Charles

Homemade Whole Wheat English Muffins

September 29, 2012 by Charles 6 Comments

I love baking breads. There is a unique pleasure in stirring the yeast, watching it foam, and then kneading the tough flour in and out of your hands and across the cutting board. There is a certain magic to leaving the room and, returning an hour later, discovering that the small ball of dough has doubled in size, the yeast breathing life into the round.

One of the additional pleasures of baking bread is in the anticipation, as the smell of baking break slowly fills the kitchen, before settling over the entire apartment, building a sense of eagerness in the room’s occupants.

For better or worse, there is…

Refried Beans

September 10, 2012 by Charles Leave a Comment

On a typical Friday night, Caitlin and I will head to Mi Rancho, one of our favorite local spots, where we’ll greet Albino and take our seat in the covered, outdoor patio. If that’s our typical spot, then our order is equally typical – the mixed fajitas.

We love our tex-mex.

For us, tex-mex is just one of those hearty meals, the kind of meal that makes you smile at the end of dinner, satisfied and happy….

Kasha Varnishkes

July 10, 2012 by Charles 4 Comments

This is one of those recipes from the old-country, dating back – literally – over a thousand years. But that doesn’t make it a relic, some phonograph gathering dust in the attic, that’s brought down once a year so that grandchildren can marvel at the sound-machines of yesteryear. This recipe is nothing more than last year’s iPod, ready to figure into the regular rotation of modern life.

This recipe has all the attributes of a modern meal. …

Brown Rice Jambalaya

June 9, 2012 by Charles Leave a Comment

In many ways, a recipe is like a fingerprint. While the basic curves and contours are always the same, each has an identity of its own. From the portions and ingredients down to the size of the dice and the speed of the whisk, there is always some level of inherent uniqueness to any one recipe. This individuality may not always be apparent at first-glance – a finger-tip is, after all, a finger-tip – but look close enough and you will find it.

Jambalaya, a New Orleans classic, is particularly well-suited to this individuality. The basic structure of jambalaya centers around the “trinity” — celery, onion, and peppers. Rice is almost essential,…

Cinnamon-Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

May 24, 2012 by Charles 5 Comments

A few weeks ago, my boss came into my office with questions about a case that I was working on. After I gave him the run-down, he got up to leave, at which point, I asked him to take a seat and to close the door. I was leaving the job, I said, having accepted a new position.

The news did not come as a surprise, and he offered his sincere congratulations. He also encouraged me to make the most of my time-off. There are few instances, he noted, where you are truly off the clock. In this line of work, weekends get truncated and vacations get interrupted. There is always another case to read and another motion to file. There are few moments of true respite.

That time between jobs, however, was one of those truly serene periods, where there are no unanswered emails and waiting voicemails. There are no blinking red light while you are between jobs.

During my time-off, …