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Baking

Madeleines

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French recipes are, understandably, often steeped in history.  The nation is as proud of its culinary traditions as it is of its epistolary and philosophical ones.  It’s why the incursion of soft drinks and hamburgers are as noxious as the incursion of English words like “le leader,” “le power” and “le hot-dog.”  It’s why Jose Bove can become a national icon for burning down a McDonalds, and why Maria Antoinette’s remarks about brioche could topple a monarch.  The evolution of French culture and identity can be easily traced along the x-axis of language, and y-axis of cooking.

The center of this graph, the 0,0 point, might well be Marcel Proust’s A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, or The Remembrance of Things Past.  In one section…

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Yogurt and Blue Corn Cornbread

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A few weeks back, Caitlin and I went to Santa Fe for her Spring Break.

Driving into Santa Fe, we were greeted by breathtaking scenery, snow-capped mountains rising in the distance, with parched tracts of desert-land and spotted cacti dotting the roadside.  The city itself encapsulated this sense of beauty and wonder.  The entire city burst with color.  Every building in Santa Fe was built in the adobe style, and the pink hues created a stark contrast with the cloudless blue sky.  Dragon-red chili peppers hung from nearly every veranda, tempting both your visual and olfactory senses.  The city teemed with art – from the Georgia O’Keefe Museum to the record number of galleries to the Native American artists selling their craft in the open-air downtown square.

The cuisine was yet another form of art available in Santa Fe.  New Mexico is justifiably famous…

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Butternut Squash Layer Cake

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It’s easy to get side-tracked in this modern world.  Text messages, phone calls, and e-mails demand our constant attention.  Or, as it may be, distract our attention from the tasks at hand.  Answering e-mails, flowing with the speed and strength of an angry river, evokes a triage center, with each incoming e-mail mentally sorted by its degree of urgency.  Phone calls and text messages are no better, and the dangers associated with driving and phoning are well-documented.

Video games and the Internet are different species of the same beast.  Punching controller buttons will always be more entertaining than punching the clock.  And when the project at hand is growing tiresome, the browser icon is always a quick click away.  There is always a headline to read or a score to check.  There is always something out there, in need of your attention.

I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow this post got neglected.  I should, of course, distinguish between…

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Irish Soda Bread

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Despite my blog name, there’s very little overlap between my time in the kitchen and my time in the courthouse.  But last week, Caitlin gave me a fitting opportunity to meld the two seemingly disparate fields.

The day after St. Patrick’s day, Caitlin sent me an article by Clarence Darrow, the famous criminal defense lawyer.  In the early 20th Century, Darrow represented a number of high-profile defendants, but none more famous perhaps, than John Scopes, the public school teacher who faced prosecution for teaching  human evolution in Tennessee.

Several years after the verdict in the Monkey Trial, Darrow published his thoughts on selecting a jury in an article that appeared in Esquire.  At the time of publication, Darrow was at the end of his illustrious legal career, and near his death.  Yet, the article held nothing back.

“Selecting a jury is of the utmost importance,” he notes, and “choosing jurors is always a delicate task;” sentiments no less true today.  But the insights he offers …

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Twice-Baked Potatoes

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When it comes to potatoes, repetition is key.

For the best french fries, it’s essential to double-fry them.  It should be no surprise then, that the best baked potatoes, should be twice baked.

On Superbowl Sunday, I invited my friends over to watch the Saints defeat the Colts.  I told them to bring their wives and girlfriends, but also to bring their appetites.  Given my New Orleans roots, I knew …

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