I look forward to the first zucchini of the season almost as much spring’s first asparagus. Taut, crunchy and with an almost grassy taste, the small, early zucchinis have a concentrated flavor without the diffuse bloat of their overgrown siblings. Of course, the vegetable gardeners among us have all summer to take their pick of…
Good morning. There was a bald eagle flying up Shin Creek in the Beaverkill Valley, in the Catskill Mountains of New York. I was driving alongside her, on the roadbed above the stream. The eagle was looking for trout, as I would be later, she undoubtedly more successfully than me, and fair play to her…
The tips of deciduous trees are showing the barest tinge of green, and flowering fruit trees are in full bloom. A neighbor’s forsythia has come to life, bulbs are busily doing their thing. Spring has arrived. At farmers’ markets on the West Coast, where I reside, peas and fava beans are showing up, and just…
Good morning. The vernal equinox is in less than three weeks, but you wouldn’t know it from the frosted mud in the woods and the storm-wounded lawns where I stay. It’s bare ugly everywhere save in the bays, where water clear as gin flows over rocks in a spectrum of pink. At the market: cabbage…
We love dumplings. We love noodles. And we love soup. So, unsurprisingly, we really love Hetty Lui McKinnon’s dumpling noodle soup, a speedy meal that soothes and satisfies. Miso, turmeric, ginger and garlic give the soup body and verve, and from there you have lots of options: Scale up the veggies, add shredded chicken or…
Good morning. We’re a week out from Lunar New Year and I don’t know if noodles really will make for an auspicious year for me, but I’m not taking chances. Today is for rehearsal: Julia Moskin’s adaptation of a recipe for longevity noodles with chicken, ginger and mushrooms (above) that she learned from the cookbook…
