morsels & sauces

I am going to admit this right here and now:  I made this over the summer. But then I went and forgot to post about it. Now eggplant is woefully out of season. What's a food blogger to do? I guess that I have opted to entice you with all the glories of hobo pack so that you can make this easy packet of grilled vegetables next summer when eggplant is back at its peak, or you can just substitute other veggies. (Even autumn fruits and veggies-- The New York Times  has a tasty looking recipe for a sweet potato and apple hobo pack. And a mixed mushroom hobo pack is kindly featured over at Martha Stewart.) Sure, sure, the hobo pack has all the sophistication of the Boy Scouts, where legions of children have tucked meat and veggies inside a packet of tin foil and thrown them onto the open flame. And sure, it's hit or miss as to whether or not what you create is haute cuisine. There are burnt ends and charred knobs and mushy pieces. However, the charm of the whole ent...

Beware, this is an entry wherein I will discuss Russian short stories, communication, baseball, and cucumbers. It has been that kind of week. It's beginning to feel like fall around here. That means hot days, cool nights, fog in the morning over the hills, playoff baseball, huge spiders in the doorway. I love fall. I love the feeling of the everyday in the midst of big change.  Recently, I have been working to make relevant to 17- to 18-year olds a certain 19th-century Russian short story about an older man falling in love for the first time in his life (I am looking at you, Chekhov ). I read this story, "Lady with the Little Dog," when I myself was 21, and I remember not liking it much. I found it too quiet. I didn't understand how important what was not being said. Or what was being said between Gurov and Anna but not being told to us by the narrator. I love that throughout the story, Anna and then Gurov have tried to communicate to others and...

Adapted from Cookbook #29:  License to Grill Recipe: Grilled Duck Breast with Peach-Green Grape Chutney Duck.  I don't eat a lot of duck.  In part because of the pricetag associated with this fair fowl, but also because I, like many, find it a little fatty and gamy.  So I went a searching for tips on how to reduce the gamy taste and I discovered this:  soak the duck breasts in a salted ice water for about a hour before using.  The brine should be about a quarter cup of salt per quart of water.  Ice water helps.  Rinse thoroughly and then pat dry.  Viola.  Less gamy duck. Also duck can be tricky on a grill.  It likes to drip fat and cause flare ups, and even if you have the duck over to the side of your charcoals (see below instructions), you still need to keep an eye on the bird.  The husband and I grilled together (see earlier post on my novice status as a grillmaster), and at one point, he walked around to look ...