Charles

Spaghetti and Meatballs

March 3, 2009 by Charles 1 Comment

In August 2002 (back in the early days of blogging), Julie Powell began an interesting project on her blog. Frustrated with her job, her marriage, and her living arrangements in one of the “outer boroughs,” she vowed to master the art of french cooking. That is, Powell decided to make every one of the 536 recipes contained in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year’s time. The project’s simplicity, balanced with its sheer scope, soon captured the interests of her fellow bloggers and several media outlets (and eventually earned her a book and movie deal).

On a much smaller scale, the Barefoot Bloggers make it their goal to blog roughly twenty-four of Ina Garten’s recipes every year – or two every month, which…

Thomas Jefferson’s Chicken Fricassee

March 1, 2009 by Charles 3 Comments

At a dinner honoring forty-nine Nobel laureates, President Kennedy looked around and pronounced that this was the “most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

That Thomas Jefferson was brilliant is undeniable. He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He founded the University of Virginia. He was a renowned horticulturalist, botanist, and architect. He was an accomplished inventor, designing the Lazy Susan, a folding chair, and a pedometer, though he refused to pursue a patent on any of them.

That Thomas Jefferson dined alone is more suspect. …

Yellow Rice

February 24, 2009 by Charles 2 Comments

Thomas Jefferson may not have been around to sample my mom’s yellow rice. But if he had been, I can only assume he would have found this dish a perfect side for his chicken fricassee….

Meringues Chantilly

February 22, 2009 by Charles 9 Comments

Meringues are a royal treat. Legend has it that Marie Antoinette loved meringue kisses so much, she often made them herself. So whether you’re making your meringues for the royal family or just your family, this elegant dessert is bound to please.

Meringues are built around sugar and egg whites. But despite this simplicity, there are a number of techniques to making the perfect meringues.

1) Look at your weather forecast. Heavy humidity …

Lady Bird Johnson’s Lemon Bundt Cake

February 17, 2009 by Charles 5 Comments

In 1934, a day after meeting her, Lyndon Johnson, a 26-year old congressional aide, asked Lady Bird Taylor to marry him. A few months later, Taylor yielded to Johnson’s pressure, and the two were married. Sam Rayburn, the Speaker of the House and a long-time friend to Johnson, later told him that marrying Lady Bird was the wisest decision he ever made.

Indeed, Lady Bird Johnson was a quick study. She graduated from high school at the age of 15, and the University of Texas at 20, finishing in the top 10 of her class. She stayed another year at Texas, earning a journalism degree. In 1943, with her husband (now a Congressman) off at war, Johnson used her inheritance to buy a small Austin radio station. In a matter of years, she transformed the debt-ridden radio station into a media empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars. According to one biographer, Lady Bird was the only first lady to have built and sustained a fortune with her own money.

Her business acumen extended into the legislative arena as well. When President Kennedy won Texas in the presidential election, …