A couple of weeks ago, I made this Alsatian potato and leek pie. It’s potatoes, leeks, cream, garlic, and Compté cheese, in puff pastry. Paired with a fantastic Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Emile from Alsace and you’d swear you were in Strasbourg… And this week, I tried my hand at bread making for the first time….
Category: Food
Pandemic Drinking and Eating
I’ve been working from home since March and will continue at least through the end of the year. The amount of work has been insane, but being at home gives me the opportunity to step away from time-to-time and fire up the grill or try more time-consuming recipes. One of the more ambitious things I…
Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit!
I had an absolutely off-the-hook time at an Oktoberfest yesterday! Die Speisekarte was: Märzenbier and Brezel Wine: Trimbach Riesling Cuvee Emile, 2009 (the best white I have ever had) Rotkohl (the best red cabbage I have ever had, either in or out of Germany) Kartoffelknödel (potato dumplings) Spätzle (homemade) Münchner Bratwurst Lots of laughing, singing,…
Greetings from Scotland (Part 3 – Isle of Skye and Glencoe)
So after Inverness, the next destination was the über-tourist mecca in Scotland, Loch Ness. We started the day at Urquhart Castle, which is about as picturesque as it gets. The entrance/visitors center is extremely well situated into the landscape; when you get to the castle, the buildings and the parking lot are completely camouflaged. …
Let’s Talk About Soup
So it’s definitely soup weather these days in Austin – and I love it! We’ve gotten several large bunches of carrots the past two months in our weekly Farmhouse Delivery box. Luckily, we’ve run across several great carrot soup recipes. My favourite to date is this Fennel and Carrot soup from Bondir, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Silky and…
Gratuitous Post about Birds, Plants, and Wine
This has been a pretty good year for bird watching. I’ve got a couple of painted buntings that visit fairly regularly. These are generally one-time-a-year birds here – at least that’s my experience. I also have a fairly substantial flock of European starlings. Theirs is an interesting tale and instructive on the cautionary side. The…
Odds and Ends
I know I’ve been posting pretty erratically. I’m still schlepping up to Abilene each week; sometimes twice. I’ll be so glad when I can finally put that venerable city in my rear-view mirror permanently. Ah well – that’s probably a while off for now. Unfortunately, these Abilene sojourns are putting me way behind schedule…
Selfeed
So in today’s ‘That Should Be a Word’ section of the New York Times Magazine, the word was: (SELL-fede), v To post photos of one’s meal. “After Heloise selfeed the caviar for two minutes trying to get the best angle, Lucius grabbed the plate and stuffed it all in his mouth.” I’m glad there’s a…
Cooking Odds and Ends
So we had some really knock-out meals recently that I just had to get out into the ether. Last Sunday it was super cold and dreary – the high for the day was 36F (2C) – and that put me in the mood for Pot Roast. This recipe was in the crock pot, but it was…
Greetings from Boston, MASS!
So finally it’s our vacation…first stop is Boston. Rain and 56 outside, but much better than Austin at 85 and 1,000 percent humidity. Staying at the Four Seasons, across the street from Boston Common. Got some great photos – hoping I can post them here. Last night we ate at Masa Boston. It was fantastic! I…
The Runcible Existentialist 