morsels & sauces

I love morsels: hence the name of the blog. I love those little tiny bites to eat, those nibbles, canapés, hors d'oeuvres, appetizers, cocktail snacks—whatever you want to call them. Thus, it was almost written in the stars or the tea leaves or the cards (choose your divining practice) that tapas and I became such good friends. The very philosophy of tapas is morsels (sometimes coupled with sauces) is something I can get behind: a banquet of bites combined to make a meal. I am in! It’s true that I am thrilled with a life of tasting, sampling,  pausing, coming back for favorites. Sure, tapas can stand on their own to make a meal when combined with other tapas, yet they can easily be adapted into an appetizer for a main course. And that’s just what these two tapas did as openers to a larger, delicious spread put out by the in-laws on the night of the Oscars ( I know, I know -- I am late in posting this; however, I have been busy teaching a class on fiction writing and travelin...

This cookbook is ambitious and impressive. With recipes for wedding cake (all three tiers), apple pie, hot cross buns, sweet potato bread, red velvet cupcakes, beignets, cherry and roasted quince galette, fortune cookies, ravioli, calzones, bagels, and flourless double-chocolate brownies, Nancy Cain leaves no traditional bread product unturne d in her new cook book, Against the Grain .   Certainly gluten-free cooking is catching hold these days, and when I had the opportunity to grab this cookbook, I did. While I am not gluten-free, I have friends who are, so I want to have a reliable cookbook on hand should I be doing some cooking for them. But even further, as a culture we do have quite a reliance on wheat. While I want to support the most significant industry from the husband’s home state of Kansas, I also think it’s important to diversify one’s cooking—to not just rely on the standby, to mix it up. So even if I can and do relish eating wheat, I am not at all avers...

One hundred and thirteen years ago, John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California , on February 27. And as you know, I feel a special kinship to Steinbeck.* Thus, in honor of California's Golden Boy, last week I decided to crack open a little cookbook, The Steinbeck House Cookbook , that I picked up from Steinbeck's childhood home . One can have lunch in the parlor and afterwards wander among the rooms (where you can see in a curio cabinet a bottle labeled "Steinbeck's Whiskey." When I toured Melville's home in Massachusetts, the features to admire included "Melville's Pencil." I knew John and I would be much closer than Herman and I.  I digress.) *(Quick recap: in 2011, I had the opportunity to spend three weeks in Monterey studying Steinbeck's works with some pretty darned amazing scholars as part of an NEH grant. In addition to completely falling in love with Steinbeck, I met some amazing people whom I still call my friends, ...

Last Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent. Of course, the beginning of the Lenten season signifies the end of carnival. Well, for most Christian people, that is.  Not all. Certainly not for those who hail from the Swiss city of Basel. For you see, there, on the Monday after Ash Wednesday, the church bells peel and the Basler Fasnacht begins.  Indeed, according to About.com : De drey scheenschte Dääg , "'the three best days' of the year, start at 4 am Monday after Ash Wednesday and continues non-stop, with barely time to sleep, until 4 am on Thursday. The city almost shuts down and parades, confetti and 'Mehlsuppe' rule." Over 20,000 people participate in the festival, and those with elaborate masks and over 200 lanterns drum and piccolo their way through the streets. Usually, the masks and lanterns center on a theme heavy with irony and political satire of the previous year. (This year's theme: " We don't fit in a drawer. ") Unlike...