Cheerful and Simple Kumquat Salad

Kumquats are amazing.  You eat the whole fruit.  They are the size of an olive, the rind and pith are sweet like candy and the flesh is just the right amount of tart.  I appreciate that they appear in markets when it starts to get cold because they are cheerful and full of vitamin C….

Layered Wild Mushroom Blini Casserole (Gluten-Free)

I moved to New York from Maui when I was 18 years old.  I had never even been to the East coast to visit.  I had a scholarship to attend college at a school just outside of the city, so I just moved here.   For the first many years that you live in New…

Sweet Herb Stew

Typically when improvising I play with a lot of hot flavours. I love Chinese and Indian cooking and draw liberally from their spice palette. But the other day I felt like making something not spicy. Go figure. Cuisine wise, I generalize more when I’m thinking about European cooking. For instance, I think of the herbs…

Chicken and Dumplings (gluten-free and traditional)

This is one of the most ridiculously simple and comforting foods in the world.  I learned to make chicken and dumplings from a copy of The New England Cookbook  by Brooke Dojny which my friend Katherine gave me as a gift many years ago.  Katherine has taught me about all things good, comforting and delicious…

Cheap and elegant thrills- three ways to steam mussels

I love mussels.  To me, they are just as delicious as oysters but they are WAY cheaper.  Also, as shellfish goes, they are stupid simple to prepare.  Also,  from what I have read, it is actually possible to farm mussels without destroying the environment.  Also, mussels are full of vitamins and iron. Woo hoo! Below…

Cornbread, Fruit, Almond and Olive Stuffing (Gluten -Free)

Today I carried an entire year’s worth of shadow puppet making supplies to my favourite school.  I teach puppetry at this school in grades pre-k through 3rd so I had A LOT of art supplies.  I called a car service (even I don’t bike with that much stuff to carry).  To my delight, my cab…

Potato, Leek and Mushroom Gratin (gluten-free or not)

Its time to make gratins again!  Here is the beautiful thing about a gratin….while it is true that it takes a bit of effort to make, it prepares a large amount of  food that you can then reheat for your dinners all week-long.  With a salad, a gratin counts as a complete meal! If you…

Poached Pear and Cardamom Apple Butter Tart (gluten-free)

Chris brought me some tiny adorable pears from the Adirondacks.  I had an apple that was bruised and beginning to rot.  I also had a half full bottle of white wine and an orange.  We had guests coming over for dinner.  I made this tart.  I got the poached pear recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for…

Chicken baked with Prunes, Capers and Green Olives

This  is adapted from a very famous recipe called Chicken Marbala.  It was the signature dish of the Silver Palate, a wildly popular catering company in New York in the 1980s that published two wildly popular cookbooks.  If you are someone who cooks food for decadent parties, I cannot recommend these two books strongly enough….