned that for several years when Sprog was younger, we went the ‘self-catering accommodation on family holiday campsite in France’ route for summer holidays. And it was on these holidays that ‘quick’ and ‘easy’ are my watchwords for holiday cooking – and indeed for my whole holiday if truth be told.

We’ve talked about packing for your self-catering, holiday came holiday and we’ve talked about kitchen planning and equipment – but what the heck are you gonna eat when you head off on this self -catering holiday? Continue reading “Fabulous Foodie’s Summer Holiday Approach to Cooking” →