All Things Food
I am sure it comes as no surprise that I really like Thanksgiving, because it is wonderful to gather with people I love and make a special meal for them. This past week, for a centerpiece column in the Berkshire Eagle, I offered three different ideas for orange side dishes to make sure your menu is colorful!
Read MoreAs a child, I was a picky eater. When I was an infant and starting on solid food, I didn’t seem to like anything. But I did like applesauce. My mom tells me she would use a bit of applesauce to hide whatever else was on the spoon, whence derives the applesauce habit I had as a child.
I’m not kidding when I say I had an applesauce habit. Every evening at dinner, to the left of my plate, sat a small bowl of applesauce and I would dip every forkful of whatever meat was for dinner into the applesauce before eating it. Of course people have heard of pork with applesauce, but this was, truly every single meat. Even fish. Even my grandmother’s veal Parmesan with tomato sauce and mozzarella. (Yes, I realize that sounds like a strange combination, and I haven’t had it in years, but it’s one of those embedded taste memories I can still call to mind with utmost clarity.)
Read MoreDad loved to cook. How often did he and my mom show up at our home for a visit, and he’d take out of his wallet a recipe, folded small, usually cut out from the New York Times, that he wanted to cook together. Or sometimes, ahead of a holiday, an envelope would arrive in the mail with several such clippings.
Because he loved to cook so much, he also loved to learn new cuisines and techniques, and he frequently took classes all over New York City. One summer, my son, Daniel, lived with his grandparents while he had an internship there, and I cherish the photo of Dad and his grandson from their pizza class, with what was surely my father’s favorite, the Nutella pizza!
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